Photon

Question to you guys.
Was watching this here vid:

YouTube - Boeing 747 & 777 cross winds landings

A lot of these airplanes seems to be landing perfectly sideways. Do any of these airplanes have maingears that are able to twist or something??

LeftWing

Actually, that would be "clear left". Didn't you watch Sesame Street as a kid? You know....so you would know the physics of turning?

Jetjok

Yeah, the MD-11. It twists right off.

JJ

HazCan

Well, since I sit on the right side of the airplane, that is what I say. Jeeez, tough crowd...

alarkyokie

I had a radar receiver/transmitter BLOW away from me after I removed it from a KC-135 and placed it on the ramp under the nose at Lajes...

iarapilot

A few training cycles ago it was said in the sim that the Airbus can land in crab with no problem. We practiced a few of them. Seemed to work OK.

MX727

They revisited that, can't land in a full crab at the x-wind limit. They put up a whole x-wind/bounced landing presentation on the Airbus training link on P.F.C. after Narita.

Luckydawg

That video shows Boeing test aircraft. They will take a side load but that is not the preferred method for most pilots. Here is straight from our Boeing 744 training guide:

CROSSWIND LANDING
Four methods of performing crosswind
landings are presented. They are the
touchdown in a crab, the de-crab
technique (with removal of crab in flare),
the sideslip technique and the combined
sideslip and crab technique. Whenever a
crab is maintained during a crosswind
approach, offset the flight deck on the
upwind side of centerline so that the main
gear touches down in the center of the
runway.

Sideslip (wing low) only is used up to a max of 5 degrees sideslip so as not to drag anything (engine pod). Crab only (like the video) is not recommended on dry runways but used in slippery runways as it reduces drift toward the downwind side. It also permits rapid deployment of spoilers and autobrakes since all mains are compressed at the same time. It seems like most of the pilots I fly with including myself use a combination of the two so as to arrive on impact wings level with no sideload (it's more comfortable for our freight!)

Different large aircraft vary. The B727, you wanted to de-crab in the flare for a wings level landing to avoid strike the trailing edge inboard flap in a wing low. DC8 you would land the same so as not to strike a pod. On MD80 aircraft you could get away with a sideslip but since I grew up on 727 I stuck with de-crab in the flare. To me it is uncomfortable anyhow in a swept-wing aircraft in a sideslip (wing low) close to the runway. Hope that helps.

Daniel Larusso

Good post and I agree, good thing for you that you don't have to train at a certain purple carrier.

Photon

Lucky: So what you're basically saying is that you're preferring the crab & kick method? (Crabbing all the way in, then "kicking" the rudder to align yourself with the runway)?
Thanks for the lengthy answer btw!