What Causes Helicopter Turbulence and How Can You Avoid It?
We all know what turbulence is; that feeling when you’re sitting on the plane, and it starts to shake. Maybe it’s a little bumpy, maybe it’s pretty rough. You hear things rattling around in the overhead bins. Maybe your coffee spills on your shirt. The flight attendants stop serving drinks and tell you to sit down and buckle in. The seatbelt sign comes on, and the pilot comes on over the intercom and tells you to expect a bumpy ride for the next few minutes.
But what about helicopter rides? Do helicopters get turbulence? What causes it? And more importantly, can we avoid it?
Let me start with some basics – what is turbulence exactly? Basically, it’s just a term for air movement that is not smooth or steady. When flying in an airplane, the wings push up against the air. This creates pockets of rising air (called “thermals”) and falling air (called “sink”). Aircraft fly by balancing these two forces, rising up when they hit thermals, falling down when they hit sink, but generally moving forward at a constant altitude most of the time.
Turbulence happens when one of these forces becomes
What Causes Helicopter Turbulence and How Can You Avoid It?
Turbulence is a regular part of flying in a helicopter. While it is not dangerous when experienced pilots are flying, it can be quite intimidating if you are not used to the feeling of turbulence.
Have you ever wondered what causes turbulence and how you can avoid it while flying? In this week’s blog post, we will be discussing the different types of helicopter turbulence and how you can avoid them.
Types of Helicopter Turbulence
Turbulence can come from different sources. Some of the main sources are:
Thermal Updrafts – These occur when warm air rises rapidly. They can be very strong, but only last for a short time.
Mountain Updrafts – These are caused by updrafts that hit mountains that then create waves that go downwind for several miles. They may be able to keep going for some time due to the mountains blocking the wind and giving them more energy to work with.
Mechanical Turbulence – This one is created by trees and other objects on the ground that cause choppy air as they pass close to them in flight!
A helicopter ride is a great way to experience a new city or just to see your own from a different perspective. If you want to make the most of it, though, you’ll want to know what causes turbulence so you can avoid it. Helicopter rides aren’t cheap, after all.
Turbulence refers to air currents that are irregular and unpredictable. They occur due to weather patterns, changes in wind speed and building structures. Since they are unpredictable and change rapidly, it’s hard for helicopter pilots to avoid them completely. However, there are some things you can do before your flight.
If you’re taking a helicopter tour of New York City, for example, we recommend you fly early in the morning or at dusk when there is less traffic in the air. This will mean fewer planes taking off and landing near your helicopter ride. You can also watch the weather forecast for high winds in the city and try to avoid flying on those days.
It is important to note that turbulence isn’t always caused by weather patterns or air congestion; however these are the two leading causes of turbulence in your helicopter ride. While there is no perfect solution for avoiding turbulence altogether, if you plan properly before your flight you can find ways around it and enjoy a
Helicopter turbulence can lead to some pretty rough rides. Helicopters are lighter and less stable than airplanes, which makes them more vulnerable to high or gusty winds, turbulence, and other factors that can lead to helicopter accidents.
Vertical lift aircrafts such as helicopters fly at lower altitudes than turboprop aircrafts, making them particularly susceptible to rising air currents – like updrafts from thunderstorms and downdrafts from hills and other types of terrain.
In addition, the rotor blades of a helicopter produce strong air currents above and below them. Consequently, if a helicopter is flying near the ground in close proximity to buildings or trees, rotor turbulence can form in these areas creating dangerous conditions for the pilot and passengers.
If you were injured in a helicopter accident in New York or on Long Island, contact the attorneys at Mirman, Markovits & Landau, P.C. today by calling 888-295-6566 (toll free) or 212-227-4000 to schedule a free consultation with our experienced aviation accident lawyers. We will be happy to answer all of your questions regarding your rights to compensation after an aviation accident.
What Causes Helicopter Turbulence?
In addition to being exposed to air currents
Research on the causes of helicopter turbulence has been ongoing for decades. The initial focus was on the physical and mechanical aspects of the helicopter, including its design, construction and its engines.
In recent years, researchers have begun to look at psychological factors that might play a role in how pilots respond to various situations. In particular, they found that pilot stress levels may be related to how they respond to turbulence.
Pilots who are more likely to encounter helicopter turbulence are those who have experienced it before; pilots who have experienced multiple flights in which turbulence occurred were more likely to experience it again in future flights.
The study also found that if a pilot had previously experienced an engine failure or other mechanical problems while flying, he or she was also more likely to experience it again.
What is Helicopter Turbulence?