Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Compared to what? They have the advantage over land based runways in that they can orient into the wind.
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And make a 40mph headwind all by themselves. With an average natural wind speed of 18 mph off shore, it's pretty easy to make a 50+ mph steady headwind down the delck. That's not the normal goal, I think 30 mph is what they try and maintain, but they don't want crosswinds. Sometimes they would go downwind if the natural wind was over 50 mph, turn and go downwind at 20 to reduce the operational wind on the deck back to a more managed 30.
We Sometimes did a picnic on the flight deck called a "steel beach picnic". They could always get just a perfect, cooling, light breeze on the deck by adjusting speed and direction.