It’s a good time to fly to Europe from the other side of the pond. There’s a very powerful jet stream for the next couple of days. It will exceed 200mph in the white area.

Probably best to avoid flying in the opposite direction unless you’re in Concorde as it’s way above all weather. 😁

I had a similar experience back in the early FSX days.  I was recreating - more or less - the first Qantas 747 flight London to Sydney.  This was my first time in the 747.

Like I said, this was in the very early FSX days.  Navigation was GPS DirectTo and autopilot all the way.  Unlike the Serious Simmers [tm] I was at the computer the entire time.  Jeppesen weather.  At that altitude the scenery was pretty good.  I think I flew somewhere close to Everest.  I spent a lot of time watching the scenery and my fuel consumption.

I noticed that somewhere over China I had a Tailwind From Hades and was making a lot better time than I should have been.  The GPS told me so.

The actual Qantas flight took 21 hours.  Mine took 17 hours... 8 hours, save the situation and sleep, then another 8 hours back in the saddle.  

In those days I was flying point to point in whatever aircraft seemed appropriate, hitting all the high definition cities and airports, and collecting all the badges.  I took a break from that to fly the 747, then went back to my World Tour until I got to London, then picked up again in Sydney.

Lots of good memories.  I flew the Lear jet to Easter Island (Most Remote badge) then flew the Bell helicopter on a tour of the island.  I also flew the Lear to McMurdo Station in Antarctica (Southernmost badge) and got confused when the magnetic compass pointed the wrong way.  Next flight was to the south magnetic pole, my first flight in the Goose, which I fell in love with.  Later I flew something with skis to South Pole Station (no badge for this one) and learned why there wasn't a badge for it.  🙂  The world and the clouds were quite distorted.  I probably used a fuel cheat on this one.

Like I said, lots of good memories.  The Serious Simmers [tm] of the time didn't like the fact that there were badges, but they did give you lots of destinations for a proper world tour.

Hook

Incidentally this info is freely available from MeteoBlue’s website. Loads of useful info when planning your flights.

https://www.meteoblue.com

On long hauls into strong winds don’t be surprised when your baggage doesn’t arrive, they take bags off to add extra fuel, this has become common on the newer 18 hour routes in the A350-900 and 787-9

Can you get it to happen the middle of next September?  I will be doing 2 Rick Steves tours back to back!
one is the Basque Regions of Spain and France and the 2nd one all through Spain' major cities.  A quick flight
over would be nice!

We get assigned the northern tracks over Iceland or the southern tracks over Santa Maria. Other options include FL 380 and higher. I loved it going east; ground speeds are over 750, but it's a bit bumpy. From MIA to AMS, scheduled for 07:55, we did it in 06:40 flight time. It was an easy flight.

I brought a 747 back from Boston to London in 4:55 on the night another 747 took the official record for the fastest Atlantic crossing, a record since broken I believe, it was probably around 2012.