RCU Forums - View Single Post - You know it's windy when....
View Single Post
Old 08-27-2013 | 10:39 AM
  #37  
earlwb's Avatar
earlwb
 
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 5,993
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes on 3 Posts
From: Grapevine, TX
Default

You know it is too windy when your plane doesn't need to get any ground speed to fly. Or the plane can't make headway against the wind and you wind up going way downrange to try to land.

I had that happen years ago on a windy November day and I really wanted to fly that day. I had to hold the plane up until I was ready to fly and it was quite tricky as it wanted to fly just sitting there on the ground. It was a problem trying to start the engine and not have the plane flip over on me in the process. Anyway, take off was more like a Harrier jet taking off, no rolling off down the runway, just give it throttle and up and away it went. The plane would flash byu fast on the downwind leg and take a long time going upwind. Later the engine flamed out and the plane couldn't penetrate and I wound up landing way downwind from where it took off from. I don't think it had any ground speed doing it either. It was fun hovering around in the air too. I was idling the engine too long and it stalled out on me.

Yeah I have my "windy day planes" too. But if I do a lot of flying when it is windy, I get so I have a lot of trouble landing the planes when it isn't windy.