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North Atlantic Crossing

dash8pilot From Canada, joined Mar 2005, 85 posts, RR: 0
Posted (4 months 3 hours ago) and read 3503 times:

I was just browsing flightradar 24, I have noticed that most west bound traffic crossing the Atlantic ocean are using a very northerly routing today (Monday, 1600 Zulu), anyone know why?

12 replies: All unread, jump to last

longhauler From Canada, joined Mar 2004, 4275 posts, RR: 36
Reply 1, posted (4 months 3 hours ago) and read 3452 times:

Probably winds. The NAT tracks are set up for minimum wind west bound, maximum wind east bound.

Never gonna grow up, never gonna slow down .... Barefoot Blue Jean Night

SpaceshipDC10 From Canada, joined Jan 2013, 410 posts, RR: 0
Reply 2, posted (4 months 3 hours ago) and read 3386 times:

Most probably winds. It's been like since a few days already. For instance, AC831 has just flown off the tip of Greenland, but last week that same flight flew right over Greenland soil. Also last week, one day AC830 left YUL half an hour late, if not more, and arrived one hour early at its destination.

Mir From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 19700 posts, RR: 56
Reply 3, posted (4 months 3 hours ago) and read 3353 times:

Quoting longhauler (Reply 1):
Probably winds.

Yup. The jetstream is currently very wide and strong, and to get around it you need to go pretty far north.

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag133/originalusernamehere/ATLJetstream012113_zps70b2d5c0.gif

The southern-most track today goes up to 58N (the top of the shaded area). If you go a little further north, you can actually get a bit of a tailwind going west, which will compensate a little bit for the increased distance.

-Mir

7 billion, one nation, imagination...it's a beautiful day

rwy04lga From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 2145 posts, RR: 7
Reply 4, posted (4 months 3 hours ago) and read 3340 times:

As an airline pilot, you should've known the obvious answer.

Perhaps you were just testing us.

The early bird gets the worm, BUT...the second mouse gets the cheese!

dash8pilot From Canada, joined Mar 2005, 85 posts, RR: 0
Reply 5, posted (4 months 2 hours ago) and read 3279 times:

Well it was my first guess, but remember not to many dash 8 pilots are trained to cross the atlantic..

SpaceshipDC10 From Canada, joined Jan 2013, 410 posts, RR: 0
Reply 6, posted (4 months 2 hours ago) and read 3262 times:

Quoting Mir (Reply 3):

Thanks for the map.Quite strong winds indeed.

e38 From United States of America, joined May 2008, 231 posts, RR: 0
Reply 7, posted (3 months 3 weeks 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 2746 times:

Quoting rwy04lga (Reply 4), "As an airline pilot, you should've known the obvious answer."

rwy04lga, he's just a kid; as he mentioned, probably has not had a transatlantic crossing yet.

Mir, the graphics are excellent.

e38

[Edited 2013-01-25 12:15:54]

SpaceshipDC10 From Canada, joined Jan 2013, 410 posts, RR: 0
Reply 8, posted (2 months 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 1385 times:

There must be some pretty strong westerly winds over the Atlantic these days. As I regularly follow AC 830/831 flights, I noticed eastbound flights going up above Greenland and getting late, while westward flights leaving late arrived either on time or early.

CosmicCruiser From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 2212 posts, RR: 16
Reply 9, posted (2 months 2 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago) and read 1321 times:

Quoting SpaceshipDC10 (Reply 8):
I noticed eastbound flights going up above Greenland and getting late, while westward flights leaving late arrived either on time or early.

Is that what you meant to say? Strong west winds and eastbound flts late while west bound early. Not usually.

rfields5421 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 6149 posts, RR: 25
Reply 10, posted (2 months 2 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 1301 times:

Quoting dash8pilot (Reply 5):
Well it was my first guess,

The San Francisco State University maps are excellent and always available. The loop feature is good at showing the recent changes.

http://squall.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html

SpaceshipDC10 From Canada, joined Jan 2013, 410 posts, RR: 0
Reply 11, posted (2 months 2 weeks 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1260 times:

Quoting CosmicCruiser (Reply 9):
Is that what you meant to say? Strong west winds and eastbound flts late while west bound early. Not usually.

No, what I meant to say is westbound flights arrived in Canada on time or early even though they had left late, while those going to Europe followed a more northerly route, producing a detour. Last night's flight flew right over the tip of Greenland, a month or so ago, it was the flight going the opposite way that followed that route. So I guess there are strong east winds over the Atlantic.

Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 21465 posts, RR: 24
Reply 12, posted (2 months 2 weeks 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 1101 times:

Quoting SpaceshipDC10 (Reply 8):
There must be some pretty strong westerly winds over the Atlantic these days. As I regularly follow AC 830/831 flights, I noticed eastbound flights going up above Greenland and getting late, while westward flights leaving late arrived either on time or early.

I flew on AC831 GVA-YUL on February 22. It left about half an hour late but arrived 10 minutes early. The captain said the delayed departure was due to unusual winds on the eastbound flight and the resulting arrival about 45 minutes late.

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