Originally Posted by
POBJOY
In my experience the more 'STOL' you get the less cross wind friendly control follows soon after.
If you fly from your own 'limited' strip with 360 degree landing options then that's fine, however when you have to actually go somewhere and fit in with other 'facilities' the situation gets slightly difficult. Add on to that speed, range, payload, the situation becomes even more limiting.
I operated a STOL modified twin for many years; this machine would out perform its 'normal' version in all aspects, and opened up the use of the smaller grass strips that could be very convenient for actually being close to your required destination.
STOL is fun and an 'operation of its own', however the ultimate STOL machine is so slow and out of wind limiting it proves nothing, especially when you HAVE to use a runway out of wind (because its the only one) and you are not allowed to land anywhere else.
Exactly, I know the feeling, you get so used to landing into the wind regardless of the runway heading by cutting severe cross angles that when you actually have to land on the white line on a narrow runway it becomes a real challenge