I watch flag poles everywhere I go now. I never did that before...I barely even noticed them and now they are everywhere. And thank goodness for that! Unless it's straight out or blowing East/West, I now know I can fly!

I'm lucky, we have an airport with a control tower about 5 miles north of our field. There is a number to call for pilots that is a constant up to the second recorded report on weather. It tells you direction and speed plus gusts if any. We also have a wind direction and speed indicator at our field. The wind sock is OK but since we got the wind speed and direction indicator all I do is wait until the wind speed indicator that tells the digital read out what the speed is to to slow down and then I take off. I do the same when landing. If it doesn't slow down and I need to land I just try and land as close to the correct direction as possible. This is a very helpful tool and every field should have one. Even though I've been flying for a couple years now I still like calm days and here in Southern Wisconsin we get our fair share of 5 to 10 mph days. In the morning and evening it is usually dead calm. I love that.

Gibbs