ORIGINAL: maukaonyx
I'd like to buy an accurate wind meter someday. Like GB implies, most guys overestimate the wind speed. I like to cut their estimate in half and then I think we're close to the actual wind speed. Nevertheless, it is a lot of fun and you learn a lot by flying in the wind. And while many of the guys say this or that heavy plane would do well (maybe they are right), I like to take out my Funstar 40. It's my lightest plane, powered with an OS 52 four stroke, and it is the most fun on windy days. Great fun playing with throttle and elevator to stop it or even back up when going into the wind. And landings are fun on the short runway, or on the width of the runway if the wind is crosswind, to just about hover/harrier in like GB talks about. Rollout is just a few feet or less. I agree what gets folks in trouble is flying WITH the wind, downwind. They see their plane zipping down wind but with no control because the plane is in a stall in that moving mass of wind. They need to have that throttle on enough to give them forward airspeed and effective control within the mass of air that is moving downwind fast. Come back into the wind, and play again. On days like this, there is usually just one other guy and me playing. Jon
Jon, the wind Gage we use is a small unit and sold through Amazon.com for about $30.00. We were talking about them this week and one of the ground station type is on sale at {I think Kmart} but it is the one will all the weather and needs a mast to attach the wind meter.
My old student is one of those that won't fly in the wind. When I trained him to fly I took him up in all kinds of weather and never mentioned the term too much wind to him. It was after solo and he bought his own planes he started to freak about it.
Wind estimation is one of the biggest things people over estimate. So much so it's laughable. I see guys posting here stating they were flying there XYZ plane in 28 MPH winds all the time and just shrug it off with a smile. The wind meter puts truth into the statement.
I was once at the local IMAC event and it was called off because the wind was sustained at 28 MPH. A lot of people were upset about that but the basic pilots were thrilled. One pilot took up his 40% plane and was stunting, some other pilot took up his little electric like my Extra and would copy the 40%er side by side and stunt for stunt so I know I can fly my small planes in the higher winds. My 17 ounce plane handled it just fine but much more wind and it wouldn't go down wind very well. It's just one of those pilot things though. Bev once posted some windy day flying photos and she was keeping a trainer up about two feet off the start up stand, it was floating by itself in the wind, that was a cool shot.
It can be done, I was just surprised the OP took out his light weight plane on a windy day for the maiden. Wind doesn't bother me but on a new plane I wait for a nice calm day before I maiden. Once it's in trim I'm good to go but they are often hard to trim in the wind. It impressed me a lot.