MostlyUA


Join Date: Jul 2015

Programs: UA 1K 2M, BA Emerald, SPG P

Posts: 1

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

I didn't know enough to be scared at the time, but I once flew from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., to whatever USAF base is closest to Cape Canaveral in a paratroop-rigged C-47 (DC-3). At about 200 knots, that was a long flight. The C-47 had no door, just an opening in the fuselage with a few straps of fabric webbing across it. I have no idea how strong they were and didn't want to find out the hard way, since I wasn't wearing a parachute at the time. I recall staying as far forward as possible. (Seating was web benches along the sides. Uncomfortable, perhaps, but that's not what this thread is about.)

I may have posted about this before -

The short version - flying into a small NE airport after a fatal crash. The weather (during our flight, the crash wasn't weather related) was insanely foggy and the pilot took a really odd** approach in order to go around the fog.

As the fog cleared during descent, we could see the wreckage, items scattered on the ground, the plane hanging, nose down from a giant crane. I nearly threw up when we deplaned.

*** we flew this same flight 10+ times a year for many years, which is how I knew the approach was off. Also flew with the now deceased pilot many times.

Another time was flying back from TPA, the plane shook so hard the entire 2 hour flight, my nerves were absolutely shot by the time we landed. I have been bothered by turbulence ever since. (I had 15+ years of flying in small props as well as commercial jets before that flight.)

This took place in 2003, not long after GWII had ended and commercial flights into Iraq had started - the vast majority of which were freighters, in particular DHL aircraft flying out of Bahrain.

I was scheduled to operate on an A300 on a flight into Baghdad. Things were not at all calm on the ground in the suburbs of Baghdad, including the area of Saddam Intl. Airport. The US army basically held the airport only as far as the perimeter fence.

On the approach to the airport, the descent profile calls for a rapid descent from 10.000ft, fully configured for landing. However, as we reached the descent point the flaps were not yet selected fully down - speed was too high - and only came out after the windscreen was rapidly filled with a lot of terra firma. End result was, that as we got down to 200ft the speed was way too high, 30-40 knots or thereabouts. That called for a go-around, and this is when things began to get really interesting.

Unlike a normal go-around, where you zip up to 2-3000ft and are radar vectored back for a new approach, things are done differently when bad guys roam just outside the fence. So we levelled off at 200ft and tracked the runway to the end, where we entered a 60-70 degree bank to the left, to fly 'downwind' directly over the parallel runway. Oh yes. Now, anyone who's been in the cockpit of an A300 will know that the side windows are mighty big indeed, and that they stretch basically from the top of your head to your hips if you're sitting in the jumpseat behind the skipper. I was sat in the jumpseat behind the skipper, and from having the windscreen full of terra firma, it was now the side window being fuller still.

We levelled of directly over the parallel runway, to the right of which it was only around 100 meters to the fence, beyond which was an ex. palace of Saddam's, with potential new owners bidding for supremacy using Ak47's to settle arguments. Anyway, reaching the other end of the runway, we again execute a 180 degree turn to the left followed by a landing.

I still remember being tossed around like I was in a popcorn popper while on approach to Manchester NH around 1996. I'm seen my share of turbulence, including flying over the Rockies or into Las Vegas many times. But this one incident stood out to the extent that I can still remember it.

Last year February flying Delta MD-90 MIA-JFK, the flight was delayed in MIA for about 5 hours because of severe snow/ice storm around the NY tristate area. While descending, I felt some of the worst turbulence I've ever felt and people were making those little terrified squeals as we were bounced around the cabin. On approach I could see the runway only for the pilot to increase power sharply and begin to climb (I was literally pushed back into my seat). No announcements were made and we were all left to wonder as to what was happening. One flight attendant was basically making his way down the aisle telling each row that we are diverting to ROC. The weather in ROC wasn't much better. I couldn't see anything outside the plane until just before the foot of the runway and we basically landed in what looked like 7-11 slushy. We used up every last inch of that runway to bring the plane to a stop. I was trying to be a big girl and get over my fear of flying (a real catch-22, love traveling and hate flying with the upmost passion) by saying soothing mantras and tapping pressure points but needless to say, it didn't work.

Welcome to FlyerTalk MostlyUA

I can see you are, ahem, mostly UA but also a BA Emerald, so please do pop over to the BA forum to say hello :)

In 2008 early March we had an aborted landing attempt on the outer edge of a really bad blizzard in New York (all later flights into New York were cancelled but they let us try). There were people who didn't throw up (including me) but those were definitely the minority. As they say, there were few atheists on the plane at that time. I was reasonably sure this is it and was more resigned than afraid. I know this is morbid but -- if it's time to go, I can think of many worse ways than a crashing airplane. At least it's quick.

Just incase we forgot ;)

RSW-IAH about a dozen years ago on a Continental 737-800.

The approach into IAH was rough as hell with a lot of those negative g moments when your stomach ends up in your throat. I don't typically mind turbulence, but it's terrifying when you're dropping and bouncing that much when you're so close to the ground.

Flight to Orlando. 40th BD trip to WDW with my child. Plane hit by lightening. I was asleep and scared the stupid out of me.

SFO-LHR December 2001. I used to live in DEN, so no stranger to turbulence over the Rockies, but this took the cake for the roughest flight I've ever been on.
Bonus round. Here we were, 3 months post-9/11 and it was Mr. Mezzowithcorgis's first TATL flight ever. "Come with me to London, I said. You will have a great time, I said".... and had to eat my words.

Some 10+ years back: LPA via FUE to CGN in a winter storm.

The first leg is only a minutes long island hop and went like a roller coaster. Taught me what an airliner can accomplish and stay airborne.

Any later flight with turbulences (which scared pax next to me) was just worth a smile.
I think that one flight I saw more people airsick and using the bag than in all later flights combined :}.

One from 2013, which I left out of my trip report:

Turkish Airlines A320 on IST-ECN. Approach into ECN on a perfectly clear, perfectly nice day, plane starts making a bunch of low-altitude turns, practically strafing the ground on the way in.

More terrifying in hindsight, as the very same plane was operating TK 1878 two years later when it crash-landed in a very similar fashion.

Luckily, my worst has been really bad turbulence as well. JKF-ATL about 5 or 6 years ago. My bf and I were flying. He hasn't flown as much as me, but still has a couple hundred thousand miles under his belt. Anyway, we are in the air, maybe 20 minutes into the flight and it gets ROUGH. He looks at me and goes "You've flown a lot more than me, this is pretty bad turbulence, isn't it?" I nod and we just hold on. Totally lifted off our seats multiple times, people squealing. Luckily, it only lasted about 5 minutes, but an announcement would have been nice for the people around us who hadn't flown much and were pretty freaked out.

My only other "uh oh" moment was actually also related to JFK. Coming in on the AF A380, that plane is so big and so quiet. We were coming in on final approach, runway in clear view and then we aborted. We went back up and into a turn. Come to find out, a plane was crossing the runway that shouldn't have been so we went back up. But in my head I was thinking "oh great, I'm going to be on the first 380 to crash. Fantastic".