ORIGINAL: do335a

Crosswind landings (and takeoffs) are no big deal.

The objective is to be pointing and going straight down the runway with no sideways drift. Makes no difference if you fly a trike or a taildragger.

Whether or not you do it on two wheels or the upwind wheel on a taildragger makes no difference.

A taildragger can handle a very stiff crosswind by using more aileron and rudder control with a wheel landing - you land on the mains with the tail high. With a wheel landing, a taildragger can land at very high, slow or in between speed. With a stall landing, it will be tail low and ideally, will stall just as the tailwheel touches dowwn, followed immediately by the main gear.

Here's what you need to know:

1. tailwheel pilots live in a cross controlled world - opposite rudder and aileron inputs - because there is virtually always a crosswind on landing or takeoff. And we don't want any of those expensive ground loops.

2. it's aileron into the wind to prevent sideways drift.

3. it's opposite rudder to keep nose straight down the runway.

Comes from several hundred hours of full size taildragger flying. <span style="color: #0000ff">The joke is that there are those who have ground looped and those who are about to. You actually want to be in a third group who never has and never will.</span>

One picky point "...the model can have a final approach in line with the runway (or intended line of landing) and use side slipping while the nose and landing gear are pointing to the touch down." That's actually a forward slip - the nose of the airplane is moving along the line of forward motion. In a side slip, the side of the airplane is moving along the line of forward motion. The extra drag of the side slip will also cause you to lose altitude in a big, big hurry.

And Zor is absolutley correct. Practice. Practice. Practice. The more you do it, the easier it becomes until it's automatic.