Crosswind "legalities"

[homeguard]

Crosswind Landings

There appear to be many variations as to the actual meaning of 'demonstrated crosswind component'. However i've always understood it to generally mean this; the crosswind component within which the average pilot in current practice may reasonably be expected to land the aeroplane safely.

This is a qoute from a Linda Pendleton article on the 'avweb' website;

Federal Aviation Regulations require that all airplanes certificated after 1962 have safe ground handling characteristics with a direct crosswind component of 0.2 Vso. If your airplane stalls at 50 knots in the landing configuration, it must have a demonstrated crosswind component of at least 10 knots. (0.2 x 50 = 10) Many airplanes do better than the minimum. The Cessna 172R Skyhawk, for example, lists a demonstrated crosswind component of 15 knots.

Direct qoute from the Cessna Skyhawk Owners Manual;

"The maximum allowable crosswind velocity is dependant upon pilot capabilty rather then airplane limitations. With average pilot technique, direct crosswinds of 15mph can be handled with safety".

[High Wing Drifter]

From the Seneca 3 PoH:

"The demonstrated crosswind velocity is the velocity of the crosswind component for which adequate control of the airplane during takeoff and landing was actually demonstrated during certification tests."

[S-Works]

FF, yes they are REALLY that good! Thousand hours on the current set and still going strong!