Tornado taken from the air in a Bonanza.
Meza Cyclone that produed the tornado and six others..taken from the ground.

No pictures, but I flew through a smoke cloud from a farmer burning straw piles. I was about 600 agl, and I could see through the column of smoke. It was about 100' in diameter, and there was very little wind. The approach was smooth, with just a little bumpiness going through the smoke, but man, as I exited the column, I got the most severe downward bump I've every been in. (I'm just a newby, so limited experience) I definitely felt the shoulder straps, and the crap in the baggage compartment jolted audibly. This was just one, quick, jolt and it was over. The wings snapped off my plane, and if I didn't land on an unburned pile of straw, I would have been a goner. Just kidding about the wings. But.

This make me wonder if the guys flying much lower, fighting fires are bumping around on a regular basis, and just how bad can "smoke bumps" get?

tom

Savannah-Tom wrote:This make me wonder if the guys flying much lower, fighting fires are bumping around on a regular basis, and just how bad can "smoke bumps" get?

tom

Maybe that's why pipeline patrol planes' TTAF should be counted twice as much.

Savannah-Tom wrote:No pictures, but I flew through a smoke cloud from a farmer burning straw piles. I was about 600 agl, and I could see through the column of smoke. It was about 100' in diameter, and there was very little wind. The approach was smooth, with just a little bumpiness going through the smoke, but man, as I exited the column, I got the most severe downward bump I've every been in. (I'm just a newby, so limited experience) I definitely felt the shoulder straps, and the crap in the baggage compartment jolted audibly. This was just one, quick, jolt and it was over. The wings snapped off my plane, and if I didn't land on an unburned pile of straw, I would have been a goner. Just kidding about the wings. But.

This make me wonder if the guys flying much lower, fighting fires are bumping around on a regular basis, and just how bad can "smoke bumps" get?

tom

As a retired wildland fire fighter I can say with "Some authority" that yes, it can be very bumpy flying through a smoke column. When a fire creates a cloud it is called a Pyrocumulus. The first picture below shows another hazard in smoke columns. For height refrence the timber is old growth ponderosa pine on the Mogollan Rim in Arizona. The glows high up are gases igniting in the column.

The second picture is near Tucson in 2003. F-16s were flying through this one for fun even though there was a TFR in place. The Air attack supervisor on the fire was not so happy about that. That's another hazard, aircraft are drawn to smoke like moths to a flame. Even if there aren't fire fighting aircraft working the fire there may be other traffic of unknown type.

Nice pictures. The burning going on way up high would be a real surprise to fly through. I did worry about another plane coming through, but as I said earlier, I could see through the column. Your pix are in a whole 'nuther league from what I flew through. I guess that is why it surprised me to get roughed up as much as it did.

tom

I took this picture in Central Washington a couple days ago. Any ideas what caused the hole in the clouds? The sky was 100% overcast otherwise. Temp on the ground here at 2000 ft. was in the mid 50's. That's a few degrees above normal for this time of year.

... global warming??

tcj wrote:I took this picture in Central Washington a couple days ago. Any ideas what caused the hole in the clouds? The sky was 100% overcast otherwise. Temp on the ground here at 2000 ft. was in the mid 50's. That's a few degrees above normal for this time of year.

Who would fly through that hole besides Gump

tim

TCJ,
I've seen similar phenomena: large (maybe 20 mile diameter) perfectly circular opening in an otherwise solid cloud layer. I couldn't come up with any explanation, either.

It occurred just south of Lake Michigan, the clouds were moving from west to east, and I'd guess that they were at 5 - 7,000 feet. I can't remember the time of year.

Eric

Saw the same circle in the clouds near a power plant in Texas. Could the heat from the plant be the reason for the hole?

Does that part of the world suck???? Maybe that's the orifice....

MTV

mtv wrote:Does that part of the world suck???? Maybe that's the orifice....

MTV

No, it blows.

This one reminds me of the Stealth Bomber

Picture taken near Green River, UT along I-70 in March 2013

tcj wrote:

We blame George W Bush....

7853H wrote:Saw the same circle in the clouds near a power plant in Texas. Could the heat from the plant be the reason for the hole?

Good guess.
Big thermal powerr stations reject enough heat to push air up about 4000ft and still keep it travelling about 12ft/s, but it spreads out fairly rapidly if it's just a single generator unit, a cluster of units could do better.


It's called Fallstreak cloud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallstreak_hole If you read the article - it can actually be produced by aircraft.

Here's one in New Zealand

Nope, not heading south today URL=http://imgur.com/MGS9lTs][/URL]

A few days later, coming back from Big Piney Wy. I was unusually high, close to 10K, ( and rather then my usual low level go around the 9K+ ridge behind my place I decided to just pop over it, thinking the bit of virga in my flight path would "hold". So there I was, less then 3 miles from my strip and crossing over a 8500' part of the ridgeline with some virga overhead, no wind aloft near as I could tell from my GPS so I wasn't too concerned about a rotor/ridge bump. I was a 1/4 mile from crossing the ridge and damn near being over my place (at 5400') and BAM, the windshield instantly was covered with rain and it got real bumpy, a quick 180 (while keeping the airspeed low due to the bumps) and I was back in the smooth air, and a more conservative around the ridge line got me home about 15 minutes later. By the time I landed the activity on the ridgeline had dispersed totally, just a quick moving little rain squall. Being so close to home I got a little casual about crossing that ridge with that squall above me, a good wakeup call to not get too complacent just because I am so close to home! Having a skylight, you can look up, and sometimes the view isn't pretty

courierguy wrote:Having a skylight, you can look up, and sometimes the view isn't pretty

Your right, although for me it's my reflection that's scares me

What a video!