FW207,
Your absolutely right when speaking 'aerodynamically'.
However, when you state "Wind GUSTS will of course have an effect." you've blown your own argument out of the water. If the aircraft is flying in a 'packet of air' and it's IAS can vary because of wind gusts, it is its inertia (or momentum) which permit this.
Just because something leaves the ground, doesn't mean that it leaves the Laws of Physics behind.
J
Errr... A wind
gust means an acceleration. Inertia is meaningless until you apply an
accelerative force to an mass, reguardless of the speed that mass is traveling.
A steady-state wind is in every way "invisible" to a flying craft (or creature) until it's time to land. A gust of wind is a
changing state.
If you are riding a train traveling at a constant velocity, it takes the same effort to walk toward the front or the back of the train, and it is the same effort if the train is standing still. Only if the train is slowing down or speeding up will there be a difference.
Now what if you hover a helicopter inside of a giant hot-air balloon? Does the balloon acquire the mass of the helicopter?