Wind - Sometimes you win, usually, you lose

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...

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

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