Not quite GA, but what the heck. Unbelievable display of Mother Nature in her domain.
Flying through Iraq thunderstorm - YouTube)
Need to thank these guys for serving and protecting our very right to post here 
Allen
I think ALL airlines in areas that frequent severe t-storms should post that mduell. Makes me having to explain that them wanting to take the risk of wadding up the plane just to get where they are going is not smart, a lot easier.
I donāt know whether plugging a friendās website is allowed here, but my reason for posting is strictly for purposes of sharing the love of flight, combined with the love of mother natureās fury. Iām not a pilot, just an enthusiast, and been a severe weather spotter for over 10 years, and this is a local friend I met thru sharing severe weather photos on a local news website. He advocates safety as his number one priority when flying, but as part of what he does, he runs into severe weather a lot here in the midwest, and happens to fly close enough to teach others how NOT to fly in or near severe weather. Iām sure he would appreciate hearing from other pilots regarding their experiences with severe weather. Iāve never met him but from my correspondence with him, hunting and sharing radars, etc. ā I can trust that you will receive a warm, sincere response. He may even share your photos on his website. ā of which I love the name, it says it all lol
[quote=āliebermaā]
Not quite GA, but what the heck. Unbelievable display of Mother Nature in her domain.
Flying through Iraq thunderstorm - YouTube)
Need to thank these guys for serving and protecting our very right to post here
Allen
They fly directly through a severe thunderstorm because of what? Seems totally unecessary to me.[/quote]
Gee, did you even watch the video and read the text???
Hmmm, per video description:
āWe had the storm to our left and Iran to our right so we really had nowhere to goā
Now, given those choices, what would you do as I seriously doubt Iran would roll the red carpet out as they do at some FBOās.
Allen
Iād hope that a 180 was an option, but maybe it wasnāt.
Itās not like they are in friendly territory, and I think Iran would love an opportunityto engage an airplane violating their airspace.
They are flying in hostile territory, the rules of flying are tossed and the survival of the fittest rules.
Given the choice of a thunderstorm or a heat seeking missile, seems that the choices are lose, lose, but personally, Iād take a chance with the thunderstorm.
Video doesnāt go into the military aspect, but whoās to say the were even armed and didnāt have anything to protect themselves.
Allen
Apparently itās a fully laden KC-135 gas-passer, so a 180 probably wasnāt an option due to mission responsibilities.
An incursion into Iranian airspace would be immediately met with a SAM greeting, regardless of the duration. Can you say āCaught between a rock and a hard placeā? I knew you could.
135s are unarmed.
Says alot about our brave young service people over there and the reliability of the 50+ year old Boeings they place their trust in everyday.
The 135ās are mainly from the 60ās so that makes them *only *40+ years old
I was just thinking about this the other day, although actually in the context of airliners.
I say, for all practical purposes, if an airline - or the Air Force - follows the maintenance procedures correctly, there is no such thing as a 50+ year old aircraft. In the course of that time, almost every part of the aircraft would have been replaced and/or upgraded. About the only things not to be replaced in whole would be the fuselage and wing/tail surfaces. Even then, there would be pieces replaced.
These are some of the parts I would be most concerned about it in the given situation. But you are correct!
Definately agreed here. Aloha airlines comes to mindā¦
Metal fatigue. In this case, what you cant see under a fresh coat of paint will come to bite you.
Allen
I remember that incident. I also remember all the PAX praising the capt for doing such a great job. What struck me as odd, is what a complete dim*#$% the capt was. He said on national TV, āI thought flying through the storm in the mid 20ās (25000ā or so), we would be fineā¦ā Umā¦Thatās where the storm is the strongestā¦not to mention we are all taught to avoid the downwind side of a storm by 20 miles, the gap he choose was 10. Iām sure he was aiming for the middle of it which put him 5 miles from the storm cell, Iām sure on a 45000ā tower that was UNDER the anvil.
And in the report the FO did NOTHING. They both should have been fired.
From the full report:
This guy was a winner, I mean that DC9 is one hard a/c to figure out.
āWe had the storm to our left and Iran to our right so we really had nowhere to goā
What tha hell are you Americans doing over there in IRAQ ? (besides guarding the 2nd biggest oil reserve in the world)
oh here we goā¦
Bring it on!
āThere is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.ā
- Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ.
Another Thunderstorm flight video. Iād be wetting my britches if I saw this ahead of me.
I do NOT want to minimize what those guys did, or flew through, butā¦
Seems like they stayed out of most of the precip, and while that turbulence didnāt seem fun, it was nothing beyond moderate. If the storm that was giving them the problems was the same one displayed on the radar, they were fairly far away.
All that being said, when I first watched the video I got the heeby jeebys big time, flying around thunderstorms at night is NOT fun.