Severe Turbulence

[PCHunt]

Randy, I think the response was sent to "wirejock", and not you.......

Originally Posted by R. Daniels
You can't make an uneducated statement like that wirejock. Could have been 2 G's or 6 G's. Your head will try to hit the canopy and your things will fly around either way.

Well, I can and I did make the statement but I assure you it wasn't an uneducated one. I've pulled, pushed, and experienced enough positive and negative g in my life to know the difference between 2 and 6 g - positive or negative. If the OP had a minus 3g or greater hit, while strapped into his airplane in typical cross country fashion, I assure you he'd have more damage than just a "hard" head hit and some things flying around the cockpit. Knocked unconscious would be more typical of that type of event.

Hey guys, I'm not saying he didn't experience a significant turbulence event. I just doubt it came close to approaching the limits of our fantastic airplanes. If you've ever experienced minus 3g or greater, and I have, you have some appreciation of the extreme nature of those conditions.
__________________
Randy

[f14av8r]

Originally Posted by PCHunt

Randy, I think the response was sent to "wirejock", and not you.......

Originally Posted by R. Daniels
You can't make an uneducated statement like that wirejock. Could have been 2 G's or 6 G's. Your head will try to hit the canopy and your things will fly around either way.

Well, I can and I did make the statement but I assure you it wasn't an uneducated one. I've pulled, pushed, and experienced enough positive and negative g in my life to know the difference between 2 and 6 g - positive or negative. If the OP had a minus 3g or greater hit, while strapped into his airplane in typical cross country fashion, I assure you he'd have more damage than just a "hard" head hit and some things flying around the cockpit. Knocked unconscious would be more typical of that type of event.

Hey guys, I'm not saying he didn't experience a significant turbulence event. I just doubt it came close to approaching the limits of our fantastic airplanes. If you've ever experienced minus 3g or greater, and I have, you have some appreciation of the extreme nature of those conditions.
__________________
Randy

Whoops. Sorry for the testy reply . . . regardless of the intended recipient I was intemperate. My apologies Mr. Daniels.

[GeneL]

If you don't have a five point harness it won't take much negative to bounce off the canopy. Put in the fifth point and keep ALL the slack out of belts, it won't be uncomfortable on a long trip.

[David-aviator]

Originally Posted by jmartin871

I experienced a single jolt of severe turbulence in my RV-7 while crossing the Sierra's near Donner Pass. My head hit the canopy hard and things (like my iPad) flew around the cockpit. After I landed, I inspected the aircraft and found no damage,i.e., no rivets popped or rippled surface sheet metal.

Question: Would anyone suggest any specific areas to check further? Should I get a professional to look at it?

PS: It flew fine afterward. No obvious distortions in any surface.

To get back to the question posed, there is no way to assess damage other than what you have done, unless you have a G meter record of the even. If G meter shows -8 G's, that would be a problem. You could sustain such a shock for 2 seconds and not realize it.
Airliners suffer hard shocks many times in their life, also an occasional hard landing. An inspection almost always gets the thing back in the air in no time.

[wirejock]

Originally Posted by wirejock

Welcome.
Is there a G meter?
Doesn't sond like more than 3 negative.

Originally Posted by R. Daniels

You can't make an uneducated statement like that wirejock. Could have been 2 G's or 6 G's. Your head will try to hit the canopy and your things will fly around either way.

Uneducated? Probably, but I did ask if there was a G meter.

[Mike Coady]

Hello,
I fly low level surveillance flights weekly for my company and am always flying in turbulence. I totally agree with Neal's post. Unless you are in a sustained g loading period, I wouldn't worry about it . I'm flying cessnas that are not even rated at half the g loading capability of your RV and they take that kind of pounding daily. Hitting your head probably didn't help you much though. I've got an RV7A and by them being so light, they experience jolts easier than many other aircraft. If you're really concerned, look at your skins around rivets. They usually show signs of stress wrinkling if you've done any damage. Saw it on a plane that made the mistake of trying to fly through a big Midwest thunderstorm one time and they lived to tell about it. I'm pretty sure without looking though that your RV is fine. They are STRONG!!
Safe flying
Mike
RV7A flying since 9/2014

[pvalovich]

I fly over the Southern Sierra in my -8A on nearly every flight. Have had my head banged off the canopy numerous times. Except in one -1 1/2 g case, g load was between 0 and -1. Gets one's attention because the canopy thumpers are very quick, sudden events, different from the almost continuous banging one almost gets used to.

Even when I figured my 5-point harness was tight, the requirement - due to the quickness of the event - was to be "Really Tight".

I try to do +3 to +3 1/2 g acro on every flight. Figure if the wings can handle that on a regular basis, an occasional rapid -1 1/2 g excursion isn't going to hurt.

[Steve Barnes]

Decending in to Carson City just after passing over Lake Tahoe I experienced a 4.5+ and a 2.5- as registered on my G-meter. It was a hard hit but had my belt tight and and things secure. If I didn't have a G-meter I would have thought it was over 6+ G's.

Steve

[flyboy1963]

Holy heck! that's some G's, jeez.

so, are there big signs or anything.... warning that you are about to fly into this kind of stuff? ( nope!)

If I am cruising along in my RV-9a, and then see this on my G-meter,
I've now exceeded both limits, (+4.4/-1.75 G) at least at that instant.
The meter doesn't know if I'm at gross, or lightly loaded.....does that affect the reading, or true stress on the airframe?

I see that instantaneous loading is different than sustained, but other than a visual inspection, how does a person, or mechanic, proceed with verifying airworthiness after an 'incident'????

[Bdalporto]

I think with out a G meter reading it will be hard to tell the severity of the loads applied. Can you give us more details about the conditions. Clear air, wind conditions, were you over a ridge line or a valley. I fly over there occasionally and worry about how to avoid severe turbulence.

Brian