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In the fs9 lessons it says that in the crab metod for landing with crosswind you have to correct the plane just before touching ground but i downloaded some videos of crosswinds and there i can see that the planes touch the ground not pointing to the runway and then after landing they correct the course, could someone help on this, wich is the correct one? thanks

Most passenger jets (low wings with engines even lower) can't do the classic, "slip one wheel down at a time", because that risks an engine strike.. they have to fly the crab all the way down and then use just the rudder to line things up. In a stronger x-wind the pilot might have to wait until the mains make contact before swinging the nose in.. sometimes that correction can be done just before the wheels touch, as the plane is already settling.

Planes with more room to work with (high wings) can "slip" down to the runway (upwind wing low, opposite rudder) and land one wheel at a time... but some pilots still prefer to fly  a crab until the last moment and then "kick" the tail into alignment. It's almost a personal thing, but the safest method is slipping, as that minimizes drift.

What Brett says is exactly correct, jeremy, your choice of method is to some extent a personal one. In addition, the strength of the wind counts a lot - in real life the wind tends to slacken anyway close to the ground, so that in light wind conditions you can often afford to straighten out and level out as you flare without suffering too much drift.

Another problem unique to FS is that, if you're flying with a joystick only, it's difficult to apply rudder by twisting without ALSO messing up your control of ailerons and elevator. No problem if you have pedals I suppose, but I've never invested in those myself.

Generally speaking it's more relaxing to use crabbing to stay lined up early on in the approach, and switch to 'crossed controls' closer in. I'd recommend setting up and saving a practice flight and using it to practice both methods. This may help:-

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=COF;action=display;num=1129643666

My choice for a successful crosswind landing ( if I could safely put the plane down) is to just go with the wind. As the wind approaches i turn the aircraft slowly into the wind and use the wind to glide myself slowly onto my side until touchdown.

PS: I have had few successful crosswind landings.  ;D

This thread brings up some interesting points/discussion/debate..  It can be a lively topic in a hangar full of pilots.

How do you handle a 30knot x-wind in a C172 ? (when fuel/daylight doesn't allow for an alternate airport)

How about x-winds in a piston-twin when the critical engine is out AND the x-wind is from the opposite side ?


How about landing a Piper Tomahawk in a 40knot x-wind ?

thank you very much guys it really helped, and about landing with a cessna with 40k of x wind i think that it's impossible I think it would totally blew out the aircraft what do you think?

I do not think you should be in the air with a 40 kt crosswind in a small prop.

Sometimes, after a long, cross-country flight, the winds don't care that you've been in a 172 all day and that diverting within fuel reserve range, probably isn't any better, wind-wise..

Happened to me.. Forcast winds for the destination airport were 60 degrees off runway heading at 25 knots (about am 18 knot x-wind component). Turned out they were 90 degrees off runway heading at 35+ knots when I got there.

On the first pass, I ran out of rudder and went around. On pass number two, I made the final well upwind of runway center-line.. letting the wind carry me over... slipped like crazy over the numbers and all was well  :)


As for the  40knot x-wind in a Tomahawk ? The pilot landed on the width of the runway, at a a taxiway intersection..  probably could have stopped the Tomahawk on just the 150' of runway width, with a stalling ground-speed of about 10knots  ;)