Again it is brought up, mostly by those with some training in F.S. We were taught, during training, to make all maneuvers towards the wind. This, as I said was to lessen drift and reduce the amount of heading change required. This was during practice away from the airport and pattern. If you needed to reverse course, again away from the airport/pattern, the preference was into the wind. Maybe it's just because I only started instructing 25 years ago, or that the school I went to was an old part 141 that taught military pilots for WWII. Could be they needed to upgrade their syllabus.

Can we kill this thread with Fire?

What is a "direct crosswind"???

Heck Know it fun to read all the answers people put out there to support what ever side they take.
I personally suffered the dreaded down wind turn phoneme a few days while canoeing on the Rock river near Theresa Wi. I was paddling up stream (South on this stretch of river that flows north) and as making a 180 degree to go down (WIND) stream My paddle dug in and I stalled and spun the damn canoe. Scary to say the least. LOL