Worrying about stock fly effectiveness?

This post is mainly for the newbs like myself who are concerned about the effectiveness of the stock diamond rain fly. When I first bought my Hennessy Hammock Expedition, and I broke my "hammock camping in the rain" cherry, it was just a light shower. The stock fly performed well after I made a few adjustments.

Then a few days later at the comfort of my home my area was experiencing a pretty heavy lightning storm complete with at least 30mph gusts, and side driven rain. As I looked out my window I thought of the people on the AT battling the same storm at that very moment. Then, I thought of me being out there in my hammock! I had visual thoughts of me being at a horizontal 90 degree angle, constantly being forcefully swung windward. LOL! I thought, wow, that diamond fly might not cut it for any worse conditions than that light shower I had experienced. Then the concerns of its limitations started popping in to my head.

So I bit the bullet and bought a WL Big Daddy tarp for necessary precautions. I'd hate to be out in the woods in horrid conditions thinking I should have made that purchase! I have used that WL just this passed trip on the AT/Gulf Hagas, Maine. While there, one of the days it torrential down poured most of the latter day and through the night. That tarp was a life saver (for the whole group, we were comfortable set up underneath for chatting and eating, 5 people). I was extremely glad to have it, but I knew it would perform well. I was worried about the stock fly.

Well this passed week we have had a warm spell/Indian Summer type thing, except lately it is turning back to fall complete with those nice crisp "beginning of fall" mornings. so this passed week and a half my hammock has been my go to bed. (I would like to make a plug for how well my Therm-a-rest Pro Lite 3 pad and my P.O.S. Kelty 35 degree bag has performed. The sleeping pad performed better than I thought it would in cold temps. Few nights it got down to about 40, and I was toasty - That was another worry of mine)

Well now the passed two days we have been experiencing pretty heavy rains and I am pleased to put your worries at ease. The stock fly is performing great! I pulled the corners down with a tautline hitch till the corners are about 5-6 inches above the ground and used the extra line for my suspension to keep rain water from traveling down the line to my hammock. Instead it follows the line and drips down. Without doing that I could see a problem arising. I have been completely dry. Granted, no wind driven rain. I still feel in that scenario I would appreciate the WL. It is supposed to rain for the next 3 days so this is a great testing opportunity. So far, stock fly is doing pretty good at keeping me dry inside. Just thought some of you folks thinking of getting a hammock and are worried about the fly coverage, like I have read in the past, and how I was, you would like to know :)

I have the stock HH tarp and HH Hex tarp. I think the stock tarp would be sufficient most of the time for keeping you dry. I have read posts from people saying that it is all they need for any wind.rain combo, but even if I could figure out how to deal with alot of that stuff, it doesn't offer enough protection for anything else. You couldn't really sit under it by yourself and be protected from the wind, let alone have some company to play cards with.

Now I am thinking of pulling the trigger on a WL Old Man Winter pretty quick here.

Then again, weight is rarely an issue with me as I am never camping more than a couple hundred meters from where a car, truck or quad has gotten me.