Nov 13
Slow Groundspeed with a Great Headwind – Airbus A330 Hangs in Mid-air
I remember when I was doing my training for my private pilot’s license, my instructor and I had flown on some VERY windy days (much more windy than I’d be comfortable taking passengers up as a PIC these days). One day in particular, my instructor taught me that if you configure the plane for slow flight and fly straight into a strong headwind, you can actually “hang” the plane in mid-air, creating a zero (or even negative) ground speed situation. Essentially if the wind speed is at or above the airspeed necessary to keep the plane from stalling, you can achieve this situation. I thought it was pretty cool back then to do this in a 2-seater Cessna, but seeing an Airbus A330 do it now is pretty darn amazing! Enjoy (check out around 40 seconds)…
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January 23rd, 2012 at 2:14 pm
haha thats great!