Had headwinds both ways on my trip to southern California this weekend. Generally, you'll get a tailwind southbound, but not always. Well, not this week.
And then coming back, it was brutal! I started off at FL260, in part to clear a little bit of weather over the Sierras, and as I went further northbound, the worse the winds became... and the lower I went. I ended up at FL180, with the winds still increasing. Of course, the lower you go, the more fuel you burn... each time I went lower, the wind speed dropped, and then as I headed north, it picked up again.
There was a Citation Mustang doing a similar route at FL360, and he only had about 10-15 knots on me. I'm sure the winds were stronger up there.
I did get to hear our own Steve Binette also headed northbound, so that's something.
