I did accidentally while approaching to land almost flipped scared me pretty good always told to avoid them now I see why. Experiences?


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One broke out in front of me as I was coming in to land my hang glider, a Moyes Xtralight. The dust devil tumbled me. When the tumbling stopped, the glider was a crumpled mess and I had a broken arm. The TV news crews got to me before the ambulance. I'd suggest keeping a wide berth when possible.

Yes once on landing on wheels and it was a ride. Now I watch the water or earth below for signs of whirly winds and lifted water or dirt.

Gary

I fly into them if high enough, just another thermal......an intense thermal for sure. I sure don't want to mess with one on landing, and I watch for thermal activity like a hawk (pun?) when on short final on my strip. One clue is the wind sock at the bottom of my property doing one thing, while the wind turbine at the top (147' higher) is indicating something else, I hate that. Not landing my place in the summer much after 1 or maybe 2 in the afternoon is my workaround.

Not a whirlwind, but the other weekend I launched out of Leadore and was flying upslopetoward the mountains to the west, when I saw a rancher burning off his fields. At about 500' I flew into the smoke and sure enough got a good 4 to 600 fpm gain, as the smoke of course was warmer then the surrounding air and going up. As I circled in it (throttled back and one notch of flaps I realized it was thermal, in effect, that I could see. It was smooth, smoother then most thermals, and carried me up a good 1000' before petering out. The rancher had gotten off his ATV I had noticed, and seemed to be eyeballing me, so as I flew off after that free lift I waggled my wings, like THANKS, THAT WAS FUN.

Yes, spraying. They seem to be more frequent in hot, calm air. In ground effect, they move you sideways. Be ready to apply lots of rudder with aileron to get the wing back up. Too much aileron with too little rudder is scary slow.

contactflying wrote:Yes, spraying. They seem to be more frequent in hot, calm air. In ground effect, they move you sideways. Be ready to apply lots of rudder with aileron to get the wing back up. Too much aileron with too little rudder is scary slow.

That's exactly when I see them at our place. On the hottest, stillest days in the afternoon while I'm making hay. Usually they rip across all my freshly raked windrows of hay, I've watched some carry loose hay up thousands of feet.

One flipped a Piper Pacer on floats a few years back. The plane was tied tail into the bank and a fellow pilot was working on his C-185 some distance away. He told me the whirly wind was spinning up water from the float pond then lifted the Pacer up and then back down on the right wing. There were no ropes holding the front of the plane down so it just flipped.

I've checked my Taylorcraft and noted it had moved a few feet on floats from where I left it. No winds the previous day but maybe a whirlwind? I drive duckbill anchors in the pond to the side of the plane and tie the float bows and wings, plus the tail to the bank. Folks ask why so many ropes? I just mention the Pacer.

Gary

I watched my dad fly through one once, in an ultralight. He was just about to land when it appeared right in front of him. He said he was afraid that if he'd landed & stopped, it would have flipped him, so he went full throttle level at about 10-20 ft high and just punched right through it. It rocked & twisted him pretty good, First one wing, then the other almost hit the ground. He landed safely on the back side of it. It wasn't a huge one, thank goodness, but was definitely a whirlwind. 100 degrees & no wind that afternoon.

He also grew up in the hay fields and I've heard of him talk about "dust devils" tearing up his neat wind rows of hay as well.

Twice, neither time on purpose,
the first time was Hillsborough Or. as a thirty five hour student pilot on solo. I was in the pattern to land and a really big whirl wind formed right over the approach to the runway. For some reason the owner of the flight school happened to be looking out the window of the office and saw what was developing. Just as I got into the edges of the damn thing and started getting kicked around I picked up the radio mike to declare that I was going to get the hell out of there when Mr. Stone's voice came over the radio yelling at me to make an immediate right turn and get the hell out of there! Ten minutes later it was all gone and calm again.
The second was on takeoff at my home airport of Haines Ak. I had started my takeoff roll when I felt the wind hit me on the left wing, then the left side of the tail then the right side of the tail and then the right wing. The wind got under the right wing and stood me up on the left main wheel, the tail wheel and the left wing tip. I came to a complete stop before the wind let me go and the right wing came back down. I turned to my wife and said, "this trip is cancelled". I then taxied to the next exit and went back to my tiedown so I could pull the inspection covers to check the spar and replace the wing tip light.
Not something to fool with at all.

We used to blow through them in the desert. In a helo (even a small, 5200lb one) they’re just a bump and fun to disrupt. I️ have no intentions of trying that in the Pacer though.

Whirlwinds/dust devils are common in the summer in the Laramie Valley and on the eastern plains of Colorado. It's great when you can see them--just avoid them. But sometimes they haven't been formed long enough to be picking up much debris, but they're still there.

One warm summer day some 38 years ago, I was returning to Laramie from Denver in the TR182 and lined up for a straight-in to 30, with a typical headwind of around 20 knots. I could see several dust devils here and there, nothing very big. Just as I came over the fence at about 50' AGL, the airplane was suddenly rocked by an unseen whirlwind causing a big wind shear, and the bottom dropped out. I firewalled it, and literally landed at full power.

That's the only time in 45 years of flying that I have been caught by a whirlwind while landing, although there have been other times when I have hit unseen whirlwinds in the air. I have never intentionally flown through one that I could see.

Cary

If anyone wants both crosswind and whirlywind experience visit Grangeville, ID during August (KGIC). It's certain to sure you'll find a strong (10-15+ Kt) crosswind from the north on their sole runway oriented 08/26. If you are unlucky you might also land or taxi into/through a dust devil blown across the runway. FWIW, I haven't noticed that strong winds deter formation of these whirly things, at least not at that airport.

Very common here in the desert. Especially on hot stable days. I've never hit one in the plane. They don't go up high so unless takeoff or landing easy to avoid.

I've been through them on the dirt bike or mountain bike though. Quite unpleasant, especially for a clean freak such as myself.

Flown through hundreds of them in the spraying business....they can really knock your head ...hence the helmet. That’s in a fairly heavily loaded Airtractor....no way I would want to try that in an ultralight or a Tcraft. Down low they are fairly compact and brief....it’s up high (Like 2 or 3 hundred feet high) where they can get you in a sprayer slow and loaded in a turn trying to make the corner....sphincter already tight as it gets.