Like flying a Cessna

[Gone]

Took off from Brampton (CNC3) with a 30 knot tailwind to make it to Montreal (CYUL) in 1:50.  In the soup for the last 50 miles or so.  No problem and a rejuvinating approach in IMC.

Coming home??  That was a different story.  The 150 mile wide belt of various types of cloud had moved west so when I took off to return home (about 4 hours later) I went straight into the soup, into a 30 knot headwind.  Finish the climb to 8000' and while the airspeed indicator was Vno (150 mph - 130 kts), the GPS read 89kts for groundspeed.  Yup, you read it right.  I looked at the GPS and felt I was back in a 152.

Took three hours to make it back.  At one point I asked ATC to change the flight planned altitude to 6000' for the "ride."  Read "lower headwind."  Best groundspeed I made at all was 130 kts.  And that only lasted about 15 minutes.  Most of the time it was between 110 and 120.

Sheesh....

[rbridges]

it's all relative.  I flew back from Hilton Head in a 180 Cherokee and the GPS read 67 knots groundspeed.  It's frustrating to see cars moving faster than you.

[flight2000]

Well, if you had been in a C152, you would have been going backwards...

Brian

[Comatose]

Four hours to get back from North Adams MA to Ohio yesterday. At one point I had a sustained groundspeed of 103kt, and was truing at 148. Tried dropping from 8500 to 6500 and went even slower. Last time I say "eh... gas is expensive here and there's only a predicted 30 knot headwind... 45 gallons should do it."

The cruel joke was a 172 and I called in landing from 15 mles out (he from the west and I from the east) at the same time and he was down, off the runway and shutting down before I was even in the pattern.

[Carl S]

Quote: Comatose

The cruel joke was a 172 ...

[clipperskipper]

Sometimes you need to sacrafice ground speed for a good ride, no sense beating up yourself, the A/C, and passengers for a couple of knots.