Why are clouds bumpy?

That’s true, my Boss flew to Dubai last week in a glider 😉

Not everyone uses airliners for business 😀

But we were talking about airliners 🙂

Now if you are flying a glider then the rain makes a lot of difference. it can seriously affect the performance of some gliders. so you are wrong rain does afect some aircraft

Mark

This isn’t true, water droplets are the same as air, air is a “liquid”, and the water droplets in the form of cloud will move across the airfoil the same as air, however, if you have water droplets that are supercooled this is a different story, you can get rime ice & clear ice from water droplets which will then only effect the aerodynamic capabilities of the wing once ice has formed on the leading edges

I get it now 🙂 🙂 🙂 Mark 🙂 Thanks Dean.

yes but it is very very nominal, and not enough to cause the “bumps” that gnome was referring to 🙂

Rain can penetrate the boundary layer of a wing too thus affecting lift, problematic on laminar flow where the layer thickness is thin, so Spitfire Pilot is correct in that sense. Doesn’t help, but less so, having a wet surface affect the airflow over the wing.

WHAAAAT!!!!
You mean they aint flying sheeps.
I believe sheep are bumpy due to oxygen particles impregnating the wooly fur and being warmed by the heat of the sheeps body causing a thermogenic reaction with the lanolin that naturally inhabits the fluffy white coat.
Or…….maybe im wrong 😉
Dean

In addition to what Steve says above, sometimes water droplets, I believe, have an effect on the aerodynamics of an aircrafts wing and will have an affect on the airflow and therefore “fiddle” with the lift, so to speak (although this is only a guess).

Mark.

Mark

This isn’t true, water droplets are the same as air, air is a “liquid”, and the water droplets in the form of cloud will move across the airfoil the same as air, however, if you have water droplets that are supercooled this is a different story, you can get rime ice & clear ice from water droplets which will then only effect the aerodynamic capabilities of the wing once ice has formed on the leading edges

Thanks guys … learning every day!

In addition to what Steve says above, sometimes water droplets, I believe, have an effect on the aerodynamics of an aircrafts wing and will have an affect on the airflow and therefore “fiddle” with the lift, so to speak (although this is only a guess).

Mark.

Convective currents result from the sun heating the ground, causing air to rise. As the air rises, it cools and forms clouds—those pretty, white, fluffy cumulus clouds that look so nice and soft on the outside and are boiling with activity inside. Hence pilots are always looking for smooth air above the clouds where the convection stops.