9.2 Weather Hazard

                                                                           9.2  Thunderstorm Aircraft Hazard 

   

                    For this weeks blog I wanted to talk about a weather hazard with aircraft involving thunderstorms. With it being spring time and I am on the east coast there are a lot of thunderstorms currently so I thought it would fit perfect with this weeks topic. To understand how much of a hazard they are it is important to first understand how they form. If there is warm air with moisture rises into a colder one it then forms into what's called a convention cell. Once this happens and the warm air cools it creates water droplets and forms the cloud, when this happens at a larger scale and it moves quickly it develops into thunderstorm. The Federal Aviation Association (FAA) advises pilots to stay away from thunderstorms and to change flight plan by navigating 20 miles away from the storm. The reason for this is because the severity of the turbulence could be greater than the precipitation intensity may indicate (PHAK, 2016).

References:

 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (2016). Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK).  Retrieved PHAK Chapter 13 https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/media/15_phak_ch13.pdf