europe to usa flight sept

[marieke]

hello all

ive been flying back and forth twice now to TX. im so nervous everytime. i hate takeoff, the flight and landing. bad weather and turbulence are my worst fear. now i have another flight coming up in sept, amsterdam to gatwick to houston with BA. im wondering if you can at all tell what its usually like in sept, probably not, but i know it the hurricane season and many tropical storms are about. any words of encouragement?
thanks

[Passenger Mark]

Howdy!!!

That sounds like a interesting trip!!!

As for what it will be like in Europe... you might want to post a note on Royd's forum "Ask A UK Pilot". He would be more experienced with it.

I do know that they do not fly in dangerous weather. So if a storm does pop up... it may mean delays and sitting around in the airport, but there is no danger.

[Lynda]

Living in London you will be aware that often September is one of our best weather months.
The US in September I know nothing about as we avoid it during the summer months, not because of Hurricanes but because we normally travel to Florida and it is too hot and humid for us.
Just be aware that no pilot will risk taking off in unsafe weather hence all the delays we get for bad weather conditions!

[Barb-SAN]

hello all

ive been flying back and forth twice now to TX. im so nervous everytime. i hate takeoff, the flight and landing. bad weather and turbulence are my worst fear. now i have another flight coming up in sept, amsterdam to gatwick to houston with BA. im wondering if you can at all tell what its usually like in sept, probably not, but i know it the hurricane season and many tropical storms are about. any words of encouragement?
thanks

Hi Marieke,
Did you happen to watch the video that Scott posted (Hurricane Hunters) in the main forum, linked here: ?http://www.takingflight.us/forums/showthread.php?t=7753

For the first four minutes, all you see are the illuminated instruments and radar in the cockpit bouncing around, because they are flying at night. Occasionally everything is lit up by flashes of lightening. Frankly, I was surprised that the plane wasn't bouncing around more than it was. The pilots are in control of their plane, even though it is bouncing because of the rough air. This hurricane was a Category 5 at one point too. Remember that they are intentionally flying right through the hurricane and taking measurements of its strength to help forecasters. YOUR plane will be staying far away from any hurricanes. The last minute or so of the video there are some still pictures when they are in the calm of the eye of the hurricane, and looking up at the wall of clouds and the moon. It is quite eerily beautiful.

Marieke, have you done any flight tracking of your flight? I would suggest doing the U.S. segment of your flight on Flight Aware every day if you can, and pay particular attention to the radar, where the thunderstorms are located, and how the plane avoids them. Thunderstorms and turbulence used to be my biggest fear too, and watching the flights combined with weather radar has really helped me understand that they CAN and DO avoid the most turbulent areas. If there are thunderstorms over the airport and it isn't safe to land or takeoff, the airport is closed until the storms move away from the runways.

If you can't track your flight, you might check FlightAware's "see airport activity", and look up a radar map for an airport where there are thunderstorms in the area. That will let you see many planes at once, and see how they are guided around the stormy areas (the red areas on the radar).

Hope you have a great flight! :)