Crosswind operations

By two in the afternoon the wind has come in off the bay and settled across the runway at Salinas, and it will stay there until the sun is nearly down, patient, indifferent, waiting to see what you do with it. You have flown crosswinds before. In the airplane you learned in, a crosswind landed badly produced a sideways scuff and an instructor's remark. Here the mass is behind the wheels, and a sideways arrival is the exact condition a ground loop is made of. The wind is not more dangerous than it was. The airplane is less forgiving of the same mistake.

Any amount of crosswind, ignored and not compensated for, can put this airplane on its wingtip.

Read:

• FAA-H-8083-3C, Airplane Flying Handbook, the crosswind takeoff and landing sections in chapters 5 and 13.
• GROUND-LOOPS.md, all of it, again.

Bring: the wind. Look at the forecast for our lesson before you drive in, and arrive with a number: what crosswind component do you expect on the runway we will be using, and how did you get it?

1. You state the crosswind component before every approach, from more than one source of information.
2. You hold the centreline on a crosswind takeoff with aileron into the wind, reducing it as the airplane accelerates, and rudder holding the nose straight.
3. You fly a crosswind approach wing down and nose straight, without reverting to a crab into the flare.
4. You touch down on the upwind main wheel first, with the airplane tracking down the runway rather than across it.
5. You name lateral drift the moment it appears, before the instructor does.
6. You go around rather than accept a landing with drift you have not killed, at least once, without prompting.
7. You describe how a ground loop begins, in terms of the centre of gravity and the drift you just spent an hour preventing.

Standard 6 carries the lesson. Every other standard here is technique. That one is judgment, and judgment is the thing that keeps this airplane off its wingtip after you stop flying with me.

• Crabbing into the flare. It works in a tricycle-gear trainer and it is how most pilots were taught. Here it puts the airplane on the ground going sideways.
• Letting the wing come up during the rollout. The landing is not over when the wheels touch. The aileron keeps going in as you slow down.
• Aileron neutralised too early on takeoff. The wing comes up, the upwind wheel comes light, and the airplane starts to weathervane.
• Reading only the sock. It tells you about the wind at the sock, which is not always the wind at your touchdown point.
• Accepting a landing to avoid admitting the approach was poor. This is the error that hurts people. The go-around costs nothing and nobody is watching.
• Fixating on the crosswind and forgetting the stick. Everything from Lesson 3 still applies.

I will say "my airplane," and I will take it, without discussion, if:

• We arrive at the flare with drift that is not being corrected.
• The wing comes up in a crosswind rollout and does not go back down.
• The airplane begins to weathervane beyond what your rudder is holding.
• The crosswind exceeds what I am willing to have you learning in today.
• Anything happens that I want the controls for.

I will also end the lesson early if the wind builds past what is useful for teaching. That is not a failure of yours. Lesson 5 is where we deliberately go to the limits, and it is a different lesson with a different brief.

VS-4-1

Type: Hazard | Element: Ground loop, this airframe | Status: empty What it should show: N1302B ground looping, no damage resulting. Shown in the ground portion, after the mechanism has been discussed rather than before it. Reference Critique: not applicable for a Hazard Clip. Note: this Clip is not critiqued. Its value is that it happened in this airplane, at this field, and the airplane was flown again afterwards. The Lesson 1 Cub clip establishes the consequence. This one establishes that it is survivable and ordinary, which is the honest other half.

VS-4-2

Type: Exemplar | Element: Crosswind landing | Status: empty What it should show: a crosswind approach flown wing down from short final through touchdown on the upwind main, with the aileron continuing in through the rollout. Reference Critique: not applicable for an Exemplar Clip.

VS-4-3

Type: Exemplar | Element: Crosswind takeoff | Status: empty What it should show: full aileron into the wind at the start of the roll, reducing progressively, centreline held. Reference Critique: not applicable for an Exemplar Clip.

VS-4-4

Type: Error | Element: Crab into the flare | Status: empty What it should show: an approach crabbed all the way in, and the sideways arrival that results. Reference Critique: to be written from the Instructor Debrief of that flight.

VS-4-5

Type: Error | Element: Aileron during rollout | Status: empty What it should show: the wing coming up after touchdown and the weathervane that begins. Reference Critique: to be written from the Instructor Debrief of that flight.

Not addressed to the student.

Run the ground loop video after the mechanism, not before. This is the opposite of Lesson 1. There the Cub clip lands cold, before any explanation, because the student has no framework and the clip builds one. Here the student has three lessons of framework, and the clip's job is to attach it to a real airplane at a real field. Explain, then show.

Show VS-4-1 without apology and without drama. It happened, the airplane was undamaged, it flew again. A student who sees that a ground loop is survivable is a student who will report one rather than taxi back hoping nobody noticed.

Cross-control at altitude before short final. The sight picture is unfamiliar and short final is a poor place to meet it.

Pick the day. This lesson wants a real crosswind and a manageable one. Salinas gives you an afternoon sea breeze most of the year, which is why this lesson schedules well after lunch. Do not fly it in calm air to stay on schedule, and do not fly it in the limits, which is Lesson 5.

Protect standard 6. If the student has not gone around voluntarily by the end of the lesson, engineer an approach where the right answer is a go-around and see what they do. What you learn there matters more than another landing.

Watch for Lesson 3 falling apart. Adding crosswind frequently costs the student the stick discipline they had last week. Say so when it happens, and treat it as normal rather than as regression.

• The handbook states no maximum demonstrated crosswind component, and that is the answer. This lesson anticipated that many aircraft of this era do not publish one, and the reading confirmed it. It is closed as a recorded absence rather than left open. See ../AIRCRAFT.md.
• The figure on the North Aero cockpit checklist is the crosswind and wind limitation of the Light Sport SLSA-8, which is a different airplane. It is not a demonstrated crosswind for N1302B and this lesson does not repeat it.
• The 10 knot solo crosswind limit is a North Aero operating limit for rental, not a lesson limit. Dual instruction here is flown at the instructor's discretion.