Crosswind Landing: Now I'm Really Impressed.

[SkySteve]

I was out flying yesterday and decided to land at a particular local airport. I had not originally planned to land there so I hadn't checked their local weather. The airport is in a fairly tight valley that opens to a large canyon that is known for its winds.

When I entered the downwind I could feel my plane speed up and it wanted to fly sideways. Turning base was, well let's use the word "exciting" as a large gust hit me. I turned final and thought to myself, "Wow, the wind is really squirely" as I fought towards the threshold. Put the plane into a slip, wing low into the wind and literally fought my way to the ground. I did notice a group of people about mid field watching me land but didn't give it much of a thought because hey, what pilot doesn't watch every plane land.

It was after I taxied all the way down to midfield;), exited the active and turned the plane off that I finally realized how much wind there was. When I slithered out of the plane a gust hit and one wheel started to lift off the ground. Pulled the old iPhone from my pocket, fired up the wind meter (there's an App for that). It was blowing a quartering crosswind of 18mph gusting 25mph!:eek:

A Supercub driver and a Cesna 182 were sitting there waiting for the wind to calm down. My little Kitfox is light enough that I was concerned it would flip over or the rudder would break off as both seemed to be trying to happen at the same time!

After waiting for about 20 minutes with the wind not changing, and knowing that just over the mountain the wind was only 10mph I decided to make a run for the other side of the mountain. Fired that baby up and got out of there. Wow, our Kitfoxes sure do get off the ground fast when hit with a 20 or 25 mph gust of wind. Flew thru the canyon with a 20 mph headwind, then broke out on the other side to find a beautiful and calm day.

If the wind had been blowing like that at my home airport I would never have left the ground. Gotta say I'm sure impressed with the performance of the little Kitfox on that particular landing. Again, not something I would choose to do, but I am certainly impressed with our birds!

Sorry, no photos. I was just a tad busy flying the plane.

[GWright6970]

A very good, well-written piece... thanks for taking the time to write, and post it!:)

[leptronjohn]

You wrote that knowing I was lerking and reading about flying. with mine not in colorado with me, i am feeling a bit let down. thanks for that article, I think.. :-)
john

[SkySteve]

Hey, Johnny. Want to come home, yet? You know the place I was writing about. Not too far from where the Griz was kilt dead, pard.:p Really missing my flying buddy.

[leptronjohn]

I have not hugged my fox for a while. I am finding no place to put the fox in colorado.. seems everyone has a plane but no one flys. thinking i will build a trailer for it. should have done that some time ago.
I will live my flying life through you for now.. :-)
jo

[DesertFox4]

Good story Steve. Felt very familiar from several experiences past. The Kitfox is very capable in crosswinds that thwart larger craft.


P.S. - Shout out to John. Hey John. Long time no talk.

[IVPleasure]

Congratulations on both your flying and your 300th post.
IV-1050, slowly building

[SkySteve]

Wow. 300 posts. That's a lot of holes!

[leptronjohn]

ah, no wonder it has been so quiet in the office, yak, yak, yak 300 whow
lets see ya do that in a tail dragger dude.. :-)
i sure miss your face at my flyin zones..
I see there is someone in Arvada that is building a fox, maybe he will let me touch it, i will feel better.

[SkySteve]

Hey, wait a minute. If I remember right, didn't we first meet here?

[leptronjohn]

Ha, yes we did meet here... just like i tell everyone.. on line ha ha
now all i get to do is read about you guys some more.. i gota get my ride here. I don't talk near as much as you but i have to say, the group has been fun and informative... a right good group.
thanks every one , ok, you too steve for a great few years of reading...
now ,, some one go hug my fox!

[Olle1975]

Hi!

I had the same experience like Steve and the good thing is, my camera was activ.....;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ZS54_3U5k

Olaf

[Slyfox]

Steve, I do cross winds all the time. In my RV I do a crab. yup, just like the big guys they have to crab also, especially when the engine is under the wing, leaves having the low wing thing out of the question. With a low wing I don't like low wing stuff. My strongest was landing over at OSH a couple years ago, it was about 25 to 30 direct. crabbed until touch down and then hit full rudder and straightened her out and hit the brakes, I also had very little flaps on. In the kitfox I fly in and touch down and go cross runway. One time it was blowing so hard I went cross and rolled out onto the taxi way. very fun. I have done the crab thing and did a wheels, as I touched down I hit the rudder. I don't recommend this to anybody that doesn't know his airplane. I was flying so slow, it was like, hay pick up some FOD on the way down the runway. hehe

[SkySteve]

Olaf,
Nice vid. Looks like you handled that like a pro. Nice job.

Slyfox Steve,
One of the nice things about our Kitfox's is we have the option of slipping and/or crabbing.

I don't like wind. Not my friend at all. I'm way too light (in my opinion). I flew in a 45 mph wind one day coming out of the Utah Canyon Lands backcountry and had to keep telling myself to lighten up my grip on the stick. I thought I was going to tear it off the controls I was gripping so hard. At least it was a quartering tail wind. I looked at my ASI, it showed 100 mph. My GPS said 145mph. At least it got me out of there in a hurry.

Last fall a flight of two of us were coming out of the Idaho Frank Church Wilderness and it was ugly. Windy, clouds, snow and rain, but we were trying to get out ahead of worse weather coming in. Our destination for the evening was a little paved strip at Glenn's Ferry, ID, located in a canyon on the Snake River. The other plane landed first and called out the wind based on his Dynon: 27 mph left front quartering wind. I thought to myself, "Well, that exceeds what the book says my Kitfox will do". No choice except to land. I got it down OK but when I tried to turn off the runway a gust hit me and I couldn't make the turn and ran off the pavement into gravel. I had to just apply the brakes and wait for my buddy to tie his plane down, then return and we wing-walked my Kitfox to the tie down area.

[Slyfox]

yup, I remember doing a flight review in a Cessna and having horrible winds. We couldn't untie the plane until I started it and then the instructor untied the plane and I was literally holding the plane in place while using the yoke to hold the plane still. very interesting. All landings were also with a cross wind, 30+. All I can say is I needed the flight review for the year, so I did it. It's the only flight review that I remember, the others, just another one.

[dalords]

Steve were you flying into Logan?

[SkySteve]

dalords,
Morgan (Mt Green)

[HighWing]

The only really memorable cross wind landing I have made was with a flight of four for a must landing for fuel and an overnight at Jackpot, Nevada. Our flight leader estimated the cross wind as 8 kts at 90°.We were landing toward the North with the wind from the West.On the ground and finding the real wind velocity to be 18 kts at 90°, we decided that it would havebeen better to have landed on the long dog leg taxiway to the tiedown and fuel – no fuel there as I write this.

I think two things saved the day for me. First is the estimate of 8kts.I think if I had known it to have been 18. I would have stiffened up, over compensated and messed it up big time.Secondly, back in the day, there was talk on the Kitfox Email List suggesting putting a vertical line on the windshield showing straight ahead with reference to the pilot’s eyes.This was suggested as an alignment check as the side of the cowl, the typical alignment reference, tapers to the spinner on the bump cowl Kitfox. If you use the side of the cowl as an alignment reference, you are flying in a crab – maybe the real reason for the typical one wing low we would so often see in the group flights.I had used the line consciously or unconsciously for several years.When on final, binocular vision while looking at the far end of the runway gave what appeared to be two blue vertical lines- one from each eye – with the end of the runway centered between.Whether consciously or unconsciously This sight picture helped me remain centered as I managed the bank angle to keep the side slip spot on for the “straight” in approach.The landing wasn’t pretty, but no harm no foul.

On the new Model IV, I decided to put something a bit more adjustable for the sight alignment.

[SkySteve]

Lowell,
That wire (I think that's what it is) is pretty cool. I, too, used the "magic marker" line on the windscreen trick for a long time when I first started flying my Kitfox. It really helped.

[HighWing]

Thanks Steve, I found that putting some thin line masking tape on the windshield a bit challenging - sitting in position then trying to remember where the tape should be then doing it over and over again. By sliding the slit tube up and down the structural tube and rotating it a bit, it can be positioned fairly easily then tightened.

[Slyfox]

I always look at the left wheel to ground when landing, what's the big deal

[Olle1975]

Olaf,
Nice vid. Looks like you handled that like a pro. Nice Job.

Thank you, I'm not a pro but I train myself regularly :-)

Olaf