I could hear the wind buffeting the vinyl siding when I got out of bed at 6:00AM. My "Flurry" weather clock said it was blustery in Reading, but I needed more information before I could make a decision.Most of the area airports were reporting some winds, but many were only 10-15MPH and close to runway heading. So far, my monthly escape into the blue was a Go. That was at 6:30Am. Each half hour it got a bit worse, picking up speed and veering more out of the Northwest. My backyard weather station showed average wind speed to be increasing.
Hmm, what am I comfortable with? Gusts to 20MPH at 45 degrees to the runway is unacceptable to me. If I check the performance data (Fig 5-8) I'm still within the envelope for the crosswind component for the airplane, but what about me? If I were flying every week maybe, but once a month even with my experience, has degraded my abilities. So what is a reasonable metric?
Gusts less than 18MPH within 30 degrees.
So I've set my "rule of thumb" for guidance, now what are the current conditions? Rats. Not only Wings, but all of the local area fields are outside my criteria and the trend continues to get worse.
Reservation from 02/19/10 10:00 to 02/19/10 12:00 has been canceled.
Weather - gusty winds
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Dave,
ReplyDeleteHow many of us were making the same decisions this morning??? I was! At ILG it's pretty easy in and out with multiple w i d e runways. Everywhere else we have to plan it out. I agree with your "rule of thumb", I was not comfortable today from a proficiency frame of mind, the gusty winds and pilot reports of wind shear at my destination today was enough to toss the keys back in the flight bag. We will both fly another day!!