Which end of the runway for your finale

[mike teratorn]

I’ve done that too but the winds were no more than 4mph

I was told by another flyer that said often he lands up or down wind if it’s anything less that 8 mph

[Larry Mednick]

Besides the obvious, which is using more runway to get stopped, tail winds will tend to drop the aircraft towards the ground with every gust. When you are in a head wind those same gusts will cause you to balloon. Ballooning is fine if you add throttle, getting dropped onto the runway can break your trike. If you are flying something like a REVO with a Comp 11m wing that touches down at around 50 MPH, a nice tailwind can put you at speeds you really don’t want to be at. Likewise some smaller trikes with tiny tires and less than ideal nose gear geometry can struggle as well touching in the 30s instead of the 20s. Slower ground speeds are better, but gusting tailwinds can be dangerous.

[Ron Hogan]

Thx guys. Best situation is in to the wind.

[Roger Larson]

Here is some further discussion on this topic. Our brains rely on our senses for information. One time when i was hang gliding, i had just landed and the guy behind me was coming in flying with the wind. He was used to seeing his visual approach at a certain speed. His brain was telling him he was going fast enough (looking at the ground) but he stalled right above me, crashed and broke his back. I could tell he wasn’t going fast enough and i predicted the stall. Illusions can trick the mind especially if your not aware of what the difference might be. Large wide runways vs small thin runways can cause illusions to think they are farther or closer than they really are.

One day i landed with about a 10 mile an hour tailwind. It caused me no problem. The friend i was flying with ran off the runway. We landed that direction because a bunch of other planes were using that particular runway and we didn’t want to interrupt flow of traffic. I made the decision prior to landing that it was safe for me to do so landing with the wind is not ideal.

I am not a CFI but here is my thoughts and also it gives the CFI’s to add their thoughts. Next time you get a chance, Practice taxing in wind. When you Taxi, practice controlling the wing as you turn from a headwind, crosswind and tailwind. As you make your turns learn how to best neutralize the effects of the wind hitting the wing. The key here is the word neutralize. Think of it this way. would you have a problem riding around in your trike in a heavy wind with no wing on it? I think the answer is easy and the answer is no. If you had no wing on your trike you could drive around in all kinds of winds. So If you learn to neutralize the effects of the wind on your wing your learning how to control it in the wind. Your trying to make your trike behave as if you had no wing. If you feel the wind on your wing fighting you, or pushing you, your not neutralizing it. I have practiced this in 25 mile an hour winds and it is very interesting to learn to neutralize the wing. I am not saying practice in a 25 MPH wind but maybe start practicing this on a day when it is slightly windy.

I went into all that because if you land with a tail wind, your wing will act and feel differently.

So in a headwind, crosswind, or tailwind, i neutralize my wing upon landing.

I believe the reason my friend went off the runway the day we landed in the tail wind was because he did not neutralize his wing and he allowed the wind to push him from behind, he didn’t understand what was happening, the feelings were different and he didn’t put his wing where it needed to be. He did what he always does and pulls in on the bar to his belly.

Landing into the wind is always the best, this will give slower ground speeds when landing and less runway will be used. Taxiways can save you if your in a wind over what is safe.. 90 degree crosswinds at my airport are the norm.

Be careful, don’t let a tail wind ever make you think your airspeed is good by watching the faster moving ground. Airspeed is not effected by ground speed. We all know that, but our brains can trick us by what we are seeing. Especially when we are newer pilots. So if you are in a tail wind and your brain is telling you your coming in fast, check your airspeed, you might be surprised. Yes you old salts don’t look at your airspeed, I know. I do and always will.

Just my thoughts. Good question.

[Larry Mednick]

Hey Roger, on the point of the wind pushing you after touchdown, even in a 15 mph tail wind the wind will not be pushing you until your trike slows below 15 MPH on the runway. The much bigger effect is if you touch Down at 40 MPH, now you are touching at 55 MPH. If we have brakes, then we generally rely on stopping power and not drag to bring us to a stop. Neutralizing the wing will allow your brakes to do their job. Not finishing a flare will allow the brakes to start doing their job earlier as well. So I agree neutralizing the bar is important for stopping short, but not because the wind is pushing on the top of the wing.

Short Field Demo

https://youtu.be/yQ29hOZU55oShort Field Demo
https://youtu.be/yQ29hOZU55o

[Roger Larson]

I believe what happened to my friend was that he was so used to landing a headwind, on that particular it was a tail wind but not a perfect tail wind. So the wind caught him from behind which i don’t think he had experienced that before. the wing caught the wind and it took him off of the runway. That or for some other reason he ran off the runway. I just know that we landed in a tail wind and he did not know why he ran off the runway that day. That day was not a perfect tail wind, meaning it came from one side slightly more, and yes we had faster landing speed overall, plus gusts from behind. I a gust hit me from behind but i can’t know his gust at the moment he landed. Upon my landing i could feel a need to hold the wing in a very precise attitude to limit the effects of the rearward wind. Prior to that i had practiced in some heavy winds just practicing on the ground so i did not experience anything i had not experienced before. These are good things for pilots and new pilots to think about so I appreciate this forum. A good point you bring out is that the effects of the wind actually increase in a tail wind as you slow down. Correct me on this but the wing is not aerodynamically correct if the wind is flowing from front to back. So at least it is something to think about. That is the huge advantage to having a forum like this to think this stuff through with other pilots. Thanks again for this forum.