Back in the early 80's, I received a visit from a DH-82 owner/pilot who needed some agronomic advice. At the time, I lived on a farm 240 kms NE of Perth - in the sticks so to speak!
He mumbled a bit about the fact we had a 'runway' at the farm, but I didn't give it a thought until he arrived overhead. With a 25kt hot northerly blowing, he had one try at the E-W runway, prudently gave that away, then lined up on the 'finish-out' headland in the young wheat crop and floated down to a perfect 3 pointer - which took all of 50m into wind.
But, we had to then lift the tail up by hand to taxy him back to clear ground as there was no tailwheel - just the original skid. That was pretty much the condition of the entire aircraft - it was right out of a WW2 training station.
The owner/pilot was a real 'original' - wrinkled skin, faded and scratched leather jacket and leather flying helmet. " You need a 100m circle in the middle of this paddock" he said - " then I can handle any wind direction". "Don't think I can sell that idea to cockies" thought I.
"Can't say I was ever taught to fly in crosswinds" he admitted - " it never seemed necessary when every farm had plenty of pasture, but since you young blokes have begun to plant every paddock down to crops it's all getting difficult"
Well, the wind blew, the sand flew, and we had to hide the DH-82 behind a line of mallee for a few hours. Finally, we had a lull, and he was able to make a rather erratic takeoff on our strip. Last I ever saw of the old gent, or of his DH-82, but he surely didn't take any risks in crosswinds.
happy days,