Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire PIREP: Crazy ride over Crazy Woman VOR, FL410

Aviation Enthusiasts - Awesome ride flying last night (about 11:30pm lcl) over WY! Worst turbulence I've experienced in 35 years of flying. Flying an empty Learjet60, from Twin Falls ID to Wisconsin. There was a sigmet for turbulence but WOW! FL410 eastbound over Crazy Woman VOR (WY) all the way to Rapid City. I was seeing +2400fpm and -2400 on the VSI and the SAT temp was constantly flopping around 18degrees, lowest I saw was -74. I hit .80 mach and the autopilot was working overtime and finally I disconnected it and hand flew it. Throttles at idle for most of it. Lasted about 20 minutes all the way to Rapid City. I was losing and gaining 1000' like a roller coaster! ATC was helpful and understanding and there was no traffic in the area but when it was over and the PIREPS were filed, other traffic was re-routed and stayed clear of there. Mountain Waves, it was awesome! I wish i could of seen it outside but it was pitch black out.

Ouch - I cancelled a trip a couple weeks ago for a Turbulence SIGMET - I just don't like getting beat up for fun and I was a LOT lower than that.

I know the older Lear's were pretty sensitive to overspeed. The same for the Lear 60? We used to fly a lot with them to simulate air to surface missile profiles and they were also speed limited pretty slow down low. We could do 525 kts on the deck if we had ALQ-99 pods (LBA without) and we would zip by them pretty fast at 200'.

Roller coaster ride is an understatement, pucker factor for me would’ve be10+:-) And you said you were having fun LOL. In the same breath flying can be exhilarating and terrifying

Wyoming is the Cowboy state, so that was indeed a YEEEE-Haw! ride. But not until afterwards; you were a might busy during. Rodeo riders only do eight seconds on a bull - you did 20 minutes.

ETA: I think you were absolutely right to hand-fly it. I don't know the Lear, but in every plane I've flown, it was best to treat turbulence the same way as a blown tire at freeway speed. NEVER make a snap correction. Just hold the controls firm and steady until everything self-corrects and then apply minimal pressure to help.

As my instructor used to say when half the seat cushion was sucked up; "you can't buy training like this" Glad you made it ok!

Now and then flyin' can be some sport. Brief story about me and a Cherokee 6 what got caught up in a T-storm one day. He was assigned 5,000, I was at 8,000. Joy ride started and the ups and downs were kinda special. I was in an Aerostar and seeing verticals of +/- 4-5,000 fpm, all this in a hail shaft. ATC went hysterical 'cause we were head on and about 1.5 miles apart playing our yo-yo game, passing each other vertically faster than Jimmy cracked corn. We finally clawed our way clear, gave ATC a hearty KMA and went about our business. Other pilot was screaming a lot, I was ducking mostly. Hail on the windscreen at 180 Kts is kinda noisy. $18,000 damage to the aircraft and it was kinda weird watching the artificial horizon fill with water.

Yippee Ki Yay?

Years ago, in ‘75 or ‘76, I was cruising along one afternoon in a T-28B southwest of Maui, Hawaii at 7000’. It was a nice day, no clouds around, etc. and I hit some clear air turbulence that rolled the aircraft so hard to the right that it whacked my noggin (fortunately encased in a helmet😊) off the left side of the canopy. WHAM!! Man, I saw stars for a second. WTF, over?!

I never did figure out what it was.... there were no other little bumps before or after that. Maybe it was mountain wave turbulence off of Haleakala crater? Or maybe wake turbulence from one of the Hawaiian Air inter-island 737’s?!

Damn pilots aren't right in the head thinking stuff like that's awesome! No thanks! I'm not cut out for that!