Quick update on my progress guys:
I went out flying on Sunday. It was blowing around 23mph and gusting easily up to 30mph. Didn't think it would be that bad until I got the plane in the air. WOW!!! These trainers get thrown around a lot in those gusts. It really didn't help being in the wind shadow of some very tall trees which seemed to create some nasty turbulence when you went behind them or anything less than 20 feet above them. I also couldn't help feel that the little 40 Magnum GP was lacking a little in power for flying in this wind.
I could fly up wind at half throttle and the plane would pretty much hover in one place until a gust came along and turned it around of just threw it about a bit.
I tried making a few slow and low passes in anticipation of rough landing and wanted to minimise damage where possible. Well the plane would lift and drop by anything up to around 6 feet and was not looking good for landing.
I know I shouldn't really of been flying in such winds but I've always been a bit daft like that and love a challenge as long as its as safe as possible, which it was as the field was empty.
Eventually I found that the best way to land and maintain stability in such winds was to come in low under power and then just cut back quickly and get it down even quicker. Any slow reduction of speed and hanging around at stall speed was just going to result in the plane being flipped over or at best pushed back up into the air.
Despite the rather hars conditions I still made 3 flights just to try and get used to the strong winds and flying in them. Things like upwind turns seemed rather difficult and looking at the plane you would thing it had stopped flying halfway through the turn. Crazy weather to say the least.
I hope to get out tomorrow night for a normal flight in clam weather. I'll hopefully get some video as its long overdue.