Flying through the air is not without it challenges including turbulence, so how do pilots know when it’s coming up. It turns out, there are a lot of ways.
If you’re a relatively frequent flyer, you’ve probably experienced some instances of turbulence. Typically, you won’t have been too adversely affected by it. After over a century of commercial aviation, the industry has come to know the world’s skies quite well. Science has an understanding of the routes and regions more prone to turbulence, such as those close to mountain ranges (which affect weather patterns and air currents close to them) or jet streams, and so is able to help pilots prepare for and mitigate the issue. The key, in short, is to be prepared for what may happen on a given flight. Wake turbulence, generated by the aircraft itself, can be predictable, but other forms may not.
Regular contact with the all-important air traffic control and reports from other pilots play an enormous role in keeping commercial aircraft up to date on the conditions they could potentially face. Another big advantage that today’s pilots and crew have is access to sophisticated radar and weather forecasts. The latter is especially important because, over the course of a lengthy flight, conditions can change dramatically from how they were when the journey began. It’s possible to predict the degree of turbulence a flight may experience, and when, using these methods. By so doing, pilots can entirely avoid some of the worst of the conditions, potentially taking a route around, above or below, thereby allowing for a journey that’s as smooth as possible.Predicting the weather often means predicting turbulence
For a commercial pilot, checking the weather isn’t as simple as just seeing what the local area’s conditions are going to be like, of course, because they may be flying anywhere in the world and experiencing any sorts of changeable conditions on a given day.
