NASA video showing the wingtip vortices created by a C-5 Galaxy. Paints a pretty clear picture of the size of the vortices after they have drifted down to the altitude right before one begins to flare for touchdown. Scary stuff. Anyone ever dealt with wake turbulence from a "heavy"?

This C-5 rotated just next to me. I about crapped my pants. I was hanging of for dear life. Then they tried to wave me onto the runway, through the vortexes that could still be seen in the dust.

At about :37 in this video, I'm in the Yellow Kitfox...

Good information. Also watch out for parts that may be left on The runway. Not kidding.

Wow! Not usually what I get in line behind on approach. I flew in a C-5 from California to Kuwait. Stopped in Spain, never saw a damn thing. The small personnel compartment had 4 inch windows that had been spray painted. Impressive machine to say the least though.

My limited experience on a C-5 was going space-A from Anchorage to Charleston in 1971 or 72. We barely got in the air when the Crew Chief told all the pax that the pilots had "discovered" they would be over their allowable crew time if we went direct Charleston, so they diverted to San Francisco for a 24 hour layover. Since my sis lived in Berkeley at the time, it was a fun diversion for me. Otherwise the flight was pretty boring, because the windows only existed in the escape hatches, and they were pretty tiny.

As for being caught in wake turbulence, been there, done that, don't want to do it again. Flying the TR182 back in about 1980 Laramie to Denver Stapleton, we were north of Denver when approach advised us of a 727 passing on our right. Looking, I saw him about 3-4 miles away, at 2 o'clock low, perhaps 1000' below our altitude. Suddenly we were up on a wing, somewhat past 90 degrees although not fully inverted. With full opposite aileron, left rudder, and pushing the yoke forward, we recovered none the worse for wear--but had I not completed a basic aerobatics course just a few weeks earlier, the outcome might not have been so good--I have since learned that the most common automatic response even experienced pilots have to an upset that rolls the airplane nearly inverted is to pull on the yoke, which pulls the airplane into the ground. But with the aerobatics lessons still pretty fresh, I pushed the yoke instead of pulling it.

Trying to figure out later why we were caught in the airliner's wake when we were above it, I realized that the strong west wind, probably 25-30 knots at our altitude, over the mountains was undoubtedly lifting the wake turbulence, much like water rises in a stream after first descending over a rock. The important lesson for me was that wake turbulence isn't necessarily the way it's depicted in all of the texts that we use for ground school. The other lesson, of course, was that a knowledge of basic aerobatics or upset recovery training is a life-saver.

Cary

I had a wake turbulence episode from a 737 at Orange County. It was a dead calm night. I was in my old Turbine 207 (Soloy) stopping in when it didn't cost roughly $152 a night to park there (includes the $12 surveillance camera fee, $8.50/gallon gas and the ramp fee, it costs $52 just to pick up a passenger at the FBO!). Unknown to me until after I landed the evening had already claimed a Westwind that crashed from being rolled over by wake turbulence. It had all the directors of In-n-Out Burger on board. I was being vectored all over the sky that night and hit the 737 wake turbulence perpendicular. Caused an exceptional pitch change that woke me from my daze and caused a large altitude deviation. I was thankful after I landed and found out what all the flashing lights where on approach was all about, I didn't get it on final as well.

I went to Rota Spain from Dover AFB on a C5, may as well been on a subway car up in the tube. Left Dover three times before we finally got to Rota, kept coming back for maintenance issues. The real sleeper on wake turbulence is the H-53 helicopter. Yes, they too make wake turbulence and the H-53's is roughly as intense as the C-5's

I participated in one of the early reports of wake turbulence behind the B 747. This was in late 69 or early 70, in Hawaii. I was in a 172 and cleared to land behind Pan Am Clipper One, a brand new 747. Clipper One and Two circled the globe in opposite directions, if I recall correctly.

In any case, there was no such thing as a wake turbulence delay or even caution. Wake turbulence was simply not well understood till the 747 came along.

On short final, my airplane rolled hard to the left, and, being a VERY low time PPL kinda guy, I pulled. Fortunately for me, I just did a knife edge departure from the pattern, didn't hit anything and managed to escape unscathed.....other than having to clean my undies..

Tower asked me "What just happened to you?" in a non threatening manner. They cleared me to re-enter the pattern and land, then asked me to call the tower chief. I was REALLY scared then. But, the chief just listened to my description of "The hand of God smote me" and said that there was information going around about this kind of stuff behind Pan Am's 747s. He thanked me, and later I got a call from someone at NASA. A month or so later the new wake turbulence procedures came out.

Last week, I was instructing in a Cub behind a C 172, on a flat calm (I know, hard to believe here) day, and as the student pitched into the flare, we got a pretty good roll going. Student asked "What was that?" Wake turbulence, that's what. Even a Cub makes a wake, and hit it "just right" and it'll roll you.

A real "heavy" as opposed to a Cessna 172 heavy, will do a little more than a slight roll, however.

MTV

I used to store a small trailerable boat at Hickam AFB, Honolulu. The MWR (Morale Wefare and Recreation) parking lot was at the threshold of rwy 8L. The 777s, C5s, KC10s etc. would leave vortices that made incredible noises which ripped thru the storage area parking lot. Not great real estate. In was $35 a month. The vortices would start overhead and sink to the ground, just like the book says.

The worst wake turbulence I ever encountered wasn't from a plane!

I didn't take this picture, but it illustrates my story pretty well.



These windmills are in SE Washington. They are much bigger than they look! They are officially known as the Hopkins Ridge Wind Energy Project. Each one is 221 feet high from the base to the hub. Each of the three rotors is 129 feet long, 11.62 feet at the widest part, and weighs over 7 tons! Total height when a blade is straight up is 351 feet.

I was flying down the Tucannon river, essentially over the spot from which the above picture was taken, maybe a little farther away. I was a little over 1000 AGL and was around a mile downwind of the windmills when I went through their wash. I think wind at that altitude was around 20 to 25 knots, but it could have been a little higher. I encountered severe turbulence. Roll forces put me at about a 75 to 80 degree bank a couple of times before I could get out of it.

Good times!

FARMAULE wrote:Good information. Also watch out for parts that may be left on The runway. Not kidding.

Speaking from experience??? Wink wink

I got rolled pretty good in the G2 about 2 years ago. We took about 7 miles behind a 777 and got rolled twice to about 45 degrees climbing out of about 1500 AGL. We had gotten airborne quicker than them but they obviously were out climbing us on the same route. If you think you've hit it but weren't sure, it just feels different than regular turbulence. More of a rolling feeling than just bouncing around.

Yep, I have.

Every week I would fly 1/2 of a pattern over Wright Patterson AFB at 500 feet AGL, and some times C-5's would also be in the pattern doing touch and goes (also where I'd see Air Force One). I've been close enough to see the guys in the cockpit, but never had anything but "fear' happen.

But doing the same thing at Rickenbacker, with two KC-135's and a FedEx 747 all in various forms of pattern work, they had me cross the runways at mid field with a KC-135 on short final. I ended up parallel with runways and the 747 in a down wind out side me. (I was scared to death by the way). Well FedEx 747 passed me up with no issues, but then he turned in front of me for his base leg. I was hanging on to the stick with both hands. Nothing happened, so I relaxed. That's when I was slammed straight nose up (like 90 degrees straight up) wings level. Before I could do anything I was slammed back straight and level. Both pitches were violent, but it was all over in less the 5 seconds.

Av8r3400 wrote:This C-5 rotated just next to me. I about crapped my pants. I was hanging of for dear life. Then they tried to wave me onto the runway, through the vortexes that could still be seen in the dust.

At about :37 in this video, I'm in the Yellow Kitfox...

Holy crap.......

Helicopters can make pretty decent wake turb also. We used to chuck smoke grenades on the ground and fly through the screen to demonstrate what the air behind even our tiny helicopter is doing.

Best description I've heard: "angry little tornadoes"