My Mom wasn’t enamored with flying sideways, crab-like. I didn’t like that last-second kick on the downwind rudder pedal to align the airplane with the runway before the tires hit the pavement sideways.
There is another method. Advanced technique — like scratching your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time.
Here is the Holy Grail for Googling pilots. Finally, the SECRET ADVANCED SUPER-DUPER SURE-SHOT PAINLESS STAINLESS FORMULA FOR LANDING IN CROSSWINDS 😀 When the windsock is pointed at Pinatubo, across the runway.
Landing the airplane is tough enough — you line up with the runway and juggle power and pitch attitude to maintain glide slope and a slow approach speed to landing.
As the airplane slows, you rearrange your brain.
That’s because you flirt with the backside of the power curve in slow flight. The controls are illogically reversed — pulling the nose up merely slows the airplane down, making it sink, not climb. Reducing power drops your nose, which increases your speed in a steeper descent.
If you think that’s baffling, uh-huh.
You push this and pull that, half a phase out of step with the yo-yo airplane, acutely aware that if you do something too much or too little, the airplane will get either too slow or too low to fly.
Then there’s the crosswind.
On top of everything you’re already doing, you lower one wing into the wind.
And in yet another counter-intuitive move, you step on opposite rudder to keep the airplane from turning toward the lowered wing.
The books call this the “wing low” or “sideslip” technique.
You slip sideways into the crosswind as you fly forward to the runway.
The slip negates the crosswind and keeps the airplane aligned with the runway.
You keep this up all the way to the ground, canted into the wind, opposite rudder to yaw against the bank.
You touch down on one wheel, like an Evel Knievel or French Helldriver (I’m showing my age) wheelie stunt, leaning precariously into the wind, until life slows down and the airplane is rolling benignly on the runway.
Then you push the throttle forward and thrust your airplane once more in to the air, until sunset if you have to, siezing on the chance to practice while the crosswind keeps up.
Now you know why student pilots hate crosswinds.
Pilot books, flying magazines and airplane videos have explained this to death. So what is the REAL secret here?
It’s this —
The control inputs are tiny. A touch of yoke into the wind, a nudge of opposite rudder, and you’re there. This is not maneuvering flight.
Almost not worth writing about. Nobody writes about how to ride a bike, right? You just, Do It. If you have to think about it, you’re overdoing it.
Fly on a crosswindy day. Stop thinking about technique. Think of … Angelina Jolie.
Even I have written about this too much now. Did you know I never learned to ride a bike?
Posted from Manila, September 2, 2009
My Dad‘s birthday. He would have been 83 years old.
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I’ve never practiced the sideslip approach.
I keep the crab until the end of the flare, but I also land on one wheel by strong cross wind.
Well, actually on 2 wheels because I fly a tail-dragger 🙂
Even when landing on 400m long runways I don’t practice the “short landing” technique you describe where you combine high RPM and high pitch (we call this “second régime” in French, I don’t know how to say in English).
I think I would be confused by the inverted commands.
I only practiced this during slow flight training at high altitude.
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my instructor didnt teach me crosswind landing, i was left to discover it myself and it happened on several occasions. Crabbing or sideslip, i have to align the aircraft on the centerline no matter what, landing is another thing, if the runway wide enough, i’ll let the aicraft touches down without applying slight rudder but if i saw it veering off the runway, a slight tap on the rudder will do…usually only 10-15 knots of crosswind..cirrus limitation is 20 knots. But with only 50 hours and a newly minted PPL, i sweat a lot on final. Nervous.
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Hey, Amirul! Glad to hear from you again, and congratulations on your Private Pilot License!
Crosswinds landings are fun. Practice it a lot. One day you may be airborne, with fuel a factor, and the only runway at your destination has a 20-knot crosswind. If you can’t put it down on the runway, nobody else will.
Does the Cirrus have a crosswind limitation, or a maximum demonstrated crosswind? A maximum demonstrated crosswind in not necessarily a limitation — it means that during certification of the airplane, that was the strongest crosswind that the test pilot landed the airplane in. Maybe he felt that that was all the airplane could handle — perhaps not enough rudder and aileron authority to slip into a stronger wind and still keep the airplane aligned with the runway. Or, maybe that was the strongest crosswind available during the test flights.
I used to be terrified of landing in crosswinds, as I mentioned in the August 11 article. I still sit up and pay attention more when I see the windsock sticking out perpendicular to the runway, but I no longer sweat it. It took, oh, maybe 50 crosswind landings to overcome the terror 🙂 It comes with experience. Small corrections.
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Bonjour, Pat! Thanks for putting a link on your wonderful blog. When I write about flying in France, I will want to put a link to you, also. That will be the perfect time!
REAL MEN fly taildraggers! 🙂 I envy you. I assume that when you do touch down on one main wheel, it is the upwind wheel!
Unfortunately, all airplanes must slow down to land.
“Second regime” — I was just coaching someone on this last weekend. She was learning about slow flight.
I’m not sure what you meant by “high rpm”, but slow flight doesn’t necessarily imply an airplane dragging along with its nose pitched up, throttled up for a lot of power, with the prop in fine pitch. Here’s an example of slow flight in idle power:
You are on final approach, power at idle, at, say, 55 knots (or whatever 1.3 times your Vso is). You maintain that speed by pitching the nose up or down (try this in the airplane!). Pitch up to slow the airplane down, pitch down to speed it up.
Problem is, the glide path varies with your pitch as well — in fact, it is counter intuitive! Pitching up slows the airplane down, and it will sink faster since lift is reduced at slower airspeeds. This is the area of reversed controls in slow flight — pitching the nose up increases the descent rate and steepens the glide path (remember, the flight path is not necessarily where your airplane’s nose is pointing!).
You then add a bit of power (not necessarily high rpms, just 30-40% power), which shallows your glide path (even as you maintain 55 knots by pitching the nose up or down).
Voila! You are now controlling airspeed primarily with your pitch attitude, and controlling the glide path with power.
…
Here’s an even easier experiment. Climb to a safe altitude in a practice area, 3,000 feet or so, and clear the airspace around you. Then idle your engine. At idle power, let the nose drop and trim the airplane for 55 knots.
Now let go of all the controls.
There you are, descending at idle power, trimmed for 55 knots, and descending at perhaps 400-500 feet per minute.
Now, without touching the yoke or stick, add power — just take it to 45% power or so. Immediately, the nose comes up! Don’t touch the controls yet. Let the nose come up, and the airplane will oscillate on its lateral axis — the nose comes up, the airplane slows down, the nose comes down, the airplane speeds up, the nose comes up, the airplane slows down, … and on and on with smaller and smaller oscillations until the airplane settles down at 55 knots again, with a new pitch attitude.
End of experiment.
You see, you trim for airspeed, not attitude. When you change your power setting, the pitch attitude changes as the airplane (by itself!) seeks the attitude which will result in the speed you trimmed it for.
I do this exercise now and then, while flying to a destination. I learn the various pitch attitudes the airplane likes to hold with various power settings. I discover how fast it descends with zero power, and how much altitude it loses over a certain distance.
One day my engine will die (I always assume my engine will die, I just don’t know when) and the knowledge of how far I can glide the airplane at its best glide speed will become very important, as I try to reach the shore, or the field, or the runway.
🙂
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I perfectly see what you mean.
I control the glide path & speed on final with a mix of RPM and pitch. But for a quick speed increase for instance, I’d go for nose down since it takes some time to get more speed with RPM only. Then I’d have to level-up and add RPM to go back on the plan.
It’s really natural now to me.
I also regularly practice gliding approaches.
Just like you I want to be ready when my engine decides to quit! 🙂
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Indeed!
A couple of months ago Carlo and I were flying. We caught an airspeed error on the airspeed indicator (will write an article about this, educational) and Carlo immediately added power.
The nose pitched up, and the airspeed remained low, since that was the airspeed the airplane was trimmed for! To his credit, Carlo immediately lowered his nose to increase airspeed.
So you are right, of course. Nose down, lower the angle of attack, unload the wing, to immediately gain airspeed. A few months ago a student pilot stalled a Cessna 172 on departure at my home base. He was doing a touch and go. People said he pulled up too sharply, stalled the airplane, the nose dropped, then he pulled it right back up and stalled it again. The second time it spun into the ground.
I notice that pilots who own or want only to fly small, light airplanes have a better appreciation of minute aerodynamic theory and practice. Those students in the Philippines who have their eyes set only on big airline flying just want to get past the “small airplane” stage and get to the uniform, epaulettes and the flight attendants. They see flight school as a difficult college course that they have to slog through, instead of enjoying the learning, which is nothing short of wondrous.
My turn to ask — do you always try for a three-point landing in your taildragger, or do you sometimes go for a landing on your main gear only? How do you decide this?
🙂
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I always land tree-point.
Because I’ve never learnt two-point landing and my grass runway is too bumpy for this kind of landing anyways. The Emeraude is pretty good at crosswind landing, even though not easy.
I sometimes land on the main gear when I flare a bit late or land with too much speed but that’s not meant so I usually bump-up 🙂
Friends of mine who fly Piper J3 practice 2 point landing on main gear regularly, even on my bumpy runway.
The decision criteria is usually the wind speed. But landing a taildragger on the main gear requires more runway and a very accurate flare or you’ll bump-up.
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You’re right about the wind usually being the decision criteria. I am only now thinking about the runway length implications of a wheel (main gear) landing.
What makes me nervous about wheel landings is that when the tail comes down, the wing’s angle of attack increases. If I landed with too much speed, the airplane takes off again, “skipping” back into the air (probably what you meant by “bump-up”. Landing three-point eliminates this, because, as you say, flaring for a three-pointer slows the airplane down for a touchdown with the wing angled up already — that is, the angle of attack does not increase after the touchdown. Now the only problem is flaring too high, which drops the airplane onto the runway too hard, setting it up to hop up and down the runway… .
I probably sweat taildragger landings more than Amirul sweats crosswind landings 🙂
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I, too, fly, but never learned to ride a bike, so you’re not the only one out there!
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Hey Mark, I’m not alone! It embarasses me to no end for my sons to wheel me around in a bike with a sidecar. I tried to learn about 15 years ago, in my mid-30s. Very bad idea, haha! 🙂 I’m not going to try again.
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… on the other hand, i’m a recreational cyclist, but i don’t know how to fly. i have dreamed of becoming an airline pilot so i have found inspiration in your blog. if i ever realize my dreams, it would be as a private pilot, like you. first time here and i’m sure i’ll be back for more! great blog
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Eliel, thanks for visiting Flying in Crosswinds.
I smile, because when Carlo and I first started writing this, we thought that our goal would be to inspire people to want to fly. You are the first reader to ever express that desire.
If you ever do take up flying, please let us know.
And please come back and visit here often. You inspire us, too.
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Tonet,
That’s what I meant by “bump-up”. I don’t know the english word for “take-off-again” 😉
The secret of 2-point landing is keeping the yoke forward after touchdown and let the tail gently go down as speed decreases. But this requires some length!
Landing a taildragger 3 points is not as scary as you may think. It only requires accurate speed and flare.
OK I may be biased since I learnt to fly on a taildragger 🙂
It’s really fun, you’ll see 😉
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Hi All
Here Is My Experience!
Back in 1957 I had done all requirements for my check ride. Met the FAA inspector and headed to the J3 cub. We took off and did about 20 minutes of maneuvers, 2 power offs straight ahead.Now the inspector said He wanted me to do a cross wind landing. OK with me. The cross wind runway happened to be the shortest at Stinson Field . The wind was gusty and cold. I decided to do a one wheel landing that I had done twice before.I started the side slip port wing down and opposite rudder. Coming down ok ,right down the center line!! Bouncy wind!!! But got the port wheel on the ground and the wind shifts to more like a tail wind but got the other wheel down and joystick all the way back. Need the tailwheel on the ground before braking and the end of the runway was coming up. Finally 3 points and started applying the J3 Cubs brakes, you know the little tabs on the floor near your heels. Got the J3 stopped jist short of the end of the runway. Had to because there is a drainage ditch there. Full Power and full rudder got me a 180 and back on one of the main runways and had to taxi all across the field. The instructor NEVER SAID A WORD during but said Back to Hangar 2. Signed me off and I was now a Private Pilot. Landing was perfect. They have removed that runway!!!
I look back and now think that somebody else at a infinately higher altitude landed that Cub.!!!!
B
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I lived 3 miles north of Brooks AFB during ww2 and there were Texan Trainers flying over our house night and day. Some pilots would fly low and wave!!!
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After checking my logbook I have to correct the date above. It was a gusty March 11 1956…..I would like to have been in the tower and seen that landing. –J3 Cub 28098-. I sort of felt that I never got in that J3 ,I just sort of put it on. Not so with a Cessna 120. ( with Me)….. Ah but Time doth Fly Also.!!!!!!
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