I was out flying yesterday and decided to land at a particular local airport. I had not originally planned to land there so I hadn't checked their local weather. The airport is in a fairly tight valley that opens to a large canyon that is known for its winds.
When I entered the downwind I could feel my plane speed up and it wanted to fly sideways. Turning base was, well let's use the word "exciting" as a large gust hit me. I turned final and thought to myself, "Wow, the wind is really squirely" as I fought towards the threshold. Put the plane into a slip, wing low into the wind and literally fought my way to the ground. I did notice a group of people about mid field watching me land but didn't give it much of a thought because hey, what pilot doesn't watch every plane land.
It was after I taxied all the way down to midfield, exited the active and turned the plane off that I finally realized how much wind there was. When I slithered out of the plane a gust hit and one wheel started to lift off the ground. Pulled the old iPhone from my pocket, fired up the wind meter (there's an App for that). It was blowing a quartering crosswind of 18mph gusting 25mph!
A Supercub driver and a Cesna 182 were sitting there waiting for the wind to calm down. My little Kitfox is light enough that I was concerned it would flip over or the rudder would break off as both seemed to be trying to happen at the same time!
After waiting for about 20 minutes with the wind not changing, and knowing that just over the mountain the wind was only 10mph I decided to make a run for the other side of the mountain. Fired that baby up and got out of there. Wow, our Kitfoxes sure do get off the ground fast when hit with a 20 or 25 mph gust of wind. Flew thru the canyon with a 20 mph headwind, then broke out on the other side to find a beautiful and calm day.
If the wind had been blowing like that at my home airport I would never have left the ground. Gotta say I'm sure impressed with the performance of the little Kitfox on that particular landing. Again, not something I would choose to do, but I am certainly impressed with our birds!
Sorry, no photos. I was just a tad busy flying the plane.