I havn't been on a plane for a while, almost 6 months from now. The last trip was from Newark Liberty Int'l Airport to Houston on Continental flight 63, a 767-200 jet. It was July 10, 2005, a Sunday when Hurricane Dennis landed at the coast of Alabama.
At 3:10p.m. EDT, the pilot notified us that the flight path would go pass a trough 1/3 of the way and it would be a little bumpy over there but didn't tell anything about the hurricane. Probably he knew that everybody noticed that. After we went past the trough over Virginia (clear air, slight turbulence, as I could see everything pretty clear below except some moisture, and somewhat bumpy...), we had a smooth ride all the way to the border of Alabama, when the time was around 4:30p.m. CDT. We were on the patch from north of Atlanta to just north of Jackson, and I could see some very high clouds (tops much higher than the flight level, which was about 31,000ft). Then we went into some dense clouds and the a/c began to shake. Some period of clear sky was experenced. It lasted for about half an hour, and ceased at about central LA. At around 5:30, we were near Houston.
By then, a severe thunderstorm was just over IAH and our plane could not land, and was put to holding loop for 2 turns (I even have a picture of that storm). Finally the pilot said the plane would not have enough fuel(!? that's a 767 though) to stay in the loop and was diverted to Austin. Later we arrived Houston around 9:10p.m. What a long trip....
At 3:10p.m. EDT, the pilot notified us that the flight path would go pass a trough 1/3 of the way and it would be a little bumpy over there but didn't tell anything about the hurricane. Probably he knew that everybody noticed that. After we went past the trough over Virginia (clear air, slight turbulence, as I could see everything pretty clear below except some moisture, and somewhat bumpy...), we had a smooth ride all the way to the border of Alabama, when the time was around 4:30p.m. CDT. We were on the patch from north of Atlanta to just north of Jackson, and I could see some very high clouds (tops much higher than the flight level, which was about 31,000ft). Then we went into some dense clouds and the a/c began to shake. Some period of clear sky was experenced. It lasted for about half an hour, and ceased at about central LA. At around 5:30, we were near Houston.
By then, a severe thunderstorm was just over IAH and our plane could not land, and was put to holding loop for 2 turns (I even have a picture of that storm). Finally the pilot said the plane would not have enough fuel(!? that's a 767 though) to stay in the loop and was diverted to Austin. Later we arrived Houston around 9:10p.m. What a long trip....
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