Crosswinds

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I Did a little tour up north of Taos (New Mexico) today in my 1946 BC12-D. Made a few stop and goes at Questa NM where the winds were fairly mild, looked over the grasslands for any spring antelope, and then headed home exploring down the old abandoned D&RGW Chili Line narow guage roadbed between Antonito and Santa Fe. In the two hours that I was out, the winds had come up to their normal spring intensity and were a direct left crosswind at 15 gusting to 22.

The landing was fine. A bit of power, wheel on at minimum speed and get planted. Let the tail down and get the tailwheel working. I was down in the first 500 feet of the 5000' runway. The only problem that I had was that during the slow taxi up to the west end where I park, a gust hit. It overpowered the tailwheel and turned me around in a 360 on the runway. Not quite my first ground loop! I straightened it out with a bit of brake, and taxied the rest of the way to parking... slowly and dragging the right brake a little. I'm glad the gust didn't come through as I was dropping the tail.

I've always considered 15 knots my maximum crosswind speed. today wasn't really exciting until after I tied down and thought about that stray gust. What do you all use for your personnel minimums, and what crosswind techniques work? I'm always looking for better techniques.

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TF #895
N34237, sn 7700

[Len Petterson]

Re: Crosswinds

The I belive it is the devil what makes the crosswind!
He is spesialist in making gusts!
My guide is 9 mph at 90 Deg in the Taylorcraft.
During my flight training in a Fleet Canuck I landed into a strong wing ca 15 Knots or so and after the tunroff we have 60 deg quertering tailwind.
I taxi fast with 1200 rpm riding the brakes and ailerons into wind etc.
My instuctor chops the trottle with words: You taxing to fast!
= my # 1 ground loop. Nothing hurt but we hade one wheel of ground and was facing the wind in hurry!
Opps you had her under control, sorry: it came from the right seat.
Had some similar experienses in the T-craft but been lucky not damageing the plane.
8- 9 mph @ 90 deg NO MORE. more wind as the angel to runway decreaes. Judgment! The Long wing can help you or ground loop you!
I try not to fly on gusty days but I went flying on one such day last fall.
Steady wind into runway ca 10 knots nice day, but singel runway 1800 ft.
At 100 ft AGL I was tossed around sa bad I wished I stayed on the ground.
The savior is called: Go around early. Study the wind sock, if it swings and you have lots gas ( we always do, dont we) go somewhere else if possibole.
Len

[Pearson]

Re: Crosswinds

I have made many crosswind landings in my Taylorcraft. But I can't tell you what the winds were on any of them. I line up with the runway. When I get down to about 60 to 80 feet above the ground I take the crab angle out by adding downwind rudder and lowering the upwind wing. If I have to lower the upwind wing more than about 15 degrees, I find a grassy area where I can angle into the wind more to reduce the crosswind.

If you try to formulate a magic number for crosswind landings, you will have to carry your crosswind plotter with you to figure out what the actual component is. This also will not take into account any venturi effect of the wind comming between the hangars or an opening in the trees, etc.

Pick a maximum bank angle that you are comfortable landing with and use that as your guide to max crosswinds.