Taildragger Crosswinds

[pilotidentity]

Sorry Cat, you missed my point - you fly the plane, don't let it fly you.

All the books say keep it straight, don't over correct, blah blah blah. Experience gives you the FEEL to make the small corrections that are needed to keep you from making bigger corrections down the runway when you are slowing down. Took me about 500 hours in the 185 before I started feeling confident on pavement. Slow learner I know. And all that over controlling.

[AEROBAT]

The only common plane I know of that you can't wheel land, due to possible prop strike,is the single seat Yak. Some planes wheel land easier than 3 pointing them. In a really stiff x-wind I usually wheel land.

Some planes with flaperons you can 3 point OK in a good crosswind. Using brakes to stay straight....I would not put that on my "to do list".

[trey kule]

I dont know if you are referring to the comments in my two posts, but to be clear in case you were.
when I was referring to the Beaver (specifically, due to the original posters avatar) I did not mean to use brakes on the landing, but in a very strong X-wind as you come almost to a stop the little rascals will start to weathercock, And at that point brakes will simply not help. You can land them and take them off just fine (well to take off you have to have people holding you straight until you get the power up) But with no power on and almost stopped they weathercock)Brake use on the landing roll? Your way of putting it as good as any. I also made a reference to planes going over using hard breakes on landing, so I am not sure what your reference was to specifically.

As to the Yak. Take your word on it as I have never flown one. Maybe you too, shoud take someone else's word about some things.

[Castorero]

From the title of the thread, I thought there were different winds for taildraggers.

Cat said all that needs to be said really:

keep it straight down the runway at all times always especially in a X/wind.

Cant always do wheel landings in every plane Cat...Big props touch the ground.

I am going to add only two little comments..Dont stop flying the plane until the engine is turned off. Some of the other info you got here, is a bit sketchy , IMHO.

Lastly, if you are flying the Beaver on wheels, it has to be one of the easiest aircraft to land on wheels in any wind, despite the DC number . It will easily handle 4 or 5 times that X-wind..And I speak from experience. The only problem with the Beaver is once you get it all nicely on the ground and slowed right down it will weathercock and the brakes are not able to stop it,, Some interesting company SOP's on how to deal with that situation.

Trey I am interested to know what you would do in this situation...

I have never had the misfortune in the Beaver but years ago I had to land the 185 ahead of what seemed like a hurricane, in South Dakota. Found a small town with a paved strip and landed right into a 50-60 MPH headwind.
I stopped on the runway, and no way could I make any turns to get off, power/brake, you name it. I moved ahead to the end of the strip and shut it down.

Eventually the 'tornado' moved on and the wind with it.

What could one do differently in the Beaver?

[trey kule]

Probably the exact same thing. Leave it with me and I will see if I can dig up some of my old pictures.