Tropical Cyclone Yasi

[Mick F]

Have just spent the night transferring people from Cairns to Brisbane. Just a constant stream all night of aircraft (Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar, Aeromedical) up and down the coast between the 2 cities.

Mick

[Brock Little]

Now been upgraded to Category 5.

[JamesW]

FM021100 250100G140KT 2000 RA BKN010 OVC015

Anyone fancy a 140KT direct XW? :P My iPhone app suggests about 60odd degrees of drift!! Most aircraft I fly IRL struggle to get to 140kts! Even the Aztec would have a negative GS on touchdown and that's INTO the wind!

[Steve Bottom]

Thanks for all the comments from all of you, It's 4.30pm (qld) and it's not too bad just now, i expected worse by now. wind is S/SE around 15kmh gusting around 35kmh..

Looks like Cairns may JUST escape the very worst of this thing, it's still going to be a long hard night, but at least we dont look to be getting the eye and the full force.

Spare a thought for the family's around Tully, Cardwell and Ingham, they look to have drawn the short straw.

[Jacob P]

Interesting Site to put the size of this cyclone in some comparison.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/spe...-1225998850720

[Gareth Forwood]

All the coverage of the cyclone has me curious... While it's obviously unsafe to fly through a cyclone, is it safe to fly above one? How high would the extreme winds and turbulence actually reach? And how much distance do airline pilots generally like to keep between themselves and such weather (when at cruise alt)?

[Jason H]

My best guess would be that aircraft would not want to be seen anywhere near this cyclone, but I always thought cyclones didn't reach altitudes that most thunderstorms do.

[Daniel M]

Originally Posted by Gareth Forwood

All the coverage of the cyclone has me curious... While it's obviously unsafe to fly through a cyclone, is it safe to fly above one? How high would the extreme winds and turbulence actually reach? And how much distance do airline pilots generally like to keep between themselves and such weather (when at cruise alt)?

I'm pretty sure these sort of weather phenomena extend to levels far beyond the cruise capability of any commercial aircraft (ie on the area forecast for the area of North Queensland, it has the tops at FL500)

[Dave Parer]

Originally Posted by Mick F

Have just spent the night transferring people from Cairns to Brisbane. Just a constant stream all night of aircraft (Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar, Aeromedical) up and down the coast between the 2 cities.

Mick

Hey Mick,

I was watching all the movements in and out of Cairns last night on my SBS-1. VH-FDR, VH-FDT and the Townsville based VH-FDZ were operating flights up and down the coast.

Which aircraft were you piloting?

Cheers Dave.

[Steve Bottom]

on radio yesterday, a spokesman stated it tops 40000 feet !!!