I was always afraid of wind untill a friend taught me to fly on a slope with a motorless glider in 30mph wind. this training was a huge breakthrough for me in learning 3d. flying a glider using air power for lift, learning how to pin it against the wave, learning to rise by using down elevator rather than up. learning to recover from stalls with no power, since everything moves in slow motion you learn how to be more patient and hold inputs at multi points and release slowly on the back side rather than to pump sticks. since you are continuously flying a glider in high wind there is no time to relax or get lazy on the sticks - just like flying 3d. one day we had a steady wind of 55 mph, I had to climb out the back door of van because I could not open the side door into wind. I put on my ski goggles and ear plugs. holding my 3m glider in one hand just in front of wing and my radio with other, I was walking horizontal to ground, it felt like I would leave the ground, my feet were loosing traction as I struggled to the edge of slope. I looked over at my budy standing next to me - his lips were moving but I could not hear anything. my all carbon fiber glider was flaping like a bird, I could barely hold it steady, I looked down at radio - it was on, all switches were right but I noticed that the entena was wrapped around my body ready to snap off - I held the radio at an angle with the wind to keep the entena attatched. I had my elevator trim all the way forward or down for launch. I let it go - it went about 4 feet in front and stopped very calm and smooth, I pushed forward (down) on the elevator stick, the tail came up - nose down and my glider went straight up out of sight. I flew for about 45 minutes - giant 1/4 mile loops, full rolling circles, giant stall turns with rolls, high speed passes over 150mph. it was the most fun I have ever had in rc. when flying in high wind with 3d power plane you actually use the wind power rather than prop, you can land/take off verticle. fly backwards while rolling. I like to surf the wave rolling horizontal along the face. wind flying is another dimention in rc just like 3d, dynamic soaring, etc. next time it is windy grab a beater and practice, eventually wind will be no big deal just a different set of manuvers.