Heavy, or Light with Winds?

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LBCAK

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LBCAK
I have been researching this a bit, and haven't found there to be a good, straight forward answer. Unless i'm looking in the wrong place. With the winds we're facing on the front range of Colorado (83 mph gusts!) i'm curious if having your plane heavier or lighter is better. Would you consider it safer to be landing with crosswinds closer to gross, or closer to empty?

The following are the pros I can think of for both ways...

Lighter
  • Lighter in the event of a missed approach
  • Less weight to throw around for corrections
  • Less of an explosion upon impact should you go down

Heavier
  • More weight for the wind to try to toss around
  • Harder for the plane to be "pushed" into unusual attitudes
  • More weight keeping the wheels on the ground after touchdown

So based on your previous experiences, training, or recommendations, what do you think is a safer landing in a crosswind, heavier or lighter?


If you want specifics, consider this...

Piper Cherokee 235, 74 gals fuel, 2 souls front seat @ 320lbs total, no baggage.
vs.
Piper Cherokee 235, 10 gals fuel, 1 soul front seat @180 lbs, no baggage.

That's about a 520 lb difference I believe... (I think, you get the idea)

Thanks
 
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Which configuration would I land in an 83 MPH gusting crosswind?

Neither, I'm finding one down the pipe hopefully with less wind.

In your example I'll take the heavier aircraft, more fuel, more choices. Having 10 gals. and having to land in a crosswind gusting to 83 MPH is a failure on many levels. In an emergency I would land on a taxiway or other paved surface into the wind. Wouldn't have to be that long.
 
Heavier.

A heavier plane would increase the safe maneuvering speed and make sure it's well away from the stall speed to account for any large variations in headwinds.
 
At 83kts there's no reason to land a GA plane with a crosswind, you can land vertically into the wind.
 
I knew I should have been more specific. I'm not saying landing in 83 KT winds, given the Cherokee 235 has a max demo xwind of 17 kts, let's use a 10-13 KT crosswind for this example.

And thank you Heftiger, good answer. I was leaning towards the heaver side, if only for momentum...

Henning said:
At 83kts there's no reason to land a GA plane with a crosswind, you can land vertically into the wind.
Click to expand...

That was actually a question I was asked by my instructor, if the crosswind was beyond capabilities, and you cannot get to a better situation at another airport, what do you do? I said request landing on taxiway alpha...
 
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Take a ride in an LSA on a windy bumpy day. It will help you appreciate the solid ride you get in something big and heavy like the Cherokee after that.
 
Another thing to consider; published Va is at gross, so that gives you better margin vs. being lighter.
 
Heavier is better. Aside from the issue of maneuvering speed vs stall speed, basic physics says that to a reasonable approximation, the force of wind on an object varies with the square of the wind velocity and with the aerodynamic cross section of the object. The acceleration is proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. So if your plane is heavier, the wind will accelerate it less for a given speed.

All else being equal, if you have a minimally loaded 172 and fully load it instead (a weight increase of about 33%), you've reduced the "effective" windspeed by about 13%. Your 10-13 knot crosswind will feel like a mere 9-11 kt.
 
I don't care if the wind is straight down the runway - if the wind at the airport is 83 mph, how are you possibly going to maneuver on the ground without getting blown over and flipped? Maybe in a super heavy twin you might be able to manage, but your typical 2 - 4 place single is going to act like a leaf in a wind gust.
 
Heavier. If you really want comfort and stability get a twin.
 
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