Odd Question

BuschPilot

Filing Flight Plan
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Feb 25, 2019
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BuschPilot
I have been thinking, well kind of a random thought... I was wondering if you was flying,(idk at about 2000ft agl) and there was a massive earthquake, would you be able to feel it while flying?

Drew
 
Well wouldn't the air underneath you be affected by the ripples of the land...
 
I missed a big earthquake in the Bay Area in 1980 because I was flying at the time... A friend of mine said he was driving on US Hwy. 17 near Santa Cruz when it happened and he thought someone had rear-ended him!
 
After the pre-dawn 1994 Northridge Quake, I heard a TV helicopter traffic reporter say that he could see the city lights moving in what looked like wave patterns. Nothing was said about feeling anything in the air, though.

A couple of weeks after the Northridge quake I was taxiing a rented Saratoga at Van Nuys when a sharp little M4.5 aftershock hit. For a moment I thought I had a flat tire (or three), but then realized what it was. I called ground control to file a PIREP for moderate turbulence on the east taxiway. :eek:
 
Unlike water air compresses.

Any movement of land, enough to cause a small compression of the surrounding air would be completely negated by the time it got more than a few inches above the surface.

Change to water, and discuss Tsunamis, and it's a different scenario.
 
The lapse rate vertically is 3.0 magnitudes rhicter per thousand feet at standard temperature. At that altitude, it would have to be a magnitude 11.0 or greater for you to look at your copilot and ask, “ Did you feel that? Is that an earthquake. Seriously. Look at the clouds, they are swaying.”

So I’d have to say no, since an M11.0 has never happened...... ever.
 
No different than not feeling the air being messed up by car and truck traffic from 2000 ft.
 
Unlike water air compresses.

Any movement of land, enough to cause a small compression of the surrounding air would be completely negated by the time it got more than a few inches above the surface.
Not compression, relatively small displacement and speed, low density, and dispersion. Hint: What's the compressibility correction (calibrated airspeed to equivalent airspeed) at typical GA speeds?

Nauga,
and a royal wave
 
I've been airborne over 2 major earthquakes: The La Prieta and the Nisqually. Didn't feel either one.
 
I love it when y’all mess with the new people!

Pseudoscience disputing aerial propagation of earthquakes. Awesome. Almost as good as the contrails discussions.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Could make for interesting landing with bad timing....
 
Only if your plane is on a treadmill.
 
Well wouldn't the air underneath you be affected by the ripples of the land...
Cows walking around in the fields everyday probably move more air than an earthquake.
 
Nope, and even if I was in the process of landing I’m not sure I would be able to differentiate my normal landing from a 7.3 earthquake.


I’ve seen him land, folks..... I can’t argue with him on this one....
 
If flying 5280 ft AGL, she would feel the Earth move ..... or so I’ve been told :cool:
 
If flying 5280 ft AGL, she would feel the Earth move ..... or so I’ve been told :cool:

Problem then becomes whether or not the pitch servo has enough ft.lbs to handle the porpoising.
 
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