Bofredrik wrote:How does that feel for a passenger?
Like something that push from behind?
Is it more turbulence OR maybe in the
other direction?
Hello Bo, it feels exactly the same for the passengers. The aircraft is flying at its normal cruise speed through the air mass and its airspeed indicator reads normal values. The 801 mph reported refers to the relative speed of the aircraft over the ground, not the air. This occurs because the tailwind that the airplane is experiencing is very high speed and causes the airplane in the air mass to cover the ground faster. Unusually high ground speeds due to fast tailwinds is very common. This one makes the news because it was faster than normal and it made for an interesting groundspeed number.
It can work in the reverse as well. I was once flying at normal indicated airspeed but my airplane was STATIONARY over the same spot on the ground due to a blazingly fast direct headwind on the nose! [it was a light airplane with a slow cruise speed] ATC control center noticed me not moving and called me to see what was happening. I told them and they suggested that I descend to a certain altitude where the headwind was slower and from a more offset direction. It worked and I was able to penetrate the headwind enough to move forward to destination. I burned far more fuel than usual on that trip due to the much higher flight time because of the headwind.
Turbulence is not a factor in this case.
Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2019 12:43 am
