killer clouds

[SITTINGDUCK]

have seen posts on killer clouds, but wasnt till i did a misison with doves and hawks that i encountered one.

now i know what goes up (rising air), must come down, but aint never run into a cumu while hang gliding (15 years worth), that tossed me around like that...(300lbs glider/pilot). Ok, theres sink on the edge of a cloud,,,not a tornado..

gotta admit its a nice touch ( at least for the first 3 or 4 seconds),

[sandbagger]

Although the in-cloud effect can be switched off in workshops, it has been ackowledged that its still a tad too fierce. As such the Dev team have this currently on their hit list.

[Axgrinder]

Duck!
I about peed myself last night when I lost 2000 ft of alt. in about two seconds. :help: I was lucky to pull out of that one. (but wasn't it cool!!)

[Smokey]

Was it the Red Baron or Boleke who wrote an account of making the mistake
of flying into a thunderhead? It was very interesting and a very good read
whoever it was.

[gimpyguy]

That's the main reason many run 'Clouds' on 1, 'they' don't need anymore power.

[Bullethead]

I avoid clouds like the plague. Just getting close to the thin wispy fringes can kill you. AFAIK I've never entered even such wisps, let alone the real cloud body. When they've grabbed me, it's always been just short of the fringes, and IF I survive, I'm always in the clear air, too. OTOH, during my meteorological excursion, I'm almost always totally blacked- or redded-out, so maybe I got sucked inside without knowing it .

I put a screenshot in the "Reports from the Front" thread of a cloud encounter where I wasn't blacked out so was able to take the pic. I turned on the HUD to see what was happening to my plane. Note that I have zero forward airspeed, a 6000fpm ROC, and am inverted slightly nose-down, all at the same time. Observe the vertical exhaust trail I'm leaving like a rocket plume below me .

[quoth]

On another note about clouds, is it possible to climb above them? ie to blues skies and sunshine above.

cheers

Q

[SITTINGDUCK]

i have always flown with no clouds also, only cause didnt want to tax my system, but, we gotta take what stump gives us...

but,,when i did see these, i did what any good pilot shoud do, and looked at them....there was no extreme verticle development, there were a bunch of nice puffy cotton balls around, indicating a nice high pressure in the area,,,no reason for concern there, and there was no "tearing" at the edges,,,,ie,,no strong turbulence...

im definately not against turbulance, it should just be associated with the proper weather...get it so that pilots have to look at whats going on around them, and make a dermination as to what they may or may not encounter.

and as for flying above them,,,,once you have encountered this turbulance,,,belive me,,you will avoid clouds like the plauge

[Polovski]

Yes quoth sometimes depending on weather you can go through a layer and come out to better, or get above the storm clouds

[Todt Von Oben]

I've punched many clouds in planes, in freefall, and under a square canopy, with little result.

BUT...

On July 16, 1981, when I was dating the lady who eventually became my wife, I picked her up at San Carlos airport in a PA 28 144 Piper Seminole (T-tailed twin) and took her on a flight over Monterey Bay.

I wanted to give her a reference for our speed while airborne, so I picked out a small, puffy cloud at an altitude of about 3000 MSL just off the coast over the water; put the plane into a slight dive, and flew through it.

WHAM! It felt like I hit a wall. The impact force was palpable and jarred the aircraft severely.

Scared the hojees out of myself. I can only surmise that there was some turbulent action or uplift going on in that cloud. It looked docile enough, and I never expected anything like that. But I never punched a cloud again.

So, might there be "killer clouds" that could destroy a vintage aircraft entering at high speeds? I think so.

Prost! :ernae:

TvO

[Rickitycrate]

Long story short, keep your wicker patterned backsides out of them clouds.

[Todt Von Oben]

Long story short, keep your wicker patterned backsides out of them clouds.

:amen:

(Unless there's a Snipe on my tail shooting my elevator off, and a cloud just happens to be handy.....)

[gimpyguy]

The Kicker Being, a 747 experiences turbulance, a P51 gets 'buffetted'

You in your canvas and wood aircraft,

Keep your butt out of clouds

PS. . when you dive into that cloud to avoid certain death, hold your crucifix in your free hand . . . and it has been proven, unless it's changed in Phase 3, the AI don't see clouds, only a target.

[Todt Von Oben]

The Kicker Being, a 747 experiences turbulance, a P51 gets 'buffetted'

You in your canvas and wood aircraft,

Keep your butt out of clouds

PS. . when you dive into that cloud to avoid certain death, hold your crucifix in your free hand . . . and it has been proven, unless it's changed in Phase 3, the AI don't see clouds, only a target.

Wait...you mean the AI can see me in a cloud??? I might as well change my screen name to "Totemann" right now... :faint:

[Polovski]

. . . and it has been proven, unless it's changed in Phase 3, the AI don't see clouds, only a target.

Are you sure Gimpy? It's always been said they do not. (Guess it also depends on your settings...)


RexH is this the case?

[Bullethead]

PS. . when you dive into that cloud to avoid certain death, hold your crucifix in your free hand . . . and it has been proven, unless it's changed in Phase 3, the AI don't see clouds, only a target.

Certainly the AI appears to ignore clouds when flying between waypoints. Back when I let the AI lead, I'd see my boss heading for one and take that as my cue to leave the formation. That was after my 1st couple times, when I thought maybe he knew something I didn't, and that I'd be safe if I stuck close. But I soon learned better .