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Old December 5th 06, 05:01 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Doug[_1_]
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Posts: 248
Default A question I'm embarrased to ask - earth's spin

The earth spinning DOES affect long range aircraft flight. Going west
to east, you generally have tailwinds (in the northern hemisphere) and
lose an hour of daylight for every 800 miles or so. Going east to west
you have headwinds but you pick up an hour of daylight for every 800
miles or so. It actually sort of evens out.

The earth's rotation and the coriolis effect has signifigant difference
on the weather, the jet stream and the direction highs and lows
circulate.

If you shoot an artillery shell from north to south the coriolis effect
is signifigant enough so you have to account for it in your aiming
calculations. This is because the ground velocity of the earth due to
spinning is greater at the equator than it is to the north or south.
This doesnt make much difference with aircraft becaus they are flown
and not aimed rockets or artillery shells.

The bottom line is the coriolis effect has some subtle difference on
small GA flight, but not much.