August Winds

[Thunderboy]

just stepped outside and was almost blown away, looks like the august winds have arrived although according to Met they only 15kts at ground

Tomorrow 06zulu is set to be 25 knts FALA and out west to Lichtenburg 40knts

[The Agent]

Be very careful when leaving the cabbage petch in the windy months.

[Arnulf]

Today was not good to fly. On recommendation of my trike mentor, I decided to cancel my flight this morning. Was a bit disappointed , because I wanted to take my wife for the first flip with me in a trike.

[Ian]

Be very careful when leaving the cabbage petch in the windy months.

Yep, very true, you soon learn that its far better to be on the ground wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were on terra firma...

I remember Rustenberg sun 'n fun in 2004, blew so hard we left our TBirds there for the night, tied down with 5 tie downs..

An experienced guy flew a TBird up the RG runway backwards... then landed with almost 0 ground roll..

The flight back to Crosswinds the next day was real interesting .. full rudder was just enough to land.. Although its reassuring to have Orient close by with runways in every direction..

Cheers ian

[t-bird]

Started my GPL “Gyro plane licences” in August last year.
On the second solo flight the wind started to pick-up and was blowing 27 kt gusting 30 kt 45 degrees cross.
Everything was ok till the round-out. I was flying to slow and started to fly backwards. The rotor was still into the wind, but with the controls now reversed, I was flying with the wind backwards. I was moved from the centreline at Brakpan to the grass field. Had one hell of fright, taxied back to centreline and took off for another circuit. My instructor was jumping up and down next to the runway and tried to get hold of me on the radio. With all the stress I kept the PTT button pressed down. He eventually got hold of me on down wind and just told me to land with power. Worked like a charm. The wind was blowing with every flight and I was almost caught out with my first calm landing

[Biggles]

On what was supposed to be 2nd hour solo, went up with the instructor and decided it was to windy for solo, with a 6 knot 45degree crosswind. So we decided to do some advanced training. There was an experienced triker in the circut doing and touch and gos. Learned more in that hour than any other lesson. On the down wind watching the other trike landing with a talk though on how he was doing it from my instructor, having to deal with it myself a few moments later. Went a long way to learning how the trike handles, how much input is needed, doing smooth movements despite moments of terror in turbulance coming of the hangars and increasing my confidence dealing with Cape Towns winds.

[DieselFan]

I reckon thats one of the coolest things about Gyros when taxing in winds you don't have a wing to hold or worry about!

[Thunderboy]

Right now outside - Rain, lightning and WINDS

Deffinatley no flying this week

[DieselFan]

Right now outside - Rain, lightning and WINDS

Deffinatley no flying this week

I don't use the crapp SA weather service. My international forecast showed rain 10 days ago today, and has been a lot more accurate. This week it looks like wind should be more of a concern. Not going below 18km/h for next 9 days.

[DieselFan]

Odd my edit or delete button not here

[kb]

Yes, the august winds are here as well. (debben)

but, it does look like the wing is a howler in JNB today

FAJS 011200Z 011324 35020G30KT 9999 SCT028 FEW040CB BKN080 TEMPO
1319 24025G35KT 5000 TSRA BKN015 FM2000 25014G24KT CAVOK
TX11/13ZTN07/24Z=

[DieselFan]

DF what weather website do you use

I have a weather plugin in my browser (Maxthon, IE but nicer) for the 9-10 day forecast. Normally the rain would be roughly Tues / Wed then close to time say 5 days it gets way more accurate.

It helps with planning whether to take the bike or car during the week. I've checked where it gets it's data from http://www.weather.com

and the other really cool site is
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/fin ... query=fajs

here you can check predictions on morning and afternoon NOT min and max only but wind, rain etc. histories of places too, 5 year avg's etc - nice for planning trips. Today it was easy to see if the rain had hit Pretoria yet, by looking at the LIVE weatherstation stats.

From my limited understanding all these sites use the same RAW Metar data and make predictions based on that. Well I had SA weather, news, 2 plugins and this site. I now only use two which have been most accurate.

The plugin showed rain last week already today, but wrongfully 40% yesterday and by Thursday lastweek 0% for yesterday. For me the plugin predictions have been more accurate.

[DieselFan]

I see that instead of the plugin you can use RSS feeds, I will see if I can make nicer app tho.

[Duck Rogers]

Wed, 2 Aug. 06:25 am........It's a screamer outside!
Will you Cape Town guys PLEASE close the fridge AND shut the door

Duck Rogers

[Leprachaun]

As one of me previous instructors once said , " if in doubt , no doubt " if ya not sure about flying , phone the weather office , Pretoria 0822339800 , or Jhb 0822339600, these fellas are pretty accurate , sometimes if ya tell em its for aviation , they will want ya to phone JHB international , but in such a case I ask for weather as I wnna be a Pap gooier at Harties , and the report has been pretty accurate ,
May the Leprachauns protect ya all ,
Ps while ya cant fly , feed Ya lawn with some LAN and give plenty water . , Leprachaun