NATS and Nose Diving

[rgamurot]

This isn't your usual NATS post. Every single time I fly from the UK to the US or Canada, I hit severe weather just off the coast of Ireland. I'm serious. There hasn't been a single flight since this past fall where it was actually clear. I always check satellite imagery to see if it's really there and it is. The 744 can fly through the turbulence and will bounce around but for the most part, I'm perfectly fine. Today I decided to fly the 763ER instead and ended up nose diving into the North Atlantic. Now I figure, if it's there in real life, somehow, airlines manage to avoid it. Normally I myself will fly around the storm but today, the system was so big, I couldn't find a way out. I also thought that the NATS was changed daily to avoid weather but I keep getting NATF. I also can only find real world plans for flights out of the US for the UK, but not out of the UK for the US.So here's my question, when planning a west bound North Atlantic flight, what should I do to avoid the weather? And don't say, "Just don't fly over the Atlantic." Someone here already suggested that.Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[downscc]

Clean off the crystal ball. There's lots of good global weather on the internet, use it the best you can. Looking at forecasts then flying through it provides a good form of reinforement training (positive or negative).One sign of rough air will probably (not always) show up on the 500mb chart, which are the so called steering winds. If the streamlines are nice and smooth that's good, watch out for hairpins and rapidly changing velocities. Compare the different levels as well since changing direction or speed of the air with altitude will also generate some bumps where the interface lies.I'm not sure about the NAR... but inside the US I look very intently at PIREPs (Pilot Reports) because these are tidbits of information offered by the pilots in the real stuff and not the forecasters on the ground. These are also available on the internet, in the US we have http://aviationweather.gov ... and it's still free until the Feds try to figure out how to implement the European pay-as-you-go model. This web site also has global weather but I don't know if it is the best source for that.

[rgamurot]

Thanks Dan for the Weather Site. I usually used the NOAA sites. Anyway, how do you plan around the weather aside from deviating from course? Is there a way to simply file a plan around the bad weather?Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[downscc]

File around weather, yes. Once again, I am not experience with the NAR but within the US it is done by pilots, companies and the FAA. They even have a "playbook" where they preplan rerouting due to storms: http://www.fly.faa.gov/PLAYBOOK/pbindex.htmlThis is where the media gets their information on airport delays, plus there's much more pertinent info for pilots than The Weather Channel provides: http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp

[Guest ROMANMAN]

Great respones but one question... are you using a weather generataor like ActiveSky. I you are it could be the fluctuation of winds in the North Atlantic. What helps with is it to have a registered version of fsuipc. Hope this helps.ROMANMAN

[rgamurot]

Thanks Dan for the two new sites. I know there's some pretty bad weather over the east coast so now I should be clear of it. In the mean time, I'll try and look around for a North Atlantic or International route site.Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[rgamurot]

I do use AS6.5 but I know it was turbulence. I had thunder heads all around me and lightning going off everywhere. It wasn't a sudden drop in airspeed either, just a sudden drop in altitude when I finally stalled. I was fine for about 45min. It's just that the 763ER doesn't hold altitude as well as the 744. The 763ER would climb and descend by around 2000ft. I would loose the airspeed in the climb but never regain it in the descent. Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[Racalac]

you can usually find a good route to plan by looking at sigmets and high alt. weather charts on the noaa website :)