hi all

i own a MFA Yamamoto with an MDS .40 and was jsut curious as to how much wind it can handle, it has small wings and small control surfaces so its not the most agile aircraft and it tends to fly a bit fast for my liking, but how much wind will it take before it simply gets blown away?

should be o.k. in winds up to 25 m.p.h.

Oh boy, a great question. I had a Goldberg Skylark 56 a while back, it was my third plane, by the way. I had an OS 52 Surpass on board. This was a real pain to build because the plane was designed for a two stroke not a four stroke. I had to chip out some of the wood in the cheeks to get the throttle to work without binding against the cheeks. And, that throttle was on the opposite side which needed some modifications in the build process.

Anyway, that's besides the point. I flew it one day in February. The wind was rather brisk.. to say the least, blowing about 20 or so knots. I was not used to the wind, so I came in for a landing, and followed my usual process of chopping the throttle on final. Well, as soon as I did, the wind 'grabbed' the plane and off it went, in the opposite direction AND upside down!!! It took me a few seconds to react and by that time, it was a good 300 or so feet away and going away quickly.

I never reacted fast enough, never thought about the throttle (which was still at idle). I managed to get it turned back upright and pointed back towards me, but still forgot to add throttle. As soon as I turned it into the wind again, the wind caught it again and tossed it around, and it headed into the ground, spiraled in and that was that.

My point here is that, unless the wind is blowing your hat off or something, you will have to decide if the wind is to brisk for you to handle. There is no real number at which you should not fly.. beyond common sense that is. I would not fly if the wind was a a full gale or something.

I usually check the forecast, and if it's blowing more than 15, I may just not go out that day because we get enough flying days when it is not blowing 15 or so. But, that does not mean I cannot fly in 15, I just don't choose to. I was out one day when it was blowing about 20 or so but it was right down the center line, and it was actually fun to fly my pattern plane with that wind. A cross-runway wind, well, all bets are off.

DS.

As bigchap mentioned, 25 mph is a good limit for that aircraft, but if you are not comfortable don't fly even if the airplane can handle it.

I have flown in wind at 35 mph a couple of times (flying backwards on purpose) and never had the wind completely take an airplane inverted while in the air. I have had the wind flip over the airplane while taxiing though.

Yeah, it was exciting that day. I was a relative novice (well, I had solo'ed the past August and this was February.. so I was still pretty green, and considering that I forgot the throttle was at idle, shows you that I was still pretty green). It indeed flipped over and flew upside down, pretty much by itself, while I was struggling to get it turned around and turned over. Just to much overload at one time for my pea-brain to process at once. And the wind was just one factor.. a big one, but one factor that day.

I`m still a young pilot and learned to fly in heavy winds . A good guage for me is to set the plane on the runway , if the wind will try to pick up and turn it over , it`s to windy for me.
CG , to fly inverted 300 ft. with the wind is a feat in it`s self. I would of smucked it when it flipped over.

As others have said above, 25 mph shouldn't be too much to fly in. But it's more than just the plane that should be considered, you should also consider the pilot. What you are comfortable flying in is just as big of a factor as the plane. If you have never flown in that much wind before you probably shouldn't start out flying in that much wind. You'll need to work up to that much wind. When wind starts getting that high you have other considerations to factor in, like turbulence caused from objects on the ground. My advice would be to start out with winds in the 10-15 mph range and work up to that much wind.

I read on here that people get grounded because of winds 15+ mph and I chuckle. 10-15 mph is a normal flying day for us here in Oklahoma. I tell all of my students that they have to learn to fly in the winds if they want to fly here Oklahoma, otherwise they'd only get to fly 3-4 days a year. It's kind of funny that on those rare windless days we do get none of us can get decent landings, we keep overshooting the runway without the wind to slow us down. I personally have flown in winds that were around 40 mph, but I definitely didn't enjoy it all. And if I'm not going to enjoy flying it's really not worth going out to fly.

Hope this helps

Ken

theres some good advice here, many thanks all!

turbulance is also playing in the back of my mind as our field is covered by tall thick trees at the front, and a few trees and bushes on the sides (the back is clear and extends into the horizon over fields and whatnot) and even in docile winds i can see the tail swinging a bit, ive seen some of the Electric fliers fly backwards in winds where my big gasser would be happy [X(]

is wind less of a factor with bigger planes or is it easier to fly in wind with smaller planes? (such as a 4* 60 and a 4* 40)

We put up a calibrated windsock at our control line flying field. It goes straight out at 15 MPH. I am now confident to fly in winds I would have regarded as excessive before. If someone tells you a wind speed and they don't have some type of calibrated measuring device (there are many, some cheap and good), just smile and say un-huh and go about your business uninformed. [&o]

back 37 years ago when I was learning to fly it was looking at how flags were blowing in the wind.if it was straight out and not draping stay home.3/4 of the flag straight questionable.if light planes can fly most sport type planes can fly depending on the experience of the pilots.I see a lot of post about flying in the wind .as with anything it takes practice and experience I never had a problem flying in the wind due to my choice of trainer which was a falcon 56 with an os 35 that was silk covered and weighed 5 1/2 pounds dry.the semi symetrical wing makes a big difference in wind, not to mention the higher wing loading.the other thing I noticed is a lot of beginners have no flag on the tx antennae to monitor wind direction and velocity while landing.back then we all had to have flags to identify frequency and it became second nature to always check wind direction and velocity by looking at the flags every know and then.kind of loke checking your side veiw mirror while driving.

You know it's too much wind when your plane flys backwards... and you don't have a variable pitch prop on it. [sm=lol.gif] Ive had that happen to my Electric Wing Dragon once. I flew down wind and I exhausted my battery pack trying to make it back to the field,


Luftwaffe Oberst
Radio Aero Modelers Club
AMA District II
Pulaski, NY