Heh - 90 knots is pretty normal windspeed back home. It isn't as destructive as high winds in England for a few reasons:


Trees - none. Or almost none. We have some 40 year old oaks that are 7 feet tall, as that is the height of the wall.
Gusts - none. The wind just blows. From west to east.
Buildings - blimming solid construction!

They are good aircraft - I used to get to fly one round the mountains in the Falklands. And they can land on anything - beaches, mud, grass, runways... And Dad was a bit of a mental pilot (was fleet air arm - Buccaneer pilot!) so would go for any manoevre that seemed fun. He managed a few vertical takeoffs too!

Back on topic - when I used to fly r/c gliders I used to lie on a steep west facing slope and hold a glider at arm's length. A decent 2.5m wingspan glider would happily climb from my hand with a windspeed of anything over about 30 knots (well, less than that at 1m off the ground I suppose.) Landing back into the hand was much trickier - only really simple with a glider with airbrakes/spoilers.