More stuff on wind.
One last item re wind trim and then some thoughts that go hand in hand with it re power trains.
It must be a given that from time to time under adverse conditions your airplane is going to be free flighting for periods of time ranging from instantaneous to a few seconds or more. This is scary (it should be since you aint' in control for that period of time) but isn't necessarily a guaranteed disaster. It is something that can be prepared for and (with a little bit of luck)is something you can plan to survive.
This state of trim might be termed "hands off stable". Another way of explaining it is that if the ship is momentarily blown in on the lines it will continue to fly more or less in a straight line until mother nature or fast feet brings it back on line. To do this it must be very stable in the pitch and roll axes and in the yaw axis have a tendency to yaw away from the pilot.
This isn't rocket science stuff. All it means is that the wings are level and will stay that way (roll stability) and that it wants to fly more or less straight and level (isn't unstable in the pitch axis). This is pretty much what we should be trimming for for ideal conditions. When we get lazy and live with a slightly banked condition because we've got lots of line tension we put ourselves in the position of losing tension in bad conditions and the problem increasing if the line tension should go to zero.
Bottom line, be conscientious in trimming your ship in roll and pitch.
This is incredibly important in a few places in the pattern. Thankfully, the vast majority of the things we're judged on take place on the bottom half of the downwind side of the circle. If we've trimmed the airplane correctly (the CG and tail volume business I talked about earlier) we should be able to do all those tricks with nothing much more required than a lot more pilot agility to deal with the ever changing speeds as we whip back and forth through directly downwind.
As soon as we start flying above forty five degrees things get a lot more dicey and (with the exception of those who crash upwind in level flight 
) the potential for disaster increases dramatically. The vertical eights, hourglass and overhead eights are truly difficult and require thought, preparation and keen attention to the elements while being performed.
Let's talk about power train adjustments (remember, I'm talking Muncie top twenty 2003 weather, not your average windy day at the local flying site).
First of all, we must always remember that there are fifteen maneuvers we get scores for plus a very important 25 pattern points that get added to our score if we merely complete them all as described withing eight minutes. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION, SO REREAD THAT LAST SENTENCE BEFORE PROCEDING.
The most important task for us on this horrible day for flying is to complete all the required inside and outside turns in the proper sequence and in recognizable enough fashion to convince the judges we "flew the pattern".
The second most important task is to do the greatest number of those tricks as well as possible...even if what it takes to do so means one or a few of the others will suffer as a result. Do the math. There are three and a half maneuvers that become very difficult to do well in such conditions; the vertical eights, the hourglass, the overhead eights and the top halves of the four leaf clover.
Now, we have some choices to make. We could retrim our ship to do a better job of doing those three and half maneuvers. More pitch, more revs, faster laps etc. etc. We can bully our way throught them if that's what we want to do.
Unfortunately, all of the things we'd do to make those three and a half maneuvers "slightly" better will result in making eleven of the remaining thirteen maneuvers more difficult to do well (take off and landing being the last two). Every trick performed below 45 degrees and downwind is going to be more demanding by virtue of the whip up that comes with high winds.
Here's where Jim Pollock hit the nail on the head in his comments.
I agree with Jim and believe it is valuable to go to a lower pitch prop under such conditions...at the nats I went from a 12.5 X 4.1 pitch Brian Eather three blade flat back prop to one of the same diameter but 3.75" pitch, about a 10% reduction in pitch.
To compensate for the reduced pitch I increased the launch RPM by about 300 or so which did three things. It brought the engine higher on the horsepower curve and further down the torque curve and brought it closer to the maximum RPM for the pipe length.
Thus, I had greater horsepower at roughly similar airspeeds (actually the lap times were very slightly less than with the higher pitch prop), I was deeper into the descending torque curve so that wind up reduced the torque more thus tending to restrict the wind driven RPM increase and reducing wind up, and I was closer to the limiting RPM of the pipe which further tended to restrict RPM.
It is important to note that in winds like this the aerodynamic reality can be such that the wind driven airplane speed is "driving" the prop rather than vice versa. Thus the prop can actually serve as a brake to even greater airspeed increases.
Now, the machine is a significantly different animal from what it was with the higher pitch prop. This allows a slightly different flight profile.
First, all of the eleven downwind sub 45 degree maneuvers become more controlled and we can fly them with more or less good precision. I'm not trying to kid you. They're still tough but they aren't as tough as they would have been with the higher pitch prop and the richer, higher on the torque curve, lower RPM setting.
The other thing we've accomplished is giving ourselves a chance to "complete" the difficult three and half maneuvers with some degree of confidence. The operative word is "complete". Remember, task number one is to complete all the tricks. Task number two is to do the maximum number as well as we can if we want to score well!
We've improved our chances on these maneuvers by giving ourselves more horsepower and by having a well trimmed airplane that can fly the maneuvers even with a modest or little or no tension should that become required. By keepint our airspeed roughly the same we've retained as much inertia as possible and by having the ship straight and properly trimmed for pitch it is less likely to wander off on its own should tension be a problem.
How do we fly these three maneuvers? Are there some trick to doing so? Yeah, a few. No magic but methods to improve our chances.
In the vertical eights remember that what the judges are looking for is the flight path of the airplane, not the body angle. With the wind blowing strongly at our back it is a fact that the airplane's path will stop rising "before" the fuselage is horizontal. We "must" start into the outside loop slightly before reaching horizontal or, by definition, the ship will be descending...plus, you've just made it ##### near impossible to get it going back uphill again!
If you do start it into the outside a bit before horizontal you'll actually get a bit of a boost from the wind helping it around the top. Coming downhill the opposite is equally true. The flight path will still be descending even when the fuse is horizontal (the wind blowing it "down"). Thus it is important to feed in enough down control from the top of the maneuver to allow the ship to get slightly beyond horizontal before tucking under on the second inside. Again, proper pitch trim makes this possible. If you've ignored the advice to have an aft CG you likely won't have enough down control to accomplish this task and the very ugly "bail out" either prematurely inside or late outside results.
The hour glass is a sucker hole for the greedy. Be honest about your ability to actually put corners on the top and still complete the maneuver. If you aint' sure you can do it make a nice round top and put a "blip" or two where the corners were supposed to be. Remember, completing this maneuver is the goal. It ain't going to be pretty no matter what you do and you can blow it and lose points for both the maneuver and the pattern. Be honest and safe. If you play it safe up top you can probably put a nice clean corner on the bottom which might look so much better than the competition that they'll forget about the soft top...remember, the judges are human and have some empathy for what you're going through. Give 'em some good stuff when you can and it'll pay dividends.
The overhead is probably the scariest maneuver in such conditions. Just remember, if you've been making it through upwind in level flight you should be able to do so overhead. The secret is energy retention. You don't want to do anything that will rob what little ground speed you've got (line tension is directly proportional to how fast you are going relative to the ground...not the acft's speed through the air mass which might be whizzing by at 25 or 30K!)
Be sure to enter slightly before you are directly upwind. The wind will thus add energy to the climb and you'll actually get to the top of the circle at a faster speed than that at which you entered it. Try hard to enter the eight no sooner than the top of the circle (most of us do the overhead in front of us which is slightly into the wind...not a good plan for difficult conditions like this). Make NO abrupt control inputs. Fly the airplane smoothly through the entire maneuver and take whatever amount of the circle is required to do so. Remember...completion of the maneuver is the goal. This is where your precise roll trim will pay dividends. If a wing wants to fly high, this is when it will happen and when it will cause you to lose control. This is also a place where too little tip weight might cause you trouble so be keen in your trim in that area as well. I believe it was Igor who suggested a tiny bit more tip weight in such conditions can be helpful. I don't disagree. Remember though, he spoke of five grams...that's slightly less than a quarter oz! Don't go crazy here.
Generally speaking, if you can complete the first loop of the clover you can complete the whole thing...with, maybe, a fudged exit to avoid flying directly into a wind that is beyond your ships capabilities. Remember, completion of the correct number of insides and outsides is our goal. Be realistic about what you've learned about your ship, the powertrain and the conditions at the moment. If you have to start the first loop a little low...or a little more downwind...or dive into it...whatever, do it, complete the first loop and go from there.
A trick I use is to both step back a step and draw my arm and hand toward me when entering that first loop. Both of these actions input energy to the airplane at the same time they "shorten" the distance between you and the ship thus keeping it on the end of the lines.
Finally, if you have to do so, fly the four loops of the clover more or less superimposed on one another thus keeping the entire maneuver as down wind as possible. It might not be pretty but it will be a complete maneuver and will get you some points...plus preserve the pattern points.
Finally, back to the beginning. All of this is worthless if you can't get the airplane safely in the air. Take offs in these conditions are often the undoing of many a potential winner...including yours truly on more than one occasion.
I (we've...David, Brett and I) have tried just about every conceivable point of release for takeoffs in such conditions. I'm reasonably convinced that the best location for today's high powered ship is slightly forward of directly downwind. These ships accelerate quickly enough that flying speed is attained more or less instantly (and thus pitch control to avoid whacking props on hard surfaces) and the achieve adequate ground speed to maintain line tension before reaching upwind. Be judicious in your attempts to get a nice long take-off roll. If it's windy and gusty simply give neutral elevator, let it pop off the ground and then do your best to manage a nice smooth climb. Either up or down elevator can be a disaster. Such take-off are why Randy Smith learned the profitability of selling carbon fibre cowling protectors (called Bolly props by some) to hot shot stunt flyers during windy conditions in Lubbock, TX a number of years ago.
Landing. This is the number one reason why I continue to advocate and use hard tanks. In conditions like this I want to control where the engine quits. Both of my landings on this miserable day were exceptionally good and control of the engine shutoff is the reason.
With a hard tank you can learn when your engine is about to quit and can then use that knowledge to shut it off with a loop. A loop done at 30 to 45 degrees just past down wind will stop the engine with the airplane moving with good speed and control back into the wind. A rapid but smooth descent puts the ship at touchdown right at the downwind quarter of the circle. A high speed controlled touchdown results and allows the use of down elevator to stick the ship to the ground and keep it there as it rolls back into the wind.
Here's a secret. I put small "O" rings between my wheels and the keepers and snug the wheel up so it takes some effort to turn them. These act as brakes and when you feed down elevator into the ship on roll out you can actually stop it fairly quickly and before it comes around into the wind and regains flying airspeed.
At long last. This screed has not been a suggestion that everyone fly in all conditions. I fully respect the decisions of fellow competitors and, quite frankly, I do have limits as well. When the day comes (and it will) that I'm too uncomfortable to risk my equipment and somebody is comfortable doing so and picks up the gold at the end of the day, I'll be the first to shake his hand and say well done. This is a competition. It's not life and death. We can always replace equipment. In the final analysis we risk our stuff every time we put it in the air. The beginner does so when conditions are perfect. The intermediate can handle a bit more and the advanced flyer a bit more than that.
When you get to Expert the flyers should know two things for sure...What they can handle and what they can't. When the conditions get tough the Experts weigh that knowledge against what Mother Nature is offering and make the choice to fly or not to fly. At the end of the day somebody will likely do so better than the others and will take home the trophy...pretty much like every other day. That's the way it works! 
