Taming Crosswinds in a Taildragger, a Few simple Tricks...

Great tutorial! You are really brave to share your knowledge with the rest of us. Many times I feel there is a master in every tailwheel pilot, and he only knows how to do it right! Thanks.

I was learning in a champ, and nearly tore the gear off of a 172 in a brisk cross wind trying to crab it down to the runway at night at Lancaster, Pa a loong time ago. Great video, thanks!

I really appreciate the camera angle inside the cub and seeing what you're doing with the stick and rudder pedals. Thank-you for sharing a fine video and your expertise.

Good advices. And nice camera angles. As you told, landing in a crosswind and having too much aileron, happened to me too. About 15kt cross, gusting 18. After one failed attempt already, where the wind simply blew us off the centerline even before touching the ground, this time touched down nicely on the upwind wheel, but put in too much aileron, so tilted her even further to the wind. Unfortunately my kinda scared reaction was to throw the stick all the way to the other side. 😮👀 Can tell you, that is NOT a good idea. Of course the wind got us instantly and I panicked back with the aileron just in time and some serious tilting left right of my J3. Just a heartbeat away from another go-around. But she settled and I could find my way back to the centerline and some deep breaths. 🫣

When I got my tailwheel endorsement my instructor had me practice staying on just the upwind main way down the runway on both takeoff and landing rolls in stiff crosswinds. Really helped illustrate the importance and benefits of keeping a proper crosswind correction. I had a habit of letting go of the correction towards the end of the landing roll out at low speeds before exiting on to the taxiway. She fixed that by sharply asking me if I thought we were parked at the hangar yet a few times. Got it: fly it till we’re parked.

Same technique applies in most airplanes. Really important discussion well done.

probably best x-wind demo vid, keep those videos coming joe

Youre doing Chief videos!? Im so excited! 1948 Aeronca Chief C-GQGT C85 stroker 100hp, no electrics.

Thanks Joe just needed to reaffirm these techniques. Only just received my TW end. G’day from Sydney

Thanks Joe. Another video masterpiece. This is such an important topic, especially students who have recently gone solo, mastering into-the-wind landings in the taildragger (cub in our case) but yet to fully develop the slipping skills required for crosswind landings. There is a video on YT of a student flying a Legend Cub who attempts a go around from a half ground loop (due to a strong crosswind) and pretty much cart wheels the aircraft. I believe they were ok after. So important as we may not always have a choice of runways at the end of a journey.

flying like you wear it, you are really doing a nice job of flying the cub, cant wait to see the chief,

Great clip Joe! Very nice step by step “mechanical” explanation. Obviously, winds don’t stay constant, so inputs need to adjust/compensate for the changes. I also liked your recommendation to increase confidence/competence level by starting small and incrementally challenging/developing our skills👊🏻

Joe, I just learned so much from you. tysm for putting this together

When I was building all my commercial hours, I would purposely pick the crosswind runway as long as it didn’t interfere with other pilots. No reason to pick the easy runway as long as it wasn’t dangerous.

Excellent breakdown sir thank you for taking your time and sharing your knowledge with us

Maybe your most helpful video. Definitely top five. Thanks. I experienced something new when I went out playing in the wind a couple of days ago. It was gusty and shifting, SE to SW, 3 to 7 kts. Landing on 18, I experienced slight sinking and ballooning when rounding out. I noticed that the wind was in a shift and pretty much out of the S. I attributed it to the sudden gustiness reducing or adding lift.

Amazing pictures, really good video and perfect explanation, greetings from germany 😊

Great stuff !!! In crosswind landings it made it much easier for me to get the planes nose aligned a little further out on final rather than trying to swing nose around with a bit of rudder input as you shallow out decent for the flare or wheel landing. I believe everyone has their own way that works best, and you hit on all those most critical elements, especially for a taildragger. In fairly windy/gusty days you really literally are still flying the cub even in a taxi, ( again the J-3 was a great teacher, as are you ! ) Hey with flying the heavies do you have to really think about the difference in crosswind handling ? I have friends that flew airliners and was amazed at finding out how they are to land in a crab. Oh my gosh, what a nice C-170, another of my favorite planes ( never flew this but wish I had one !!! ).

Thanks mucho! Great vid.

Great Video!