To cadetman & troglotech: Thank you for your comments on winds & gusts. I look forward to experimenting with different plane designs in different weather conditions after I become more proficient.

For right now I think us newbies need to learn under the calmest conditions we can find. We learn primarily by observing the airplane response to a given control input, and any disturbance by weather just overloads a novice pilot. Another issue is that weather aloft is often different from here on the planet surface.

Thank you again.