Crosswind landing control..

I think someone else had suggested this, but it bears repeating. If the
flap control and the gear control are far apart, when you touch down
verify your fingers are on the flaps, then verify it again, then return
them to 'up'.

I'd be more confortable recommending this if you could take the landing
gear control off the panel and put it in your pocket after you selected
gear down at the OM, but. . .

In the Mooney in a cross wind I was happy sucking the flaps up when
starting the flare, but even after many hours, and the gear control
shaped like a wheel and the flap control shaped like a little flap, I
want to see my fingers on the flap control before retracting them!
Arrows have some airspeed device that commands gear down when you're
going slow, Mooneys do not.

Also in serious crosswinds touchdown speed was faster than I liked
because the Mooney really didn't have a lot of rudder authority -- I'd
have one side kicked all of the way in and still not be able to keep
the airplane pointing down the centerline.

One final thing, and do this only if you're really comfortable with the
airplane and know where it's going to touch down. In a strong
crosswind, land near the downwind side of the runway with the airplane
pointing toward the upwind side. On wide runways, the 70 feet of room
you have across the runway means you can gain 5 or 6 degrees less
crosswind (Changing runway 10 into runway 10.5 or so), and you're
changing some of the crosswind into a headwind.



On Dec 3, 10:45 pm, "Andrew Sarangan" wrote:
There should never be any forward pressure on the yoke/stick during
landing. The yoke is always held back, never pushed forward. Perhaps
you mean reducing the back pressure. In that case, yes, it would be
proper to relax the back pressure somewhat quicker during a crosswind
landing to quickly transfer the weight from the wings to the wheels.
Howvever this technique is not really necessary except in the worst
crosswind (ie when it exceeds rudder authority).



Dan wrote:
All,

When touching down in a crosswind, after the mains and the nosewheel
have all touched down firmly and are rolling, would it be proper
procedure to apply slight forward pressure to get better steering from
the nosewheel? Often, noseweel steering seems ineffective, and this
seems to have helped my control on rollout.

Any cautions? I have heard about "wheelbarrowing" but is that more of
a takeoff issue than landing issue? Under what circumstances would
"wheelbarrowing" occur?

--Dan- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -