Adolphus Coors

Sorry, I realize it wasn't clear, but then again I don't make a living instructing. Ideally in a crosswind the airplane should be parallel to the centerline and on the centerline when it touches down. When you use the rudder to make the airplane parallel to the centerline the only way the airplane can track the centerline and thus touchdown on the centerline is to turn the ailerons into the wind which causes us to land on the upwind main gear first with that wing low. The discussion was that somehow this changes with heavy aircraft. Some people have suggested that when landing a heavy you simply plop it on the ground and then kick in some rudder. I can see some of there points: striking a wingtip or pod, loss of lift caused by blocking the relative wind from the downwind wing, etc.. However this technique has its draw backs as well, such as increase tire wear and side load landings which can collapse landing gear. In the aircraft I fly I have been instructed to land it normal in crosswind until the crosswind component reaches 22 knots. At that point the amount of aileron required to stay on the centerline track could cause the bank angle to come close to a strike. As a result you use enough rudder to bring the nose within a couple of degrees of being parallel to centerline thus the aileron required to track the centerline will not be great enough to strike something on the ground and the amount of side load on the aircraft at touchdown will not be great enough to cause any damage to the aircraft. I'm pretty sure this is directly from the Boeing 767 manual.

Other aircraft such as the DC8 with the big engines and I think B52s cannot use this technique because of the pod and or wingstrike probabilty thus the engineers designed landing gear that turn so the airplane can land not parallel to the centerline without overstressing the landing gear. I never flew either of these aircraft so maybe someone who has can chime in.