I use crab and kick/wing down on short final but agree that pilots often worry too much about a crosswind. It just takes practice.
I personally really enjoy flying on days with a fairly stiff crosswind. I learned to fly in Malta which was often fairly windy (my first solo was in 22kt wind, down the runway mind you) so it was normal to have a crosswind to deal with. The aircraft I flew down there was probably the worst at handling crosswinds out of the (few) aircraft I have flown since.
On cross-winds practical limits/techniques:
In side-slip only,
- You are limited on wind strength to keep runway line at all moments by max rudder authority
- You are not that limited on gust factor as you can make changes quickly to keep runway line at any give moment
In crab only,
- You are not limited at all by wind strength to keep runway line at all moments (rudder is irrelevant here?)
- You are limited on gust factor in crab as you have to asses your track over some period to make a meaningful crab correction by that time the gust has dispersed and you are off the runway and the crab correction goes to the rats
Pilot wisdom is to crab while high then slip while low but we all end up mixing both and if in practice it should be OK, most of the time very less challenging that you think, on tail wheels I like when there is strong winds at least you know when it will go when you loose it…
Crab is rubbish if you have no clue of the wind, more likely with gusts but may work very well on wide instrument runways
The book demonstrated numbers are bit odd, I flew two aircraft with 15kts XW one handled like hell at 8kts while another one was fine at 30kts…
Pilot_DAR wrote:
37G43 is possible in a C150, but it’s not nice.
How did you taxi the thing ?? A C150 pretty much starts to fly at these wind speeds. I remember once landing at LEMG in very similar wind (mostly down the rwy, no huge x-wind factor) but had serious difficulties taxiing back to the ramp. That was a C172RG.
172driver wrote:
How did you taxi the thing ??
Happily, it was a straight backtrack from my hangar, then turn around, and fly it, from the moment I opened the throttle. I held it firmly on the ground until I was very satisfied that the gust factor was overcome.
Ibra wrote:
The book demonstrated numbers are bit odd, I flew two aircraft with 15kts XW one handled like hell at 8kts while another one was fine at 30kts…
The book value comes from the requirement:
(a) There may be no uncontrollable ground or water looping tendency in 90 degree cross winds, up to a wind velocity of 0.2 VS0, at any speed at which the airplane may be expected to be operated on the ground or water.Quote
I’m not sure how you varied the crosswind from 15 to 8 to 30kts though…
Yes you have to demonstrate 0.2*VS0 XW on certified aircraft but you can show more on the day if you like 
To me it has to do with runway length/surrounding as well as aircraft, I am happy to go to 0.5*VS0 on 2km runway with clear surrounding but not 10kts on from the hill close to a short strip on something solid like a C172
PS: flew the two aircraft in different days/airfields
I am far more bothered about the gusts than the crosswind.
I have landed in some ferocious crosswinds, but if anything is really enought to put me off, it is big gusts, or issues at certain airports where the crosswind is disturbed by topographical features.
I have had a few occasions with very gusty conditions or disturbances of the crosswind where I have run out of authority, at which point things do get slightly interesting.
A twin, well some twins, do tend to make the approach a whole lot more stable, but perhaps less fun.
Gusts are much more easily dealt with using wing down. Actually, I have no idea how people kicking off drift manage gusts at all.
I suspect that the advantages of twins in a crosswind are five fold:
The most important thing for crosswind landings is currency – and currency on that type.
If on a grass runway, a bump could put you back in the air at too low a speed to keep control.
A low wing aircraft will have less effective wind with a wheel on the ground than a high wing.
Undercarriage width has an effect. Inertia has an effect. I’ve kicked a Pa28 without thinking, but never tried it with a Jodel.
In gusty winds, a light tailwheel aircraft should be stable when two tie-downs are secured, or most of it is in the hangar.
You don’t fly twins in 600m, so it will be hard to test the best technique ;)
But I agree anywhere close to the ground or on the surface with headwind one “should always be wing down”, actually, I don’t think one can kick drift/crab before or after touchdown: it will still apply while you are rolling on ground, so ailerons/wing will have to be into wind even when you flare/roll/taxi anyway?
When I push the rudder after crabbing, I feel doing it to be ready to fly or taxi uncoordinated along runway with two way rudder rather than kicking a one way drift…
I find crab (basically coordinated flight), then wing into wind (non coordinated flight) give an easy transition to crossed controls while on the ground: crab, then wing into wind while keeping the runway line with the rudder? otherwise good luck keeping coordination in gusty conditions..
