Getting the Wind Up
FFF - copy that.
As regards cheeky x-winds:
Yesterday, case in point I popped over from Plymouth to Jersey to gorge my little Mooney's capacious long range tanks with el cheapo fuel and also pick up a couple of 20L deicing fluid drums.
Plymouth was dead calm on departure and the metar still gave light winds when I left Jersey and took off at close to MTOW. The Plymouth TAF was for it to get pretty gusty but there was no sign of this 30 mins after the beginning of the BECMG period.
45 mins later the wind was pretty lumpy on the approach (30-40 kts at 1000') gusting well into the twenties right across the runway and although I managed a smooth landing my pulse took a while to settle down to normal!
On the subject of forecasters:
Although we can all think of examples of wildly inaccurate predictions (e:g Michael Fish's hurricane) the forecasts have an uncanny habit of being spot on.
My personal favourite at present is Carol Kirkwood - sadly though every time I call the met office to "talk to a forecaster" she is unavailable - must be washing her hair again!!
SB