"Peter" wrote in message
news:dAYrb.121381$9E1.602249@attbi_s52...
Gary Mishler wrote:

Think about it, if airplanes "weathervaned" in flight every
plane in the sky would want to turn into the wind instead of going where
you
wanted it to.

When I wrote the above I was referring to actual wind because I thought
(right or wrong) that was what the post I was replying to was referring to.

With the rare exception of a few planes doing acrobatic maneuvers, all the
ones I've seen flying are in fact pointing into their relative wind (or at
least within a few degrees of it).

Absolutly correct when you are talking about relative wind rather than
actual winds.
Again, I was talking actual winds and you were talking relative wind.

This thread got very confusing because posts and replies were mixing
relative vs. actual wind and some were confusing coordinated turns vs side
slips.

I think if everyone goes back through the thread we would find that we all
would agree *IF* we were all on the same page using the same assumptions of
actual/relative wind and turn/slip.