Turbulance on planes

[kellie-moo27]

See when planes go through turbulance....what is actually happening there?? And is that the plane actually falling a tiny bit out of the sky?? And could turbulance make the pilot lose control of the plane?? Does it make u crash??

[rojam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-air_turbule nce

[sarah_louise]

The answer is no of course.

The reference from rojam to Clear Air Turbulence is a very very rare event. All Aeroplanes are designed to flex up and down unbelievably before a failure would occur. They do this to destruction on testing when they make them. Yes the aircraft is going up and down a bit because of changes in air density.

Large Aircraft fly mostly above the weather and avoid large areas of unstable air (thunderclouds). I fly a small 2 seat aircraft at low level and most warm days with fluffy clouds give slight turbulence just like driving down a bumpy road. You get used to it in fact it is quite enjoyable.

[david1702198]

it means that god has f a r t e d !!!!!!!!!

[david1702198]

kellie-moo i take it you havent flown b4??

[Clanad]

The answer from sarah is, how do you Brits say? Spot on. I'd only add that the winds above ground level can be blowing at different directions at different velocities. It's not unusual for hot air balloonists to ascend and travel several miles in one direction, then climb or descend a few thousand feet and fly or drift, actually, in another direction. This change in wind directions create a shearing effect at the boundary of the two air masses which can cause turbulence as well.
On nice summer days, you may notice fluffly white clouds. These are known as fair weather cumulus, since they rarely produce any rainfall. As sarah notes, it will be bumpy below and at the same level of these, but will be smooth as silk above. They are caused by the uneven heating of the surface of the Earth producing columns of rising air...
Please don't worry about loss of contro/crashing. I've been a commercial airline pilot most of my adult life and flown most of the Earth's areas... rarely had a problem with weather/turbulence... though, there was that time 20 miles south of Mt. McKinley...