Hello; Here's a little tip for beginners about flying in the wind; I took my Typhoon out to the field on a windy day. First I should say that Our flying field is a cow pasture ringed by 2 to 4000 foot high hills. I was doing pretty good, stationary rolls, and even a stationary knife edge for a few seconds. I noticed that the higher I went the more wind there was, until about 100 feet high, the plane no longer had enough power to get upwind. By the time I noticed that it was getting too far away, I dove towards the ground, but I was blown into the trees about 120 feet from the edge of the field. The only thing I could do was dive into the trees, and get a landmark so I could find the wreckage. By this time all the planes were blowing away and everybody was scrambling to catch them, and getting them put safely away.

I walked directly to where I saw it come down, it was about 200 feet into the trees, about chest high hanging in a huge blackberry bush. I was surprised that only the covering was punctured, and the elevator was a little bit chewed on one side. The wing joiner had pulled out of one wing, but pretty much no damage.

As I was walking back with the plane, I remembered a lecture from one of our old timers, about wind gradiant. This means that if on the ground it is blowing 15 mph, at 100 feet it'll be blowing 25 mph, and at 300 feet, it could be blowing 50 mph. Of course the wind picked up while I was flying, but I was shocked when I realized that I didn't have enough power to get back unless I was low to the ground.

Now I know that the Typhoon is not a high wind plane, and that I was tempting fate flying that day. It drove the "wind gradiant" lesson home.