Got Wind?

The winter season in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA and WVA provides an awesome opportunity to not fly very much at all. A low pressure system moved through the region Friday and partially on Saturday. It brought warmer temps and lower celings. The freezing level(which is usually around sfc-2000) was way up around 9000 ft msl. Might be a good chance to work on some instrument skills if I had some time. So, my schedule was set for the weekend. Two students saturday, one on Sunday. Saturday morning I was set to work on CFII stuff in the clouds, but that nice warm low pressure system decided it was time to push through. As is typical with all cold front passages, the wind on the leading edge and back side is usually pretty viscious. The isobars are packed so tightly together that the winds are just ripping apart anyone who dares to fly. This is a look at the metar for KJYO-Leesburg airport for Sunday the 16th. These are just the morning, so as the day warmed you can imagine how bad they got. The highlighted portion shows the wind direction, followed by wind speed in knots.
KJYO 151500Z AUTO 30024G35KT 10SM CLR M01/M11 A2984 RMK AO2
KJYO 151440Z AUTO 29028G39KT 10SM CLR M02/M11 A2985 RMK AO2
KJYO 151420Z AUTO 30028G34KT 10SM CLR M02/M10 A2985 RMK AO2
KJYO 151400Z AUTO 29027G35KT 10SM CLR M02/M11 A2984 RMK AO2
KJYO 151340Z AUTO 30026G37KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2983 RMK AO2
KJYO 151320Z AUTO 29030G36KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2983 RMK AO2
KJYO 151300Z AUTO 30024G34KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2982 RMK AO2
KJYO 151240Z AUTO 29025G36KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2980 RMK AO2
KJYO 151220Z AUTO 29025G38KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2979 RMK AO2
KJYO 151200Z AUTO 29033G41KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2977 RMK AO2
KJYO 151140Z AUTO 29027G34KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2977 RMk

Todays prog chart shows that low system moving off to the northeast in its typical fashion. There are still some remnants of the tightly knot isobars that rocked us.

There were a few small planes that dared to takeoff and land this past weekend. We watched one cessna 172 come in to land, he had what looked like full aileron and rudder inputs into the wind, and he touched down, rode a wheely, lifted off again at least three times. Some pilots like to say that wind is alright..."im good enough to handle the wind, etc"...it must be an ego thing. its one thing if you are flying a large jet with someone paying you to get them there, but to rent a cessna for an hour to joyride in an airmet for moderate turbulence and a viscious x-wind just doesnt make sense. anyways, today is much nicer and people are flying again. I dont think I could take another day of that bone-chilling wind.