Delta Connection Academy

Turbulence!

5-29 Turbulence! Last Wednesday started like any other… I had groundwork to prepare for my Private end of course at 1000 followed by a flight at 1500. I planned to use the time between to study. It was thundering during groundwork, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to fly. I checked out the current metars, radar, and TAFs and it looked like it might clear up later. Michael found me and suggested we go earlier, so I called the weather briefer, who said the bad weather would be at our destination by the time we got there. I would not have gone if it was a solo, but Michael also investigated the weather and still wanted to go so I packed up my things, filed an instrument flight plan, and off we went. Martin Cantu, another student, planned to backseat the flight so I called him and he came along for the ride as well. And what a ride it was… The take-off was normal, and it was clear enough for me to need my hood (a view-limiting fashion statement) on our way to Brazoria. Apparently as I joined the course, Michael & Martin saw lightning near the runway and called off the approach. We talked to Houston Center and they wanted to vector us back to Ellington on a different course. It looked like the way we came was better to us, but their computers showed better weather to the north. So I flew the vectors they instructed and the weather continued to deteriorate. I even asked Michael to take control for a moment so he could see it was the weather and not me who was jumping around so much. It was very difficult for me to keep the correct altitude, even as I was pitched down, I continued to gain altitude. Soon after that, Michael took the controls. I’m thankful he took them when he did, because about a minute later we hit severe turbulence. Everything in the plane was displaced, including the people. It got so bad that we had to divert to Hobby Airport. Michael showed he deserved to be Rookie of the year as he did a great job flying. He said it was the most scared he had been flying, but neither Martin nor I knew he was shaken up until he told us on the ground. I helped him out by tuning in radio frequencies and completing checklists. We collected ourselves and got flight following back to Ellington, a mere 6 miles to the east. Like I said, it was quite a ride.