Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | Aviation Safety

Not so fast: if you think you have a headwind more often than a tailwind, that's because you do. Understanding the reasons might make it all easier to accept.

Article Excerpt
I have a 100-knot airplane. Oh, sure; the airspeed indicator usually reads much higher than that. But when it comes down to what really counts--rate of movement over the ground--my shiny, expensive, 160-knot airplane is frequently relegated to speeds closer to those of an 18-wheeler on the Interstate below me. The reason? Headwinds. Eastbound, westbound--any direction-it's not a matter of whether I'll have a headwind, but how strong it will be.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

If I plan a trip for Tuesday, on Monday the chosen route will afford a nice little nudge. On Tuesday, the fickle fates will deal a howling 40 knots on the nose. After an unplanned fuel stop, I'll drag into my destination about two hours late, landing only after being forced to shoot an ILS to near-minimums and well after the FBO has closed. The only food available will be a warm Pepsi and a package of cheese crackers. On Wednesday, that same route will once again have a nice little tailwind. Such is my life. Of course, there are good, logical reasons for headwinds. Let's explore them.

PREVAIL

The likelihood of seeing a head- or tailwind on any given day is pure chance, right? Wrong. There is such a thing as a prevailing wind direction. It is even a defined term (see the opposite page).

In North America (between 30 and 60 degrees north latitude), this means the nominal wind direction is from the southwest. In fact, these winds are called "prevailing westerlies," so sayeth NOAA. In other areas of the globe, the prevailing wind will blow from other directions, of course. In other areas of the globe, of course, they will still be headwinds for me.

Living as I do on the East coast of the U.S., there's not much future in heading due east in a single. So, most trips start out heading either south or west. Right into a headwind.

Based on the foregoing, you might conclude that the easiest way to ensure a tailwind would be to always fly a northeasterly heading, right? Not so fast. There are such things as local weather patterns, for instance. Two trips flown between the East and West coasts bear this out. Put bluntly, I had a lot of time to contemplate the reasons.

One trip involved...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!