Wind - Sometimes you win, usually, you lose

[Kyle Boatright]

We're headed from Atlanta to Houston tomorrow and the winds will be pretty
strong right in our face. The usual W-> E flow is compounded tomorrow by a
low in the Memphis area, causing a much stronger than usual flow from the
SW. Despite all that, it looks like we can keep the headwind component
under 10 knots by staying low. IF turbulence isn't a problem. If we have
to go higher than about 3k, we're looking at >25 knots on the nose.

If that isn't bad enough, when we come back on Sunday, the low will have
moved far enough East that we'll have a strong NNE wind when we head home.

That just ain't fair!

Of course, neither was the time I had a 400 nm X/C trip in my old Tomahawk
into the face of a 35 knot wind. That was probably a 7 hour trip, counting
fuel stops. The cars on the interstate were definitely passing us on that
day...

[Dave[_5_]]

One time I did win. On a major, roundabout trip from the West Coast to
the midwest and back I had tailwinds or essentially no winds on every
leg but one. The details are lost in the mists of time, but I
definitely recall being amazed about it when it occurred.

Another time I saw 175 knots groundspeed (in a 182) in perfectly
smooth air over Iowa/Illinois. We thought the DME was out of whack -
but it wasn't!

Yet another time I got an even faster ride flying from Northern CA to
Southern - but it was rather bumpy that day.

David Johnson

[Peter R.]

On 10/25/2007 8:56:32 PM, "Kyle Boatright" wrote:

> If that isn't bad enough, when we come back on Sunday, the low will have
> moved far enough East that we'll have a strong NNE wind when we head home.
>
> That just ain't fair!

Uphill both ways. Reads as if you will have something to tell the
grandchildren.

--
Peter