Britbrat makes a good point. I'll take 40MPH straight line winds over 15 gusting to 25 with turbulence any day. It is the unpredictable airflow that is the killer, be it from gusts or ground clutter. Our typical winds in summer are 15 to 20 MPH, but 30-40 is not uncommon and we can get some killer thermals. The highest wind I flew in was around 40-45MPH but the wind was fairly constant and predictable. I also used a 35% aerobatic ship that weighed 30 lbs and had 2:1 thrust to weight. It was more work than a calm day, but it wasn’t super hard to fly in and the flight was uneventful. I am lucky in that our field is basically clutter free for 1 mile in all directions. We will get thermals off the crops nearby and sometimes rotors from the sun shelters and club house, but nothing like what Britbrat has to deal with. Again I’ll stress to wind newbies, the danger is getting too slow, esp takeoff and landings. Wind gusts/turbulence works faster than the plane/pilot can react, so you want a nice safety buffer above your stall speed. Cheers.