OK boys and girls, I figured it was time to interject a little reality into this subject. First a normal coupe can handle a 25kt X-wind with little trouble. The technique is simple, as was pointed out previously you hold it off until it settles in (for those of you without the split tail) (for those with it do a full stall landing). The object is to reduce the forward speed to as little as possible, puts less stress on the landing gear. When you touch down crabbed you need to be prepared for the fact that the lagging wing as it comes around picks up speed thereby picking up speed. The retreating wind looses speed thereby loosing lift, the net result is one wing is flying and the other is not. When this happens the advancing wing can lift into the air resulting in running along the ground on the nose wheel and only one main. This can be scary as hell the first time or 2. Most people make the mistake of thinking the X-wind picked up the wing, nope just aerodynamics. This is not the time to jump on the brakes or to try to make any drastic movements of the wheel, that will result in embarrassment at the least to an expensive pile of scrap aluminum at the worst. Just ride it out, as you decelerate the wing will again loose lift and plop back down. How high a X-wind can a coupe handle, I don't know but I can tell you that Bill Leavelle and I landed in a 45 KT (as reported by the FBO's instruments) direct X-wind on one occasion, you bet it was hairy but the take off wasn't so bad, we just took off across the ramp, about a 50 foot roll. I must admit I had far less trouble than Bill who was about 100 ft in front of me as we touched down, but I have rudder pedals (yes I landed in a combination crab and slip) which are connected to the nose wheel and are not linked to the ailerons. It sure as hell impressed the locals. When you really learn the coupe, it will do things you would never attempt in any other plane, rudder pedals or not.
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
