So there was a big ol' gusty crosswind blowing today at N85, and I went out to play in it.
First landing I did at normal 75 down final. Crosswind was about 8 knots across the runway. She behaved well. Second one, I found the 15-knot windsock pointing rigidly, I guess there was a solid 15 at a 90-degree angle. That's what it looked like from downwind, anyways. So I held 80 MPH down final, thinking to reduce the effect of the X-wind. That led to a floaty landing. When I did touch down, I got into the classic conundrum... I touched down in a crab, as the plane tried to straighten out, the upwind wing wanted to keep flying. Trying to bring it down with aileron, of course, led to heading for the upwind edge of the runway. Not too terrifying on our fairly wide runway, but on a narrow one it definitely would have sucked. After a moment of bewilderment, I decided to nudge the brakes a bit. That seemed to solve the ambiguous air vs. land vehicle question, and settle things down. In retrospect, I think I may have been relying on taildragger 'bury the stick' instincts rather than getting the nosewheel down to make use of the negative angle of incidence that I know I have (my tail is properly up where it belongs). Comments? What's the best tactic when that upwind wing seems to have a mind of its own? As I was taxiing back, a 172 came on the Unicom, planning to use the same runway I was. I suspected because I was. It's our big runway, and the cross runway is pretty narrow and a bit shorter, rarely used. I let them know that they shouldn't follow my example, as I was 'out playing with the cross-wind.' I think they would have been in a world of hurt had they tried it. When I saw them come down final for the other runway, they looked like they were stopped. Greg __________________________________________________________________________ ______ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________ Enlighten your in-box. http://www.topica.com/t/15
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