Well, it was bound to happen... this past Saturday, the weather cleared enough for me to try another flight around the pattern, and so I kick the tires and lit the fires, and off I went... AWOS reported a crosswind from the West at about 12 to 14kts. We were using runway 36 to the North. I felt that 14kts was about my personal limit. I was still learning to fly my airplane and did not want to push it. Everything was going great, as I lined up and accelerated down the runway for takeoff. At about 35kts, I started lifting the tail, made a small correction to the left to counter the wind effect to my right, when I was hammered by what I thought was a blown tire... I was tossed in the cockpit hurting my hip, and the airplane swerved sharply to the left... I managed to recover back towards the center of the runway, just as I was hit again. the second gust was much more severe. I made two full circles but managed to keep the airplane on the runway. The airplane came to a stop shortly still on the runway and I taxied it off to the ramp. I called the tower to see if I had a violation or anything and they just told me to have a good life... no harm no foul. I later found that since my last weather inquiry on the AWOS, the wind gust had increased to 23kts which were way beyond my level of crosswind comfort. I called John Shaffer and talked to him a little just to calm myself. He then reminded me as to why he flies a nosewheel airplane... My airplane now sits in my hanger till i have a chance to do a thorough inspection. My hip hurts like crap and I hope I can recover enough to make it to Mount Vernon. Luis
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