can a micro fly in a 1 or 2 mph breeze or does it have to be dead calm?

Heh... A Micro can fly in any wind...

The question is what can the pilot fly the plane in?

The more experience you have the better you'll be able to fly in higher speed winds, but micros tend to hit a wall ( so to speak ) when the wind speed exceeds their maximum flight speeds.

In this situation you may not be able to get the model to come back to you when it is flying into the wind!

A lot also depends on where you are trying to fly. If there are even small or distant obstacles they can cause turbulence that may be too much for your aircraft to handle. If your micro has a higher wing loading it will do better than a light wing loading.

okay thanks. because i have seen people flying the champ in 5mph winds, but it seems very tough.

Stronger steady wind is also much better than lighter gusts.

Tom

really? how? i would think its opposite.

Steady wind only affects your ground speed and track if there is no turbulence. Gusts or turbulence even with light winds can cause stalls and/or loss of control due to the light weight and low airspeed range of most micros.

In other words, if you point the nose into the wind, and the wind is steady, then you only need power to move it.. to get ground speed in the direction you want it.

With gusts, that varies... even with the nose into the wind, with a variable wind.. gusts, you will constantly be on the throttle trying to maintain a constant positive ground speed.

oh okay thanks. so that means if i were to lets say fly in 1-2mph gusts, it would be a little more work than flying in constant 2mph or 1mph winds?

Yes, but depending on your skill level you may not have much trouble. It is just more work, until the gusts excceeds the difference between stall speed and cruise speed. So if you cruise at 10 MPH and stall is 5 MPH then you should avoid gusts greater than 4 MPH.

okay thanks. is there a way i can calculate stall speed and cruise speed or is it just trial and error?

I tend to just get a feel for the plane and what it can handle, but you could find a calm day and set up two points of a known distance and time how long it takes to travel that far. This gives you ft. per sec. and there are calculators on the web that will convert it for you.

okay thanks.

Those little micros you've been asking about aren't going to fly on a typical day in your backyard in the hands of a novice pilot. The champ might handle a few mph in a wide open space, but every item in the wind's path creates turbulence. That means that it will fly in swirling, inconsistent wind that, at best, will keep the pilot busy maintaining heading (assuming the pilot is already skilled enough to do that when he's not fighting wind) and at worst will exceed the flight capabilities of the plane.

May want to try a high school gym for the first couple of flights t o kind of get the hang of things before you try outdoors. What doesn't seem like anything to you, can change once you hit 20 ft altitude, and combine that with any trimming issues, you could have a real handful. You would use the indoor experience to make sure your trims are as close to hands off neutral as you can make them. Then when trying to fly outdoors, you have one less thing to concern yourself with. My buddy crashed my little coax heli by getting gutsy with it after flying in his garage. He said he didn't feel a thing as far as breeze, but about 15 ft away from the opening of the garage, the heli got pushed about 75 ft before he tried to put it down.

I have the PZ Mustang and Night vapor. the Mustang will handle the wind and can be alot of fun in the wind. Just have to remember to kill the throttle input if you get into trouble. The Night vapor I have been flying every night this week. But it needs almost dead calm. It so light that I'm afraid the wind will just carry it away. But the Mustang can handle 10 MPH fairly easy. Its a tough little plane as well. IMHO micros like the mustang are a good way to learn flying in the wind. As long as you know the direction of the wind and there are no trees neardby to get blown into, you should have a blast. I would suggest getting your plane trimmed out on a calm day before flying in the wind. The wind can also make doing things like loops easier, as some of the micros especially the PNP of BNF versions are underpowered. As I said before, most micros are built to withstand a few mishaps. Just be ready to chop the throttle and damage should be minimal. As RC pilots, we need to learn to fly in the wind, cause 98% of the time, there's a wind a blowing.

A micro in 5+ mph winds is like a mylar balloon in a tornado, no matter HOW good the pilot is. Winds WIN! All depends on how fast you can run. Some pilots can do 5 mph on footbut not many!

You know your in too much wind when flying become more work and less fun. A 1 ounce plane in a 3 mph wind can be bounced around a lot. Planes like my Ember 2 are very sensitive to thermals and like the winds to be 3 mph or less, and my Night Vapor doesn't like it over 1 -2 mph. The Cub will do better due the the slightly heavier wing loading but above 4 - 5 mph may become a lot less fun and more work until you have some good experience. Surprisingly my Ember 2 does better in the wind than my SU-26.

But when it's deal calm outside these little guys are a real blast to fly from the driveway.

Hogflyer

You have to do some arithmetic to really understand the effect of "light" wind on a micro. In the case of a Cub, the full scale version has a 35 foot wingspan, while the UM Cub is 18 inches. That's 1/23 scale for size. It's not a perfect comparison, but calculating the wind means that a 4 mph breeze in the UM feels like a 92 mph breeze for the full scale version. No sane pilot would fly in that. An even more practical comparison is to compare with other things that the wind tosses around. A big maple leaf has close to the same area to weight ratio, as does a sheet of cardboard. Look how much effect a light wind has on those items to get an idea of what you're fighting to fly in it with a UM model.
My flying is mostly 40-60 size nitro planes, but I've come up with a rule of thumb that seems to serve me well for figuring wind. I try to stay below 1/3 of my plane's top speed in wind speed for planes that are good in the wind, and below 1/4 in planes that are not. My Stick is good in the wind and can go about 60 mph. So I find that 20mph wind is flyable weather, although the workload does increase near the ground where the turbulence is worse. For my Cub, it doesn't go over 50, so about 12 mph is all I fly it in. I'm thinking the UM Cub or Champ will top out around 7-8 mph, so over 2mph wind is the limit. It take 4-5 to make leaves move on the trees, so even "dead calm" may still be too much air movement for comfortable flight.

okay thanks. well im thinking of flying in the field of my school. would you say that a parkflyer would be a better choice and can handle wind a little better?

If you are going to be flying outdoors then yes a park flyer is the way to go.

okay thanks. are there any parkflyers you would recommend as a trainer?

As has been recommended to you at least 3 times that I've seen, the Hobby Zone Super Cub is a decent teach yourself to fly trainer. The GWS Slow Stick ain't half bad either.

I would recommend the [link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHCJ2&P=ML]GWS Slow Stick[/link] It is affordable and includes a motor. However, you will need an Rx/Tx, speed controller and servos. The great thing about this bird, is that there are parts available, in case you need to replace anything.

This plane can handle a few mph of wind, but not much more. That shouldn't be a problem, because your first flights should be on a calm day.

I would also recommend connecting with a experienced flyer to look over your plane. You should be able to find one at a local club. The AMA website has club information. Also get an AMA Parkflyer membership.

I can safely say, that if you take the proper steps, you'll have greater success and more fun! But beware of the addiction!!

okay thanks. well i have never built an rc before so thats why i was thinking of a rtf. but, if the GWS slow stick is a very simple build then i may be able to handle it.