Encounter Hail in Flight?

ajstoner21

ajstoner21

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Andrew
Hello,

Has anyone ever encountered any form of hail in flight? How severe was it? Was it a complete surprise or were you aware it was possibly there?

I'm just curious, because I recently had about $2,000 damage done to my brand new car (2011 Mazda 3... nothin special). It happened while I was driving home from the airport after canceling a flight. So I got thinking.
 
Not in flight, but I encountered some driving. I was under clear, blue skies with a thunderstorm estimated 10 to 20 miles away from me. I didn't see it coming- literally out of the blue. The hail was moderate to heavy, pea size, but no damage. I do respect that 20 mile suggested minimum around thunderstorms in the air from that incident.
 
We were maneuvering in the vct of -sh ~18k, nothing on the scope and when we landed discovered the radome had been totaled without our suspecting anything. No other damage. You could see where semisolids must have been beating the __ out of it for a few moments, pock marks on the finish back from the nose and eating into the glass right at the tip. Shockingly expensive. Glad I wasn't the pilot of record that day.
 
Hit some mushy stuff once. You could tell it was hail from the icy blotches it left on the windscreen. Never want to play with the big, hard stuff. My cousin was B/N in an A-6 when they hit hail in clear air 20+ miles from the cell in eastern CO. Dented the leading edge pretty bad.
 
Flying? Driving?? You haven't lived 'til you've riden through a hailstorm on a motorcycle
wearing shorts and a T-shirt! It was like machine gun fire!!
 
OffCenter said:
Flying? Driving?? You haven't lived 'til you've riden through a hailstorm on a motorcycle
wearing shorts and a T-shirt! It was like machine gun fire!!
Click to expand...

BTDT ... about 30 miles from the nearest shelter in central South Dakota. Thought I was gonna die. Did get into early hypothermia but fortunately made it to a cousin's house in Wall, SD and got into a hot shower.
 
gkainz said:
BTDT ... about 30 miles from the nearest shelter in central South Dakota. Thought I was gonna die. Did get into early hypothermia but fortunately made it to a cousin's house in Wall, SD and got into a hot shower.
Click to expand...


Wow!! My encounter was only about seven miles on a 90 degree day!
That was bad enough!!!
 
Yes. I was flying from Seattle to Yakima with an instrument student and we could see big buildups on the west side of the Cascades...but we would clear the nearest one by more than 20 miles. While flying in clear air, we were hit by hail that sounded like someone throwing steamer trunks at the airplane. Leading edge of the wing was dimpled. I had to cough up the deductible for the repair.

Bob Gardner
 
It can really mess up your airplane, and soil your clean undies. This is a picture of a plane that flew through hail:

page120-1.jpg


I'm thinking "lucky" that they got on the ground in one piece.

From: http://www.aviationweather.ws/063_Hazards.php
 
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