Student Questions on Landing....

At my home airport, they tend to take off and land on the same runway, almost no matter what. We usually have a Southwest wind, with the sporadic East, North East wind. I have gotten great instruction and practice on crosswind and tailwind Takeoff's and Landing's. I've done this up to about 15 knots of wind. So my basic question .....Is it better to learn how to handle these adverse conditions, and land and take off in cross or tail winds; or, should the airport be switching runways more frequently? TIA

Yes

O.K. That's the smart ass answer. For instruction its good to go fly in the rough stuff, cross wind, tail wind, howling gale straight down the runway etc. Solo, I prefer to make my life easy. That said, going in the opposite direction of the traffic pattern isn't recommended. Some sites have conditions that make operations safer than might be apparent just by looking at the wind sock. Among these are a significant slope to the runway or rising terrain off the end of a runway. For example, in Boulder, CO at the edge of the Rockies we have rising terrain to the west and a nice drop to the east (one east-west rw 3 miles east of the foothills) and sink often to the west of the field. We will take off east despite a light west wind Also, the wind at pattern altitude may be strong out of the west but the wind socks show a light east wind. Under these conditions you land west because the west wind may be down to the ground by the time you are! Ask your instructors why things are done the way they are. If there is no logic, go fly somewhere else.

Cheers,

Yes ! Tail winds are often the reason for switching landing and take off direction. If so, change the landing signs ('T' and everyone in the air should see the direction changes as well. If not, use the radio.

I think one should consider differently cross and tail winds. Cross winds are unavoidable on sites where only one runway is available, which is the case where I flight. Cross winds are frequent here and an emphasis is put on good training to these conditions and good practice. On several days when cross winds are to strong, early solo pilots are not allowed to fly. When I was at this stage, I almost always asked to fly dual for a pattern, in order to gain experience in these conditions. Tail winds are another question. On most cases they may and should be avoided by choosing the suitable landing and take off direction. However moderate tailwinds should not be a problem and can easily be handled. Anyway when the wind is almost perpendicular to the runway and varying around this direction, you have no other choice than choosing a direction for landing and take off and keeping it, if you decide to follow the wind and during the time you bring the gliders to the other end of the field the wind changes again you never take off. But taking off and landing with an established tail wind are in my opinion bad security options, you lenghten without necessity the take of and low altitude phase. Sould an accident happen during this phase, the person who is responsible of the choice of the direction of take off will probably be condidered as having some part of responsability in the accident. On the other hand a training to land with tail wind is useful because you may some day be in conditions where you have no other choice, e.g. rope break at an altitude allowing to do it and nothing else, or coming back to the field with the wind and to low for any other option.