Watching and Wondering

[hendoman]

I grew up under the flightpath at Manchester, and recently visited my old dad for a chinwag.

It was a windy day - a very windy day - and as I went back to my car having bought him some bottles of the good stuff from Sainsbury's my eye was caught by an Airbus landing pretty much over my head.

And the thing that captured me - even though I'd seen planes landing thousands of times before - was that as well as moving forwards it also appeared to be moving sideways, in the very strong crosswind.

Opening one of the aforesaid bottles a bit later I reflected that landing in a crosswind must be a pretty difficult thing to do, and may in some way explain the very large salaries reputed to be paid to the people who sit at the front.

So come on then. Please explain to this layman how you do it.

[Erebus]

First, you must understand that air is a fluid, as is water.
Now imagine a boat under way and experiencing a cross current. To achieve a desired track, the person steering the boat has to allow for the cross current, by pointing the boat into the current by an amount determined by the speed of the cross current and the speed of the boat. The difference between the resultant heading of the boat, and its track, is called drift.
An aircraft is handled just the same.
To fly down the runway centreline when there is a crosswind blowing, the pilot must allow for drift. The amount of drift is determined by the aircraft's approach speed and the strength of the crosswind. On arriving at that point on the runway at which he has to flare to reduce the rate of descent, the pilot will now use the rudder to "push" off, that is, reduce the drift just before touchdown. This reduces the loads on the undercarriage.
In limiting conditions, where you might have a very wet runway and a strong crosswind, it is quite acceptable to land with the drift still on.

[TopBunk]

What Erebus says is correct, I would merely add that allowing for the wind on approach is a science, whilst co-ordinating the kicking off the drift while in the flare is anart form .;)

[flyer4life]

Very large salaries?? These days it's more like very large debts!

[sikeano]

quote:

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Very large salaries?? These days it's more like very large debts!

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some one's got to do it

cross wind is something like when you try to walk across a bridge with a gale force wind and you postion your body into the wind and try to walk straight

layman's explanation if you still dont understand the concept try some gliding lessons

:ok:

[wingman863]

Its not that hard to do to be honest. I've only flown small types which may be easier to fly than the big birds, but crosswinds arn't usually a problem. The touch down isn't always as good as you hoped for but i'm still walking so none have been that bad.