“Welcome to this website! How do I know you’ve just arrived? Because most people are worried about turbulence. There’s quite a bit on the subject here but let me tell you a couple of things about my experience of turbulence. Only twice in all my 20,000 hours did I ever experience severe turbulence, I never was out of control in turbulence, it was never difficult to fly my plane in turbulence and my plane was never in danger in turbulence.”  Captain Keith.

Don’t forget to visit the shop where there are more products to help you overcome your fear of flying than anywhere in the world. And they’re great products they’ve all got great reviews so don’t hesitate to visit and overcome your fear of flying for ever.

Always wear your seat belt, and tighten it in turbulence.

Turbulence or a bad experience in the air are probably the most common reasons for a fear of flying. Most people believe that turbulence is dangerous; the truth is, that during turbulence the pilots remain in complete control of the complete control of the aircraft, and it is no harder to fly an aircraft during turbulence than it is in normal flight. Many people claim that they have been in an aircraft, which has fallen thousands of feet during turbulence. Curiously, they never make claims that the aircraft has climbed thousands of feet. It certainly would defy the laws of science if all the air in an area of turbulence were just falling; one might wonder what fills the space that it leaves. There is a chapter on turbulence on our Audio CD Set.

There is a description of turbulence in our Book Flying without Fear

• Turbulence is uncomfortable, but that’s not the same as dangerous
• Turbulence will not affect the aircraft’s performance
• Turbulence does not make an aircraft harder to fly

The truth is that aircraft go up and down during turbulence but the reason that we believe that they are always falling is that the sensation or falling is much more alarming and unpleasant than the sensation of going up. If you have ever put a sleeping baby into its cot you’ll know that the action of lowering it, often wakes it. The sensation of going down feels much worse than going up.

Turbulence is caused by the movement of the air. At the equator, air rises because it is heated by the sun and this air is replaced by cold air which travels from the Poles resulting in a flow of air from the north or south towards the equator. This causes winds from the North or South.

At the same time, because the world is rotating and the air is not stuck to the surface of the earth, the air stays ‘still’ while the world spins around under it. This causes the winds across the earth i.e. East / West. When these two  flows of air  (N-S and E-W) collide with each other, they cause turbulence just as  two rivers meeting will cause currents and eddies and make a boat bounce around. Turbulence is just the airborne and invisible version of this. (Movement of air accounts for all the weather we experience.)  A hot air balloon rises because the air inside has been heated up by the burner underneath; similarly any air which is heated up, for example, over a town, will do the same thing, and rise. If you are travelling in an aircraft as it passes through this rising air you will feel it as a bump.

The second picture shows how hot air rising from a power station rises to form a cloud; flying through the rising air would be bumpy and so would flying through the descending air that’s replacing it. Both though, would be perfectly safe. Normally the source of the rising air would not be so obvious of course, for example another clue to rising air would be fluffy white cumulus clouds.

Turbulence is also caused when the wind blows against hills and is displaced up and around them. Finally remember that turbulence is “uncomfortable but not dangerous” and that weather maps and reports show pilots where the areas of turbulence can be expected so that they can be avoided by climbing, descending, or flying around them.

Always wear your seat belt when seated and tighten it in turbulence.