Apologies for my mis-typing..
Of course I meant 135 knots with the tailwind, not 155.
God forbid I should exaggerate.
Also, it occurred to me that I understated the eclipse itself.
Was it worth it ?
Yes, .....definitely ! (personal view)
---From our airbourne platform, we could see that hundreds of thousands of
people
had turned out to
witness a sheer coincidence (relative size/distance of sun and moon) which gives
the onlooker some idea
of his/her importance in the grand scheme of things. (nothing). Very humbling.
Also, I'm always amazed at the accuracy of the straightforward application of
equations given by Newtonian
mechanics and Kepler's laws to something so grand. Accuracy to within fractions
of a second over years
and years and years !
The aircraft afforded us a head start on everyone who was 'ground bound' at
10.30
BST on Wednesday
morning. We could choose which way to head, within a sixty mile radius, from an
observation deck 2000 ft
in the air, having already selected the most favourable area of the country.
Obviously, this increased the chances
of a successful viewing. As someone who has always had an interest in astronomy
and cosmology, I'll be forever
grateful for that.
alan
Alan D Stewart wrote:
> Our trip was successful too, and although the tailwind produced ground
> speeds of up to 155 knots at times, the Europa's true airspeed remained
> a constant,
> and predictable 115 - 120 knots, giving a typical 105 - 110 knots over
> the ground,
> for flight planning purposes. (produces surprisingly accurate results !)
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