My wife and I spent a wonderful evening with friends Saturday evening and then had to drive home north along Interstate 95.\u00a0 As we drove home steadily at 70 miles per hour, I looked up to my nine o\u2019clock position high and noticed the position lights and rotating beacon of an aircraft which seemed to be flying in a loose combat spread with us.\u00a0 I could not believe someone would be flying so slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he is going slow because it is really dark up there and he is just being careful,\u201d\u00a0my wife\u00a0joked.\u00a0 I was a little tired so it took me a moment to realize the poor Piper pilot or Cessna driver was bucking a major headwind.\u00a0 When I realized this, it made me think of Joe\u2019s Maxim.\u00a0 I have long said that if I am the pilot-in-command or the one responsible for paying the fuel bill, there will always be a headwind.<\/p>\n
Now, it does not matter if I had just fought a headwind 500 miles to my destination and it is time to return.\u00a0 Just prior to take off on the return flight, there will be frontal passage and I will have the opportunity to enjoy a headwind on the return trip.<\/p>\n
The problem with headwinds is that they keep you flying at lower altitudes where the air is more prone to turbulence.\u00a0 A pilot could climb higher into smoother air, but then he or she has to pay the price of a higher headwind.<\/p>\n
For the non-fliers reading this post, it really is a process of simple math.\u00a0 Assume your airplane is capable of flying at 130 miles per hour.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there is a wind blowing directly in your face at 50 miles per hour.\u00a0 Consequently, your groundspeed will only be 80 miles per hour.\u00a0 (130 \u2013 50 = 80).<\/p>\n
Occasionally, a pilot might \u201cluck out.\u201d\u00a0 Those are the wonderful times in which you are up there cruising along at 130 miles per hour with a 50 mph tailwind.\u00a0 (130 + 50 = 180)!<\/p>\n
Now, instead of plodding along at 80 mph, you can be zipping across the ground at three miles per minute. \u00a0You may even be able to fly this in the smooth air at high altitude.<\/p>\n
Thinking back on a lifetime of flying, two flights stand out as remarkably fast trips.\u00a0 One was in a jet, so you would expect it to be fast, the other was in my little Cessna.<\/p>\n
The jet trip was at FL 240 with 0.72 M showing on the airspeed indicator.\u00a0 With a jet stream pushing us along with 180 knots on the tail, we were well over 700 mph across the ground.<\/p>\n
The Cessna flight came on a trip from Thomasville, GA back to Daytona Beach, FL.\u00a0 I was flying formation with another 170 and our trip back to Daytona was phenomenally quick.\u00a0 We shaved almost 45 minutes off a normally two hour flight.<\/p>\n
As I recall, that was my one good deal for the entire decade of the 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My wife and I spent a wonderful evening with friends Saturday evening and then had to drive home north along Interstate 95.\u00a0 As we drove home steadily at 70 miles per hour, I looked up to my nine o\u2019clock position … Continue reading