Microburts

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Guess I don't understand the picture, just saw somthing in a magazine saying that once you're in a bad microburst there aren't really many options. Unless, you recognize it before you hit the downdraft portion.

Edit: Oh.... Crap. I god your picture now, It's late my friend. A microburt... How could it get any worse.
 
If you're around water or tall grass, you can see them impact the ground if you're low enough. Last year while around PAWG, we hit a pretty hefty one in the 150...Everything not strapped down went flying everywhere, including our fire extinguisher which was held down via bungee cords..that bad boy shot up and broke the rear window. I shot up and hit my head somewhat hard against the ceiling. Let's just say we called it a day after that.

EDIT: Oh and to answer your question..If you're in a small enough aircraft there isn't anything you can do if you hit a reputable one, you're pretty much temporarily out of control. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to just avoid flying if they're in the area.
 
Ayork62493 said:
Guess I don't understand the picture, just saw somthing in a magazine saying that once you're in a bad microburst there aren't really many options.
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You might only have one option, but its also the only one you need.

Wings level, minimize altitude loss without stalling until you fly out of the microburst or into the ground.
 
I saw one on the ground thru 10' high glass windows. The tower evacuated when the winds hit 60 knots and increasing. It was pretty incredible.

One of my beefs with our windshear detection in the CRJ is it goes off in pretty much any windshear situation, not microbursts, which IMO is what it should be designed/used for.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
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Well played sir :clap::clap: I LOL'd


Never hit a microburst, but one of the scariest things that happened to me was departing KLWB while working survey in the Skyhawk, and caught a strong downdraft after takeoff. I hit it at about 400ft AGL and was pushed down almost 300ft. Even the tower called me back and wanted to know why I had suddley lost altitude and if everything was ok. Kinda scary seeing the ground come up and not being able to do anything about it.
 
907 said:
If you're around water or tall grass, you can see them impact the ground if you're low enough. Last year while around PAWG, we hit a pretty hefty one in the 150...Everything not strapped down went flying everywhere, including our fire extinguisher which was held down via bungee cords..that bad boy shot up and broke the rear window. I shot up and hit my head somewhat hard against the ceiling. Let's just say we called it a day after that.

EDIT: Oh and to answer your question..If you're in a small enough aircraft there isn't anything you can do if you hit a reputable one, you're pretty much temporarily out of control. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to just avoid flying if they're in the area.
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Doesn't sound like a microburst, more like a strong thermal! The rides through a microburst is not so rough, normally. It is more of a "set up", with the headwind portion leading someone to pull the power back, followed by the downdraft and then, the worst part, the strong tailwind shear.

The modern windshear alert and guidance systems do a good job of maximizing the energy of them. We also know what to look for now, and have predictive windshear systems being installed as well (they will "see" the windshear in front of you, even detecting the doppler shift in dust particles).

I did go through one years ago as a 727 F/O going into SLC. Went to go around and the airplane just slowly kept sinking. Got through it and afterwards saw the virga heading down in that spot. Wasn't a severe one, but it was an eye opener!
 
Those sonic Anemometers are old news already... They are pretty awesome though, we had one on top of Mt. Washington back in 2003 for study, and found that it was more useful for detecting ice in clouds etc. NWS was also experimenting with using a laser version, combined with very very accurate gps timing signals, they were able to take a vertical profile without touching a weather balloon.

The hardest part i imagine about adapting a laser anemometer to aircraft use, is of course the fact that the airplane moves. Apparently it should be able to detect turbulence, windshear, wake turb. etc... pretty awesome.
 
casey said:
You might only have one option, but its also the only one you need.

Wings level, minimize altitude loss without stalling until you fly out of the microburst or into the ground.
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I disagree. Nose down to gain airspeed to 1) minimize the time in the downdraft, and 2) have enough airspeed to survive the tailwind sheer on the other side. Anything less than Vy just doesn't make sense, and you'll probably want 10-20kts more. If you end up too close to the ground, you'll want the extra airspeed (energy) to arrest the descent the best you can. I'm thinking piston singles/light twins - not sure what makes sense for the big guys.
 
Schinpop said:
I disagree. Nose down to gain airspeed to 1) minimize the time in the downdraft, and 2) have enough airspeed to survive the tailwind sheer on the other side. Anything less than Vy just doesn't make sense, and you'll probably want 10-20kts more. If you end up too close to the ground, you'll want the extra airspeed (energy) to arrest the descent the best you can. I'm thinking piston singles/light twins - not sure what makes sense for the big guys.
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Your procedure will get you killed in a transport category aircraft. For a microburst, we firewall the throttles, pitch up to the command bars, wings level, don't change the configuration, and hang on for the ride. If ground contact is imminent, pitch up to stick shaker and pray.

Casey got it right.
 
TUCKnTRUCK said:
Those sonic Anemometers are old news already...
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If you were referring to what I wrote, the system I refer to is on our aircraft and utilizes a very high frequency microwave to actually detect dust particles and display locations of doppler shift on the radar unit.

On the recovery, the windshear guidance system aims for a positive 1 degree path, and will accept any extra airspeed it gets to minimize time in the event. If it is unable to hold 1 degree, it will command the pitch to increase up to the edge of stick shaker. The autopilot does a great job flying it, incidentally.
 
Cptnchia said:
Your procedure will get you killed in a transport category aircraft. For a microburst, we firewall the throttles, pitch up to the command bars, wings level, don't change the configuration, and hang on for the ride. If ground contact is imminent, pitch up to stick shaker and pray.

Casey got it right.
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While your initial statement seems a bit brash, I agree with you. I think there are two techniques to use. One if you have enough excess power to outclimb the downburst (transport category), and the other if you don't (piston singles/light twins). Given the OP's total time, I assumed he's flying a piston single, and my answer was crafted towards that demographic - as mentioned in my last sentence. The technique Casey describes, to use your words, will get you killed if you're flying a spam can.
 
seagull said:
If you were referring to what I wrote, the system I refer to is on our aircraft and utilizes a very high frequency microwave to actually detect dust particles and display locations of doppler shift on the radar unit.

On the recovery, the windshear guidance system aims for a positive 1 degree path, and will accept any extra airspeed it gets to minimize time in the event. If it is unable to hold 1 degree, it will command the pitch to increase up to the edge of stick shaker. The autopilot does a great job flying it, incidentally.
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Yes, by definition a microwave is a very high frequency wave. The system uses dust, thermal barriers,shee"r barriers etc to reflect the wave, much in the same way as your radar or any other device that relies on the doppler effect. Your system operates in a frequency that is very specific, but it still has limitations much like your radar.

Its easy to lump any doppler effect measurement device into "sonic anemometer" label because in effect they are all just listening for a phase shift of a wave

The newer laser based systems give you more range, 3d resolution, velocity and direction vectors, etc. the laser anemometer is commonly called lidar.. Same principle.

In the aviation world its all very new.
 
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