Wind

27 posts in this topic

Posted

Just curious, what is the highest wind you have flown in?  I have been turned up 90 deg before in this crack (opps, valley) I fly out of and was curious if I am the only one who  is a  tad gunshy of gusty winds. And I'll be honest about it, I "Don't like it".

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Posted

Yes friend, you’re not alone.  Strong gusty days make for a lotta work and can take all the fun out of flying these light wonders. Gotta pick your days. 

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Posted

I'm kind of a wuss as well.  I like the last hour of the evening.  Did get to go for a 400 mile cross country in the middle of last Sunday afternoon though.  Course I was in a Cherokee 6, so that made some difference... Still ended up with that last hour of sunset though on the way back.  JImChuk

Jackson Mi flight 1.jpg

Jackson Mi 2.jpg

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Posted

Flying around here anymore in mid day is a "high fiber diet".  Your rear end munches on the seat cushion from take off till landing. I think I'll start buying seat cushions by the dozen. I generally lose one every flight.

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Posted

All the same for all of us riding light aircraft. Strong gusting, strong turbulence and icing are phenomena I am very afraid of.

And I am definitely sure.

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Posted

For me the issue is always the crosswind component and the gust spread. I will fly in 25 knots with gust spread below 10k, but it should be nearly straight down a runway. Any length runway, with a real 20 to 25 knots, the Avid lands at maybe 25 ground speed when you walk it on at stall +15 mph.

If there is a crosswind, I use about 8 knot crosswind as my max component, and even then I am wired. I flew mine in California at 20 to 25 knots with 10 knot gusts down the runway and had a ball.

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Posted

For me the issue is always the crosswind component and the gust spread. I will fly in 25 knots with gust spread below 10k, but it should be nearly straight down a runway. Any length runway, with a real 20 to 25 knots, the Avid lands at maybe 25 ground speed when you walk it on at stall +15 mph.

If there is a crosswind, I use about 8 knot crosswind as my max component, and even then I am wired. I flew mine in California at 20 to 25 knots with 10 knot gusts down the runway and had a ball.

I think I'll leave that type of wind to you pro's. Around here in these ridges in a 25 kt wind, we won't even open the hangar door. Since my valley is approx. 300-500' wide in the narrow part, the venturi effect takes place and the wind speeds up quite a bit, throw in a 90 deg valley on one side and you have a nice side gust with no room to rock and roll. Plus a one way strip and always a tailwind. Call me a wuss or whatever, my days of that are long gone. I use the tissue test, drop a tissue and if it lands on your feet, OK.  My max is 0 gusting to one or maybe two. An old instructor use to say if the wind was more than 50% of your stall speed, it was risky.

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Posted

I'm  with you Allen. I'm  just a fair weather flyer.  I keep it to sunrise and sunset flights. After all these are fair weather flying airplanes, not cross country flyers. 

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Posted

For me it depends on how far I have to fly.  I have had trips that normally take me 1-1.5 hrs take over 4 hrs.  Not the smartest thing to keep pressing on but I wanted to get away from reality in a bad way.  Same trip has also been done in 32 minutes.  All depends on how I am feeling the day of the flight.  Some days I say screw it and never leave the ground, others I will get off the ground in a few feet and do a few tough and goes down the length of the runway just playing around.  The biggest issue is turning crosswind when taxing back in to the tie downs.

:BC:

 

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Posted

Allen, as you mentioned, it depends so much on the terrain.  30 mph winds are doable in open terrain as long as the gusts are not too severe but not in the mountains, at least not for me.  I tend to poke my nose into the mountain valley for a ways and see if I get slapped before I decide if I am going to continue or turn around.  If you know your valley, you know how much wind it takes before it becomes not worth it to go up.

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Posted

I just watched a 20 mph wind (according to my weather station) take down my flagpole. Around here, flying a 450-500lb airplane would be suicide in this. I'll leave this flying to you good pilots. Not for me!  I might have been born in the dark, but it dang sure wasn't last night. At my age, nothing I need to prove anymore. I'll stay in the chicken house.

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Posted

For me, 20-23 mph steady wind, no gusting is probably the maximum doable, if I really need to fly - if I am speaking about Stylus - Avid like plane, empty weight is about 750 lbs, MTOW 1250 lbs.

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Posted

Around here I've never seen a steady wind over 7-8 mph. Always gusts. There isn't much training for flying in gusting, swirling, washing machine type winds, outside of just trying to maintain control the best one can. And a lot of times, you are just a passenger with a stick in your hand. Not for me!

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Posted

It seems like here around here if I take off in a 10mph wind when I get above 300 feet its always 20 to 30mph more really sucks when im trying to get some where.

 

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Posted

It seems like here around here if I take off in a 10mph wind when I get above 300 feet its always 20 to 30mph more really sucks when im trying to get some where.

 

That's exactly what happens here. I have a treeline that I climb above on take off. As soon as I clear them, yeehaw!  Works better than Exlax!

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Posted

The biggest winds I have landed in were around 30. I turned it into as much of a headwind as I could by landing in a curving motion. It was on grass and I landed mostly across the runway to keep as much of the wind component as possible headwind. I was unable to taxi because the plane would only weather vane. Had it been pavement it would have been a total shits show wreck.

I have flown backwards before. That was fun. We were playing in pretty high winds above a ridge not too far from town and were surfing the windward up slope. i was able to slow down to an idle and watch the gps go to zero and start counting up again. It was kind of creepy and I did not do it for too long because I was getting sucked up and over the ridge and did not want to end up getting tumbled in the rotors on the lee side. this ridge is known far and wide for sailplanes to go into the stratosphere wave surfing.

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Posted

 

I have flown backwards before. That was fun. We were playing in pretty high winds above a ridge not too far from town and were surfing the windward up slope. i was able to slow down to an idle and watch the gps go to zero and start counting up again. It was kind of creepy and I did not do it for too long because I was getting sucked up and over the ridge and did not want to end up getting tumbled in the rotors on the lee side. this ridge is known far and wide for sailplanes to go into the stratosphere wave surfing.

Flying backward is fun.One of our local pilots flew a circuit,maintaining an into wind heading the whole way!

45 kts is the most I have flown in.to add insult to the situation,even the logging trucks were passing me like I was standing still.

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Posted

My rule is try to keep it below the "this is gonna hurt" moment. And I don't like much pain anymore. Old age has that covered.

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Posted

Well, if I am speaking about wind speed troubles or limits, it is always matter of T/O or landing, close to ground.

In the case  of cross-country i.e. across Europe from Slovakia to Italy or Croatia, we are often flying in levels of favorable tailwind 40-50 knots, we are even planning such trips considering wind speed. My Stylus was able to fly 100-110 knots ground speed with 80 knots indicated (Rotax 80 HP). But such conditions are very rare in the winter, even day is very short and conditions are very unstable here usually. Turbulence and wind gusting can be very big troublemaker here as well. But country is beautiful from Stylus... as you can see

Gabo3.jpg

Gabo4.jpg

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Posted

We get a "Gap Wind" here in Ellensburg WA.  Wind blows through the Snoqualmie Pass gap  that acts like a venturi.  On one flight when I was near the end of 40 hour test flight phase on my model 4 kitfox it was calm early in the morning with forecast for wind later in the day.  I decided to go ahead on my planed test flight and just listen to the ASOS broadcast and head back to the airport when the wind started to pick up.  The runway is aligned with the gap wind so no problem I thought.

I didn't think it through very well and headed out to the east.  The strong wind always blows from the west. I kept checking the ASOS until the broadcast wind was 13.  I headed back then noticed I wasn't making much progress over the ground.  Air speed was 80 mph but my hand held GPS speed over the ground was 30.  It took me about an hour to get to the airport.

When I entered my normal mid field pattern entry the ASOS wind was 23.  I made my normal turn to final at 1/2 mile from the runway threshold and slowed to 50 mph.  The Kitfox started descending but made no forward progress.  I increased power to normal cruise setting of 5800 RPM and pointed the nose down.  When over the threshold I raised the nose to 3 point attitude and the Kitfox set down gently right on the numbers with zero ground roll and the taxi way exit to the left.

The Kitfox has powerful controls and didn't have any problems taxing back to my trailer.  Once in a while a cub will land here in those winds but they usually just sit on the runway pointed into the wind with power on and call the FBO for a couple people to come out and hold the wing tips while they taxi to parking.

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Posted

Come to think of it, A group of three of us (3 planes) were on our way to Arlington from Tri-Cities a few years ago and winds were so bad we decided to bed down in the hallway of the FBO there in Ellensberg and make a go over the mountains in the morning. I think that landing was the closest I have ever come to a helicopter landing without any ground roll. Luckily winds were directly down the runway instead of crosswind, and also relatively smooth as opposed to gusty, but the wind was ripping there!

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Posted

For my TD endorsement training I never had a sesh with much crosswind.  I, like Allen, am a bit intimidated by strong winds & big gusts.  I know what to do, but just have not done it in anything but light winds.  I am comfortable with the forward slip, but the bird doesn't feel graceful with the entry/exit, perhaps due to its adverse yaw characteristics.  Crabbing it in, then transitioning into the slip just before touchdown, like Flightchops Steve does seems out of the question.  It's comforting to get an idea of what the airplane can handle in hands more skilled than my own.  Just this discussion has ramped up my fear threshold a bit.  Thanks, guys!

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Posted

Ellensburg wing gauge.jpg

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Posted

That reminds me of the Wyoming wing sock I have a picture of.  JImChuk

Wyoming Wind Sock.png

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Posted

I can attest to the accuracy of that Wyoming windsock after I drove through there in the middle of March.  One stop I had to go around to the passenger side to get in.  The drivers side had the wind blowing directly on it and I couldn't open the door.

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