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0 pointsaidenn01y ago0 comments

"Fewer than forty feet of altitude change"

A 40 foot drop is pretty scary; by comparison, an NCAA dive platform is 33 feet.

0 comments

The standard that you must meet to get a pilots license is being able to hold your altitude within 100 feet in a 360* turn. A 40 foot

He's not saying the drop was 40 feet instantaneously, he's saying the turbulence and the subsequent recovery only caused a 40 foot deviation from the assigned altitude.

Just for reference, a descent rate on a standard flight is pretty normal at 40 feet per second. Some descent profiles can double that. The NCAA diver will hit the water at 46 feet per second.

antoniojtorres1y ago

I agree. It’s funny to think of the gap between safety and scary when talking about turbulence. Large planes can take an absolute beating and be completely fine, but it could feel like the end of the world inside.

oceanplexian1y ago

A modern airliner is rated to something like 3-4G's including the safety factor, probably much more if it's not at max takeoff weight. I'm sure you could do a Mythbusters-style test but I'd assume most passengers would pass out from the negative and positive G forces long before the aircraft structurally failed.

TylerE1y ago

You'd lose that bet. The wings would fail long before people blacked out. They're only required to withstand 2.5g positive. Blacking out takes more like 6. We can see from various crashes that that sort of G load does in fact cause most wings to fail.

Aircraft have to be built light for the sake of efficiency (or even, just, being able to get off the ground.

There are certainly factors of safety... but not 3x+. Probably closer to 1.5.

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