And forecasts are a great tool too. If you know a front is coming through,you might wanna watch out for major shifts in wind speed and directions

It's really irrelevent what it is blowing at ground level. 82 ft in the air is what I wanna know about

I bought a kestrel and I'm glad I did. It seems very durable, enough so that I let my 5 year old run around seeing how fast he can make it spin. I used the looking at the tree/ grass/ wave/ flag to guess the wind and to some degree that worked. But, now that I have an anemometer, I don't have to guess. Only a few km/h makes a difference what kite I want to grab and I can tell exactly what the gusts are doing. Maybe after I have had an anemometer for a while I will be able to better correlate visual cues with exact wind speed, but I now know that I was over estimating the wind speed before I had something to accurately measure against.

As for knowing what the wind is doing at ground level vs. at apex, these should be relatively the same in the same field for the same wind direction, no? Example: if the wind is N 12km/h it may be blowing more higher up, but the next time you fly there, if it is blowing N 12km/h, it seems very likely that the wind 25m up is going to be similar to the first session. So your expectation of what kite you want to use and its performance would be similar.

Been using the small version of one of these: http://www.hallwindmeter.com/gliders.php for 10 years and counting. It's never failed me, never needs batteries, and is plenty accurate enough to help me decide which kite to fly.

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Originally posted by acmbarber Maybe after I have had an anemometer for a while I will be able to better correlate visual cues with exact wind speed, but I now know that I was over estimating the wind speed before I had something to accurately measure against. As for knowing what the wind is doing at ground level vs. at apex, these should be relatively the same in the same field for the same wind direction, no? Example: if the wind is N 12km/h it may be blowing more higher up, but the next time you fly there, if it is blowing N 12km/h, it seems very likely that the wind 25m up is going to be similar to the first session. So your expectation of what kite you want to use and its performance would be similar.

That is the same with me. Chamber's bay down here in tacoma, there is no visual reference close enough for my eyes to read from accurately. Being able to feel the wind and then pull the meter out helps, and I already have a good sense of what 5mph feels like now without the meter.

ACM let me or Todd know any time your planning to head down this way and we can try to get together for a flying session!

There is nothing wrong with getting a wind meter to fine tune your senses.

Just that visual cues will be something you can just glance at on the go. Knowing them is best.

I use trees, water surface, kite size numbers in the sky and windalert.com

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Originally posted by WELDNGOD Quote: Originally posted by Powerws I'm amazed at the things I learn in this community! I see you becoming a lifer here! :wee:

I'm a lifer already!:wee: