Crosswinds the last 50 feet from landing

[MAKG1]

I like to save those landings for when there are 3 holding short and about 7 in the run-up area to critique the landing.

I like to save them for FBO checkouts.

After my checkride, the very next time I landed with sideload was a rental checkout at KVUO with an instructor I'd never met before. That was some 5 months and dozens of landings later! I was ****ed off, but the instructor shrugged it off and said it happens all the time when someone is looking, and then signed me off. The next landing -- with the family aboard and after a nice sightseeing flight around Mt. St. Helens, was a whole lot better.

 

[Ghery]

I like to save those landings for when there are 3 holding short and about 7 in the run-up area to critique the landing.

I like to save them for FBO checkouts.

After my checkride, the very next time I landed with sideload was a rental checkout at KVUO with an instructor I'd never met before. That was some 5 months and dozens of landings later! I was ****ed off, but the instructor shrugged it off and said it happens all the time when someone is looking, and then signed me off. The next landing -- with the family aboard and after a nice sightseeing flight around Mt. St. Helens, was a whole lot better.

I save those lousy landing for KPWT as I know many people in the cafe are grading landings, just as I will be doing once I tie down and get in there myself.

 

[LandSickness]

To the OP,
Landing the plane is the final frontier when it comes to mastering the Z axis and what sucks about it is(as I am learning myself) you are doing a dozen things at once in about eight seconds. It's only going to come when it comes. As you learn the plane, you'll become one with it, and I don't mean that "zen" mumbo jumbo either. The plane will literally become an extension of your limbs and how they react as you learn to make adjustments. In the meantime, that guy in the right seat is your training wheels. Don't worry so much about bending the plane. Concentrate on how the plane responds to your inputs, especially rudders. Ask your CFI to take you up to practice slow flight, build your confidence with your rudder work and then use what you've learned in that last 50 feet. What it boils down to is FLYING THE AIRPLANE FROM TAKEOFF UNTIL IT YOU'RE TAXING OFF THE RUNWAY.

 

[wabower]

One of the research groups fitted the pro golfers with the brain-wave sensor hats to determine the number that were left-brain analyticals vs. right-brain creatives insofar as their shotmaking processes were concerned.

The results showed that all of them were extremely left-brain insofar as planning and calculating all of the variables (wind, slope, shot-shape, distance, pin placement, etc.) but their brains switched sides from engineer to athlete when they stepped to the ball, envisioned the shot and executed the swing. Successful kickers appear to go through much of the same drill.

When I was a kicker in college, the field goals I missed I always traced to thinking about kicking the ball as I was kicking the ball...you can't do that. You just have to let it flow in a natural motion...The last ball I kicked was good from 53 yards as time expired. I don't even remember kicking it.......


When you are flaring and thinking about the crosswind technique at the same time it tends to turn out pretty unnatural and undesirable. Just relax and land the plane.

 

[livitup]

Thank you to all who have continued to post here. Today we did 3 landings at a nearby Class-C, towered field, in order to cross several boxes off the requirements checklist. While there was no wind at all today (4 nearby airports reported 'calm'), I still felt really good about all our landings. On our first landing into the class C, there was a turbo prop from one of the regionals at the hold short line working on their numbers when we were coming in for landing. We got cleared to land before they took off. We did the first one to a full stop, and as we were taxiing back to the runway, the regional got cleared for takeoff. After he acknowledged his clearance, he said "and let that Cessna know, that was a great landing..." Yeah, that built up the 'ole confidence a little bit.

Back at the home airport, a couple knots worth of x-wind had kicked up while we were gone, and the big lesson that I got from this thread, "use your feet, stupid" worked really well. I kept the spinning bit in front pointed at the dotted line. After we landed, my CFI told me he had his hands on the controls as we landed, but didn't really put in any inputs at all. So maybe I'm getting the hang of this after all! I have three lessons left before I have to take a 5-week break from my training (I'll be out of town), and after the lesson today he said "I think you'll solo before you leave..."

Thanks again, everyone. This flying stuff is way cool.

 

[Palmpilot]

And all the stuff we learned in engineering school about feedback delay affecting stability is really, really relevant. Rate of change of inputs should not exceed the feedback delay. That means NO sudden changes.

In non-geek, don't overcontrol. Gradual inputs are more stable, but more laggy. Stability is much more important, but there is an optimal rate that trades them off the best.

Well, that certainly explains my first solo landing! (Oops, I mean three landings!)

 

[Owad1971]

I was recently struggling like you and if you search, you will find a long thread on crosswind landings I started a few weeks back. I learned that I was not using the rudders like I should. Wake up your feet and feel what you are doing with them. Once I started focusing on the rudders more and actually making them do what I wanted them to do, I felt 10000% more in control of the airplane. I'm only a student, so I will leave my advise to that.

....Don't give up...I had a tendency to become a passenger when something upset my "perfect" approach...

It stopped when I woke up my feet and flew the airplane all the way down, THROUGH touchdown. Just my 2 pesos as a fellow student.

 

[Texastaildragger]

Come to Texas...you'll learn about crosswinds.But seriously,seat time is your best teacher. When you don't have to THINK about inputs & can stay ahead of the plane you will wonder what the big deal was.

 

[bluerooster]

Well, you'll learn about wind anyway. But not necessarily cross wind, at F05.
Hadda go to childress for that. (back in the day)

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

I for the first time the other day had a crosswind that I simply could not land with. I was in the Flybaby and made two attempts at it and aborted both times at about 20 feet. I was quite convinced that I was going to strike my wing onto the runway with the amount of slip I had in had I got any lower. It was a 24 knot direct crosswind

After that I switched to plan B and figured out a way to land more into the wind.

What was plan B's solution?

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

One of the research groups fitted the pro golfers with the brain-wave sensor hats to determine the number that were left-brain analyticals vs. right-brain creatives insofar as their shotmaking processes were concerned.

The results showed that all of them were extremely left-brain insofar as planning and calculating all of the variables (wind, slope, shot-shape, distance, pin placement, etc.) but their brains switched sides from engineer to athlete when they stepped to the ball, envisioned the shot and executed the swing. Successful kickers appear to go through much of the same drill.

Using the whole brain instead of half a brain for successful completion of high-speed, cognitive, proprioceptive physical tasks for landing aircraft -who knew?

 

[jesse]

What was plan B's solution?

Combination of ramp and taxi-way. Plan C was heading to the local class C airport and landing on a taxiway there. I'm sure they would have loved that given my barely functional com radio and lack of transponder.