Low level Turbulence in CA&AZ

MooneyDriver78

MooneyDriver78

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Tom
I've been looking at weather in AZ and CA area, there seems (lately anyway) low level turbulence airmets, is this business as usual? I assume this occurs only in the afternoon? I'm think of flying through that area and would appreciate any local knowledge.
 
Yup...I fly up and down CA and through those airmets regularly. Although you do need to take them into account in your overall decision making along with forecast winds, I usually find smoother air INSIDE the airmet and am getting tossed around when there is NO airmet!

Only thing I may change is my routing over the terain if there is a turbulence airmet. Tends to get bumpier over the lower mountain peaks.

I wouldn't let it slow me down unless I had queasy passengers that wanted to go.
 
I wouldn't do a high mountain crossing with a moderate turbulence AIRMET (or even just 20 knots of wind at altitude), but in generally, they describe wide areas. There may be big spots with nothing.
 
I believe there's a near year-round AIRMET SIGMET and TANGO over the mountains in SoCal. I'll let others more experienced give better advice on how to take them into account, but I do know flying over those hills past around noon and with decent winds can get crazy bumpy.

On my long student XC I flew the final leg from KIPL to KMYF via V66 at 8,500 and as soon as I hit the mountains I was getting tossed around pretty good. It took me about a full minute to set the transponder to the correct code with all those bumps! :)
 
MAKG1 said:
I wouldn't do a high mountain crossing with a moderate turbulence AIRMET (or even just 20 knots of wind at altitude), but in generally, they describe wide areas. There may be big spots with nothing.
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No O2, no turbo, so staying below 12500
 
Summer heat = thermals, very strong thermals = low level turbulence

Soaring pilots love low level turbulence due to thermal activity. Vertical lift can exceed 10knts (1000fpm). Flying into thermals between 50-70 knts is a lot different than hitting them at 100knts plus.

Normally below 12K MSL although summer thermals will reach into the flight levels, they just are not that strong higher up.
 
Welcome to summertime. Enjoy the ride!
 
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