"Practicing crosswind landings is like practicing bleeding before surgery"

I'm going to get some practice in with my CFI today. First direct crosswinds I've been able (i.e. schedule allowing) to go up and practice in in about 3 months. I'm looking forward to it!
 
Palmpilot said:
Wouldn't it be possible (and preferable) to make that judgement no later than short final?
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Sometimes, yes. But, for the purposes of skill development, not so much. What can be learned - and practiced - while flying low over the runway is the kind of cross-control technique necessary to point the airplane in the right direction while simultaneously arresting drift. The problem is trying to learn a skill without having much time to practice it. Another good thing to practice is one-wheel touch and goes.
 
I went out with an instructor a few weeks after getting my PPL. Just to evaluate how I am doing. Also, it was a strong crosswind day with the winds coming from the side of the runway they don't typically blow from. If I was not in a Piper Sport probably not a bad day for most GA planes. However, the stronger XWind coming from the right was wind vaning the plane to the right. I actually needed left rudder input to go down the center line. With a little feedback from the instructor I was able to keep things on the center line without sideloading the gear.

Back to the OP. If pilots don't want to keep their basic skills honed. They deserve whatever consequences there maybe. Wrecking a plane, not passing a biannual, etc..
 
Palmpilot said:
Wouldn't it be possible (and preferable) to make that judgement no later than short final?
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Yes, but wind typically diminishes the lower you go, and you can go around any time you like, even 1" off the ground.
 
I would rather practice X wind landings than "practice bleeding" after messing one up in a critical situation.
 
Silvaire said:
Agree. I live at an airport that is notoriously windy practically all the time but the wind is almost always aligned with one of the two runways. So it's a popular place for students to practice crosswind landings but those of us who live here know that there are times when such practice is folly. Not long ago I watched as a guy did crosswind touch and goes in a nice Cessna 195 in conditions that had us shaking our heads. After a couple of squirrelly ones he smashed it up pretty good.

Another time there were TWO Cessna 172's from the same flight school that busted the nose gears clean off on the same day. Needless to say, they haven't been bringing any students over here since.
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I once saw three groundloops in two days at our airport, and the wind was only about 15 mph. It was funky though. I was sitting in my Luscombe waiting to depart when the last one happened, an L-2 flung itself into the kudzu and nearly over the steep bank. I radioed the FBO that the gentleman needed assistance getting out of the brush and taxied my airplane back to the hangar.

I felt like God was trying to tell me something. :-)

The other planes were a Cub Crafters and a Citabria.

Deb
 
It took awhile for me to understand the comment. Actually, he has a point in that you can only practice crosswind landings in a crosswind, so there is a bit of redundancy there.

I'd say it is like tuning and practicing your violin before going onstage. You still have to tune and play once you get there, but your confidence and ability are primed.

Likewise, if you practice cross-wind landings whenever possible, you are more ready for the day when a stronger breeze comes along.
 
AuntPeggy said:
I'd say it is like tuning and practicing your violin before going onstage. You still have to tune and play once you get there, but your confidence and ability are primed.
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This really contradicts the original statement.

If you never practice your ear, you will be massively out of tune on every note, perhaps excepting your first few open strings. Fretless string players and trombonists must have well practiced ears, or they suck really bad. You're tuning all the time, but you need to know how to hear you're out of tune in order to make an adjustment.
 
MAKG1 said:
This really contradicts the original statement.

If you never practice your ear, you will be massively out of tune on every note, perhaps excepting your first few open strings. Fretless string players and trombonists must have well practiced ears, or they suck really bad. You're tuning all the time, but you need to know how to hear you're out of tune in order to make an adjustment.
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I understand. That is why it is a better comparison. Bleeding is a bad thing. Being in tune is a good thing. Being in tune and landing in a crosswind are both things that need to be kept current.
 
I'm going to go practice bleeding before surgery this afternoon, among other things.

Glenn
 
I was going to fly to the outerbanks in NC last week but the crosswinds and winds in general were out of my comfort range for now. 20G25-29KTS with my planes crosswind component it would of been around 17kts on the plane, while its max is 20. Besides the RWY was 3000ft long and 75ft wide. I will try another day ;)
 
I, sadly admit to not having found my xwind limit. I have flown some good pattern days that were fun with the winds kicking up but never was at my max.

I once knocked off pattern work at KSBY and went home as it was getting worse. I later spoke with another pilot who, based there, decided not to start his engine that day.

One of these days (maybe) I'll try to find my true limit.

I also never found my bench press limit. My spotters quit on me at 205lbs - (I was in HS at <150 lbs).
 
PilotAlan said:
1st rule of EMS.

2nd rule: Don't let your pulse get faster than the patient's (unless it's a code blue).
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That second one and the looks on their faces told me all I needed to know when they were putting dad on the stretcher.

Not saying that to be a downer, just saying that if you're calm and the Sheriff's Deputy is running... it's a big sign you don't know how bad it's going inside the Bus.

Or should I say, you just found out.

Any time an EMS guy says, "We gotta go..." to anyone else on-scene, that's not a good sign either.

I still need to figure out some kind of thank-you to those guys. They fought hard. I talked with a Board member of the District asking what a good thing to get the Fire House was, since I know everyone on the planet brings food and flowers and stuff that won't last.

I was thinking a good coffee machine for the House or something like that. But I never really got a good answer.

Any insights, Alan? Any particular Citizen thank-you gifts unsolicited you remember as being particularly appreciated at a mixed Fire/EMS House?

(For the record it was South Metro Station 35, the same folks with the donated crash-rescue truck from a millionaire for servicing KAPA. I don't think I can match that one!)
 
How about because it's FUN!

Landing in perfect conditions gets old, I mean get a few hundred landings under your belt its kinda normal, thousands, it boring, tens of thousands it's mind numbing.

Bring on the X-winds!
 
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