Yes, I am. It will be blown downwind, but it won't yaw out of the relative wind such that it proceeds upwind.
If you're taking off with a wind so strong that it takes full rudder to maintain directional control, you deserve what happens to you. If not, you still have rudder authority remaining to control the yaw.
FTFY.Holy cow this has devolved since last login!!
Why is this so hard? Someone used "weather vane," and it isn't really applicable.
If the wind direction is variable, the airplane will turn into it (stability and all that) unless countered by equal force.
How's that?
http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/yaw.htmlFigure 8.1 shows a situation where the airplane’s heading has been disturbed out of its usual alignment with the airflow. There are lots of ways this could happen, including a gust of wind, a momentary uncoordinated deflection of the controls, or whatever.
Figure 8.1: Response to a Yaw Angle
In this situation, the relative wind is striking the vertical fin and rudder at an angle. Like any other airfoil, the fin/rudder produces lift in proportion to its angle of attack, so it will produce a force (and therefore a torque) that tends to re-align the airplane with the wind. We say that the airplane has lots of yaw-wise stability.
The colloquial name for yaw-wise stability is “weathervaning tendency”. That is, the airplane tends to align itself with the relative wind, just as a weathervane does. Section 8.12 discusses weathervaning during taxi.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/rotations.html
Thank you. Finally. Phew.
If someone is that bad of a pilot, then starting out on the centerline isn't going to provide any better success. The outcome would be the same no matter what technique they use.
I have very little time in taildraggers but I have enough to know that you can't see much, if anything, out the front when the tail is on the ground. It seems that it would be more difficult to judge the proper diagonal angle by looking out the side.
That is what I am saying. If you are lined up with the runway the view out the side will be symmetrical. If you are flying at an angle it seems that it would be more difficult to judge the proper one by just looking out the sides.
Are you suggesting there's no difference between zero margin for error and 25+ feet of margin for error? If so, I beg to differ. While I think I'm a pretty good pilot, I know I can't hold zero tracking error on a crosswind takeoff in any light plane, whether it be tailwheel or nosewheel (steerable or free-castering).
Remember, we're not talking about a 10KT crosswind. We're talking about significant winds probably in excess of 25KTs. I the kinds of aircraft being discussed, you don't need much runway to take off or land, and any way you can reduce that crosswind DOES help. Any wind strong enough to take your tailwheel off the edge of the runway is also likely to be enough to make you groundloop if you religiously hold the centerline. That same wind, is probably strong enough, that if you go to the edge of the runway, you can "fly" it at a standstill, and get off the ground long before you run off the opposite edge at an angle. You can practically hold the Cub's tail up in the air at a standstill if the brakes are tight in a 25-30KT wind. You'd be foolhardy to try and do that with a strong wind off to the side, but if you pointed the nose into the wind, aileron down, you should be able to get off the runway in good order very quickly.
In my opinion, the diagonal trick doesn't help nearly as much as it takes away margin for error or deviation.
If that's true, you'll groundloop off the diagonal method too, unless you think 3 degrees of wind direction change is significant -- and the numbers say it's not.
It's not 3 degrees. More like 10-15 or better depending on the winds and the aircraft's capabilities...
Well, for instance, on two of the grass runways I use, I could probably get off in 6-800' with no wind and the field is 100' wide. With a significant enough crosswind to have issues, you could easily half the distance. I'm not saying that you should use a diagonal in normal circumstances by any means, just pointing out that if you're limited to a single runway and a significant crosswind, it's a technique that could help. Also, on the grass, there IS NO centerline. The centerline is an arbitrary device rightfully used to help with precision. Do I normally land on the centerline, of course - hopefully within 3-6 inches. I just spent a week beating that into a student's head.
For it to be 15 degrees, the runway would have to be over 200 feet wide with a takeoff roll of less than 800 feet. Try again, unless you're operating out of MacDill AFB.
Exactly....as the speed builds up, you need less correction so the ground path is more of an arc.
I probably wouldn't start using an angle until it got to be 20-25+ KTS of crosswind. At that point, the Cub's airspeed on short final would be between 45 and 55 KTS - with a groundspeed of 30 KTS or less, and the ground roll would be very, very short. I've flown it in winds so strong that I was able to takeoff, climb out over the runway, slow down and drift backwards, and land - all without any significant change in heading.
But, seriously, in winds that bad - What the hell are you doing out flying anyway?
20 kts 30-40 degrees off the runway was a pretty typical wind in New England where I did my PPL and TW endorsement. With most ga planes having a max demonstrated x-wind component, again, I'll take a 5 kt reduction in x-wind component.But, seriously, in winds that bad - What the hell are you doing out flying anyway?
