Jon Kraus wrote:

The spectacular event would be touching down with the crab still in...


Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL-IA
Student Mooney Owner

Matt Whiting wrote:

wrote:

I can't speak to the 747 or 777, but I can the 767 and L-1011. There is
always controversy about it, but the truth is in watching the
autopilot do
an auto-land. It's all crab until about 150 feet, HAT, where the
autopilot
goes into align mode; that is it transitions from crab to wing down
into the
wind with a slight amount of upwind rudder. This last throughout the
flare
to touchdown.

Good pilots manually land those models using the same technique. So
long as
the certificated cross-wind limits are observed and the technique is
done
correctly you won't scrape an engine.

The most critical airplane with which I was familiar for scrapping an
outboard engine was the 707. There, you had to observe a 5-degree
bank angle
limit, so in a 30 knot cross-wind some combination slip and crab became
necessary. If it is just crab it is really tough to "kick it out" at
the
last moment without it becoming a spectacular event.



Did you ever intentionally land with the crab angle intact? This is
what is advocated by a gentleman on the MSFS group who says he is a
retired "heavy" captain.

I searched on Avweb and found an article about this by Deakin. He
also advocates kicking out the crab on all airplanes up to and
including the 747, unless they have gear designed to be landed in a
crab (B-52 and a few others). However, I don't think the folks on the
simulator group believe it.

Why would kicking out the crab become a spectacular event?

Matt



I suspect there is more to it than that, but we'll have to wait for
Tim's reply.


Matt