Originally Posted by
HighPlains
Just about everybody with any stick time has flown in winds high enough to stop their model in one spot over the runway. I've done it in a full sized Cessna 152 while under the hood. My instructor was having me hold a heading and altitude while slowing the airplane down to just a few mph over stall speed which would be about 50 mph. I didn't know what he was up to until he had me remove the hood and look down at the airplanes shadow. It was stopped near a road. The real excitement of that flight was landing at an away airport and getting off the runway and tied down. I got out of the airplane to hold the upwind strut so we could turn off to taxi to the tie down area. Once there, I had to hold the brakes and keep the engine running while he tied down the plane. On returning to our local airport he showed me just how far the ailerons will really go (the yoke was upside down) to correct for cross winds. After that lesson, I always tried to have my flights on days with more cross winds because a wind down the runway is just too easy.
ROFLOL!
I checked in with Approach Control with Information Hotel while over the north practice area one fine morning as a front blew in. I was in a C-150, had the flaps full down, the engine at idle with the carb heat pulled, and pointed into the wind. The little protector over the pitot tube wouldn't stay open so the airspeed kept going to 0. It took Approach Control a couple of minutes to notice and start yelling because my ground track was opposite of reported heading. Now THAT was a blast! The hardest one was the landing for fuel at OKC with a 26 knot headwind in a C-152. The landing was cake, taxiing to parking was just plain hard work..
I fly models in places where there is high wind and manage to land without too much embarrassment although some of the approaches look real strange!. Take off, start the left turn and hold it until lined up for final... OOPS! That is normal for me.
Some 30 years ago I went to an event in west Texas. All I had was .25 sized airplanes. As I was assembling them someone came up and told me I couldn't fly those there so I asked why. They said the wind was too bad for anything smaller than .60 sized planes. I owned their sky for the entire weekend! Now they fly .25 sized planes there.
The next year I borrowed Kadet Senior just for that event. It had some significant modifications - straight wing, conventional gear, a four stroke (OS 61?), a glider launch assembly and servo, and HUGE flaps! I was trying to back it down to a landing but chickened out when the plane got unstable in the roiling air about a foot or so off the ground - I was having trouble flaring the tail wheel 'properly'. We would get a gust and I had to work the elevator and the tail wheel would go here or there. I hate breaking someone else's airplane so I gave up.
Seriously, when you use the wide short runway to take off it is accepted proof that there might be some wind. When you LAND on that same runway, mere mortals like me pack up and leave the field to you.
Try flying on the coast for a lesson in wind 'management'