WIND IN GENERAL AVIATION

Ilham Ahmad Rizkinsya Azanki

JANUARY 20, 2018

BALAI PENDIDIKAN DAN PELATIHAN PENERBANG BANYUWANGI
 Preface
Thanks to Allah the lord of the world. We prayed to You, because of his grace
blessings we can complete this paper entritled “ Wind in general aviation”
This paper is structured to fill requirement,so I can continue to the next phase
as a student pilot
We eould like to thank those who have helped us in every way, so that the
paper can be resolved. May Allah reward all their kindness. Amiin.
We relize this paper is far from perfect, therefore criticism and suggestion are
very welcome.
 1. General
Wind is the term used to describe the large-scale flow of atmospheric air.In
global terms, the main cause of wind is the difference in air pressure between
two regions within the atmosphere. Initially, wind flows from high to low
pressure, but as the wind speed increases, the rotation of the earth takes
effect, causing the wind to travel along the direction of the isobars.

2. Wind Causes
Local winds may result from a variety of causes, e.g. orographic
wind, katabatic wind, anabatic wind, sea breezes and land breezes, etc.

Due to the warming of air during the day and the cooling at night, wind
direction and strength changes between day and night. Typically, the wind
increases in strength and veers by day, and reduces in strength and backs at
night. This phenomenon, known as diurnal variation, is particularly marked in
sea and land breezes.

 Orographic Wind
 Orographic effects include both dynamic, in which mountains disturb or
distort an existing approach flow, and thermodynamic, in which heating or
cooling of mountain-slope surfaces generates flow. Dynamic effects
include aerodynamic obstacle effects, mountain waves, channeling,
orographic blocking, and processes leading to foehn, bora, and gap winds.
Thermodynamic effects include anabatic winds, katabatic winds, valley
breezes, and mountain breezes.

 Katabatic Wind

Definition
A cold flow of air travelling down an orographic slope (eg. hill or mountain).

Description
During and after sunset, particularly on a clear day/night, air at and near the
top of elevated land surfaces, particularly over snow-covered surfaces, cools
relatively quicker than air at lower altitudes. As air cools it becomes denser
and therefore heavier. The cold air then flows down the side of the mountain,
resulting in a katabatic flow (or wind). Fig. 1 is a simple diagram denoting the
above text. The flow may be as strong as 100 knots, and generally more
pronounced in intensity to its opposite, anabatic wind.
Figure 1: Simplistic illustration of katabatic flow, as per text

When flying in the mountains, care should be taken when flying on the shady
side of valleys, as the katabatic effect, even during the day, may be
pronounced, depending on performance and type or aircraft.

NOTE: The colder air which flows down the valley walls may “collect” at the
bottom of the valley, creating a cold pool of air near the surface and low
temperatures on the ground. La Brevine in Switzerland is noted as having
recorded the lowest temperature in Swiss Meteorological record, -41.8 oC,
mainly due to its situation in a valley surrounded by the Jura “mountains”, in
which cold air pools near the valley floor due to the Katabatic effect. Aircraft
approaching an airport in similar geographic and climatological locations may
experience an increase in performance while flying into the cold pool,
whereas, more safety-important, an aircraft climbing through the cold pool
may experience a significant inversion layer once out of the pool, possibly
affecting performance significantly. Fig. 2 is an extension of Fig. 1 and shows,
in a simple way, the details of this paragraph.
Figure 2: cold valley pool and inversion denotations as per text

Because the dense air is not able to rise and disperse, near-ground air
pollution, haze, and possibly even fog, visibility inside the cold valley pool is
generally not very good, ranging from VMC to CATIII conditions. A ceiling of
stratocumulus cloud, due to turbulent mixing near the ground, may denote the
limit of the cold air pool, and may be a few hundreds of feet thick, rarely more
than 1000 feet.

Katabatic Wind Example

Bora: Katabatic wind flowing from the Balkan Plateau down to the Adriatic,
resulting in cold and strong winds, reaching 60 knots and gusts to around the
100 knot mark.

 Anabatic Winds

Definition
Air flow travelling up a facing slope of an orographic surface (eg. hill,
mountain).

Description
Anabatic winds are mainly created by ultraviolet solar radiation heating up the
lower regions of an orographic area (i.e. valley walls). Due to its limited heat
capacity, the surface heats the air immediately above it by conduction. As the
air warms, its volume increases, and hence density and pressure decreases.
The air becomes relatively bouyant and rises up the orographic slope
(orographic lift), resulting in the anabatic flow (or wind).
Simplistic diagram of anabatic flow as described in the text. Incoming solar radiation heats up
the lower regions of the orographic surface and anabatic flow is created.

The relatively colder air is displaced, part of it travels downwards to

“replenish” the valley floor, and the process of heating by conduction may
begin anew.

Anabatic winds vary in intensity and occurrance; in general anabatic winds are
more pronounced in the summer season when the sun's heating is more
intense, and its velocity ranges from 10 to 30 knots.

Predominantly a day time phenomenon, anabatic wind may flow further than
the orographic tops, cooling as it rises vertically (convection), dry-
adiabatically. If the air is cooled sufficiently to reach the
air's dewpoint temperature, the saturated air may condense its water vapour
content, resulting in mainly convective clouds. If the air is sufficiently unstable,
cumulonimbus clouds may be produced, resulting in orographic
thunderstorms.
Depending on the relative position of the sun and the angle of the orographic
surface to the sun, the “sunny side” of valleys are more prone to anabatic
winds than the “shady side”, where relatively colder air may even flow
downwards along the orographic slope, resulting in a katabatic wind. Pilots of
small piston-engine aircraft are advised to fly on the sunny side of valleys
especially in higher altitudes in order to avoid katabatic winds

 Sea Beeze

Description
A coastal, localised, wind that blows from sea to land, caused by the
temperature difference when the sea surface is colder than the adjacent land.

A sea breeze usually blows on relatively calm, sunny, summer days, and
alternates with the oppositely directed, usually weaker, night time land breeze.
As the sea breeze regime progresses, the wind develops a component
parallel to the coast, owing to the Coriolis deflection.

 Land Breeze

Description
A coastal breeze blowing from land to sea, caused by the temperature
difference when the sea surface is warmer than the adjacent land.
A land breeze usually blows by night and alternates with sea breeze, which
blows in the opposite direction by day.

 Low Level Jet Streams

The jet stream is often encountered above a frontal system where cold and
warm air masses meet.

These jets are mainly narrow band and usually found between 500 and 5000
feet with speeds from 20 to 80 kts. Horizontal dimensions range from several
hundred miles long and wide and usually occur within a stable layer and you
may expect windshear when climbing or ascending through such a layer.
Most of the low level jets are nighttime occurrences so if you fly day VFR only
your exposure will be very low. But if you fly night VFR or do a lot of IFR flying
you may find yourself, one fine day, experiencing one of these little jets. And
bumping into unexpected low level turbulence without any previous warning in
the form of a PIREP.

Nighttime Jets

This jet is caused by a nighttime cooling of higher terrain causing a nocturnal

inversion and this helps the pressure difference at the top of the boundary
layer. A high pressure area over land during nighttime will assist in forming the
jet. After sunrise convective heating of the land will eventually break down the
jet.

Some jets move from a high pressure toward a developing low and if moving
over a body of water, they can bring in lots of moist warm air and as a result
some severe weather may develop.

Before sunrise the jet will reach maximum speeds to around 25 to 40 kts at
low altitudes of 500 to 1500 feet AGL. You may expect significant windshear
when passing through these altitudes, after sunrise the jet will dissolve due to
heating and convection of the ground by the sun.

Coastal Jets

Found mainly in coastal areas and they have their origin in land-water
temperature differences which will cause air to flow to the warmer area,
thereby creating a sea-land breeze and in the right conditions together with an
inversion a low level coastal jet. Some coastal areas are more prone to this
phenomenon than others.

Speeds

This jet may cause up to windspeeds of around 50 kts with large vertical
windshear vectors. Pilots operating at airports along the coast should be
vigilant for this phenomenon, even more so when there are mountains and
valleys running parallel with the coast situated nearby.

Coastal Fronts

When cool air mass moves inland and a line of mountains or hills runs parallel
with the coast, colder air moving south to the low pressure area can get
trapped under the cool air mass moving over those hills. Thus creating a jet
just below the frontal zone near the top of the hills. Windshear and
temperature differences can be felt by the pilot crossing this area.

OAT

Flying through this area the pilot may see OAT differences between 5 to 10°C
indicating the passage through the frontal zone. An abrupt change in
windspeed and direction is also on the list of events together with turbulence.

3. Wind Hazards
The effect of wind has on our aircraft is something we can influence to some
extend. We can choose runways with the greatest headwind component
(when the airport has more than one runway) and use the wind on our tails
when flying to our destination. Windspeed and direction usually changes with
altitude so that effect can be used too.
Landing with a tailwind has another problem: you will approach the runway
with a higher ground speed and this could lead the pilot into lowering his
airspeed because he/she is visually accustomed to a lower ground speed. At
this point a stall can happen, with no room to recover from it. But the solution
is simple: be aware of this problem and concentrate a bit more and fly your
usual indicated final approach speed and expect to use more runway.

During landing the best thing to do is to avoid tailwinds altogether, only if

sufficient runway and pilot experience is available it can be done safely.
Remember: tailwinds do not lower the indicated airspeed or stall speed, they
influence the ground speed of the aircraft.

 Turbulent Gusting Winds

On take-off with gusting winds it will be required that you keep the aircraft on
the ground somewhat longer to provide a higher margin from the stall. During
landing you must add half the gust factor to your final approach speed. Thus if
tower reports the wind 240 at 18 gusts 28 it is advisable to add 5 kts to your
airspeed.

Strong winds may cause turbulence, for example, at low altitude where the
wind is blowing over hilly terrain. Turbulence may also occur in clear air, for
example severe clear air turbulence is frequently associated with jet streams

 Gust Factor
It is wise to do the same on take-off. Add half the gust factor to your normal
lift-off speed, this should provide a safe margin from the stall. Keep in mind
that because of these higher take-off and approach speeds more distance on
the runway is required so with short runways this technique may not be ideal.

 Updraft and downdraft

Strong up and down-drafts within cumulonimbus clouds give rise to extremely

local gusts, which may be of high speed and rapidly changing
direction. Microbursts are extreme examples of this.

Violent up and down-drafts caused by thunderstorms cause the local wind

strength and direction to change rapidly giving rise to wind shear, which can
pose a serious safety hazard close to an airfield.
The hazards associated with tropical revolving
storms, tornadoes, waterspouts and dust or sand storms are self-evident.

4. Wind Reporting

Wind direction is conventionally reported in written forecasts, ATIS or weather

broadcasts using three figures, rounded to the nearest 10° true; this is
followed by the wind speed in kilometres per hour or knots. For example, a
wind from a direction of 273° true, strength 18 knots would be reported as
270/18 kt. The surface wind reported by the air traffic controller to a pilot
follows the same convention, except that magnetic direction is used instead of
true. Significant changes to forecast or actual wind speed and direction are
also reported.

5. The End
So we can describe the material that is the subject of this paper, of
course there are still many weaknesses, due to limited knowledge and
lack of references or references that have to do with the title of this
paper. The author hopes a suggestions to the author for the perfection
of this paper and the writing of papers on the next occasions. Hopefully
this paper is useful for the authors in particular also the dear readers in
general