Extreme Turbulence in RV7

Okay, who was it? Step forward and share your tale

wow

Been doing ATC since 89 and I rarely see extreme turbulence. Impossible to control aircraft and possible structural damage, glad they are ok and a thorough aircraft inspection should follow. Wow.

Sierra Roller

It's not necessarily the known areas of turbulence that will get you. I regularly fly over the Southern Sierra so some turbulence is usually a part of every flight.

-8A, 7500 enroute home from Kern Valley (L05) to Inyokern (IYK) over the Southern Sierra, in the clear with 20+ kts of tailwind. Nothing unusual - fat, dumb and happy as I approached the next to last ridgeline before descending to 3200 ft.

First roller rolled me to about 90 degrees RWD, second immediately after had me nearly inverted, nose down. No problem recovering from unusual attitude - RV's are so forgiving, just simulate winding your watch to get your hands off stick and neutralize controls, roll wings level the pull to horizon. G meter showed +4.5 and -3.2g's.

Number of G's weren't an issue - the rapid onset is what got my attention. Two really big instant thumps!

After landing, removed tail fairing to check - no damage.

that's around terrain, this is the flat southeast, where you can literally see the convection and nasty air in most cases, especially this day (i flew shortly after that)

at 5,000 feet, they were below the bases that day, so they flew under a nasty cell, or through some extreme precip

Completely avoidable