Takeoffs and Landings: Crosswind Landings

at least 25% of all landing accidents can be attributed to a pilot's loss of control during a crosswind landing or more precisely the pilots inability to manage the aircraft correctly during a crosswind so it's no wonder that new or inexperienced pilots or even pilots who haven't flown in windy conditions in a while are intimidated by strong crosswinds when trying to land pilots are taught the proper way to land in a crosswind during their primary training and are required to demonstrate the technique to pass their checkride some are taught to crab the airplane down final and kick it over before touchdown and some are taught to side slip it all the way down both methods are correct however at some point they will have to cross control the aircraft to land on the upwind wheel first and many pilots can be timid about this maneuver and rightly so in training pilots are taught that cross controlling is bad but that is only half the truth the fear is real yes because the fear is real if you are not exposed to it early on probably the biggest reason why people struggle with crosswind landings is they feel uncomfortable just being uncoordinated we spend so much time telling people not to fly uncoordinated because you could stall and spin especially at low air speeds and then we turn around and tell them okay well on crosswind landings we're coming in at a slow airspeed and we want you to cross control at the end so I think a lot of people just have a really difficult time feeling comfortable with doing that a tendency to not put in enough correction I think is what you end up with at the end of the day because they just have a hesitancy to put it in and hold it in so they'll take it out and then you end up landing in a bit of a crowd you'll know that that's the mark of a good pilot and good crosswind landing is that you've landed on the upwind main first and then the other and the nose furthermore while the control movements for a crosswind technique are usually taught correctly in the classroom they may not be taught or practiced enough during actual crosswinds above 10 knots whether due to lack of windy conditions during training or in instructors reluctance to train on windy days as a result many pilots never gain the experience of landing in a strong crosswind during training and therefore never learn the proper sight picture of what landing in a strong crosswind should look like from the pilots perspective once a pilot experiences what the attitude of the aircraft in relation to the runway looks like with one wing dipped into the wind and the nose aligned with the runway centerline they can respond with the necessary control inputs to land safely having this proper sight picture is the key to becoming aligned correctly with the runway before touching down in a crosswind it all has to do with sight picture where is the centerline in relationship to the nose find the spot on your cowling where it is perfectly centered remember I can get that spot you know burn into your mind and so then don't let that spot waver back and forth if you see the airplane move off the centerline from side to side ailerons if you see the nose move or the centerline moving around the nose rudders input so the ability to coordinate those comes with experience one of the hardest parts of this maneuver is knowing just how much correction to put in and keeping it in place with gusty winds and changing flight conditions however pilots soon realize how important it is to stay ahead of the airplane controlling an airplane in a crosswind especially when it's low to the ground and slow is a very dynamic process there is no set inputs of what it takes is just you have to experience it by going on and practicing it yourself with shifting and changing winds there's not a whole lot you can do other than real thing to the feel of it and it takes some time and practice to develop that feel but it's definitely you're dancing on the rudder a little bit more when there are stronger gusts you're playing with the ailerons a little bit more to kind of fine-tune it and tweak it there is a point in time where if you get a strong gust smooth controls inputs don't belong not at all so that means that you have to be aggressively assertive aggressively because control inputs opposite to what the wind is doing to the wind will change significantly as you get closer to the runway so regardless of even if you put in that forward slip way out on final odds are you're going to have to tweak it you're going to have to change the amount of rudder that's in there amount of aileron that's in there as you come down on final especially if you've got a tree line that once you get past the tree line all of a sudden the wind sort of dies down a little bit because the winds are being blocked by the trees so now you're definitely having to adjust anyways learning how to improve crosswind technique like any other maneuver and flying requires practice but practicing crosswind landings doesn't necessarily mean touching down in a crosswind the way that I practice with my students is to fly low over the runway with no intention of landing when we tell them that no intention of landing maybe keep on a little extra speed that makes them feel a little more comfortable with the whole thing and then just fly low over the runway in the crosswind correction wing low rudder to straighten the nose with the runway and just fly right down the runway that way you'll release the rudder pressure the airplane is going to drift to one side if you release a lure a lure on the airplane is going to drift from one side to the other being close to the runway like that you can actually see when you're drifting and it's easier to tell if your nose is centered with the centreline of the runway it always pays to go up in practice and take an instructor up with you and push your limits just a little bit beyond which are normally comfortable with with an instructor on board so that it maintains the safety personally I think that this is one of the things that people should do on a flight review as long as you've got a flight instructor sitting there with you take the opportunity to practice the things that you're not as comfortable with or you don't do as often once that airplane is on the ground it's important to keep that crosswind correction in there in fact pilots need to realize they will require even more correction since their control surfaces are not as effective at slower speeds the tendency is if you're in a stiff cross one of these we tend to how we're down relax we've relaxed the controls can neutralize the controls and our feet get a little lazy and then we get caught with the with a good gust of wind and it's startles us even if they get the landing correct I think that sometimes there's a tendency to feel like okay I'm on the ground I can relax now and so when they do that then they take out the controls and then a wing tips over so they don't follow through with the landing just because the wheels are on the ground doesn't mean you can stop the crosswind correction as a matter of fact you're going to be putting in more and more iller on as the aircraft slows down but a lot of people kind of quit right when the wheels touch the ground there may be some occasions when the wind is just blowing too strong to land for example what should you do if you've run out of rudder and still can't keep the nose pointed on the runway centerline sure there are pilots who pride themselves on landing a Cessna 172 in a direct 30 knot crosswind but you have to ask yourself are you willing to become a test pilot I'm a safety person I'm very safety conscious I have nothing to prove to anybody all I want to do is get my family and myself safely from one point to another and I'm not going to be a test pilot when I do that and I'm not taking risks with them and or myself it's imperative that you do have the mindset that not every cross one landing is going to go well that you may have to make a go-around out of it and if you've run out of rudder and you've run out of aileron and there's nothing more to give and you're still not centered up with the runway that's when you go around and you find an airport or a different runway that's more closely aligned to the wind a go-around is called for anytime you don't have a stabilized approach anytime you have that little voice in your head that says I think I've got this I think I can make this work anytime that comes into your mind then you go around

Channel: Air Safety Institute

Views: 269,517

Rating: 4.9129143 out of 5

Keywords: crosswind landing, crosswind, x-wind, landing, cessna, Cessna 172 (Aircraft Model), air safey institute, Aircraft Owners And Pilots Association (Organization), AOPA, high winds, direct crosswind, crosswind landings

Id: QZ_qBNonSlE

Length: 9min 43sec (583 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2014