general rule of thumb

[MCO3024]

Is it accurate to say that generally planes that are heavier or more powerful do better in wind than lighter or less powerful planes?

Also, are high wing planes more susceptible to wind than low wing?

[farmflyer]

From the experience with the planes I have larger heavier low wing planes with more power do better in the wind.

[F106DeltaDart]

I have also found that low/mid wing planes with high wing loading tend to handle wind better. In general, cleaner low-drag airframes like the F-86 tend to be less effected as well.

[xviper]

And along comes the Eflite UMX Radian. It just doesn't care. As long as it has enough power to fly against the wind, it'll put larger planes to shame.

[F106DeltaDart]

That, the Champ, and the Apprentice all seem to fall into their own special "wind immunity" category. Oddly the new mini Apprentice really does not like wind though.

[xviper]

Hehe, OK, that was somewhat unfair as today's new AS3X equipped planes of any size tend to equalize the inadequacies of size vs wind. Same goes for the current generation of HobbyEagle and Lemon stabilizer equipped planes. Flying this morning with a Lemon equipped 70mm Yak 130 was like flying a sim in a Barcalounger when I think about what it's like flying the bigger 90mm Yak 130.
So, eliminating stabilizers from the equation, then yes, I would have to accept that the bigger and more powerful the plane, the better they tend to fly and handle wind. However, there is one caveat .............. Sometimes, it's not as easy or even possible to power a larger plane in direct proportion to a smaller plane (power to weight, drag, etc.). If you could, the comparison could be done more easily. The example I'll use are the 3 different sizes of T-28s. Again, we should not use the UMX T-28 as its stabilizer tends to make it fly like a larger plane. So, we take the Parkzone T-28, the newer Eflite 1200mm T-28 and the large 2M Eflite T-28. Flight characteristics and wind handling gets better as we go bigger.
As for high wing vs low wing, that kind of depends on the plane. I have both the high wing HobbyKing Tundra and the low wing Dynam "Dusty" and both fly in the same kinds of winds about the same way. A high wing EDF jet can handle wind about the same as a similarly sized low wing EDF. However, I'm sure you could find examples of high and low wing planes of similar sizes and power where one will do better than the other.

[KitBuilder]

It's not so much wing location but the airfoils those locations use as well. High wing will generally be flat bottom or at best an Eppler 205 type foil which are more susceptible to wind. Size is not a general predictor of stability but wing loading is. This is evident with smaller turbine jets, small but heavy in comparison to span. With that said, as has been said already size generally affects wing loading which is affects ability to handle wind. Though with foamies, the size, wing loading relationship becomes blurry