Seeing The Invisible

Most pilots venture into windy conditions with enough skills and smarts to know how to either avoid or cope with them. But wind-related accidents are still commonplace, so clearly we dont always get it right. One reason for this may be fairly simple: With the exception of blowing snow, tornadoes, dust devils and some cloud formations, wind is usually invisible. To visualize what is going on, you have to visualize wind currents, which is where my experience whitewater rafting has served me well.

Mike Hart

Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots can enhance safety by proactively visualizing invisible wind currents, drawing an analogy to "reading water" to better anticipate air flow over terrain and obstacles.
Understanding various sources of turbulence is critical, including dangerous rotors formed by uniform obstructions, mountain waves from ridges, thermal effects, and terrain channeling (Venturi effect).
Anticipating these phenomena through scientific knowledge, observation, and online tools (like Windy.com) is key to adjusting flight paths and avoiding unexpected hazardous wind encounters, particularly for more susceptible lighter aircraft.

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Most pilots venture into windy conditions with enough skills and smarts to know how to either avoid or cope with them. But wind-related accidents are still commonplace, so clearly we don’t always get it right. One reason for this may be fairly simple: With the exception of blowing snow, tornadoes, dust devils and some cloud formations, wind is usually invisible. To visualize what is going on, you have to visualize wind currents, which is where my experience whitewater rafting has served me well.

I have found that the best way to avoid unpleasant surprises is to anticipate them. Wind socks and bent trees are great clues, but even without them it’s possible to know when and how an encounter with wind will affect your aircraft. To visualize what is going on, you need to have a bit of scientific understanding, a bit of imagination and the humility to accept when you need to run away.