|
Crosswind
Landings and Takeoffs - It matters not whether you are a
beginner, or a senior Captain, the principles are exactly
the same, it boils down to experience, how well you
understand the mechanics of it all, how much you
have practiced crosswind landings and takeoffs before
and the method used to learn.
Maybe I should
start by showing you how NOT to do it, and you will soon see
that some seasoned Captains - actually do look like
beginners...
That was just
horrible to watch wasn't it? OK now if a strong
crosswinds scare you, then just quit now while you
are ahead of the game, or let's see if I can be of some
help to you in "your quest for
perfection".
I do have 1.9
years off mother earth, so there were many landings
therein and you certainly can't have landings without
having taken off too. This was accomplished in all types
of aircraft from light singles, tail draggers, flying
boats, floats, skis, tricycle landing gear, light
and heavy twins, high wing and low wing, corporate
turboprops, biz-jets, airliners -twin and four engine turboprop
and jets.
Now here is my
only disclaimer which applies to this entire article and
that is... what I am now going to show you, is not meant
to supersede your operating manuel nor the advise of
your current instructor, but merely to be as a guide for
your consideration regarding a method that certainly has
been effective and that has worked for me, as well as
for every student of mine which I taught, in the years
that I instructed flying.
There are two
methods of proceeding in a straight line, from where you
are - to where you want to be, while a crosswind
is trying to blow you off that path; those two
methods are...
(1) crabbing, and the other we will call... (2) wing-low.
Crabbing is
achieved with the wings being level while you are
aiming enough into the wind to be able to maintain the
path that you want, (tracking with the
centreline of the runway). This provides for good
passenger comfort, and gives you full control over your
path (track) even though you are not straight in line with the
runway (but your path is). The stronger the wind, the
more you will be pointed off the centreline of the
runway and into the wind, although your path should be tracking the
centre-line. It should be abundantly clear that while you may be providing for passenger comfort as you
approach the runway in this sideways configuration, you sure do not want to land that way;
hence at this
point we are now
going to transition to the wing-low method.
Wing-low is
basically a side-slip. While you are pointing straight
down the centre-line of the runway, you are compensating
for the crosswind by lowering the windward (up-wind) wing just low enough stop any drift across the runway.
Got it? Hold your alignment perfectly straight down
the centreline of the runway WITH RUDDER, while
your ANGLE OF BANK controls and prevents any
sideways drift. This way the aircraft alignment
remains straight down the centreline of the runway
throughout your flair (round-out) and touchdown,
with the windward wheel kissing the runway first, then
the downwind wheel followed by the nose wheel. In
extreme windy conditions you do not want to hold
the nose wheel off any more than minimum necessary,
and as the aircraft slows, don't forget to keep your
ailerons pointed to windward. Taxing down wind with
a strong quartering tail wind, point control down
wind, including elevator control forward.
OK, so now the
key is practice; and crabbing is easy to do, but
wing-low "being a side-slip" is a bit harder
to do initially, so how does one practice something that is only
done in the last 10 seconds of your landing. They
say that necessity is the mother of invention; so here
we go... For myself and later for my students, I
found two remote country roads with no polls or wires,
one north-south road for when the wind was blowing
strong from the east or west, and also a east-west road
for when the wind was blowing hard from north or the south.
By the way, these roads happened to be about five miles
long, which worked out nicely. Depending on the wind of
the day I would get down to 100-200' (starting higher at first)
and while holding that altitude I would fly a mile or so
crabbing to stay right over the centreline of that road,
and then I would fly the next mile or so flying wing-low
up the road, staying right over that centreline of
the road. Keep good flying speed at all times, because
you positively do not have to be doing landing
speeds to practice these two techniques. If you are
finding that you need more practice at one method over
the other then fly the entire distance available
practicing exactly the one you are weaker at doing. To
be a good pilot YOU MUST MASTER BOTH TECHNIQUES. Once
you have it, fly back and forth switching between
crabbing and wing-low until you are totally comfortable
with yourself, and the results. IF you do not have the
convenience of a country road to practice on, then use
a farmer friends field, lining up on a windrow, or even
on a runway in the city. Just tell the tower that
instead of a touch and go that you want to do a low and
over at say 50 or 100 feet until you have it. This
probably will not be as good as my country roads because
most control towers will have the traffic flow into the
wind as much as possible.
By the way,
I almost forgot to discuss Takeoff's; you can't
have landings without first taking off, but those are
easy... if you have enough thrust you just point, and open
the taps and rotate at the correct speed and then crab a
little after getting airborne. In a strong crosswind
on takeoff it would be good to put some windward aileron
on during the takeoff run, while staying straight with
rudder; rotate cleanly and slide lazily into
an appropriate crab angle after rotating clear of the
runway. In windy "Gusty" conditions do NOT
over-control.
If you stand
near any airport on an extremely windy day, you will see
that about seven out of every ten pilots need to learn what we
have just talked about here, in order to
perfect these
techniques. I myself love crosswind landings, no matter
how strong a wind is blowing, or how many degrees
off the runway it is, or what type of aircraft I am
flying. It is all great fun indeed!!!.
To sum up, when
I had a beginner student that I felt sure had learned
how to switch from crabbing to wing-low while completing
a successful round-out, then that was my key that
I
needed to turn him or her loose on their very First Solo.
I really hope
that this short study has helped you, and that you feel
better for it.
Have Safe and Enjoyable Flying!
Bob
Bendall
Copyright
-all rights reserved internationally, unless otherwise
specified.
|
