And then the Winds Came.....

This will be a short entry, and the high winds are to blame for that. It was Sunday, April 29, 2007 that we arrived at the airport under mostly cloudy skies with only a peek of sun here and there. The winds were predicted, via the aviation weather that pilots MUST call prior to flying, to be around 10 mph from the west, at most. The general forecast on T.V. and the internet were saying 10-15 and 10-20 mph. Not too bad if the wind is down the runway and you do not have to land in a crosswind. We took-off directly into the wind which was now a good 15 or so mph and climbed to approx. 2,500 feet, staying near the airport to check things out.

After flying a circle around the field, I flew northeast towards the location of my house and snapped a few pictures of my freshly painted home. Needless to say, even with image optical stabilization, the pictures STILL came out a bit fuzzy. We continued northwest towards Washington, NJ, then headed southwest. I suggested we fly to our usual destination of Queen City airport near Allentown, PA. Bumping along, we noticed that the clouds were diminishing and an abundance of blue skies and clear air was ahead of us in eastern PA. We entered the traffic pattern and got slammed as we over-flew the mountain range just east of the airport, then set-up for runway 33, which was directly into the wind. The landing was effortless, so to speak, in that our actual "GROUND SPEED" was about 30 mph or so upon touchdown....Nice and gentle. We parked for about 30 minutes or so, taking a walk along the access road and noting a few eating establishments we might want to check-out in the near future when my wife joins us.

By now it was getting pretty breezy, and we noted the windsock in the middle of the field was straight out, indicating at least a 20 mph wind. We boarded the plane and took-off, again directly into the wind. We were airborne within a few hundred feet. I flew a bit west of the field to take a look at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom amusement park, which I bought a season's pass to and will be enjoying their selection of coasters when the park opens in the beginning of May.

Heading east and in a direct route back to our home-base airport, we were really getting slammed; up, down, left, right....Some moderate turbulence here with some hard gusts making us glad we had our seat belts tightened hard and fast across our laps. The wind now had turned to a more northerly direction and even using the cross runway to land would be a 45 degree crosswind. Doing the best I could, I got the plane down safely, though a bit rougher than I am used to. We fueled the plane and parked soon thereafter. While enjoying our picnic lunch from the back of my car, protected from the onslaught of the wind, I took out our hand-held wind meter and noted that the winds were now 15 - 20 with gusts to 25 and 30, and even one gust read 35....OUCH....Landed just in time. Oh well, still an entertaining flight with some more knowledge gained on how to deal with windy conditions....Thanks for reading !!!