silverstrata
Very well put. I too have seen large airspeed changes when climbing/descending into wind shear in the 747. Wave activity can also produce large thrust and/or airspeed changes.
I guess we never see those effects that you describe close to the ground as our bank angle is necessarily small, no large changes of heading are made below about 1000ft (OK, except at JFK on the Canarsie and other circling approaches) and our approch speed is in the order of 160 kts.