Nice tailwinds today! Indiana to Florida

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EminiTrader

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Getting ready to leave Indiana and head back to sunny Florida. Winds looking like 50 knot plus at 11500. Should be my fastest trip back yet at 2.5 hours.

Whats the fastest tailwind you've had? Pretty sure today will be my best.
 
GA I had a 60 knot tailwind. Got the Cirrus up to like 230kts GS. In the jet I had a 150 tailwind doing ~640kts GS
 
Man 150 knots is insane. Hoping the cirrus hits 225 today. Traveling with my kids and we generally have to stop because they cant hold it. Hoping today its non stop.
 
2 hours is usually my limit. Any longer than that and I start to get fidgety.
 
Winds were nice yesterday! I had the Beech 18 up over 200 kts heading back from Texas yesterday. Made up for the brutal headwinds we had going out there on Wednesday.
 
EminiTrader said:
Getting ready to leave Indiana and head back to sunny Florida. Winds looking like 50 knot plus at 11500. Should be my fastest trip back yet at 2.5 hours.

Whats the fastest tailwind you've had? Pretty sure today will be my best.
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How funny, that I also had a tailwind flying the opposite way! We flew from Memphis north to Michigan yesterday. Across Indiana I saw a 17 knot tailwind by staying low.
 
tawood said:
How funny, that I also had a tailwind flying the opposite way! We flew from Memphis north to Michigan yesterday. Across Indiana I saw a 17 knot tailwind by staying low.
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Until I started flying my 10 and watching the wind changes in our climb-outs, I would have never thought that direction/velocity changes were so drastic.

My best tailwind was 60 kts at 1,500' agl the morning after a line of tornados came through in Feb 2012. It was calm on the ground for our takeoff at 7 AM. As the Sun came up, mixing those winds down to the surface, we had a 25 kt steady 90 deg xw on landing at 9 AM. Rudder to the stop on that one.
 
A good pilot should be able to "outfly the wind". If headwind, fly early in the day and low. If tailwind fly later and high. ETC
 
Average 50 knot HW from Richmond to fort smith AR today, it was brutal.
 
EminiTrader said:
I typically don't either so you could imagine my excitement. Top speed was 231 over the ground. All that did was make me want a turbo prop now :)
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We usually don't see a lot of tailwinds either. Yesterday while flying from Lee Summit (KLXT) to Detroit we had a maximum of 208 knots GS while flying at 5,500' - forecasts made us believe that we won't see any tailwind...
 
SkyDog58 said:
Headwind both ways? o_O

I bet the walk to/from the plane is uphill both ways as well! ;)
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I know you're joking, but many don't realize that it actually is more common to have a headwind than a tailwind...in other words, they are not 50/50.
It is because during a direct crosswind to your course heading, you have to correct by angling into the wind, making a headwind.
 
During my private training, I had 55 kts tailwind, 55 kts crosswind, and finally 55 kts headwind....Made turns around a point interesting. Pretty much went flying in it just for ****s and giggles. Had my Cessna at 2kts GS, couldn't quite make it go backwards.
 
tawood said:
I know you're joking, but many don't realize that it actually is more common to have a headwind than a tailwind...in other words, they are not 50/50.
It is because during a direct crosswind to your course heading, you have to correct by angling into the wind, making a headwind.
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Yep, I'm aware of that. I even read an article about it once in one of the flying magazines or online. I forget where.
 
Too bad I didn't get to go to Dallas yesterday. The forecast winds were 50+ at 6,000'. :)
And if I waited an hour, they would die down and shift into a direct x-wind at 30kts on the way back.

Happy New Year, everyone, and only tailwinds in 2017!
 
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