Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:18:26 -0400, c186282 wrote:

   Once landed a Cessna when a huge headwind gust came up when I was
   just four or five feet above the runway.
   QUICKLY 'flew' it down because in a few secs the headwind would stop
   and I've had had zero airspeed. Instead, landed at zero GROUND speed.
   Freaky. In distant retrospect I was the only kid they'd rent a plane
   on gusty days - had a knack for it.

Better than the birds. For whatever reason the stretch of road south of
Carson City NV can be pretty windy. I watched a bird land who, I don't
think you could call it negative ground speed, was rather surprised when
he was going backwards at touchdown. Not very graceful.

I also watched a raven playing in the wind breaking over a ridge line. He
had zero ground speed and was happily gliding about six feet off the
ground. He would slowly lose altitude and give a couple of flaps to get
back up.

No wonder humans spend centuries asking "Why can't we do that?"