Originally Posted by
Adolphus Coors
As for the de-crab technique not producing sideloads, I disagree. If you de-crab and only hold the wings level the aircraft will drift from upwind to downwind thus causing sideloading. Obviously if you are a hotshot and can time it perfectly every time you may not even feel the sideload when you land. [...] With all of that said, these planes are obviously designed to withstand massive amounts of side force and the crab and de-crab techniques have other advantages like you mentioned before ie.. spoilers, less workload, etc...
No hot shot here (ask anyone who's flown with me!), but as I mentioned it was required technique in the E-6 and you just sort of get good at it with practice. (As a new guy, getting an earful from the Aircraft Commander and Flight Engineer every time the digital bank indicator read over 4 degrees makes for good aural feedback, if bad CRM.)
You pretty much covered it with the last sentence. Any remaining drift from mis-timing the de-crab is tiny in comparison to what the aircraft was designed to withstand and probably more comfortable for the passengers than spending the last minute or two of the flight wondering why they are being dumped out of their seats with the slip.
I'm farely sure your last paragraph was not aimed at me since I never decreed another pilots post nor did I ever suggest that crosswind landings were the same for all planes.
Absolutely not. Sorry--that was misleading!