Proficient Pilot: In search of a crosswind

An instructor can spend hours explaining to a student how ailerons are used to neutralize a crosswind (prevent drifting across the runway) and how opposite rudder is applied to maintain runway alignment (keep the longitudinal axis parallel to the centerline). Even if a student seems to understand the theory, he often has difficulty putting this into practice because cross-controlling an airplane feels so unnatural. Also, a student gets very little practice at such cross-controlling, perhaps only 10 seconds or so per crosswind landing. That is hardly enough time to develop proficiency.

An excellent way to introduce a student to crosswind landings and provide him with plenty of practice is to locate and fly along a straight road under the influence of a breezy crosswind—the kind of road that might otherwise be used to practice ground-reference maneuvers. The student should maintain 600 feet agl for a few miles, allowing him to develop a visual sense of the crab angle required to remain directly over the road. After a while, he should reverse course and practice crabbing in the opposite direction.

After the student is comfortable with this, he should then be introduced to the cross-controlling required to make a crosswind landing. He is encouraged to control drift across the road with the ailerons while using opposite rudder to remain aligned with it. It will not take long for this cross-controlling to become almost second nature to the student, because he will have had as much crosswind practice in 10 or 20 minutes above the road as would otherwise have required 50 or more actual crosswind landings. Using a road in this relaxed manner provides students with the practice needed to develop crosswind landing skills. I have never had one student use this technique and not quickly develop the muscle memory needed to make consistently safe crosswind landings.

After a student becomes adept at taming the crosswind, he can then vary aileron input to allow purposefully drifting into the wind (upwind) and then away from the wind (downwind), all the while keeping the airplane headed parallel to the road.

The best part of using a road to practice such cross-controlling is that you can almost always find one with a crosswind (except on a calm day). Finding a runway with a crosswind is not always so easy.

Eventually there comes a day of reckoning. Before the student attempts his first actual crosswind landing, he should be asked to fly 10 or 20 feet above the runway to get used to cross-controlling near the ground. After becoming comfortable with this, he needs only to do the same while flaring to a touchdown. It is gratifying to see how well he does.

Although this discussion involves an instructor teaching crosswind landings to a student pilot, we should acknowledge that there are many certificated pilots in need of similar training. This is not necessarily because they are lousy pilots. Many have not had adequate crosswind instruction, and many others have not had the exposure and experience needed to become proficient at entering into combat with a crosswind. If you are one of these, find an instructor willing to provide the type of training discussed here. There is no reason to remain apprehensive about crosswind landings (as some of us are).

Speaking of crosswinds, there is a problem associated with braking after touchdown about which many pilots are unaware. Assume that a pilot has just landed with a brisk left crosswind. Quite naturally, he applies substantial left aileron after touchdown to prevent the wind from lifting his left wing. He then applies equal pressure to both brake pedals but does not anticipate the turn that could result. The pilot ignominiously winds up in the weeds, wondering what happened.

Such an unexpected turn into the wind occurs because holding down the left wing forces more weight onto the left tire and removes some weight from the right one. Because braking effectiveness increases with added weight on the wheels, the left brake in this case will be more effective than the right. The effect is the same as applying differential braking—in tricycle-gear aircraft and taildraggers. The airplane turns toward the upwind side of the runway, leaving the unsuspecting pilot totally bewildered.

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