Frank Nelson asked: > This is an excellent point, Jerry. If an Ercoupe that can handle > 15 knots of crosswind using a standard landing, then it would > seem that such an Ercoupe could use combination of rudder > and crabbed landing to land in a 45 knot crosswind. Is this true > or am I just dreaming? Does the addition of rudder pedals > increase you ability to handle crosswinds?
The majority of my Coupe flying was with rudder pedals. I found that up to a 15 mph crosswind component, I could land one-wing-low with the nose aligned with the runway/direction-of-motion. With crosswind components in excess of 15 mph, the rudder effectiveness was insufficient for that technique. So, in stronger crosswinds, I leveled the wings and landed in a crab like any two-control Coupe. While I can conceive of landing in a strong crab, one wing low, it distresses me to think of it. Here's why: In a normal crabbed landing, both main gears touch at about the same time so the side loads are handled by both main gear legs. If you land one wing low AND in a strong crab, the upwind main gear will touch first, by itself, and may take unacceptable side loads. Then again, the side loads may not be a problem even in this situation. I don't know - never tried it. Me, I landed wings level in a crab whenever the crosswinds were very strong. Probably 35 mph crosswind component was the strongest I ever did. A 30 mph direct crosswind didn't faze me landing on a 20 foot wide asphalt runway once on a cross country trip (well, I sweat some but it turned out to be a non-event). The 25-30 mph crosswind components I had on several wider runways on many occasions were, similarly, not a big deal. Interestingly, when you get down to the last 1'-9' altitude, you get a dampening of the turbulence from the ground effect and that helps make for a controlled touchdown. My technique was to keep the airspeed a bit high till I was level in ground effect at about 3'-8' high, then bleed off the airspeed and let it settle down. If the crosswinds were much stronger than the strongest I landed in, I could just about land across the runway or on the 100' taxiway. With a net ground speed less than 20 mph, stopping doesn't take very long. (Facetious humor - kids, don't try this at home!) Ed
