150 knot headwind at FL300?

[MatthewS 761]

Was flying over France yesterday (approx 0600 GMT) at FL300 and I had a headwind of about 150 knots. Is this a bug or are winds like this common at high altitude?

[ZKOKQ 984]

Don't know about Europe, but recently I was on a flight in a 737 in NZ and the Captain announced a bumpy ride due to strong winds coming from the west at 200+ km/h, which is quite common in this neck of the woods, (Roaring 40's).

[russianspd 10]

In the U.S going East to West often gives you a headwind. And no 130+ is not completely unheard of. Quite common. Also why flying West to East is very favorable schedule wise.

[Chris Crawford 49]

Welcome to winter time. Usually much stronger upper winds around this time of year.

[Rations 102]

There are several Airliners.net threads describing high-altitude winds as fast and faster. It is amazing how rapid and strong these winds can be!

[Chris Crawford 49]

When my old man was flying a C-130 in Japan, he told me he had a 200kt headwind. And when he flew the 757 coming out of ANC to MSP, he had a tailwind of around 250+ kt's or so. They were smack dab in the middle of a jetstream. Ground speed was around 600kt's or more, which lead to the flight being early by over an hour.

[MatthewS 761]

Thanks... looks like the PFPX flight planner will come in handy when its released. I think it uses the same winds aloft server (GRIB?) as Opus.

 

http://www.flightsimsoft.com/pfpx/

[Noble. 142]

Not trying to be rude, but I don't go to HiFi forum and talk about Opus, so don't know why some like to come here to the unofficial Opus forum to plug the competition.

 

Oops, I do apologise - I didn't realise this in the Opus section, if I did I wouldn't have posted that. I'll try to remove it.

 

EDIT: You'll need to edit the quote out of your post :smile:

[MatthewS 761]

Not trying to be rude, but I don't go to HiFi forum and talk about Opus, so don't know why some like to come here to the unofficial Opus forum to plug the competition. Not fair to the hard working Opus developers to be honest.

 

IMHO Opus is much better than the "competition". The Opus developers seem very responsive. Opus is a keeper!

[ZKOKQ 984]

 

 

Oops, I do apologise - I didn't realise this in the Opus section, if I did I wouldn't have posted that. I'll try to remove it.

 

EDIT: You'll need to edit the quote out of your post :smile:

Done, thanks Luke

[Opus Software 84]

Thanks... looks like the PFPX flight planner will come in handy when its released. I think it uses the same winds aloft server (GRIB?) as Opus

 

Yes it does, haven't heard of a release date yet for PFPX though.

[virtualstuff 752]

Yes it does, haven't heard of a release date yet for PFPX though.

 

Should be very soon ;-)