Sometimes it's best to stay on the ground. What are everyone's experiences with the wind?

I think there are still too many people who will push on with a flight which takes them beyond their experience and ability levels.

But… how do you know where these lie?

The way GA flying works for so many people is like this:

1) Get your PPL by flying only on nice days (most instructors don’t allow solo time unless the wx is really very good, because you are flying “on their license”)

2) Go for a flight when there are 3 clouds in the sky. Club President puts his hand on your shoulder (or on your leg, if you are a gurl ) and says “young man [lady], are you sure this is safe… I see three clouds and your experience is a maximum of one cloud”

3) On the advice of this old wise man (ex national air force; he prevented the Russian invasion in the 1960s) you scrap the flight

4) Next time you fly you see 2 clouds. 2 clouds is only 1 cloud less than the 3 clouds which led you to scrap the flight. So it is quite similar and equally dangerous. You scrap the flight.

5) Next time you fly you see 1 clouds. 1 clouds is only 1 cloud less than the 2 clouds which led you to scrap the flight. So it is quite similar and equally dangerous. You scrap the flight.

6) There is no perfect blue sky for the next 1 year and 11 months, and then your medical comes up (€200) and because you have not been flying you have to rent a spamcan and an examiner (€200) to keep your PPL. So you chuck it in.

This is what happens to roughly 90% of new PPLs.

Your ability levels are according to your currency on type. The best thing is to fly regularly, and not scrap a flight unless the conditions are technically unflyable. Speaking of wind, I would fly up to the max demo wind figure, every time. Learn to use the rudder and the ailerons, to straighten the plane in the last bit of the approach. You can practice this high up, and it is anyway a good idea to test it further back the final approach so you have it clear in your mind which leg to use.

Peter wrote:

The best thing is to fly regularly, and not scrap a flight unless the conditions are technically unflyable

Towing gliders at Oppdal, there is practically no such thing as technically unflyable, only the “comfort zone” of the tow pilot I actually reached the limit once. Up above rotors and stuff, the gliders measured wind speed of 180 km/h. When they landed, rather spooked, they said this is the limit, we don’t fly anymore today.

I did not know it beforehand, but my home-base has wind statistics that look like this:

and a runway 01/19.
I keep telling myself it’s why it took me so many hours to solo.
Students here will be exposed to crosswind, there’s no way around it.

On the other hand we can’t but stay proficient. Crosswind 10kts and below is no wind. The challenge starts around 15-16kts.
Crab and put a wing down in the flare.

Arne wrote:

On the other hand we can’t but stay proficient. Crosswind 10kts and below is no wind

That is an excuse if you want to practice crabbing as you will definitely need some wind
If you are used to cross-control, you can invent as much as wind as you want for practices
You don’t have a choice if you fly something with high nose, no flaps and crap fwd visibility, apart from assuming cross-wind

The hard bit I struggle to prepare for is landing with cross-wind after instrument/visual, even with good ceiling margins but I think it has to do with my “low landing currency” in an IFR touring aircraft…

Peter wrote:

Club President puts his hand on your shoulder (or on your leg, if you are a gurl ) and says “young man [lady], are you sure this is safe… I see three clouds and your experience is a maximum of one cloud”

You must introduce me to one of these amazing club presidents some day!

Peter wrote:

2) Go for a flight when there are 3 clouds in the sky. Club President puts his hand on your shoulder (or on your leg, if you are a gurl ) and says “young man [lady], are you sure this is safe… I see three clouds and your experience is a maximum of one cloud”

Depends which school/place you learn/fly in, in CAS you would have a hard time not just from the club president…

In a CAS place, you may need 1000ft from cumulus clouds, if there are 3 up there it gets tricky same when the school manual for a C172 mandates 8kts max cross-wind

As LeSving mentioned on gliders, if you learn flying OCAS (e.g. gliders, military, own strip) that is when the fun begins regrading flying conditions but then you start to get scared of CAS clearances, ATZ transits, filing flight plans, crossing-borders…

If you go zero-to-ATPL you maybe scared of everything but then who cares you will not be flying GA anyway

Ibra wrote:

the school manual for a C172 mandates 8kts max cross-wind

Sadly, I can imagine this. This is where well informed students/rental pilots must act like an educated customer; the logic goes like this:

You taught/are teaching me to be a competent pilot, to fly a plane within its limitations, and recommended techniques. Those values are determined for a pilot of average skill (not a super pilot). So, if I’m a pilot of average skill, why would you presume to further restrict the operation of the aircraft? Oh, ‘cause you’ve had problems in the past? Perhaps you were not training/checking out pilots in a way to bring them to the level of “average”! I, the customer, demand to be at least average, and treated as such!

I admit it, when I first started flying my taildragger flying boat, I checked myself out, and scared myself a few times. My home runway is quite narrow (I have about 5 feet from each wing tip float to a runway light), so crosswinds scared me. I did not fly on crosswind days. One winter day, it was a really steady 22 knots right down my runway, so I mustered the confidence for a “windy day” flight in the ’boat. I went out and practiced landings and forced approaches on the ice of a nearby lake. Then, having built some fresh confidence that day, I started landing out of the wind. After a few circuits, I was landing in that same 22 knot wind as a direct crosswind, with no difficulty at all. It was during that afternoon of practice, I had not only the crosswind management revelation, but also the revelation that the tailwheel does bugger all to keep a plane straight along the runway at “flying speeds” – because, I could fly really nicely controlled crosswind landings, and hold the desired path along the surface, down to about 15 MPH, slower than which the rudder became ineffective, and the plane would weathercock into the wind, because on the ice, the tailwheel had zero friction to control direction when the plane slowed below flying speed.

From that day onward, I would be aware of crosswinds, but not fearful of them. I have taken a number of trips in Canada where there is no practical alternate. Having flown several hundred miles to the only airport around, you’re going to land, rather than return to your origin (unless you’re IFR, then you probably filed your origin as your alternate!). You just manage whatever wind is there when you get there! It’s surprising what you can do, when you don’t know what you can’t do!