Crosswinds are fun....when you're doing the flying. I don't like crosswinds when I'm not the one at the yoke. I guess it's a control thing. Mark
Considering he was shooting with two converters on the lens, I'm amazed how sharp the images were. Some good stuff there! Reminds me of a landing in PHL once where the wind was at least 30 degrees off of the runway axis, and gusting. Fortunately, ATC let us fly directly into the wind until just before landing, unlike the aircraft in this video which are all lined up with the runway well in advance. Sitting on the left side of the 767, I could see our runway quite clearly until about 10 seconds before touchdown. The inboard aileron was flapping furiously as the pilot endeavored to keep us more-or-less level, and even after touchdown, the aircraft was slewing left and right as we decelerated. What fun!
I loved the tailwheels in cross winds. Ain't a cross wind until half your rollout is on one wheel. My goal was not to crab at all. Can't really do that with the low wings.
Nice video. You'll notice that with the larger planes, even though the cockpit is on the centerline, the main gear is way off of it. Here's a screenshot of that first landing on the video... To properly land in a crosswind, you have to setup so that the cockpit is on the upwind side of the runway. And then when you kick in the rudder, the nose swings around to the centerline. It's a bit strange at first. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I sat here thinking the same thing when I was watching the videos. Really good stuff to see all the excellent flying done by those guys. I was going back to my student days where I had to fly a prescribed rectangular pattern that was equally split by Hiway 41. The wind was 90 deg to the road and I had to maintain the same track and distance on each side of the road. The short sides of the rectangle required either early flat turns or quick sharp turns. Then the amount of crab on the long legs was reversed as you changed direction. Then I had to do the same thing with eights on pylon.I agree, Rob, crosswind landings with a tail dragger are much easier than with a nose dragger.
You and I both. I HATE flying commercial. I'll fly my butt around all day, but sitting in the back? Uhmmm no thanks. I am a control freak and riding along drives me nuts....
Learning to do cross winds in the Cessna 150 back in the day was a bit nerve racking until I relaxed and lightend up the grip on the controls.
Some great footage of Boeings doing crosswind landings at Moses Lake. The angles at which they're crabbing are breathtaking! [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJ1mzbJpIk[/ame]
This DC-8 pilot was probably wise to go around. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32CNIaZdA08[/ame]
I sat in a few meetings where there were many discussions about increasing the torque load capability of the oleo and the bending loads on the truck beam. Three wheel truck plus its length presented many problems. They were all solved, I think. I noticed that the airplane was not kicked entirely straight before touchdown.
I think of this one as "wow" [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z42fchrzhHY[/ame] ...and this one is just fascinating... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZqN-uEgQU&feature=share[/ame]
WTF? Why would they even try to land there? (I seem to remember seeing this a few years ago and I assume low fuel...but good grief!)
Not three wheel truck. Six wheel truck, three on each side. I had to land my L-3 in a cold front and a howling crosswind gale at Redding/Enterprise. Black as night with rain drops the size of grapes. We couldn't hear the engine from the noise of the rain and wind. We swung wide into the wind and had almost full forward stick, full right aileron, and a lot of right rudder. Cruise power because of the gusts and we hit, and I mean hit, on the right wheel with a loud bang when the shock strut bottomed out. It was the only time on the trip that my wife let out a yell. We had to keep forward stick and full right aileron to stay on the ground and even then the plane was trying to fly. Fortunately three guys came out of the office and hung on to the struts and tail to help us get to a slot and they chained the airplane down. All off us were soaked by the time we got into shelter. We had cut across the field at 300 feet going like a bat outa' hell and they said that they heard us and knew that they should give a hand. Great crew there and sadly Enterprise was eaten up by the real estate crocodile. That was a tough little airplane.
