This past weekend my wife and I participated in the Lone Star Air Rally in Galveston, Texas with our 1973 Cherokee 180. The course was 120 miles long and we had some pretty stiff winds (30kts crosswind) along the majority of the course. Our final average speed was 148 mph! I was really impressed. I have never flown this plane that fast and would not have believed it without doing it myself. For the most part, we were averaging 160 mph TAS. Once you take into account the crabbing needed to compensate for the crosswind and flying wide around the turns that explains the lower average speed.
I would not ever do this on a real x-country as we were burning some serious fuel the whole time.
I would encourage everyone to try this out as it was a real blast! http://www.sportairrace.org/
I would not ever do this on a real x-country as we were burning some serious fuel the whole time.
I would encourage everyone to try this out as it was a real blast! http://www.sportairrace.org/