It was quite a windy day today in Toronto. West winds sustained at 22 Kts and gusts to 32 Kts. The question I have is can you fly a Cessna 172, Grand Caravan or similar aircraft in these conditions ? Mark.

Only takeoffs and landings could be problematic and only if there is a significant cross-wind component. Apart from that taxiing would require some vigilance and skill.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

Just for fun I fired up the Realair 172 and loaded the current weather. No problem on takeoff or landing...other than bit of a crosswind. The reason I asked the question is that today I drove from Toronto to Detroit (and back) and all that time saw not one GA aircraft. I do this drive a lot and this is quite unusual.Mark.

22kts gusting to 32 from the West. Skill level dependent, but that's no problem in a c172 on an East-West runway, and would be a nice sweaty handed, knee shaker for a student (with instructor). Taxiing would also be fine provided you maintain the correct control inputs.You would be wise to keep flaps up to make control of the a/c easier and approach at 75kts if not closer to 80+kts (gust factor). The higher approach speed also gives you more rudder authority in a crosswind situation. The maximum demonstrated crosswind component is 15kts for a C172, but in practice you can go beyond that. Sticking to the 15kts demonstrated component you could for example tolerate 30kts gusts 45 deg onto the runway.This reminds me of an accident in the Texas panhandle when a guy apparently had to break off a long cross country due to an approaching squall line from the North-West. He boched his landing and ended up inverted in the grass at the side of the runway. The NTSB found that the AWOS had recorded a 45kts direct cross wind gust 5 minutes before the accident!Joe