Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Direct Crosswind - what runway?
I thought this was an interesting question... assume you are landing at an un-towered airport and the windsock shows the wind direction to be at an exact cross wind. What runway would you choose for landing? Assume the runway is 23/5 and the wind is coming from 160 @ 10 KTS. Would you land on runway 23 or runway 5? Would it make a difference?
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In order of importance, I would probably base it on terrain, traffic and then, assuming all other things being equal, which one was a more elegant entry based on my position. That's assuming there is no designated calm wind runway - if there is one, you would use it if you could.
ReplyDeleteI was also curious if "all things being equal" if factoring in the left turning tendancy of the plane would make one want to land with the direct cross wind coming from the left as opposed to the right... Did I say that correctly??? although these impacts would not be as great on landing as they would be on takeoff.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, during an emergency landing on a farmland, what's the best way to determine wind direction?
ReplyDeletesome ideas
ReplyDelete1. what are the generally prevailing winds in the area - the aviationweather.gov site has a SFC windstream feature that depcits the general wind direction
2. how are the airport runways around the area aligned, it usually seems that the runways are aligned with the prevailing winds
3. if there is strong wind perhaps you can see blowing dust from the dirt fields
4. if you have eagle eyes perhaps you can see trees swaying
5. ????