Yesterday when I went flying to do the radio check the wind was blowing a bit harder than forecast, and it was straight across the runway. There is no anemometer at Smiths Falls, so I am not really sure what the wind speed was. The wind sock was blowing straight out. Ottawa, the closest airport with a weather report, was calling gusts to 33 kt, but I’m sure it wasn’t blowing quite that hard at Smiths Falls.

The take-off was a non-event. The hardest part about the landings was getting the aircraft onto the runway due to the gusts and turbulence as the wind tumbled over the hangar line. My first touch and go was an embarrassing bounce and go. The second one did multiple hops before it settled onto the runway, but the third one was much tidier. After that I decided I was ready for the full stop, which went very well. There was lots of aileron and rudder left, so I’m sure the ultimate crosswind limit is quite a bit more than whatever this wind was - it had to be more than 20 kt, but I’ll claim a demonstrated crosswind of 20 kt for now.

Andy W., a local RV-8 builder, happened to be at the airport while I was doing the circuits, and he took these photos - Thanks Andy.