Practicing in Strong Winds

[jed241 at msn.com]

Help a Rookie Thread.

Today I decided to face my fears of flying in winds over 10mph. 

The take off was uneventful and the initial turn was a bit bumpy. Once up to speed I was able to perform interesting loops and stall turns and the like for sportsman with a 20mph to 25mph wind (don't know what it was gusting at). I have never seen a plane fly over the top of the loop at a 45 degree angle to keep the loop a circle, then kind of flip over the top and perform the next radius almost at a vertical down line again to keep the loop a circle before the 270 degree point.

I was having such great success and building great confidence when I then realized I need to land at some point of this flight and didn't try any slow passes for landing. This is when the pucker factor kicked in.

The 1st pass I made was too far out and too fast. Not intending to land just gauge the speed and learn how the plane was going to react. The turn off of the pass took the pucker factor up to the next level as a gust caught the upper wing and rolled me inverted. In a panic, I just kept rolling until I was upright. This proved to be the right decision as I think the other option to recover would have put me in the ground.

Now came the second pass, too fast for airspeed and too slow for ground speed. My wings were getting bounced from left to right and had a difficult time keeping them level. Learning from the last pass I decided I didn't need to bank that hard for turning back on the down wind. Bumpy, but much smoother.

Knowing that I don't have much fuel left at this point, maybe two more passes tops, the pucker factor reached a new high. I'm way beyond the knees knocking at this point.

On the 3rd pass I lined up ok and started reeling it in trying to manage the throttle to save fuel and keep a steady airspeed above stalling. Had a good line up, then the wind shifted and pushed me out over the long grass in a cross wind gust. I had a choice to either bail the landing or feed my plane to the Grass Gods (2 feet tall). I decided the tall grass was a better idea in this situation than to try and force another landing knowing the fuel situation.

I was able to softly feed the plane to the Grass Gods which in return showed it's kindness by offering a soft cushion. I was down finally and my son was laughing  and awing about how cool that landing was as I started to clean out my pants.There was no damage to the plane.

Now the question, "When the wind is strong is there any air barrier close to the ground (like ground effect) that once you enter, it stops bouncing you around? I didn't see it when I put the plane in the grass which was about 2 feet tall.

The one thing I did learn is that a bigger plane would probably handle better than this Aresti 40..ha... Is there a conversion factor that says what this wind reacts to a 40 size plane Vs a 2 meter plane? <g>

I did enjoy the experience, but don't recommend anyone flying in a bumpy 20mph wind with a 40 size plane.

Oh, I only had enough fuel to probably make it half way down the runway on the down wind leg, a tad bit more than a half ounce.

Would like any thoughts on how the plane reacts as it gets closer to the ground on windy days. I fly off of a grass runway. As there a difference for paved runways?

Larry

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