Umm, if you're saying we can make the assumption that wind speed is zero, then when the plane is on the ground, GROUND SPEED = AIR SPEED... So there is no reason to "assume" what we're talking about...

Wheel spinning is NOT a measurement of speed. The speed of any vehicle on wheels is a FUNCTION OF THE WHEEL SPIN, and NOT the wheel spin. For proof, how do you convert wheel spin into speed? You have to take the radius of the wheel, do some math, and you can convert the spinning revolutions per second into miles per hour of horizontal movement. The revs per second are NOT speed!!! The CF'ers do not realize this... If tires spinning always equaled the speed of movement of the vehicle, then a) you could never get stuck in mud because if your tires were spinning, you'd be moving, and b) there would be no need to adjust for larger/smaller tire sizes for your speedo...

Here's the math for those that can actually follow along. For those that can't, please keep believing the plane won't take off...

A wheel's axle moves 1 ft/s horizontally. What is the radius & revolution per second required to match?

You've got two unknowns. Let's simplify by saying the Circumference of the wheel is 1', so the revolutions per second = 1 rev/s, as the full circumfernce would travel the 1' horizontal distance the axle moves.

So, C=2*pi*r. C is 1 rev/s. Solving for r and you've got a wheel radius of 0.5pi, or 1.57'.

Ok, so now this tire is spinning at the EXACT same speed as the axle/tire combination is moving horizonatally.

But what if we don't want a 1.57' tire. What if we want a 2' tire? Then what happens.

Back-solving for C=2*pi*r, and you have a circumference of 4pi, or 12.57'.

For each revolution of the tire, the axle would move horizonatlly 12.57', so, if the axle moves only 1', the tire rotated only 1/12.57 = .08 revolutions.

So, the axle is moving at 1 ft/s. The tire is rotating at only 0.08 rev/s.

Oops. The tire's rotation speed and the horizontal movement are NOT the same... Which proves that unless a couple initial conditions are absolutely met, the wheel does NOT spin around an axle at the same rate the axle moves horizontally... That makes since, considering when you're doing a burn-out, stuck in mud, etc., your tires are spinning like mad, but the axles are only moving a little, if at all.

So what's this all mean to the CF'ers? It means 1) they got lost a long time ago as soon as reason entered the conversation, and 2) even with the math in front of their face, they still aren't going to believe a tire can rotate independent of the axle movement.

Which is a shame, 'cause I did a pretty cool burnout on my motorcycle yesterday, and yet the bike didn't move an inch.... If I lived in the CF'ers world, that wouldn't have been possible.