. The controller was saying nothing >and all I could think of was all that turbulence behind the Citation. >Mark Jones (N886MJ) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The primary generator of turbulence, other then jet exhaust and prop wash, is the vortices created when a wing develops lift. When it comes to turbulence, don't just think big aircraft. ANY WING "developing lift" will create turbulence. The greater the amount of lift being generated, the greater the amount of turbulence. Hence the use of the term "heavy" when pilots of really big aircraft talk to controlers. They are even dangerous to one another. In a "no wind" condition, the turbulence will tend to go down and out from the wing generating the lift. When landing closely behind ANY aircraft I try to stay slightly above their glide path and land just beyond their touchdown point. On takeoff I try to lift off before their liftoff point and stay above and up-wind of their climbout pattern. If that's not possible, I'll roll beyond (hundreds of feet) their liftoff point and stay WELL BELOW their climbout pattern until I can turn and get up-wind of their flight path. It's not necessary to follow a BIG aircraft to get in trouble with wake turbulence. I once was making a LARGE, LAZY, 360 circle in a C-172, in perfectly smooth air, over the farm I grew up on. When I had completed the circle I hit my own wake and it still had enough energy to cause me to hit my head on the roof of the cabin and put, I'm sure, several G's of strain on the aircraft. Larry Flesner
