Hey Bill. Welcome home.

Way back when, I had a Goldberg Classic Skylark 56. I had an OS 52 Surpass four stroke on it. It flew just great for me.. when there wasn't any wind. I didn't have enough experience to know the difference so I put it up one day with similar winds as you described, however, the wind was fairly straight down the runway. I flew it as i would a trainer, came in on final and chopped the throttle thinking I would glide it on in for a landing.

Well, that's not what happened. The wind was strong enough to lift the plane up and over and upside down for a moment. I managed to get it upright but I kept trying to fly it back, but the more I tried, the further it got. Little did I realize at the time that I forgot to open up the throttle. Oops.. to much of a brain load at the time for a novice like I was then. It continued flying away from me until I tried to turn it again, and over it went, spiraled down into the ground.

There wasn't enough left to salvage, unfortunately.. it was a complete pile of scrap.

I was not going to fly that day because of the wind, but I said, what the hey.. what can go wrong.. the wind is favorable.

CGr.