If you're at the beach, then look around for a good slope. In populated areas, the good slopes are easy for even a newbie to spot. The good slopes always have some glider guys flying on them. chuckle.....

Those guys know the trick to enjoying this model flying hobby.

I'm not kidding. You don't have a slope plane, but if you're grounding yourself because you can't handle the winds that're going to be around all day, then use that day to find out how to make use of that wind. You will have an enjoyable time even if you don't fly yourself.

I mostly fly power stuff. But I've got a couple of gliders waiting on the ceiling racks. And when the wind blows.....

The truth is that slope soaring works excellent for newbies to expand their skills. Very often the slopes sort out the winds on blustery days. They force the winds that come against them so those winds are more laminar along the face of the hills. Days that are god-awful on the flats are smooth (but powerful) on the slopes. Lots of times the slope is easier to handle than anywhere else. BTW, I've taken the prop off a highwing trainer and sloped the sucker for hours. It was a blast.... chuckle.... and so was the wind that day.... And I'm sure I'm not the only one to have ever sloped a power model.

And keep in mind that newbies to slope soaring learn to fly when the wind is blowing. They not only learn to twiddle the sticks, but they get an appreciation of just how unintimidating strong winds can be. You'd be surprised at what you don't know about the winds you fear right now. Chances are good that most days the flags standing out and scare you away from the flying field are actually "usable" days because a lot of them are fairly smooth days.

BTW..... Having flown gliders maybe more than I've flown power, I've learned from the glider guiding that most windy days are actually "wind cycle" days. Most gusty days, the gusts come at predictable intervals. I get a big kick out of my flying buddies who tell me that I'm just lucky to always miss the really strong gusts on all my landings. Truth is, I don't always. But I've learned to watch for the gust cycle and play it to my benefit. It's not always perfectly predictable, but it's almost always MOSTLY predictable. And if I miss the prediction when I'm about to take off, I hold for a couple more gusts. Or if I'm on approach and the heavy gusts start back up "a little earlier than I thought they would", I take the sucker around again.

I've recently gotten a kewl little handheld gadget made by Kestrel. It's a little weather station but one excellent function is that it can chart the wind over time. I've already used it to show a buddy how to schedule his takeoffs and landings around the wind. That day, the cycle was just about perfectly on 5 minutes. We both took off in mild headwinds and landed in mild wind. Yeah, it got blustery when we were up, but no big deal. It beat sitting at home. He used to look at me like I was nuts until I could show him the graph.

The wind is your friend. It lengthens the runway.