Just got this from a friend who flies them
Where was that ?
Extremely beautiful anyway…
Over Germany, today.
But how to describe what we see?
Upper right, a bit of altocirrii, not to worry about
Middle, left to right, the typical anvil form of a , err, what was it…???
Behind that, at left, turbulence and some dark places, no good
Lower right, too much dark edges, something nasty developing quickly
Lower left, some small dark cylinders pointing upwards, perhaps the most nasty of all
It must be obvious from these guessed comments that I am less than an authority on weather observation… but to my defence I have never flown at FL400, actually not even at FL040 though I ought to make that this summer.
Peter wants to express his concerns about global warming. The atmosphere is expanding and where there was no weather at FL400 some decades ago, you have to fly avoid headings nowadays.
where there was no weather at FL400 some decades ago, you have to fly avoid headings nowadays.
Some decades? I “broke the FL250-bareer” 6 years ago when I moved from piston twins to Citations. I don’t remember any CBs reaching above FL400 in this part of the world in 2008. Now you encounter them from February to November. The fly-above-the-weather option does not exist any longer.
Well yes but even above 250 you are over most of the weather.
ONLY FL400?
I think FL250 should get you above extensive and solid IMC, most of the time. I have seen exceptions (on the IR images) which did not coincide with any fronts but that seems quite unusual.
edit: I see Julian has totally out-classed everybody! Only a 5 degree pitch… astonishing.
