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Flying the Jetstream
Fri Mar 28, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook. Today, Robin White talks to a pilot
about cruising the jet stream.
It used to be that planes flying from one part of the world to another would use a fixed
route, like a highway in the sky. But these days airline routes change every day based on the
weather forecast. Rich Caviness, a captain with shipping company Federal Express says pilots
try to take advantage of movements in the jet stream.
RC: You might fly 3-400 miles differently from where you've flown two days before just to
optimize your time.
Caviness says the jet stream is like a tube of fast moving air with wind speeds of up to 200
miles an hour. [If you're flying in the same direction you can catch a ride in it, like a
surfer catching a wave at the beach.] But the jet stream is moving so much faster than the air
around that getting in and out can give you a bumpy ride.
RC: There's going to be turbulence associated with the jet stream. That's just part of the
deal. If you get to the point where you can't stand it, or if you're carrying passengers, the
passengers can't -- you know ... start to lose your fillings or something -- then typically
you'd want to descend a little.
But dropping out of the jet stream might make your flight 30 or 40 minutes longer. Sometimes,
Caviness has to fly animals. The trick with them, he says, is to keep the temperature
down.
RC: Just like people if you get warm and you start getting bounced around a lot it's
generally a bad thing so you try to keep the animals cool.
Caviness says it stops the animals from getting airsick. But, he adds, animals are often
sedated, so it's usually the pilots themselves who get queasy first. For The Weather
Notebook, I'm Robin White.
Robin White is a regular contributer to The Weather Notebook. Our program is supported by
Subaru and The National Science Foundation.
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