I’ve witnessed the difference between the swept tail C172 and what came before (actually on a C170) on a day with rather strong crosswinds – the C172 ran out of rudder authority, but the C170 had no problem!
Alioth I am most surprised to read what you say. I have been flying variants of the C172 for many decades and in some really extreme conditions but never run out of rudder authority. My strip is currently just slight wider than the wingspan and have landed there witha gusty 25k cross wind with a Bird Dog following behind.
Talking about X-winds. Maybe Flying Wings would be quite weak in that dept too, in addition to pitch stability?
Fenland_Flyer wrote:
Alioth I am most surprised to read what you say. I have been flying variants of the C172 for many decades and in some really extreme conditions but never run out of rudder authority
Agree, given how C172 can handle at 20kts/G35kts cross-wind, I bet they can do 40kts cross-winds with enough skill on long runways even when “rudder authority*” (whether that means?) is lost, not sure C172 vs C170s, never flew the latter but could be a good benchmark on short/tight airstrip
*if in crab there is no rudder involved…
From EDNY 2019:
No idea what this was.
The 1944 one posted above by Silvaire has just crashed. It was the only one flying.
