This paper presents a gain-scheduling wind-turbine control strategy to mitigate the effects of adverse weather conditions on the degradation of the drive-train. By choosing a suitable control gain according to the wind class, it is possible to establish a trade-off between generated energy and drive-train degradation. The dissipated energy in the mechanical transmission is used as an indicator of degradation. The drive-train is modeled as a flexible shaft using nonlinear dynamics of a mass-spring-damper system. Simulations consider a variable speed-fixed pitch turbine of 2 MW (100 m rotor diameter), with a horizontal axis and fixed gearbox. The results show that the proposed gain-scheduling control strategy maintains the desired turbine efficiency by adequately managing the drive-train degradation according to the wind turbulence conditions.