Turbulence in the upper airspace
As a PPL. I always feel a little like a fish out of water in a big aeroplane, since the environment is so different to chugging around at 2000ft.
We came back from a family holiday in Mallorca a couple of days ago and the sector took 2h30. Having been to Palma quite a lot, I am aware that this is a long airborne time for the sector.
The flightdeck PA mentioned strong headwinds, a routing via Bordeaux (it was a very smooth flight) and a cruising level of 360 in a 73'.
My question is whether it would be reasonable to expect some mod CAT (we were VMC until well into the descent) given the strong headwinds?
I really don't understand turb at airliner flight levels and am intrigued as to why such a smooth flight happened under the circumstances.