its just by the time my dad can getr me to the field It's about 4 and everybody' gone because the wind is gusting to 20. Then we just leave having wasted our whole afternoon and anout 30-40 dollers of gas ( in the car). Then my dad says the same thing will happen the next week so we dont go.
Awww man..... don't do that!!!
There is an excellent website that shows forecasts for the winds. It's the US flying weather forecast and displays an excellent "graph" that's real easy to use and shows time slices during each day so you can see how the wind is going to behave for that day, and the next, and the next. It's BIG TIME USEFUL!!!
Before you plan on flying and ESPECIALLY before you drive all the way out to the flying field, use this forecast to see what the winds are going to be doing. Hey, we got the technology to save ourselves time and money, we'd be smart to use it for sure.
All you have to do is go into the website and put in your state and then put in the closest city to your flying field. It'll show you the wind direction, strength, what the clouds will probably look like, how warm/cold it'll be, how probable it is that it's going to rain..... just a TON of information.
You planning on going flying tomorrow? it'll show you what tomorrow is probably going to be like. The example I've included is for around here. I'm planning to fly early this morning and not this afternoon. I don't mind the wind this afternoon, but am flying a brand new airplane and prefer to do the trim flights in the calmest wind for that day.
Look in the upper left. That's where you input your state. Right below that you input the nearest town. The result will be like my included attachment only it'll be for where you fly.
[8D]See the orange graph? That's what the temps are expected to be. Notice that you get a forecast for every couple of hours.
[8D]See the greenish graph? The green/blue bumpy line? That's the wind speeds. Good info. The forecast is usually slightly lower than we see at our field because it's a wide open field that is rather flat for miles around it. Yours will vary too, but not by much.
[8D]In between those two graphs is the wind direction. I've taken a compass to my field and know it's heading. So I can look at those arrows for wind direction and know what to expect when I get to the field. Looking at the arrows for 8am today, I know the wind will be over the south pit shelter so it'll be across the runway. And it's only going to be around 8mph. Decent enough winds.
[8D]That blue line with clouds all along it shows where your cloud cover/ceiling is going to be.
[8D]Below that is all the other forecast stuff. A valuable bit of info there is the probability of rain.
Hey, it's up-to-date for when you do it. Right then. And useful for 3 days of info.