The summer season, with its clear blue skies and warm weather, may seem like the perfect time for flying. However, for pilots, the reality is often quite different. Navigating the skies in summer presents its unique set of challenges, from dealing with intense heat to combating severe weather phenomena like thunderstorms and turbulence. So you might question whether is it more challenging to fly in summer than in winter or rainy season.
While each season brings its own unique flying challenges, summer often presents the most complex set of conditions for pilots. It is not necessarily more difficult to fly in summer than winter or the rainy season, but rather different. In winter, pilots face issues such as icing, low visibility due to snow, and frigid temperatures that can affect the aircraft. The rainy season, on the other hand, is characterized by poor visibility, slippery runways, and potential flooding.
Summer, however, serves up its own potent mix of high temperatures, thunderstorms, and turbulence caused by heat thermals, all of which can make navigating the skies quite challenging. Thus, it is not a matter of difficulty, but rather the diversity of the challenges faced in each season that distinguishes them from one another.
In this blog post, we’ll take an in-depth look at the issues pilots grapple with during the summer months and how they ensure safe and smooth flights for passengers. Let us understand some of the challenges that pilots face in summer.
More turbulence due to unexpected convective air activity in summers:
Summers can result in more turbulence due to the increased air activity caused by convection. The warming of air creates convective currents that can cause unexpected bumps in any flight. This can make it difficult for pilots to navigate, as they must adjust their plans accordingly to avoid sudden turbulence and disruptions.
Particularly if this happens during the approach, pilots try to maintain the energy state by making adjustments without which the aircraft could be pulled further down than the planned glideslope on the descent and this could lead to an unstabilized approach.
Turbulence can also cause panic among the passengers, so pilots must remain calm and take the necessary precautions.
Brake performance is adversely affected by extreme heat
Extreme heat during the summer months can have a significant impact on brake performance. As temperatures soar, the heat can cause brake components to overheat, potentially leading to brake fade. This is a decrease in stopping power that can occur after repeated or sustained application of the brakes, especially in high-temperature conditions.
This phenomenon happens because most brake systems rely on friction between two surfaces to slow and stop the aircraft. When these surfaces become too hot, they can lose their ability to create enough friction to effectively slow the aircraft. This can be particularly dangerous during landing when stopping power is crucial.
To mitigate these risks, pilots are trained to handle such situations. They ensure that they do not overuse the brakes, especially during taxiing and preliminary stages of the flight.
After landing which is very heavy on the breaks, the breaks get extremely hot. In such cases, pilots make sure they do not turn on the parking brake, so as to allow for airflow through the brakes to cool it down and be ready for taxiing for the next take-off. Additionally, more advanced aircraft may be equipped with brake cooling systems to help manage high temperatures.
Moreover, maintaining a keen awareness of current weather conditions, including extreme heat, is a fundamental part of a pilot’s job. Regular inspections and maintenance of brake systems also play a crucial role in ensuring flight safety. In extreme cases, flights may be rescheduled to cooler parts of the day to avoid intense heat and its effects on the aircraft.
Reduced aircraft performance due to low-density air in extreme heat:
Air density is a crucial factor in aircraft performance because it directly influences the amount of lift an aircraft can generate. Lift is the force that propels the aircraft upwards, allowing it to stay airborne, and it depends on the density of the air—the amount of air molecules present in a given volume. In simple terms, the denser the air, the more lift an aircraft can produce.
When temperatures soar during the summer months, air density decreases—a phenomenon known as low-density altitude. This is because the air molecules spread out, or expand, in hot weather, resulting in fewer molecules in a given volume. Consequently, an aircraft’s wings find less air to interact with, reducing the amount of lift they can generate.
This reduced lift means the aircraft must work harder, or run at higher speeds, to achieve the necessary lift to take off. It also impacts the aircraft’s climb performance, making ascents slower and potentially more fuel-consuming. Therefore, extreme heat and the resulting low air density pose a significant challenge for pilots, affecting the overall performance of their aircraft and making the length of the runway a crucial factor in summer.
Increased tourist demand causing delays and higher air traffic:
The summer season often coincides with school holidays and pleasant weather, making it a prime time for vacations. This surge in holidaymakers translates into increased demand for air travel, leading to busier airports and congested flight routes. During this period, airports often see a significant uptick in the number of flights they must accommodate daily. The increased air traffic leads to longer queues for takeoff and landing, resulting in delays.
Managing higher air traffic presents several challenges. Increased flight numbers put pressure on air traffic controllers, who must coordinate and manage the movements of all these aircraft in the sky.
This can increase the likelihood of miscommunication or errors, which must be managed carefully to ensure safety. Moreover, the higher frequency of flights can exacerbate the issues caused by reduced aircraft performance due to extreme heat, as more flights need to accommodate the longer takeoff and ascent times caused by low air density.
Therefore, the summer season’s increased air traffic and high tourist demand indeed present significant challenges to the aviation industry.
Auxiliary power unit overload causing air conditioning difficulties:
The Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) plays an essential role in maintaining a comfortable environment within the aircraft. In addition to providing support to start the main engines of an aircraft, It powers the air conditioning system, ensuring a cool and pleasant atmosphere for passengers on board before the main engines start while on the ground.
However, during the sweltering summer months, the APU can get overloaded due to the high demand for air conditioning. With the external temperatures soaring, the APU has to work harder to keep the aircraft cool, which can potentially lead to overheating.
Sometimes the APU power might not be sufficient to condition the air throughout the cabin that is entirely filled with passengers and sometimes the overload can cause the air conditioning system to malfunction or even fail, making the cabin uncomfortable for passengers and the cockpit challenging for pilots.
It’s a unique issue that pilots face, and managing it requires skilled handling and understanding of the aircraft’s systems because if this is not managed, passengers can become very agitated and there have been instances where passengers have opened the doors themselves causing safety issues although the flight is still on the ground.
Check here for more challenges pilots face on a daily basis.
Some frequently asked questions about challenges pilots face while flying in summer:
What temperature is too hot to fly an aircraft?
The exact temperature that is considered too hot to fly depends on a few factors, including the aircraft’s type, its weight, and the altitude of the airport. However, generally speaking, commercial jets can experience difficulties when ground temperatures surpass 120 degrees Fahrenheit (around 49 degrees Celsius).
Performance calculators pilots use on some types of aircraft can be affected when the temperatures exceed 55 degrees Celsius. At these extreme temperatures, the air becomes less dense, which can affect the lift produced by the wings – a critical aspect of takeoff. It’s not uncommon for flights to be delayed or cancelled during heat waves for safety reasons.
Do flights get cancelled for heat?
Do flights get cancelled for heat?
Flights can indeed get cancelled due to excessive heat. Aircraft performance depends on several factors, including air density, which decreases as temperatures rise. This can impact the lift generation of an aircraft, making it harder for planes to take off.
Furthermore, certain aircraft components and onboard systems can also malfunction under extreme heat conditions. Therefore, when temperatures soar above a specific threshold, airlines may opt to delay or even cancel flights to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers and crew.
Do planes fly better in hot or cold?
Aircraft generally perform better in cold conditions as compared to hot. The primary reason is air density — cold air is denser than hot air. Flight fundamentally relies on the principle of generating lift, which is easier to achieve in dense air. Hence, planes can take off more efficiently in colder conditions.
Moreover, engines perform better in cold weather because cooler air allows engines to produce more power than warmer air. However, it’s worth noting that extremely cold conditions can present their own challenges, such as icing of the aircraft surfaces and mechanical parts.