hiz... oki i think more importantly the aircraft design plays a significant role in the amount of turbulence it goes through... at a glance i don't see any significant structual differences... cause i just started studying on aircraft rating (i'm from the youth flying club) so i know a little bit about these stuff... but definitely the difference may lie with the aircraft design causing more drag or wake turbulence which causes turbulence as well...
another factor is that the pilot's judgement may cause the turbulence... for example a straight line is drawn between airport A n B... if there's a severe thunderstorn along the way and the pilot chooses to fly through or near it, the wind patterns around and near such thunderstorms can cause a heck of a lot of turbulence sometimes even causing wind shears.. (basically free fall because of significant wind/air pressure differences) yeahz.... its almost unavoidable since its difficult to predict when it will happen. perhaps the flight may have been running late or to go around or fly above the cloud would not be feasible would be some reasons which would probably force the pilot to fly through that weather.
hmmm... probably another factor is the effect of tradewinds or the wake turbulence of another aircraft. tradewinds basically blow from japan to singapore (as in the direction at present) so the aircraft flying from singapore to hong kong would be flying against the wind... ehz.... how would that make a bumpy ride i'm not to sure.... any professional help?
i'm still learning.... another factor which is highly unlikely but still possible is the presence of an aircraft in front of you. cause aircraft drag leaves a trail of wake turbulence (think ship-made waves that flows behind a ship causing other ships to rock) perhaps if a similiar flight flying the same route at around the same time and above your aircraft with probably at least 4 minutes ahead of you at 2000feet above you would satisfy the criteria of u getting into the way of his wake turbulence... this would cause turbulence for larger aircraft... for those small aircraft... well we'll be in for one hell of a ride as we'll be thrown around like dirt....
oki answering directly to ya question about whether size of planes will affect stability while flying.... the answer is far from yes. even the most stable aircraft built in the world could still be unstable. for example (and in extreme cases to emphaise things) a perfectly balanced empty aircraft (think cargo aircraft) fully loaded with fuel and balanced perfectly could become unstable due to poor weight loading, like perhaps the heavy stuff goes at the bacl of the plane.... the aircraft would be thrown off balance and stability in flight would be affected.
design like i mentioned would affect too... here are some factors
-> wing shape (tapered/swept)
-> wing add ons (wing fences/winglets)
-> drag componets (parasitic/induced/form) surprisingly aircraft drag increases as speed increases which may cause vibrations (felt especially on small aircraft since the engine is on the nose)
hmmmm... oh yahz.... small point, if the aircraft is engaging a turn, especially a climbing turn, you could be initially flying into the wind followed by flying with the wind blowing from the right, you could experienced turbulence that come in bumps due to winds blowing on the right wing comparatively more than the left... it creates bumps...
looking at aircraft in general... u gotta look at the purpose of the plane to see for sure whether its stable or not stable. take for example the E2C Skyhawk (RSAF radar plane) compared to.... an F15... side difference is about the same.... but the former is significantly more stable than an F15... thats why u don't see transport planes doing aerobatics or loops for that matter...
another example... for the youth flying club... the CT/4E compared to the Piper Warrior II.... the former is an aerobatic aircraft that is more difficult to control since its designed to be unstable compared to the piper warrior which is more of a trainer aircraft designed to be rock solid stable....
yup hope i have helped you out with ya question. i can't gurantee that all of it are correct cause yahz i'm still a student. perhaps someone here can help me out to see whether they're correct please? thanks cause i'm also preparing for my FHT (final handling test) and i need to ensure i'm correct. thanks ya?
good day
It only got a lot less when night started to fall.