reporting wind shear

[jspilot]

Had a nice XC today along one of my favorite routes ( KISP to KGON for those who know the Long Island area) When I returned to Islip I was given a long straight in approach. While about 1-2 miles out I encoutered some pretty good turbulence and wind shear( +/- 10 knots) I landed fine- actually made a great cross wind landing. It was pretty calm on the frequnecy so I let the tower know about my wind shear. He thanked me for the update. I later listened to the audio of the next arrival, a southwest 737 and the tower actually gave my report to the pilots of the 737 to confirm, which they did. I thought that was pretty cool.

Do any of you guys/gals report these kinds of things to the tower when you encounter them? I felt a little silly doing it at the time but felt it could not hurt and I guess they actually do use the reports even from us small planes.

 

[Everskyward]

Had a nice XC today along one of my favorite routes ( KISP to KGON for those who know the Long Island area) When I returned to Islip I was given a long straight in approach. While about 1-2 miles out I encoutered some pretty good turbulence and wind shear( +/- 10 knots) I landed fine- actually made a great cross wind landing. It was pretty calm on the frequnecy so I let the tower know about my wind shear. He thanked me for the update. I later listened to the audio of the next arrival, a southwest 737 and the tower actually gave my report to the pilots of the 737 to confirm, which they did. I thought that was pretty cool.

Do any of you guys/gals report these kinds of things to the tower when you encounter them? I felt a little silly doing it at the time but felt it could not hurt and I guess they actually do use the reports even from us small planes.

It is not uncommon at all to report wind shear. In fact many times the tower solicits reports.

 

[spinfire]

My CFI used to do this on the landing roll out while I was at the controls (and a post-solo student). Obviously the reported numbers like "+/- 5 knots" is subject to some fuzzyness but for those that are reporting things like this to the tower how do you know that the wind shear you experienced is around 5 knots?

 

[Everskyward]

My CFI used to do this on the landing roll out while I was at the controls (and a post-solo student). Obviously the reported numbers like "+/- 5 knots" is subject to some fuzzyness but for those that are reporting things like this to the tower how do you know that the wind shear you experienced is around 5 knots?

Presuming you didn't make any power or pitch changes during the time period in question, did your airspeed indicator show a change of +/- 5 knots? I don't think +/- 5 knots is that big a deal but when you get into the +/- 10 knots area it might be a good thing to report it.

 

[dell30rb]

My CFI used to do this on the landing roll out while I was at the controls (and a post-solo student). Obviously the reported numbers like "+/- 5 knots" is subject to some fuzzyness but for those that are reporting things like this to the tower how do you know that the wind shear you experienced is around 5 knots?

Say you are coming down final at 70kts. Then, it gets all bumpy and you notice the airspeed needle dancing around in some range from 60 to 80kts. You would report that as wind shear, plus or minus 10 knots

 

[spinfire]

Usually when it is "wind shear weather" especially on short final I am concentrating on pitch and feel and sight picture and only looking at the airspeed indicator for very short glances. Next time I feel the wind shear symptoms I will give a slightly longer glance at the airspeed indicator. I think it was easier for my CFI to monitor the ASI for more time from the right seat because he wasn't busy flying the plane.

 

[jspilot]

Say you are coming down final at 70kts. Then, it gets all bumpy and you notice the airspeed needle dancing around in some range from 60 to 80kts. You would report that as wind shear, plus or minus 10 knots

Exactly- This is what happened to me today. I tried to keep the power setting as stable as possible and was gaining and loosing airspeed. Obviously I had to make a ton of power adjustments but I was definately gaining and loosing airspeed without me doing anything.

I've listened to some LiveATC of the my local airport tower and now planes are reporting +/- 15 knots as low as 100 feet! That would scare the heck out of me. Atleast the wind shear I encountered was at around 1,100 feet.

 

[jspilot]

Usually when it is "wind shear weather" especially on short final I am concentrating on pitch and feel and sight picture and only looking at the airspeed indicator for very short glances. Next time I feel the wind shear symptoms I will give a slightly longer glance at the airspeed indicator. I think it was easier for my CFI to monitor the ASI for more time from the right seat because he wasn't busy flying the plane.

We were posting at about the same time but I would bet if you ecountered some wind shear like I flew in today you would notice the changes on the airspeed indicator even if you are only glancing. I was certainly not staring at the airspeed and was solo without a CFI on board and I noticed the speed changes. I noticed because I did not want to let my speed get below 70 knots until short final to give myself enough margin.

 

[dell30rb]

Usually when it is "wind shear weather" especially on short final I am concentrating on pitch and feel and sight picture and only looking at the airspeed indicator for very short glances. Next time I feel the wind shear symptoms I will give a slightly longer glance at the airspeed indicator. I think it was easier for my CFI to monitor the ASI for more time from the right seat because he wasn't busy flying the plane.

An approximation is fine

 

[JoeSelch]

Say you are coming down final at 70kts. Then, it gets all bumpy and you notice the airspeed needle dancing around in some range from 60 to 80kts. You would report that as wind shear, plus or minus 10 knots

And thought it was just me ...

 

[Alexb2000]

Had a nice XC today along one of my favorite routes ( KISP to KGON for those who know the Long Island area) When I returned to Islip I was given a long straight in approach. While about 1-2 miles out I encoutered some pretty good turbulence and wind shear( +/- 10 knots) I landed fine- actually made a great cross wind landing. It was pretty calm on the frequnecy so I let the tower know about my wind shear. He thanked me for the update. I later listened to the audio of the next arrival, a southwest 737 and the tower actually gave my report to the pilots of the 737 to confirm, which they did. I thought that was pretty cool.

Do any of you guys/gals report these kinds of things to the tower when you encounter them? I felt a little silly doing it at the time but felt it could not hurt and I guess they actually do use the reports even from us small planes.

What was the ATIS reporting for surface winds?

 

[jspilot]

What was the ATIS reporting for surface winds?

Landing back at Islip the ATIS was something like 210 at 11kts gusting to 18. When landing though the tower kept saying wind estimated at( I actually don't know why they were reporting estimated winds) at 190 at 10kts.

The thing is there were strong winds aloft. On my trip to Groton I was going 144kts across the ground and only 70 knots accross the ground on the way back because of the strong winds aloft. That's why I think while descending from even 2,000 ft down to pattern altitude on my long straight in approach was when I experienced the wind shear.