Tail wind tall tale?

[2016parks]

I read yesterday an item written by a reputable person who is also a private pilot, seemingly indicating that he experienced a 168 mph tail wind on January 1, providing a ground speed of 657 mph, I believe heading east across the US toward Washington, D.C. Is that possible? I can't provide a link, but it's in a tweet dated January 1 of @JamesFallows.

[Chesty Morgan]

200kts+ jetstreams are not uncommon .That's 230mph+.

[eckhard]

I had a 220kt tailwind once over Newfoundland, giving me a groundspeed of over 700kts.

[SpringHeeledJack]

I can't provide any private flight tall tailwind tales, but in the 90's flew in a UTA DC-10-30 from MIA-CDG in 5hrs 20mins approx due to extremely strong tailwinds. Like being on a Transatlantic travelator ;-)

[cavuman1]

I remember my mother, who was deathly afraid of flying until she discovered the miracle combination of valium and bourbon, bragging about setting a speed record between KLAX and KLGA aboard a Convair 990 Coronado in 1963. Total elapsed time was slightly more than four and one-half hours; they had ridden a strong jet stream the entire journey.

- Ed

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/800x626/convair_990_coronado_97ada73f9590b2ba96d5d81006968c2203045c7 1.jpg

[RoyHudd]

Landing a CV990 at LGA must have been fun

[GordonR_Cape]

There is currently (Thurs 3rd) an area of 160kt jet stream winds positioned over the north-east USA. This would have been positoned over the center of the country previously.

Weather model charts show it as being about 500nm long (E-W) and 200 wide N-S), with much lower speeds outside that region (and at lower altitudes). A flight plan would be able to take advantage of the winds, but the whole route could not be at top speed.

[Intruder]

I had a 220kt tailwind once over Newfoundland, giving me a groundspeed of over 700kts.My "record" is 715 kts over the Pacific, with a similar tailwind.

[B2N2]

For some reason my photographic evidence doesn’t upload but recently over NE Russia we experienced OAT of -71C at FL320 which is a personal record for me.
Couple of months ago, same area of operations we hit 185kt headwinds and miserable turbulence.

[kenparry]

200kts+ jetstreams are not uncommon .That's 230mph+.

Many years ago I had the displeasure of encountering the Mediterranean jet en route Akrotiri to Luqa. It was much worse than forecast; after the first couple of beers (post landing!) we did some sums and worked out the average headwind was 200kt.

[Asturias56]

I had a 200kt headwind once from SIN- LHR in a 777 - looking down over Romania we were just about catching traffic on the Interstate/Autobahn.................

[Moondance]

https://groundspeedrecords.com/

[GordonR_Cape]

I did a quick flip through some flight tracks on 1Jan, and the fastest I could find was a B787 LAX-LHR. Peak ground speed was 735mph, with a filed speed of 564mph, giving a tail wind of about 171mph.

The total flight time was about 45mins shorter than average, because only a limited duration was spent inside the jet-stream. The track was longer in distance than the great-circle route, but still faster overall.

Obviously flights in the opposite direction use a more polar route to avoid the head winds.

[Sultan Ismail]

I came back on MH1 23rd December 2018, 2 hours into the flight the screen was showing 172kph tail wind and OAT -71°C
Nothing spectacular but could have been chilly if someone opened a window.

[jimjim1]

For some reason my photographic evidence doesn’t upload

There are I think size limit on images. As I recall, pixels and file size both restricted. The error messages are not particularly explanatory (British understatement:).

[Espada III]

I read yesterday an item written by a reputable person who is also a private pilot, seemingly indicating that he experienced a 168 mph tail wind on January 1, providing a ground speed of 657 mph, I believe heading east across the US toward Washington, D.C. Is that possible? I can't provide a link, but it's in a tweet dated January 1 of @JamesFallows.

Perhaps not perfect but I have a speedometer on my phone which operates via GPS. On a flight from Manchester to Tel Aviv in January 2017 on an easyJet A320, I recorded a maximum speed of 646mph. And we only landed about 30 minutes ahead of time. So 657mph seems perfectly reasonable.

[FLCH]

Bad curry at a UK layover ? ��

[Ascend Charlie]

My uncle reported from his Qantas flight over the GAFA that the wind was 270/270 (270 kts from the west.) rather fast.

[b1lanc]

Virgin Atlantic 787 - 801mph ground speed yesterday over Pennsylvania - 48 minutes early.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/02/19/flight-reaches-mph-furious-jet-stream-packs-record-breaking-speeds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d17220d33887

[bcgallacher]

On a flight from Manila to Narita in the early 90's on a 747 - 200 photographed the no3 INS showing a groundspeed in excess of 700Kts and a wind on the tail of 200+ knots. There was no turbulence. Next day on the way back a much lower altitude was requested to try to get underneath - not much better.

[El Bunto]

Virgin Atlantic 787 - 801mph ground speed yesterday over Pennsylvania - 48 minutes early.


Not really notable except well played by the airline's PR. Not even the fastest logged for a 787.

It's the Inverse Gell-Mann Effect at work; once you find a news story that you know is incorrect or sensationalised, you start wondering how many other news reports about things outside your knowledge are also rubbish.

[pax britanica]

Back in the 80s when I lived in Bermuda and flew back and forth to UK a lot we did BDA-LHR in just over 5 hours on a Tristar , i think a 500. The captain remarked that it was his fastest ever Atlantic crossing and that the jetstream flowing from the south west almost the whole way from Bermuda to the UK was the reason behind it. Return trip three days later took a looooong time though.

[Asturias56]

Having suffered from a number of 200mph++ head winds I've always hoped that one day I'd get a 200mph ++ tail wind but........ :(:(:(

[GordonR_Cape]

Murphy's Law. If the tail wind speed equals your airspeed, you will get there in exactly half the normal time. If the head wind speed equals your airspeed, the flight will take infinitely long...

[tvasquez]

As a meteorologist the strongest upper-level winds I've ever heard about were back in January of 1982 when there were 250-270 kt winds along the New England coast. Winds over 200 kt are a bit common in late winter when there's strong coupling of the polar and subtropical jets. The Northeast US and around the Aleutians seem to be where it happens most.