It's been very windy here today and I couldn't wait anymore so I took my trusty Corona out for a spin in the backyard. winds were 12MPH, gusting to 25MPH but I forged ahead anyway. What an experience! Definitely a white-knuckle ride. It's very hard to hold altitude in the wind with a fixed pitch heli and a gust would send my poor Corona up high very quickly unless I reacted quickly. Only thing to do was cut the power, nose it over and wait for it to start dropping, then power into the wind. A few of the gusts were barely manageable... Full power and nose down into the wind was barely holding ground. I wouldn't have dared to try it with my VE even though it's collective pitch. It would just be too expensive to repair when compared to a Corona imitating a lawn dart.