“I could never handle crosswinds”

I remember a pilot telling that to my father many years ago, when I was very young.  He and my father were taking me up in some kind of an old over-wing single engine aircraft with a radial engine; that much I also remember.  The plane was blue, and I got to “fly” it for a minute or so, trying hard just to keep it level.

How’d you like to be a passenger in a plane whose pilot is attempting to land here, in these kinds of crosswinds?

Ultimately that’s a lot of Old School “stick and rudder” flying, as they say.

BZ

 

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7 thoughts on ““I could never handle crosswinds”

  1. Also, if you watch the video…from the angle of the camera, it looks like the planes are literally dropped straight down from a vertical drop. The camera angle doesn’t let you see the plane moving forward.

    Great stuff.

    • Thanks. I enjoyed the heck out of it, really gives you a different perspective. Pilots still have to be pilots. I wonder how a true “autonomous plane” would handle that?

      BZ

  2. Yep, ‘old school’ flying there! Slips and everything else trying to get them planted! 🙂 You DON’T learn that in the simulator! Some interesting cross controlling there. best landings were at 2:49, 5:18 and the little turboprop that was next. Interestingly, most of the ‘weird’ landings were Airbus (no stick feel), the best were Boeings…

    • You know, that’s odd, that was a question I had in the back of my brain — did a physical yoke to touch and manipulate make a difference?

      I wonder what Airbus and Boeing pilots would say?

      BZ

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