Worst Headwind You've Ever Fought?

Bonchie

Bonchie

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Bonchie
What's the worst headwind you've ever fought and how slow were you going compared to normal cruise?

Coming home Saturday night across the Chesapeake I was making 58 knots ground speed at 75% power in a Warrior. Normal cruise is about 108 in that plane.
 
I've flown backwards ( negative forward speed) before, several times. :yes:

Getting the plane to zero and holding it is fun also.

A couple of years ago I had a 70 - 80 mph head wind coming home at night @ 3,000 AGL. It dropped down to near zero about 500' AGL on final. Weird weather day. Kinda spooky, but all I had to do was fly the airplane.
 
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Geico266 said:
I've flown backwards ( negative forward speed) before, several times. :yes:

Getting the plane to zero and holding it is fun also.
Click to expand...

lol…fun for the person who sells you avgas.
 
In my 180 hp C-172 I was crossing a pass in the Alleghenies and moving significantly slower than the 18-wheelers also crossing the pass. And I had the throttle opened up to maximum.

Once, in approaching Tehachapi Pass from the east, Hubby could not cross the pass at all because of the headwinds. As soon as we approached, groundspeed just went to zero and the plane began a descent in place. He made three attempts at increasingly higher altitudes before deciding to go somewhere else.
 
I've had 80 kt headwinds in the Aztec. Those sucked.
 
I did about a 35-40 kt climb in Warrior last winter. When I was building time towards my instrument and commercial,I would rent a 150 and frequently saw cars passing me.
 
jordane93 said:
I did about a 35-40 kt climb in Warrior last winter. When I was building time towards my instrument and commercial,I would rent a 150 and frequently saw cars passing me.
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And that was with a tail wind! :rofl:

I think the Cessna 150 and the Ercoupe are the only planes to have had a bird strike from the rear. :rofl:

Jay, I'm kidding. :rolleyes:

;)
 
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100 knots across the Continental Divide. I had to turn around.
 
I had a 70 knot headwind while landing in Kotzebue, AK once. I was in a C-207 and had almost full power trying to make the runway at 60 KIAS. I touched down on the thresh hold and turned off the runway on taxiway "A".

Flight service guys asked me why I needed the runway. I told them the boss gets mad when I land on our ramp next to the fuel tanks.

The next problem was that the wind got me on the taxiway and the plane weather vaned into the wind and was pushing me off the pavement. I had the brakes locked. Since the wind had blown all the snow away the taxiway was ice. I could not hold the plane on the taxiway until I added full power. I used power and rudder to slide the plane sideways, 90 degrees to the taxiway to get to the general ramp area. From there I was able to taxi into the wind until I needed to turn to get into our ramp area. I could not get the plane to turn. It just kept weather vaning into the wind. We finally had to get a couple of tugs and tie the wings down. A couple rampers sat on the tail to keep it down. Then we used a bobcat to tow the plane onto our ramp.

After that I decided that it was just a little too breezy to fly safely and waited until the wind was down to 50 knots. The DOT guys tried putting sand on the ice but it just blew away.

Just another day in the Alaska bush.






Yes, we are nuts.
 
I hovered in a Cutlass at 11,500. I was trying to fly over the top of the clouds in Washington State during winter. I then descended to an altitude with more reasonable winds and got an IFR clearance.
 
Bonchie said:
What's the worst headwind you've ever fought and how slow were you going compared to normal cruise?

Coming home Saturday night across the Chesapeake I was making 58 knots ground speed at 75% power in a Warrior. Normal cruise is about 108 in that plane.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's not much fun. What's fun is when you turn around, and ATC comments on the improved performance "You enjoying the tailwind up there? I'm showing you at 170kts on the scope":goofy:
 
Geico266 said:
I've flown backwards ( negative forward speed) before, several times. :yes:

Getting the plane to zero and holding it is fun also.

A couple of years ago I had a 70 - 80 mph head wind coming home at night @ 3,000 ago. It dropped down to near zero about 500' above the ground on final. Weird weather day.
Click to expand...

:yes:

I've always thought about flying backwards or 'hovering'. I trained in a 152 and we flew a 30 knot final with 30 knot headwinds once. I sped up to a whopping 70 KIAS so we'd actually get there before Christmas.

But I've seen 30 knot headwinds in cruise flight pretty commonly and 40 kts on rare occasion. If winds get up that high it starts to bring the suck and I will evaluate whether the trip is worth while. Plus high winds around Denver often bring gnarly turbulence.
 
Was re-locating a Cub from the coast inland, as there was a Hurricane comming. Took off mid field, and climbed in "reverse" untill I had enough altitude to make the 180* turn inland. Had I not taken off mid-field I'd have backed into the fence.
 
70 knots, but only for a few minutes ...

I won't ever do that again ... mainly due to av-gas prices. Far cheaper to go a day earlier or later with gas at $5.50+
 
120 knots on the nose, westbound over the Continental Divide at FL180. I was doing 40 knots over the ground WOT in a Mooney K model. Like ColoradoBlueSky, I turned around... and then endured the most horrendous rotors and extreme turbulence I've ever encountered in 30 years of flying while descending into Denver Centennial.
 
Coming back from OSH a few years ago... Hit a frontal passage about half way across SD... Filled up in Chamberlain SD, took 3 hours to get to Murdo SD.... Probably 60 miles.. Went up to 15,000 and down to 100AGL... Nothing helped...:mad2::mad2: Indicating 90 mph... GS on the King KMD 150 was showing almost single digits...

I had to keep the motor running and literally fly the plane while on the ground for a couple of hours till the wind died down... Between gusts, I jumped out and tied down the plane.. First the left wing ,, then about 20 minutes later the right wing,, and then the tail.... Sat there for another few hours and thankfully the local sheriff drove by and asked about my situation..

I told the story and he felt sorry for me so he called his good friend who owned a hotel in town 7 miles away.. Got me the last room,,,,,Seems Sturgis was the same weekend and all rooms are booked for 200 miles... He drove me to to the hotel.. The owner gave me a small but nice room in the basement and the keys to his wifes car to drive back to the airport the next morning at 4 AM... He got a 40 dollar tip.... The sheriff got a 100 dollar bill......

Saved my ass that day.....
Thanks Murdo people...:yes:...:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
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Heading west from Florida to Texas last winter I had a headwind of 104 kts at FL380. Of course, I had a GREAT tailwind on the way home the next day. I made it from KSAT to KFXE in about 2:40.

Abram Finkelstein
N48KY
 
Going home around icing in southern WV, groundspeed bottomed out at 68 knots going over terrain around Knoxville. I was indicating 135 MPH at 10,000 msl. My calculator says that's a 73 knot headwind, down low in NA piston territory. Ugh!
 
Around 40 knots all the way from Des Moines to Wichita. I was doing 67 knots over the ground. It was painful.
 
When saw that I was getting passed by a golf cart, I gave up and went back home.
 
Not really a headwind, but this is the worst that I've seen, during a charter to KPIE a few years back:
 

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Bonchie said:
What's the worst headwind you've ever fought and how slow were you going compared to normal cruise?

Coming home Saturday night across the Chesapeake I was making 58 knots ground speed at 75% power in a Warrior. Normal cruise is about 108 in that plane.
Click to expand...

Never saw one that bad, but it does suck getting a headwind both ways of your trip, which seems to happen quite often. :rolleyes:
 
Bonchie said:
What's the worst headwind you've ever fought and how slow were you going compared to normal cruise?

Coming home Saturday night across the Chesapeake I was making 58 knots ground speed at 75% power in a Warrior. Normal cruise is about 108 in that plane.
Click to expand...

I had a 50kt headwind on a 350NM flight, I was at 6,500' (which was the lowest I could go because of terrain) and the winds were substantially worse higher. My ground speed was 80kts in an airplane that cruises between 130-140. When I flew home the next day I had a 5 knot tailwind... :rolleyes:
 
I flew from central GA to eastern NC with a 60 knot tailwind. I generally see 152 knots in calm air, but I was seeing 212 knots groundspeed on the 430. Unfortunately, winds were still around 2 days later, and I was doing 110 knots at night on the return trip. 1:45 to get there, 3:30 to get back. :lol:
 
Geico266 said:
I've flown backwards ( negative forward speed) before, several times. :yes:

Getting the plane to zero and holding it is fun also.

A couple of years ago I had a 70 - 80 mph head wind coming home at night @ 3,000 AGL. It dropped down to near zero about 500' AGL on final. Weird weather day. Kinda spooky, but all I had to do was fly the airplane.
Click to expand...

What were you flying?
 
First long cross country -- Hartford to Lynchburg. Cessna 150G. Winds aloft forecast to be/near -0- over New Jersey.
Spent some quality time looking backward thru the OmniView!!!
Also had to revise my flight plan --- cause I wanta gonna make it as far as was preflighted!!
 
Bonchie said:
What's the worst headwind you've ever fought and how slow were you going compared to normal cruise?

Coming home Saturday night across the Chesapeake I was making 58 knots ground speed at 75% power in a Warrior. Normal cruise is about 108 in that plane.
Click to expand...

70+kts on a pipeline patrol in a PA-12 that did 105. I had to fuel at a Flying J truck stop to complete the leg. Got home from Odessa lickity split though.:D
 
I flew my Citation from Atlanta to Sacramento for the pre-buy when I sold it. It's 800 nm from FTY to AMA, I made it in 4.0 hours, TAS was 350-360, GS averaged 200 knots! I was afraid we were going to run out of fuel before we got to Amarillo!! :yikes:
 
Taylorcraft L-2M
Watched a lady hang out her clothes on the line......
Then watched her bring them in....:wink2:

I know, old joke:rolleyes:

I have flown along over a 55mph highway (concrete compass) and stayed behind a yellow VW Beetle.
The VW got out of sight. According to my time/distance calculations I was blistering along at 37mph. :redface:
 
Worst: 68 knots headwind on the way to Gaston's a number of years ago in the 182. Truing 133, GS 65. Landed at Jeff City and finished the trip the next morning.

2nd-worst: 55 knots on a business trip to Arkansas in the Mooney last year. Basically turned the Mooney into an Archer! Normally a 3-hour trip, turned into about 4.5. Ugh.
 
198 knots straight on the nose in the mid 30's in a 757.

Now let's talk tailwinds. North Pacific 747, 300 knots on the tail. 959 knot ground speed. some flights going westbound to Asia from Anchorage had to turn around due to low fuel. They could have filled the tanks and made it but left all the passengers and cargo behind.
 
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