Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[TightEnd]

Wind

Tradewinds direction across the atlantic

Always? Every day?

i forget the details, but one way you are into a headwind, the other you have a tailwind from about Iceland onwards on the N American routes over Greenland

[AndrewT]

To my astonishment, I discovered yesterday that BA plan to start a London-JFK scheduled service from...... London CITY Airport, in September 2009! It will be a Business Class (Club-World) only cabin configuration, using the only suitable aircraft available - A318's. (What's special about the A318?). But, oddly, on the OUTWARD leg only, it will have a refuelling stop in Shannon, which might doom it to failure. Any idea why "outbound only"?

The Americans will be using the flights to steal gold from the Bank of England, so the planes will be heavier going to America.

[Laxie]

Headwinds going to America and tailwinds coming back.  Flights are nearly always an hour or more faster flying this direction.

[kinboshi]

Wind

Tradewinds direction across the atlantic

Always? Every day?

i forget the details, but one way you are into a headwind, the other you have a tailwind from about Iceland onwards on the N American routes over Greenland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream

[kinboshi]

If you're flying back over from the US tomorrow - here's your forecast....

Click to see full-size image.

[TightEnd]

The major jet streams are westerly winds (flowing west to east) in the Northern Hemisphere.


ie you need a refuel going to the states (in that plane), not the other way

[tikay]

The major jet streams are westerly winds (flowing west to east) in the Northern Hemisphere.


ie you need a refuel going to the states (in that plane), not the other way

Well yes, (& in reply to all the others, too) but is the wind direction really THAT predictable? I guess the answer is "yes".

[kinboshi]

The major jet streams are westerly winds (flowing west to east) in the Northern Hemisphere.


ie you need a refuel going to the states (in that plane), not the other way

Well yes, (& in reply to all the others, too) but is the wind direction really THAT predictable? I guess the answer is "yes".

...and it's downhill.

[AndrewT]

The major jet streams are westerly winds (flowing west to east) in the Northern Hemisphere.


ie you need a refuel going to the states (in that plane), not the other way

Well yes, (& in reply to all the others, too) but is the wind direction really THAT predictable? I guess the answer is "yes".

The jetstream wind direction is as predictable as the direction the Earth spins.

[tikay]

My good friend Steve "Punchbag" Kirk (I'll explain the "punchbag" bit later), a Luton regular known to many of you, runs a whole bunch of Online Fora, including Bridges, Trains, Fishing, but easily his most successful Forum is "Bird Forum", (birdforum.net) of which I'm a lurking Member.

He sent me a bunch of pics today, which I'm gonna upload now.

Two warnings.

1) If Nature bores you, don't look.

2) They are not for the squeamish.

[tikay]

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[tikay]

And now, it gets a little gory......