My buddy and I flew our 40% extras today. Everything was great until time to land. No headwinds, only a 5-6 mph crosswind. Trees lined one side of runway on approach made an angled approach impossible. My buddy made 3 attempts before landing and nearly going into ditch before spinning around at end of runway. Peeled his wheel off. My landing was a close one also. We've seen pilots land with a slightly elevated attitude to slow the plane. We've tried without success. Any help on this subject is appreciated. Both of our planes have thin wings and come in fast.
Landing with crosswinds and no headwind
- Thread starter Wroyster
- Start date
stangflyer
I like 'em "BIG"!
5-6 mph crosswind? Is that all? Normally we have at least that 24/7 and most times in excess of 10+. Sometimes that 10+ is exact 90 degree cross wind. I have seen upwards of 18-30 mph winds at our field while setting up an approach. NOT FUN. We have a standing rule. If you can't fly in the wind, then you probably won't want to fly. LOL.... Really, it is not so bad most of the times. But it sure can be a challenge at times.
Ok, enough clowning around. What I do with my 30, 35 and 40% planes when we have enough of a crosswind that it tends to "weathervane" the plane, is I slightly dip the leading wind wing into the wind and apply opposite rudder to keep the nose of the plane tracking down the centerline. Commonly referred to as "crabbing". Or it can be done from a reverse approach. A little more challenging but fun all the same. Just before touch down, I release my aileron to neutral and relax slightly on the rudder. Mains touch down nearly straight most of the time. Earlier this year I really started working on my crabbing with my 260. I like to start high in the sky from the opposite side of my intended approach and bring them in on a downward semi knife edge "slide".
Lots of guys have their own technic, but this is what I like to do. Now if the wind is straight down the runway and you're obviously coming into it for approach, Just "harrier" that baby to the ground!!!
Jetpainter
640cc Uber Pimp
I've haven't had to make any true crosswind landings in a while since we have an L shaped runway, but I do practice my side slips and crabs a lot just to make sure I remember how.
Capt.Roll
70cc twin V2
If I'm reading correctly, it's not so much the crosswind, but without a head wind to help slow your Extra's to a more reasonable landing speed, they tend to land fast.
Are the Extra's purpose built.........IMAC, Freestyle, Extreme Aerobatics, etc.?
Have you considered programming a switch on your TX for flapperons? Also, you could split the ailerons; inboard could be programmed for flaps/spoilers and the outboard would serve for normal aileron function. During flight if you wanted full aileron you could mix the inboard and outboard together to act as one.
Wacobipe
100cc
I suggest that you may just need to get more comfortable with how slow you can fly while avoiding a stall. One of the biggest landing issues I see at the field is people who land with too much speed because the don't know where their plane stalls.
Get up at a reasonable altitude and practice landing approaches to the point of stall. This will help you gain a sense of how your plane feels as it approaches stall, and also how your plane reacts when it does stall. Do this A LOT! As you gain confidence, bring the altitude down until you are doing it on the runway and landing. Touch and goes might even become a key source of enjoyment to rather than something to fear.
The goal is for you to get more comfortable flying more slowly so that you come over the runway threshold near a stall and settle onto the runway with ease at the beginning of the runway, rather than wasting 1/3-1/2 of the runway floating over it because you're going to fast. This will improve your landings generally because it will eliminate the planes tendency to bounce on landing because your wing won't have the speed to return the plane to flight.
Get up at a reasonable altitude and practice landing approaches to the point of stall. This will help you gain a sense of how your plane feels as it approaches stall, and also how your plane reacts when it does stall. Do this A LOT! As you gain confidence, bring the altitude down until you are doing it on the runway and landing. Touch and goes might even become a key source of enjoyment to rather than something to fear.
The goal is for you to get more comfortable flying more slowly so that you come over the runway threshold near a stall and settle onto the runway with ease at the beginning of the runway, rather than wasting 1/3-1/2 of the runway floating over it because you're going to fast. This will improve your landings generally because it will eliminate the planes tendency to bounce on landing because your wing won't have the speed to return the plane to flight.
stangflyer
I like 'em "BIG"!
Side slip approaches can also help slow your airspeed because of the extra drag induced with having your ailerons and rudder crossed. It's even fun doing slip approaches when there's little to no wind, and they look really cool because the yaw will be more visually pronounced without the crosswind. Just be sure to neutralize the controls and straighten out parallel to the runway before you touch down. Also remember that too much rudder along with elevator input can make some designs snap happy.
Jetpainter
640cc Uber Pimp
Another way to slow landing speeds some times is a prop with more diameter and less pitch. It's amazing the difference an extra inch of diameter can make for slowing some airplanes.
Both of our planes are setup for IMAC and have short control arms except for the rudder. Our biggest problem is we have to be at least 10 feet above runway at first entry. We have watched more experienced pilots land their big planes with their nose slightly up on approach to slow them to a crawl before reaching the runway. This maneuver would be our best choice, but we're having trouble performing it. No flaps or spoilerons by these pilots. Any advice on proper method?