Turbulence, a refresher!

I think turbulence should be on a different scale, maybe a 1-10 scale or something. We hardly ever get moderate, it's all just variations on light. Which is why, I think, so many people report light as moderate. With our reporting system it's very hard to succinctly describe the kind of ride you're getting since it's nearly always light... oh and chop vs. turbulence is some weak sauce right there. It's either bumpy, or it's not!

I heard a report of moderate to severe ice a month ago, actually saw the plane come in and guess what, no ice on the protected areas. Wings, windshields, etc. all clear. = not severe.
 
Here is the problem with braking action reports. It is relative. For example: The other day we were going into ROC and we had to kick over half of our airplane of people off because we were so weight restricted. The reason we were was because ROC was reporting thin dry snow covered runway with braking action fair to good reported by A VEHICLE! Well we got up there and the Fing runway was dry with not one grain of snow on it. WTF??? First off, I was not aware it could be fair TO good. I thought it was one or the other. Second, why are these idiots reporting snow covered runway when it is clear and dry as a bone.

So, back to it being relative. Well a day later we land there with it just snowing cats and dogs. We land and you can barely see the lights it is so covered. Well we crack the reversers and LIGHTLY touch the brakes until we get slowed down. More than enough runway was present and at no time were we unsafe. We reported the runway COVERED but with light braking, it is GOOD. If you come bouncing in there on an -88 using max autobrakes....then that good becomes NIL. When you are >30kts and you are getting the antiskid kicking in then it is lower side of fair maybe poor. When you are >30kts and you slide to a stop then it is NIL. Some people come in and practically lock them down and then say it is poor. RELATIVE. People need to learn how to report correctly.
 
Back
Top