Date: Tuesday, December 25, 2001, 1:38:57 PM Subject: Nice flight from SBA to SDL Howdy all, We had a very nice flight from SBA (Santa Barbara, CA) to SDL (Scottsdale, AZ) this past Saturday. The wind was slight at departure, and calm on arrival. We had, perhaps, two or three "bumps" in our entire flight, even over the mountains from Palm Springs to Buckeye, otherwise it was as smooth as glass. The approach to SDL over Phoenix, which occurred in the dark, was very beautiful: we got to see the city ahead all lit up like one giant Christmas decoration. Darcia was pointing out the most brightly lit houses to the kids, with the well-lit Christmas decorations being clearly visible from 3500 ft. The Phoenix approach control must have been bored; usually, with VFR Flight Following, Phoenix Approach refuses handoffs, and I stay VFR under the Class B airspace, but this time they authorized me through the airspace, with vectors to SDL -- I think it gave them something to do on this otherwise unusually quiet night. When I did the pre-flight, the winds aloft were something like 300-310 @ 30 kts at 9000 MSL. I couldn't believe it! Usually, when we fly to Scottsdale, it seems that we have 12 to 20 kt headwind -- both ways! Well, it turned out to actually be true! As I took various samples of IAS/TAS/GS readings throughout the flight, it was amazing to see the differences. As you can guess from my astonishment, I've rarely had the fortune to have good tailwinds. Over Banning, our IAS was showing something like 108 kts, and the TAS from the GPS was 123 kts, but the groundspeed was 153 kts! This was with four passengers (two adults and two kids) and about 320 lbs of baggage and Christmas gifts. -- Best regards, Alan K. Stebbens , N4184R, PA32-300, SBA