Sallplane Flights through Funnel Clouds

Abstract

This paper reports on three intentional flights through small south Florida funnel clouds in a sailplane. Two of the penetrations were through vertical funnels, and one was through a sloping funnel cloud. The latter allowed a more significant immersion time interval within the vortex, and this resulted in much greater effects on the aircraft. With use of the induced variations from normal flight, the instrumentation carried, the physiological observations of the pilot, and the meteorological sounding data, it is possible to deduce some of the characteristics of these funnels.