Turbulence in Summer

Hi,

I am wanting to do a flight for some hour building in January in a Cherokee 6 300. The plan is to fly from Sunshine Coast to Ballarat and back again about 5 days later. The flight will be in the first week of January 2019.

I just want to get some thoughts about whether it is a stupid idea as it can be crazy hot during that time, and I am just concerned about the turbulence.

Has anyone done flying in summer out that way and what their experiences have been?

Cheers,

Kyle.

Kyle,

I fly a Jabiru j160 around Victoria and New south wales a lot during the summers.

I would suggest fly early in the morning and above 5 thousand before the thermals take hold while the ground warms up.

Hills can make just as severe bumps as heat related turbulence or cold fronts going through. In the centre it's more turbulent on hot days in the afternoon and you can help by flying early and higher as already stated... January is one of the times when you can expect large Cu build ups (Cb). at times. Avoid the downwind side of those for about 20 miles at least as you could cop hail descending out of the tops (anvil Cirrus Cloud) There's plenty of nice places to drop in at on the western slopes of the Ranges If it ever rains again. If you aren't happy with the weather ahead divert and land and secure your plane. You can pick your weather if you haven't arranged strict deadlines.. Learn as much as you can about weather. Not just how to get forecasts. Ringing ahead is a good idea sometimes if you are worried about local weather. PLAN well always. Know all the features of an aerodrome before you get there, then you don't get overloaded.. Nev

Thanks for the tips! I feel like I will make good decisions based on the weather, like cloud and storms. I am just worried that the turbulence could get so severe that it will be dangerous?... I have never really encountered turbulence that is like full hectic. So basically because it gets so hot out there in summer it can be rather bumpy right, so my plan was to leave Caloundra at BOD (in summer that is probably like 4:45am I am guessing). It's about a 5.5-6hr flight, but you never know until the day with winds ect... so depending on where I make it by 11am... stop then for lunch and wait till the arvo to do the last hop, which should only be maybe 1.5hr max. Does that sound good?

If you hit turbulence fly at the correct penetration speed and don't use large control inputs . Allow the plane to move around a bit and try other levels if you can. You probably can't outclimb the turbulence later in the day so don't try..Avoid dust devils (willy willy's) always. Later in the afternoon things get better as the surface heat diminishes a bit. Plan to land at least 1/2 hour before last light and landing into the sunset may be a problem if you have to do it. Have a peaked cap to shield the sun when flying towards it.. Nev

have a think about 'flying' the route with a flight simulator before you go - FSX combined with a good quality scenery mesh will give you extremely good information navigation wise

as far as weather is concerned, you can choose any weather for the sim flight, or on any day with similar weather to your expected flight you can do the 'flight' with real-time weather

to get some kind of accurate aircraft response to the conditions you would also need to get a payware aircraft - I'm going to do a search now to see if I can find one for ya...

BP

wow you're in luck (I think) - not sure if this is close enough to your real life aircraft but Carenado is a prolific developer of FSX aircraft and their products are brilliant (and well priced)

I have a couple of their aircraft in my virtual hangar and I can recommend them unreservedly - any help you need with setting up a flightsim system, let me know, happy to help

and No it's not the real thing (doh), lot's of flightsim haters out there...I 'flew' a trip from Boonah to Lismore a few times before the real flight and it was a real eye opener for me

BP

Carenado.com

btw Kyle, you wanna try turbulence, try my Drifter on a hot January day - blue up = good, blue up = good, oops, blue is down, what just happened? oh - big thermal - bugger !!!

BP

just checked the link, it takes you to the home page - you'll have to click Products, then Flight Simulator X, then scroll through a bit...

I agree with post #2. For mine, a relaxed trip is to go whatever is a comfortable distance before 11am then plan to be a tourist on the ground for lunch up to 4pm or later. If it's possible to do another leg after 4pm, giddy up!

I think the trick is to plan the midday stop somewhere it's worth stopping. For me that means fuel accomodation and shelter. Something touristy and phone coverage could be good too. If the weather looks suspicious I am already parked up and looking at a restaurant menu.