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A retired operator told me a wind gust can add 30% to what my chart says
I was killing time at the counter of a diner in Bakersfield last month and got talking to a guy who ran towers for 22 years. He said on a gusty day you should treat the load like it's 30% heavier than it actually is, because the chart was built for still air and nobody ever tells you that part in class. I always knew wind mattered but I figured it was just a feel thing, not something you could roughly put a number on. I've been way more careful about when I boom up since then. How do you all figure wind into your picks, do you use a rule of thumb or just judge it by feel?
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the_holly21d ago
Man this is the kind of thing that makes me wish they taught real world stuff in class. If 30% is the number for gusts, then you can push that math even further and think about direction, not just speed. A gust hitting the back of the boom is way worse than one coming at the side or from behind the cab, so the same wind can cost you way more or way less depending on where you're pointed. And that 30% thing probably gets worse the higher you go or the longer the boom gets, since you've got more sail area up there catching it. Honestly even half of that rule is better than going by feel, because on a gusty day your gut is mostly just guessing.
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