One does need to be careful with wind even if straight down the runway.
With any wind, there will be wind shear.
If the wind is reported at say 50kt (at the top of a 30ft pole), it will drop from something like 70kt to 20kt in the final 100ft.
So you will lose a lot of airspeed during the short final.
I know of somebody who smashed up a TB20, landing in a 50-60kt reported wind, straight down the runway.
It's probably not a good idea to be doing 70kt at 100ft...
My private flying is in a no gyros, no electrics Super Cub, so despite an IR this is a strictly VMC mission. Will accept a 1,000' ceiling and 8k for flying - and a 10 knot crosswind, and surface winds up to 20 knots. The a/c precludes playing the climb into IMC option, or the VFR on top card. Before the advent of gyro equipped trainers (Cessna 140? Piper Colt/Pacer? Chipmunk?, Auster? in the late 1950s) the main option when caught by IMC was the precautionary landing; and I would hope that I would make a precautionary landing if caught out by suddenly deteriorating weather. UK weather can come down suddenly, and I am not sure I would press on in less than 2-3k even if an airport is nearby. This wisdom coming from more hours low level marginal VMC than I would now want to admit to.
One of the advantages of flying a tail dragger is that an off field precautionary landing should be a non event. In the 1930's precautionary landings were a matter of course (rough running unreliable engines/fuel quality, no gyros, etc), and we might have less VFR into IMC/CFIT events if GA pilots made more precautionary landings in anger, and not just for their PPL skill test.
One of the advantages of flying a tail dragger is that an off field precautionary landing should be a non event. In the 1930's precautionary landings were a matter of course (rough running unreliable engines/fuel quality, no gyros, etc), and we might have less VFR into IMC/CFIT events if GA pilots made more precautionary landings in anger, and not just for their PPL skill test.
It's not (I don't think) merely that it's a tailwheel aircraft, it's just a lot of small tailwheel aircraft tend to have pretty low stall speeds and very good short field landing performance. Our Auster's normal final approach speed is only 50 mph (and you can approach slower especially with a dribble of power - I've wheel landed it from a 40 mph approach speed!), and with the split flaps you can come in very steeply (meaning it's easy to be accurate with your touchdown point, pretty important if you need to put the plane into a fairly small field). Or even slipping with flaps, where you come down like a safe with the door open. It also helps that we have big wheels on the aircraft too. Landing on cow pasture wouldn't be a big deal at all.
So it is an option I would consider if the weather went to cack all around me. However, having to do that in something like a Piper Tomahawk with a much faster approach speed, much less draggy flaps, and that tiny little nosewheel, I can see it being a bit off-putting. (Or worse still, something like a Grumman AA5 which has a nosewheel leg that looks like a bent piece of wire).
People who are glider pilots I suspect will also be more ready to do a precautionary landing in a power plane - after all, in cross country gliding, landing out is pretty much routine and it's in the cross country training syllabus.
All my flights are VFR, as a I fly a little tailwheel microlight I need to define the weather in which I fly quite closely.
Winds, due to my slow speed the limitations that I stick to are upper winds no higher than 25kts unless as a tailwind, 20kts down the runway and a crosswind componant of 14kts. The last is not an aircraft limitation and I have handled up to 18kts crosswind and I know the aircraft can do better than that, it is rather due to a lack of pilot skill.
Cloudbase, my limit is 1500' as I dislike scud running and any lower than 1200' makes conventional nav hard work with more time looking inside than I am comfortable with. I mostly fly in a fairly busy area and rely on the excellant visability of my chosen aircraft to keep me clear of traffic.
Vis, my limit is 7K unless flying into sun, this gives me the options of either requiring at least 10K or planning a dogleg course to avoid the very poor vis of the glare on the haze.
