2010 Trip: Turbulence
2nd May 2010
A rambling… I’m sitting here, looking out at the wing. We are ridding high over the Himalayas. Well, the Tibetan side at any rate.
We have been in quite serious turbulence. I have just finished lunch with excellent German beer and a nice flight attendant has collected my tray and provided me with a large baileys! Ah, this is the life! Just drunk enough not to care about the huge updrafts shaking the plane… If one dares to look out the window the wings can be seen moving at least a meter vertically up and down. One trusts in German efficiency and the plane’s trusted design. Mmmm baileys!
We did get a few views down over some of the smaller foothills, but everything is now shrowded in cloud… It seems to have settled down a little, let’s see if it lasts! A few minutes later it got worse. The stewardess started spilling coffee so gave up. At first there were smiles between the more experienced travellers. As the drops became worse people began to grip the armrests and even the seat in front. Several people began actively praying, hands together, eyes closed, quickly mouthing words in different tongues.
It calmed for a few minutes, but now it is coming back. The pilot has less (vertical) distance to maneuver safely as we are over Tibet, hence we have to stay in the high cloud layer, the source of the turbulence. The keyboard is shaking, sometimes I mis-type as the motion pulls and pushes my fingers.
Wow, now rather than just juddering and vertical motion, we are getting sideways motion as well. I’m trying to avoid looking at that moving wing, it is a scarily impressive feet of engineering! Interestingly, when we do get what I presume are up or down drafts that move it, the wings seem to act as a powerful stabiliser for the fusalage.
Most flight plans tend to be straight or a gentle curve around the surface of the earth. Since we left Hong Kong, we have been doing a series of shallow zig-zags. Since the turbulence came, the plane’s path looks more like that of a slalom skier. Interestingly, given the turbulence, we have been keeping a solid 863km/h. I suppose that indicates that it is just turbulence from the clouds and not related to a head or tail wind.
At the other end of my row, a stoic African man is quietly reading out a section from the quran. It’s written out in very floral script in a tattered yellow pamphlet, presumably kept for this kind of occasion.
Some folks heads are noding as if they are asleep, I suppose that is really the best way to be. Everyone is relaxing as the turbulence has died to a more mentally managable level. Will it last? I wonder…
As a footnote, we were twenty minutes late.