Comments on: How Much Wind is Too Much Wind?

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:11:36 +0000

Zack: It’s the gust spread that’ll get you. Imagine this: the wind is 15G25. So one minute, you have 15 MPH and the next you have 25. How do you think that’ll affect lift when flying into the wind? Or away from it?

Not a biggie when you’re cruising, but it could affect you near the ground. Keep it in mind.

Have fun and fly safe!

By: Zack

Zack — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:00:24 +0000

I’m just getting my commercial license now few weeks left actually, and I’m going to go rock some full down autos in 18 knot winds gusting 25. wooop

By: Maria Langer

Maria Langer — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:00:55 +0000

The flight actually went very well. The winds were pretty calm for most of the survey area. There was a rocky bluff and a handful of buttes, however, where the wind did some weird things on the lee side. Had trouble doing the slow flight without pointing into the wind there. One or two minor cases of LTE that the R44 got through without too much trouble. What’s sometimes scary about LTE is that one way to get out of it is to push the cyclic forward and get some airspeed, but when you’re flying 50-100 feet off the deck, the resulting dip in altitude can be a bit unnerving. And if you’re heavy and already pulling about as much pitch as you can, there’s not much you can do to avoid the dip.

But it worked out okay.

I’ve done some ag work — drying cherries — but so far have been fortunate enough not to have to fly those missions in high winds. After all, if the wind is stiff enough, the trees don’t need a hovering helicopter to shake the water off — the wind will do it.

By: Blake Burrett

Blake Burrett — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:11:32 +0000

I am also not a very high hour pilot, but i get free flight time from my school by helping in frost control missions. When we travel to the airport we will be working from, we have to go if we want flight time, so we basically don’t have a choice. Before I started doing this, I was uncomfortable flying above 12 kts. After a couple flights in 25-30 kts, gusting over 40, I got over it.

I’m still iffy about flying in conditions over 15 kts, but only because of taxiing and getting myself into LTE, not anything once i’m up in the air.

The only times I’ve gotten myself into LTE have been in a hover, and the robinson let me recover nicely. I have yet to experience severe lte while I had a decent airspeed. You shouldn’t have a problem with that forecast.

By: Craig Parsons

Craig Parsons — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:48:22 +0000

I am much lower hour'd than you Maria at circa 150. Your comments on being "mothered" by FIs while learning rings a bell. Luckily my radio work is good; but I think over here they are way to cautious of wind too. I personally won't lift if the wind is forecast > 20kts; with a max 10kt spread; and never gusting >25kts. Luckily, our Met office are normally fairly accurate! Really good article! Craig Parsons´s last blog post: Robbie is Rotor & Wing Hot Item!

By: Jason Miller

Jason Miller — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:16:48 +0000

For me, an airplane flier, I'll cancel a flight if the gust factor is over 10 kts or the crosswind is pushing to within a few kts of the demonstrated crosswind component for the airplane. I also tend to avoid steady winds over 25 kts, even when there is little gust factor, since it gets pretty bumpy pretty quick. If I'm taking up a non-pilot (sight-seeing for fun) then I usually halve my normal limits. Jason Miller´s last blog post: Looking straight down from 2000 feet