Originally Posted by
chgoeditor
I read an article once that made the analogy of a pilot flying a plane through turbulence to drivers driving their cars down a bumpy street. It's annoying, but really no big deal. The article said that most pilots consider it to be a non-event that's forgotten by the time they land, just like your or I really wouldn't dwell on the fact that we'd driven through a pothole.
This is exactly correct.
For the most part, turbulence is a
service issue, not a safety of flight or danger to the aircraft issue. We avoid it because we know our passengers don't like it and it makes it more difficult for our flight attendants to do service.
Even when the turbulence gets very "rough," what we worry about is passengers and crew getting injured, not the aircraft being damaged. The last time I got into some "bad" turbulence, what's the first thing I did? I didn't check the instruments or look out the windows at the wings, I called the girls in the back to make sure they were okay.
Checko