I’m jumping into one of the most dissected and debated issues in the aviation world.
If you want to start a lively discussion with a group of pilots, ask for their opinions on the safest, most effective, and workable way to handle a crosswind landing…particularly a strong one with rain, turbulence, or gusty winds. Hopefully, include some “big airplane” guys and some taildragger pilots to spice things up.
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My personal choice—the one I normally use in my Cessna 180— is a slip, where you lower the upwind wing on final to counter the drift of the wind and simultaneously feed in enough opposite rudder to position the nose (the longitudinal axis—you) straight down the middle of the runway. It’s really a side slip, but any sideways movement is negated because of the countering wind. You keep these aileron and rudder inputs, more or less as needed, all the way to touchdown on the runway, touching first on the upwind wheel but keeping the correction in and waiting for the downwind wheel to touch.
Then, instead of breathing a sigh of relief and relaxing the controls, you feed in full upwind aileron and maintain whatever opposite rudder pressure is necessary to stay headed straight down the middle of the runway. These control displacements usually become greater as you slow down, but there are no side loads on the landing gear.
This takes practice, especially if it’s a strong, gusty wind where control pressures vary considerably and quickly. When I was an inspector and an examiner, a pilot who could effectively handle a crosswind landing in gusty conditions generally got my vote. And if it’s my landing to critique, I give myself a pat on the back whenever I can taxi into the hangar area without having terrorized myself.
But there are probably as many proponents of the crabbing method. And if you think about it, this is generally what you seem to see with large transport airplanes on final to a runway with a crosswind. The idea is to head into the wind just enough to keep tracking down the center of the runway. The kicker is you must simultaneously lower the upwind wing and feed in exactly enough opposite rudder just at the point of touchdown.
Loads on the gear from landing “sideways” can usually be absorbed by the gear in large air carrier airplanes, plus these big transports land at higher speeds, so any given crosswind has less effect. There are even some big Boeings (777s and 787s) authorized to land with the crab angle still in place. The B-52 was designed with crosswind gear and, famously, the Cessna 195 with its effective “crazy legs.” And then, beloved to my heart, is the Ercoupe, which couldn’t be cross-controlled. You held a crab and just plunked it down where it straightened itself out on the runway.
It’s always seemed to me that landing sideways is inviting disaster in an airplane, but a retired captain recently told me: “Next time you are aviating and there is a crosswind, try holding the crab angle until right before touchdown, then transition to putting the wing down into the wind and touchdown on the upwind wheel. I think you will be surprised. It’s not that difficult.”
Well, maybe, but, as another 777 captain friend puts it, “Well, it’s just not right!”
Before any significant crosswind landing, of course, you need to look at the crosswind component charts and check the maximum demonstrated crosswind in your operating handbook. Remember that figure is “demonstrated” but not a limitation—if you’re a real hotshot.
OK, I know you’ve heard all this before. But visualize both methods and remember that neither will work unless you practice—maybe with some coaching or instructing. If it’s too much, you land at a different airport with a runway into the wind.
Except…I remember a late April morning when I flew my J-3 Cub (N70906) early in the day out in the country to forage for morel mushrooms and maybe to shoot some squirrels. My buddy, Richard Roberts, owned a dairy farm near Peebles, Ohio, which is prime mushroom country in the spring. Roberts’ place had a hayfield just made for Piper Cubs and such. I left Lunken airport (KLUK) before the tower opened because I had no lights except the flashlight in my mouth. There was a 5-gallon can of gas secured in the front seat and a .22 rifle strapped to a strut. I took off on what had been a runway (15-33) but was now a taxiway.
I guess I was still an FAA inspector and might have had a feeling about the legality of this operation, but I forgot to investigate.
After a wonderful day in the country, Roberts and I filled the tank with 100-octane gas, and I headed west back toward Cincinnati. It was a pretty day except the air was really rough, and the surface winds had picked up considerably since the morning. Lunken was reporting something like 330 degrees at 15 with gusts to 25. Even landing on Runway 25 would mean an 80-degree gusty crosswind. A King Air on final in front of me was cleared to land, and I could see he was having trouble. Finally, he missed and went somewhere else.
I think I gave it two tries before telling the tower I couldn’t get it down and that I was requesting to land to the north on taxiway A (330 degrees). They refused permission, but I kept at it.
“Do I have any traffic?”
“No, but you can’t land on a taxiway.”
I tried using the “pilot’s discretion” phrase, which wasn’t really appropriate (since it’s an air traffic phrase related to altitude concessions), but I thought it sounded good. It didn’t work.
Finally, the controller asked, “Are you declaring an emergency?” And I replied, “Sure, if that’s what it takes. I’ll declare an emergency.” And I proceeded to land north on taxiway alpha…rolling out no more than 200 feet to the turnoff into my hangar.
Nothing came of it but, to be safe, I went up to the tower where we had a conversation about “responsibility of pilot in command” under ICAO rules:
“The pilot in command of an aircraft shall, whether manipulating the controls or not, be responsible for the operation of the aircraft in accordance with the rules of the air, except that the pilot in command may depart from these rules in circumstances that render such departure absolutely necessary in the interests of safety.”
I’d given Roberts my squirrels, but the morels were delicious.
This column first appeared in the July Issue 960 of the FLYING print edition.
