How windy is too windy?

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Yeah - I'll fly something easily replaceable once the wind gets stronger - replaceable either quickly and/or relatively cheaply!!

The thing is it isn't all about the absolute wind strength I don't think. A constant (ish) wind straight along the strip is no big issue at all. A cross wind in wide open field often isn't much of a problem.

But a wind that is gusting strongly, or cross coming from over the tress behind you and generating an intermittant down-rotor - now there's a challenge!!

Of course actually flying in any wind is easy really - its only the last 3 seconds of the approach and landing you need to worry about!! Its not the wind that does the damage - its the ground!

BEB

[malcolm woodcock 1]

Last week I went to my usual flying field and the wind was moving around a bit. Managed two flights and got both models down safely, even if my heart rate had reached dodgy levels. Next day wind was just from one direction, managed nine flights before duty called. Wind speeds were forecast to be between 10 mph and 12 mph on both days.

[Ian Jones]

Depends on:

• Model suitability for the wind at the time and
• Pilot ability

An indoor GWS Tiger Moth will struggle in a 10mph wind even with a very experienced pilt but any trainer model in the hand of a novice would probably have few problems.

10mph at a slope though and there would be pleanty of complaints that the wind wasn't strong enough to do much with. Many pilots at a slop would look forward to flying in wind 30mph ++, few would fly relish that at flying field with a powered model.

Then as BEB says, there's the gust factor.

So, there is no blanket answer to the OP's question.

[Old Geezer]

Really it's just a case of horses for courses. If I didn't get out today (yesterday!) - due to upcoming work commitments there would be no opportunity of flying again until next Tuesday ---- so I took the Slipstream (Flying Wings) and the Black Bogey up to the field for a fix - had the place to myself and exhausted 4 packs in an hour - brilliant! As I noted in the Log Book, "Windy and Challenging". The safest way of getting either down in the conditions was to fly them into the nettles on the edge of the patch.

Just take the right 'horses' - in this case an overpowered foam sloper and a similarly gee'd up sort of Spad combat model made of Correx - both cheap airframes, both designed to cope with pretty well any conditions that most folk would ever want to fly in.

[Dave Bran]

Well if EASA achieve their intentions "wind" will be a total show stopper, ANY wind.