Wind recomendation

[Bigdaddy7823]

Hey guys I'm a new guy here. I'm flying the Champ for my son and a sport cub S with Safe technology. I live near the beach here and we tend to have a good bit of wind. It has made it very difficult to train on these things and we are both starting to feel frustration spending most of our time fixing the planes. What's a good wind day to fly these little planes? We can get 5-10mph days but a lot are 10-15. Is there a magic number I can gauge by that will give us a good experience. Or should I just work towards bigger/heavier planes. There is no place to fly indoors here so I'm at a loss there. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Yikes! I think most people would say that less than about 5 mph is "calm", and most would agree that more than 10 mph is not great weather for learning to fly. I personally don't usually enjoy flying in high winds. I can do it, but it's way more stress than fun.

I'm always a little jealous of people who live near the beach, because y'all have perfect weather for slope soaring, pretty much all the time. I guess this is the flip-side of that. Maybe y'all need to find a flying site that is a bit of a ways inland (and calmer weather) until you get some more experience. It's nice to be able to go out your back door and fly, but it's not always in the cards. Eventually, if y'all get into gliders, you can really start making the most of that wind, but for now, probably best to stack the deck in your favor and find somewhere calm.

 

[jayz 84]

Ahhh i feel your pain when it comes to living close to the beach and dealing with the wind. So with that being said really with the planes you have and tring to learn how to fly. You need to shoot for under 10mph winds. I find it best just after sun rise the winds are pretty calm to none around the earily moring. But if you have no choice it is a much better idea to get a bigger heavier plane. There much more stable when it comes to flying in the wind. And easier to fly period

 

[Bigdaddy7823]

Ok I figured as much. Today we tried to go to the local ball field. Weather showed 7mph but when we got out there it was clearly 15-20. Thought we would give a try anyways since we have not flown since Christmas. Put the champ up and it immediately climbed to a stall then the wind took it away from us. All we could do was cut throttle and let it free fall. Ended up snapping the propeller shaft. Lesson learned. Thanks for the info.

 

[IFlyRCstuff]

Ditto.

I wouldn't take the champ up in more than 5mph winds. You also must take into account gusts and how continuous the wind is. Let's say the winds are 4 mph, go fly. Now let's say the winds are 4 mph with gusts to 7 mph, that is up to you (I wouldn't as a beginner). Now the winds are steady at 5 mph, but seem to shift every 20 or so seconds (shift as in more than 20 degrees angle difference) NO. Shifting winds tend to catch people by surprise, followed by unexpected things happening, followed by a dirt nap or pretty dang close.

 

[Stradawhovious]

Getting to the field and findi g the conditions ware not as expected kind of sucks.

Where are you getting your weather from? Have you tried wunderground.com?

Great site. Offers wind/temp maps that I find to be quite accurate.



They also put wind in their hourly forecast that extends for 10 days.

Again, quite accurate.

 

[RAM]

Here's another wind website http://www.sailflow.com/

 

[dukeFlywalker]

I feel you, I'm in Texas and I'm just starting out with fixed wing aircraft. Since finishing my Tiny Trainer (about two weeks ago) there have been zero days with wind under 10 mph and I'm beginning to think that the number of days per year with sub 5 mph wind could be counted on one hand...

 

[RAM]

The only way to defeat the wind is with gliders. Those pilots just add more weight and off they go having fun while the rest of us watch our planes get taken away on the wind.

Have to be nuts to fly on a windy day

 

[Nortmic]

I can fly my sport cub pretty well up to 10 miles per hour. After that, it becomes more stressful than fun.

 

[notreallyme]

If the wind is blowing to much for the planes and multirotors just pull out this
http://www.smoothwindkites.com/collections/power-kites/products/skydog-kites-first-foil

 

[Capt_Beavis]

Lol. that is what I did with the kids over spring break. It was more fun than expected.