Navigating the skies: How pilots overcome weather obstacles for safe journeys
Pilots deal with various weather challenges like wind shear, turbulence, and ice to keep flights safe and smooth. The Weather Network's Kim MacDonald spoke to a pilot about how they navigate these issues to ensure a safe trip.
Weather can make or break a flight, and pilots are at the frontlines of navigating these challenges.
Here are some of the biggest threats to a smooth takeoff, flight, and touchdown.
Wind shear
Wind shear is the the aviation definition is a sudden and drastic shift in the wind.
“The crucial and most detrimental wind shear is the wind shear that's at the surface because the aircraft is in its most critical phases of flight, landing and taking off,” explains Tim Miller, a Boeing 767 captain.
SEE ALSO: How wind shear influences the Atlantic hurricane season
Turbulence mid-flight is a kind of wind shear common during a thunderstorm but can sometimes happen on a clear sky day.
So how do pilots know when they are about to experience turbulence if it’s otherwise calm?
“The number one resource that we have is actually other pilots' reports of turbulence,” says Miller. “Just changing your altitude is usually the number one action in the area.
Ice accretion
Ice can be very dangerous—even more so than people may realize.
“What ice does is it disrupts the airflow over the wing, and the different types of ice can have different effects, very detrimental effects to how the aircraft flies,” Miller explains.
“And a lot of emphasis is put on training with pilots on how to detect it, how to go about the procedures in de-icing, and then different types of characteristics of the aircraft if you happen to encounter ice inadvertently, and how to mitigate the effects on that so you can land safely.”
Deicing a plane is essential before takeoff. (File photo)
SEE ALSO: Six fascinating ways weather affects your daily flights
Lightning
“Usually the aircraft is shielded in a way that the lightning just goes right through the aircraft, and there are mechanisms and devices and technology within the aircraft that isolate the crucial components of the aircraft from a lightning strike,” says Miller.
Millar emphasizes that experienced pilots, technological advances, and strict procedures make flying the safest mode of transportation in the world, but tragic accidents can still happen.
“And while it's unfortunate, it's incidents and accidents that occur that help strengthen those mechanisms to where it makes the industry even safer.”
WATCH BELOW: The science behind turbulence
(Header image: Jet travelling through stormy sky. Credit: guvendemir via iStock / Getty Images Plus. Creative #:1188802829. Used for illustration purposes only.)