Does the idea of flight turbulence make you scared to fly or have you ever
thought I wonder if the pilots are scared I'm going to explain to you why
it doesn't bother me and what I listen for when I'm a passenger in the back
coming up
hey 74 crew what's going on if you don't know me my name is Kelsey I'm a
747 pilot my channel 74 Gear is all about aviation so whether you're a pilot
or an aviation enthusiast consider subscribing in this episode of from the
flight deck I'm going to explain turbulence in flight I know a lot of
passengers are scared when they're flying and their plane hits turbulence
I'm going to explain you why it doesn't bother me and what I listen for when I'm
a passenger in the back let's get into
it what causes turbulence has been covered
by many people and if you're scared to fly you've probably already watched a
video on it or maybe 100 you don't even know anything about me I'll explain what
causes turbulence very simply essentially it's a disturbance in the
air simple right I break up turbulence into two basic
categories you have turbulence that is caused from clouds and usually those are
thunderstorms and you'll hear pilots often saying or going around the
thunderstorms and that's because there's a lot of turbulence involved in clouds
that are developing from thunderstorms and the other type of turbulence is
clear air turbulence now clear air turbulence as far as for you are concerned
is essentially turbulence that we can't see while we're flying so that's often
why you hear pilots say why you're seated keep your seat belts fastened
that something that we do so it's something you should be doing as well
while you're seated you might as well keep your seat belt fastened because if
we do hit turbulence that we don't see while your seat belt might be
uncomfortable it's a lot less uncomfortable than getting thrown into a
ceiling of a plane which I'd never have happened but has happened before here's
the logical reason why you shouldn't be scared when you're flying first and most
importantly you have a couple of pilots up there that are trying to get home
safely as well we don't have parachutes or ejection seats or things like that to
get us out if the plane gets messed up so we obviously are gonna make all of
our decisions based off of safety so that's the first thing to remember the
other thing to remember is that the manufacturers of these aircraft like
Boeing or Airbus spend a lot of money on designing these aircrafts to be safe to
fly through the sky I'll save you the technical aspects behind all the
research and development that goes into it but essentially they assign pilots
for every particular type of plane they assign a speed and at that speed the
plane is safe for turbulence beyond what you probably ever encountered and while
keeping that in mind also realize that an aviation everything
that they give us has a huge safety margin so they may say your plane is
safe for rough turbulence at this speed and that that speed we still have a huge
amount of safety involved in it so they are not giving us stuff that's right to
the limit that has already been tested and they know what is safe and then they
back it down a bunch so that way there's a huge margin of safety for you and for
us now something I've heard from people say
is but those wings are flexing so much and going up and down how is that
possible aeronautical engineers have designed these planes that have flex in
the wings and that's because the flexible wing is going to be much safer
than if you had a stiff wing sitting out there in the air now how did the
engineers design it so that this wing could flex up and down and also lift up
a plane well I don't know that's designed by people who are much smarter
than me actually that would not surprise me well what I want you to know is that
the amount of flex that those wings can actually sustain is a lot more than you
have probably ever seen when you're looking out the window I remember as a
kid I was looking at the window we were in a really rough flight and I saw that
wing going way up and way down and I thought that can't be good but now that
I've studied all about it it's actually really safe for the plane to be having
that the next thing to remember when you're flying in your plane hits
turbulence and I don't mean a couple little bumps but real turbulence listen
to the engines what you'll notice is you'll hear the engine slowed down and
the reason that they're slowing down is for the pilots to one make it a more
comfortable ride for everybody in the back and two to make sure that it's
within that margin of safety often when you're flying and a lot of aircraft it's
already within that margin of safety at a normal cruise speed on some smaller
planes they may be above that but again remember there is a huge margin for
safety so sometimes you'll hear the engines slow down when the plane hits
turbulence and that is to make it a smoother ride for the passengers in the
back and to for safety a simple way to explain this is imagine you're driving
down a gravel road if you're driving down a gravel road and you start getting
around some big rocks if you go slower it's a smoother ride it's the same with
flying if you're flying you're driving across the gravel road and just keep
going the same speed but you're hitting big rocks it gets really rough for
everybody in the car it's the same situation when you're flying so we'll
slow it down and make it safer for you for the flight attendants
and for everybody to feel more comfortable in flight now when I'm
sitting in the back and I'm in uniform because I just finished a flight or
maybe I'm in uniform because I'm about to go to a flight and if I'm sitting
next to someone who's nervous I'll look over to them and I'll say how
you doing I'm a commercial airline pilot if you are nervous just look at my face
unless I'm screaming you don't have anything to be worried about and
sometimes when I'm flying I'm watching a movie or doing something else and I'll
see them looking over at me every time we hit a bump or any type of turbulence
in my head to kind of smile and sometimes if it's a big bump I'll look
over at them and I'll say hey we're fine okay cool and they just relax if you're
not sitting next to a commercial pilot the next best thing you can do is look
at your flight attendants if they don't look like they're screaming or really
nervous you're fine and the other thing you can do is if you're sitting up
towards the front of the plane listen for the pilots if you hear both of them
up there screaming well then it's time to get nervous but if they're not
screaming then they're up there working trying to get around the storms or do
something to make the ride smoother in the back for everybody I will tell you
that since I fly both passengers and cargo I see both aspects of it when I'm
flying passengers and we hit bumps I slow the plane down because I know that
passengers are moving around I know the flight attendants are up moving around I
want you to feel comfortable and I want you to feel safe when I'm flying cargo
and we hit bumps we just keep going and the pilots that are on the plane they
know what's going on nobody really seems to care but when we're flying passengers
is a totally different aspect remember that when we're slowing the plane down
we're doing it for safety and comfort the safety of the aircraft and the
passengers and the crew is number-one priority for every pilot so just
remember that we are keeping that in mind while we're always flying so the
next time you're flying in your plane hit the turbulence I want you to
remember this video and listen for those engines to pull back and slow down now
what I want you to do is share this video with a friend who hates flying or
scared of turbulence hit the share button copy the video link and send it
via text message or send it via email to a friend who hates flying and in the
comments section below let me know is there anything that makes you scared to
fly I look forward to hearing from you until then keep the blue side up