Bob Moore wrote:
"Ramapriya" wrote
Sorry for being naive here Bob, but does touching down with the
nose
not pointed down the center of the airstrip, which is what I
presume
would happen if you touched down in the crab, bust the wheels?

Certainly not good for light general aviation aircraft, but the
Boeings seem to take it easily.


Unless you happen to be flying an Ercoupe, which is designed to land
crabbed in a crosswind. The gear is purposely beefed up for this
purpose. On most other GA aircraft, it's definitely not advisable.

On one of my very first lessons, I was on final following a Tomahawk
landing with a stiff crosswind. My instructor told me to watch the
Piper closely to see how the pilot corrected the crab just before
touchdown, to land the plane with the nose aligned with the runway.
Well, the (student) pilot didn't correct for the crosswind and touched
down while still in a crab. We watched the right gear leg fly off the
bottom of the wing and take out the right side of the horizontal
T-tail. The plane slid to a stop on it's right wing, with pieces of the
tail scattered over the runway. My instructor then informed me that I
had just learned a valuable lesson about crosswind landings at
relatively little expense to me.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)