Wind Speed and RC Planes

You probably haven’t put much thought into wind in your life, but it’s a big part of anyone’s life who wants to fly an RC airplane. For your first dozen flights, you’ll want a day with less than 3 mph of wind–hopefully, it will be completely calm. Winds are most calm just after sunrise or just after sunset, so plan to fly before or after work. To anticipate wind speed, punch your zip code into the USAirnet website.

Looking at the above graph, you can only conclude one thing: wind is evil. For a beginner, the wind should be below 3 MPH. It’s 0 MPH at 7am, which is perfect. Unfortunately, it’s also -5 degrees F. Look, I can only bundle up so much. At 20 degrees F, I don’t mind hanging out outside, but -5F is RIDICULOUS. The wind speed also falls below 3PM later in the day, but only after the sun has set. In summary, I won’t be flying today, and wind is a jerk.

As you get better, you can take on more and more wind. Experienced people with advanced planes are comfortable flying in 10-15MPH winds, and some people even try flying in 20MPH winds. Beginner airplanes really aren’t setup to battle the wind, though. While you’re starting, you’ll have to plan all your outings around those wind charts. That means you can’t plan more than a couple of days in advance, and you might not be able to fly for weeks at a time.

Note that wind is a little worse in the Winter than it is in the summer. To find the average wind speeds in your area, look at this chart. Here’s what it looks like for my area:

 JAN    FEB    MAR    APR    MAY    JUN    JUL    AUG    SEP    OCT    NOV    DEC
11.9   11.6   11.4   11.0   10.0    8.9    8.4    8.3    8.6    9.4   10.2   10.9

As you can see, it’s about 3 MPH slower in the summer than in the Winter, and 3 MPH is a pretty huge difference.

Instead of using the site that shows the graphs, you can go to weather.com and visit the hour-by-hour forecast for your location. For me, that site is more accurate, though it’s not as easy to view the wind speed over time.

You can’t rely entirely on websites to determine whether it’s safe to fly, though. They’re not always accurate, and wind speed can change quickly. When you get to the flying site, look at the treetops. If they’re moving at all from the wind, it’s too windy for a beginner. Sure, you can , but the wind is going to control your plane, not you. Better to go home disappointed then to leave your plane 50 feet up in a tree (or completely out of site).

Another good rule-of-thumb regarding wind: if you have a hard time carrying your plane because the wind is blowing it, you shouldn’t fly. Of course, that only measures wind speed on the ground, which is often blocked by trees. Once you get above the trees, it can be much windier.

A few days ago, I got up early on a calm day and immediately flew my Slo-V above the trees to a save altitude. Once the wind hit it, the plane immediately turned away from the wind and started to fly away from me. I turned the throttle all the way up and turned it into the wind, but it just wasn’t fast enough–the plane literally flew backwards. I had to immediately land or risk completely losing my plane (my flying field is surrounded by trees, so I don’t have much room for error).

One way to get out of the wind is to fly indoors. People often fly planes like the Slo-V or the slow stick in large gyms. Helicopters can also be flown indoors (carefully). If you don’t happen to have a gym with high ceilings, consider joining the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). There’s probably a group in your area that organizes indoor flying.