Flying in 15 mph winds
 

HI guys . I am a beginner and was wondering what would be your opinion in flying my plane at 15/17 mph winds, I have a Wot 4 foam-e .

Just would like to fly tomorrow and the weather forecast says that there is some wind .

if you're a beginner, the chances of it ending well are slim. The plane can do it, and as you get better it'll be possible. But I would sit tomorrow out.

Good advice Thanks. 7 mph is ok right?

it's really impossible to tell. If you feel comfortable, try it.

Flying in wind depends on the pilot mostly, and the plane to some extent.
Newbies are best advised to keep it under 5mph at first. The simple basics of up/down/right/left become entirely confused and too fast as the wind picks up. You need to have no hesitation AT ALL on how to react and do it instantly or you crash. If you still have to think about what to do and find yourself reacting to your plane instead of flying it where and how you want > you aren't ready for wind yet.

Of simply, if you have to ask, you aren't ready.

When you start out, you really don't want to fly in anything over 5 mph. All your energy is going to be spent controlling the plane and saving it from your own overcompensation, so you don't need wind to add to the confusion. This is especially true if you fly micros or anything smaller than, say, 40" wing span.

The good news is that once you have gotten past the first phases of noob-ness and learn to control your plane (this is where I am in my learning process), wind becomes much less of an issue. I can fly my ParkZone T-28D in 15 mph without much problems now. Three months ago, I would have returned home with a bag of foam pellets...

Wind has some potentially nasty side effects.

Your air speed changes dramatically based on which way the plane is going vs the wind.

Sitting on the ground not moving, pointed into a 15 mph wind, you are already going 15 mph. Pointed away from the wind you are going -15 mph, pointed to either side, you are going zero.

So as you try to fly a circle at a constant speed, your actual air speed keeps changing with a 30 mph overall swing.

Handling changes as the air speed changes

That much variation keeps you really busy just trying to stay in the air and not have your plane blown away. You can be in real trouble if the plane gets downwind from you.

I've put my 8 pound kilowatt powered model in the air at 15 MPH, even did one flight at 25 MPH. But it is not fun. At all.

Taking off and flying is usually not a problem if you have a fast and powerful model. The problem is the landings. Even if the wind is blowing straight down the runway (and it usually is not), the wind at 20 feet high can be very different than the wind at 5 feet off the ground.

So, while you're making your approach in the 15 Mph at 20 feet, you get near the ground, where the wind is now 5 MPH, and your model just lost airspeed, and pounds into the ground. Result is bent landing gear or worse.

I once flew a very light model in 12 MPH winds. Got it back to the ground very nicely. Then I taxied the model back to the pit area. While doing the taxi back to the pit, the wind picked the model off the ground and cart wheeled it a few times, and busted the fuse in half. Fixed it, but that plane now sits in my work shop without a motor or radio.

Hey now,
Everything they said is true. Gotta admit that. Still as we say at our coastal field " if you never fly In Adverse conditions you never learn how to fly in adverse conditions.". If you always wait for ideal conditions you spend a lot of time waiting around. Comes a time you have to push your limits. Makes you better at making repairs too ;-)
RobII

The problem with a weather forecast "15mph wind" is that it's quite likely to be gusting to 25-30mph at unexpected moments. If you have little experience of flying or even experience with that plane I'd give it a miss.

I recently tried a first flight with a fairly light model (not unlike that WOT4 foamy) in similar conditions and I'm still repairing it. A gust caught it on takeoff and I never really caught up with it for the rest of the 15 second flight...all the way back to the ground :(. Now I'm not a brilliant pilot but I do have some experience. I knew it was too windy but I'd carried it out to the strip and I wanted to fly. Bad idea ;).

Steve

Wait for the wind to be as calm as it's likely to get, or as long as you can stand it, whichever comes first.

If you live in some places, it *never* gets calm and you gots to take your chances. I certainly understand that. But the less wind you have to fight for you first flights, the better.

wind
 

A steady wind speed for myself (flying about a year, 100 hrs plus) is not normally the issue, it's when you get the gusts and they change direction:eek:


Be prepared, be careful and most of all don't get disappointed to easily it's a whole lot tougher then it looks,.......yet it's a total blast once you get some stick time in

I just went to a flyin that the Gooney Birds Hosted http://gooney-birds.com/ and learned more then I ever thought I would, being around other flyer's.

Flying solo and being self taught, is a rough row to plow and can be very discouraging sometimes!

Is there a Club close to you?

As always fellow wattheads are here to help?

Keep some glue

Gooney Bird Flyin
 

Gooney Birds, Florence, SC



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Nice group of planes. But what's all that green stuff everywhere? Is that what spring is supposed to look like? Here everything is brown. Lol.

We call it grass down here, we can ship it if needed,... ;)

Forgot how nice grass looks when its green.
No leaves on the trees here till closer to June. Makes it hard to figure out the wind situation. Which brings us back to the original topic.
For first flights wind is really not a good thing. You'll have enough on your plate without having to contend with that.
Once you have some stick time get out there and enjoy the wind though.
I find I have more fun flying in windy conditions than calm. Especially with the micro flyers like the champ and such. You'll burn through more batteries in less time but its worth it.:D

I find that the problem is not as much the simple wind speed. Sometimes flying in 10mph winds is no problem. 5 mph winds may be a big problem on certain days and in certain locations.

The larger problem is air turbulence. Turbulent 5mph is much more difficult to fly in than 10 mph smooth air. Yes, normally there is higher turbulence with higher wind speeds, but this is not always true.

Turbulence is unpredictable and that's where the flying problems come in. A beginner pilot has to think too much and hasn't developed instantaneous motor reflexes that are essential in turbulence.

Practice by flying in bumpy 5 mph wind that is more an annoyance than a life threatening crisis.You'll need to keep your airspeed higher than normal, especially during landing and takeoff, as a sudden puff from behind can stall an airplane, which then falls into the ground with great vigor. It feels like you're literally sucked into the earth.

Finally, severe turbulence is best just avoided. Unfortunately, it is traditionally discovered after take-off and before the inevitable landing.:eek:

One thing for the new flyers, be wary of flying in windy weather around trees. Think of water flowing down river around rocks. Same thing for flying conditions a few hundred feet downwind from big trees, all sorts of turbulence.

Hey friends , flown on a 13 MPH winds, challenging to land but made it all in one piece , changes in speeds were quite dramatic and I must say that the landings were interesting, but no repairs needed and everything is in one piece. I got about 10/13 minutes on a single battery which is good I guess and still had quite a bit of charge left . Anyway I hope the wind comes down so I can go out more and more . Britain is today sunny and a little windy .

Great advice from everyone . Thank you

Great job. Wind can be your friend.
If its anything around your parts as it is here ( always some wind ) you end up flying anything during any conditions.
If I were to wait for good flying conditions I'd never be out there flying.

Thanks . I guess is a matter of practice !!! It is my first experience on flying electric and I was wondering if you have any tips on how many batteries I should buy. I have a field charger but it takes about 1hr and 30 minutes to charge a lipo 2200 battery .

That's a good question. There is no clear answer though as everyone does things a little differently.
I buy as many batteries per plane as I can afford. I charge several batteries for each plane I take with me to the field and do no field charging at all.
That works for me cause I usually don't have long periods of time in which to fly.
For example. I have 4 eflite 4 port chargers for the batteries for the champ and um t-28. Ill take 16 charged batteries with me to the field to fly those two planes along with 4 for the mosquito. They charge quick and ill have lots of flying time.
For the larger planes ill bring 3 batteries to the field per plane I'm flying.
That's what works for me. You may find something that works for you that is drastically different.

Grats on the successful wind flight.

I like to have 3 of each type of battery that I am using and 2 planes that can share each battery type

Wolfe

How many batteries? How many times are you likely to fly at a typical outing? If you fly at a club you'll likely fly fewer times with more time between flights than if you are a solo act. If you have two or three different aircraft with you then you'll need fewer batteries per aircraft. How much flying time do you get off a battery before it's 80% depleted; and how much time do you take between flights. How many can you afford. Does your charger handle one or multiple batteries?

Ya, so my point is that there is not any definitive answer, and every person will have theirvown unique set of conditions. If you are waiting for a battery to charge before you can fly again then you don't have enough. You really can't have too many.
Now a funny (to me) story about wind.
I'm a fairly new pilot. Last year our spring wind was stronger, more frequent (all the time) and continued clear into early summer. I've got to say that I had many many many successful head wind and crosswind landings over almost 5 months of wind. I'd put up an aircraft and fly it in place like a kite, and then land successfully with my final approach and touchdown slower than I walk thanks to the wind
Then, at last the summer calm arrived. The air was so still that day I could take off or land in any direction. Things went great, until I slowed the plane down on final approach -- just as I had dozens of times over the previous few months. As the plane slowed but this time with no lift from the wind, my plane just fell. It took several attempts to retrain myself to fly in "ideal conditions"

Well, you did good sitting on the ground, but once you took it up in the air, you blew it. Sitting on the ground and not moving then yes, the air speed changes over the top of the wing just like anything else, but once you get in the air, all that changes. With an airplane flying, it doesn't care what the wind speed is, the AIR SPEED will stay the same. What will change is the ground speed and that has nothing to do with the way an airplane flies, it only has to do with the way it flies over a set course on the ground. If you have a wind speed of 10mph and an airspeed of 20mph, then the ground speed with the wind will be 30mph and 10mph into the wind, but the airspeed is not changing, it is the ground speed that is changing. The air speed stays constant at 20mph. Most new people get all messed up with this and try to slow the plane down while flying down wind thinking that the air speed went up, but only the ground speed went up, the air speed stayed the same.

Flying in turbulence is not fun at all if you are a new person to flying. The air speed is constantly changing due to a fast shift in wind that the plane cannot keep up with and the ups and downs will bounce you all over the place and the lighter the plane the worse it gets. The best time to fly is early morning or late evening when the wind dies down. That doesn't always happen, but most of the time it does.

If you have a good location where there is very little turbulence, then you can fly in more wind, but add turbulence and it changes everything. Best advice is to fly in the early morning or later in the day when the wind dies down.

Ed