Crosswind General Aviation Runway 
Plane and Pilot
JANUARY 12, 2025
The main landing gear featured a swiveling trailing link design to allow landings in a crab, a simple version of the crosswind crab system in the mighty B-52 Stratofortress. In a crosswind, you fly an Ercoupe down the runway with whatever crab angle you need to track the centerline and let the gear figure it out upon touchdown.
Pilot Institute
JANUARY 3, 2025
This cone-shaped fabric tube may seem simple, but it delivers vital information about wind conditions that every aviator must learn. The windsock is normally placed next to a runway or helipad so that you can easily see it when lined up for takeoff or coming in for a landing. Why is it called a windsock? How else can a windsock help?
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Ask a Flight Instructor
AUGUST 20, 2024
it is a common practice at the uncontrolled field I fly from for gliders to use a descending 1 nm+ crosswind pattern entry, crossing over the runway extended centerline at the numbers and TPA. What are the possible downsides to this entry for non-gliders and gliders alike?
AV Web
DECEMBER 22, 2024
Many runways in various states have felt the wrath of my main gear tires as they smote a mighty blow on their surfaces. Yet, the past twelve months have not been a waste. I have had more than my allotment of contented days sitting on the warm grass next to my taildragger while eating fly-in food.
Air Facts
SEPTEMBER 13, 2024
What NTSB Reports Say About Impossible Turns and Angle of Attack—Part 2: Analysis, Questions Raised, and Next Steps The current emphasis in general aviation (GA) safety is on visual angle of attack (AOA) indicators and impossible turns (return to the airport following engine failure). That return did not make it to the airport.
Plane and Pilot
AUGUST 27, 2024
Well, for sure the training of pilots in swept-wing jets has improved dramatically, and the aircraft, runway environment, and approach aids have all made significant leaps forward. The current record of safe landings is strong in the airlines, but the same can’t be said for us down here in general aviation land. No pressure.
Photographic Logbook
SEPTEMBER 2, 2024
Post-Pandemic Pancakes Perhaps second only to hyperbolic "there I was" stories and debates over which type of aircraft wing placement is superior (low, obviously), fly-in pancake breakfasts are deeply ingrained in general aviation pilot culture. This 1956 version was for sale. A 1951 Cessna 170A arrived just before we departed.
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