relative to ground.
When I was a kid hanging out with my dad at the airport the guys with old Cubs and Aeroncas sometimes used to fly the upwind, then backwards overhead the runway, then a very slow GS final. It took a strong wind even with that kind of plane. I’ve never done it myself.
I think you mean headwind.
I have never done it myself, but I have seen it done at Sibson in either a Stampe or Tiger Moth.
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I once heard a story about someone doing a vertical circuit, i.e. taking off normal, ‘crosswind’ straight up (like a helicopter), ‘downwind’ going backwards (over the runway) and ‘base’ straight down like a helicopter. ATC did not see the humour of it and he got fined.
Great story but, like so many, could be invented..
I did it last year in an icarus c42 at Deanland.
At 2000ft, I flew the aircraft at 40kts and was reversing around 5kts in a 45kt wind.
Landing was interesting, I landed in under 50 metres!!
Years ’n years ago in the Rhone Valley with a Cessna 150…
Flying from Avignon to Geneva in a Mistral situation. Normal flight time would be about 2 hours with C150 speeds, that night it took almost 4. Was before GPS but DME speeds were 0 at some stages and that Mont Blanc piece of rock was quite stationary in my windscreen for a while. Got it up to FL130 eventually and completed the flight.
Yep. Did it a couple of years ago during PPL revalidation in my J3 cub. I wont mention where or with who, but the instructor, who is very good and a lovely guy, is an airline pilot for his day job so he enjoys doing interesting things for a change. Wind was straight down the runway at over 35 kts. After takeoff I said to him “have you ever flown backwards – lets give it a go”. I throttled back and we eventually watched our shadow going backwards down the runway. For the simulated off-field landings we did a completely vertical descent to about 6 feet then slow climb away. To land I had to use full throttle in decent to get onto the runway. We had to park behind the biggest hangar on the field to be safe to get out of the plane. The instructor thought this was all great fun.
My father as an RAF Instrutor late 30’s early 40’s told me he did it regularly with new students just to explain things – air speed ground speed etc.
His quip was “I’ll show you an airplane can fly backwards” !
Assume, but not sure, using Tiger Moths.
Cue the Antonov AN2 operators that can do that in moderate wind. Wikipedia says the plane is “in full control” at 26 knots.
Several times i TMG’s, but not often (maybe just once) in a SEP (DA-40).
When “parking” at a specific point in space for several minutes, I have several times seen people on the ground double-take when looking up – “how is that airplane not movíng?”
