Strong surface winds can throw pilots an unexpected curve ball if they’ve planned a flight to a favorite destination and find the conditions at the arrival airport exceed the capabilities of their airplane, themselves or both.
An experienced flight instructor I was talking with recently related a story in which he damaged the wing of an Aeronca Champ on landing while ferrying the airplane from a customer’s summer home in New England to his winter home in Florida. The instructor knew the surface winds at one of his intermediate fuel stops would be quite strong, but he figured he had the requisite skill to handle the conditions. He was wrong — and ended up footing the bill for the repair while also suffering a bruise to his ego.
