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Wind Shear and Turbulence

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midsouthps

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Messages
211
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35
Location
Chattanooga TN
I flew home from Gatilinburg (to Chattanooga) earlier today. The TAF was showing 150 degrees 50kt windshear at 2,000. METAR was something like 180 12kts gusting to 22kts. There was a warm front coming through. It was a very bumpy ride. I got a few pireps and they reported a bumpy ride but no windshear. I checked with tower and they had no reports of windshear and it is a short trip. So, off we went. A few questions:
  1. What would you call moderate turbulence? It was once described to me as your head will probably hit the roof. What we were in was not that bad but it was pretty rough. We were in my wifes 172.
  2. When should you be at maneuvering speed? Chop? Light turbulence? Moderate turbulence? Severe turbulence?
  3. My understanding of the above mentioned predicted windshear is that there could be a 50 kt change at 2,000 feet agl with the shear coming from 150. That would be relative to the 180 at the surface? That would be at (or around) 2,000 feet agl and not shearing from the surface up to 2,000? i.e. I could see a drop in airspeed all of a sudden but that wouldn't take met to stall from cruise and I wouldn't experience it at pattern altitude (1,000 feet above the ground).
 

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