Groundspeed Zero

Last week I flew my airplane backwards. 

Relative to the earth.

The airmass at 4400’ was moving eastward at 40 kts.

I throttled my engine back, lowered all my flaps, and entered slow flight, at 38 kts westbound.

For those familiar with integers you can see that relative to the earth I was moving at -2 kts.

Technically my aircraft was still flying at 38 kts, inside of an air mass moving the opposite way at 40kts, leaving my groundspeed relative to the earth at a paltry -2 kts.

This highlights a typical issue with small aircraft travel. When your airplane only moves at 105 kts in calm air, and you add a 40 kt headwind, the relative groundspeed ends up at 65 kts. A pretty slow way to travel.

Life is the same. 

The people you surround yourself with are 'air mass'. 

Your velocity and the location you end up at are dependent upon the ‘air’ you fly within.

Choose your winds wisely, and make sure they are blowing in the direction you want to go.

• Now that’s a peak ethos.