Gentlemen

I'm trying to figure out what to build this season. One of the problems that I have is a constant cross wind where I fly. I would appreciate opinions as to what airplane would be best capable of handling cross winds.

Would a delta help?

Thanks

Good qualities would include a low, wide-track landing gear, good ground handling, and an effective rudder. You must also have the piloting skills to use that rudder! Going by the jets I have, my Bandit handles the crosswind the best, with the BobCat a close second. My MiG has the wide stance, and other qualities, but if the MiG is landed rough it will break the LG mounts in the wing, so I often won't fly it if the crosswind is strong. When it was my only jet I flew it often in strong wind, I just don't need to now.

The HotSpot also seems to handle X-wind well, and from what I have seen is an awfully robust model.

Models that seem tough to handle in a x-wind, at least from what I have seen, are the 'Roo, F-16's, especially the smaller ones like a BVM or Yellow, A-4's because of the tall, narrow landing gear. The Fiberclassics F-86 I flew some was a handful in a x-wind. YMMV

But one point, piloting can go a long way to making nearly anything handle the wind!

I have to disagree with Tony F's statement that the Roo is tough in crosswind. I find it to be incredibly simple, just like landing a real airplane. Simply remove the crab with rudder (point the nose down the runway), and put the upwind wheel down first, then the other, and then the nose. No big deal. My roo has rudders on both fins, and the rudder command is more that sufficient. The idea is to remove the crab, and maintain the ground track with ailerons.


Ted
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I was flying last weekend at a fun fly, and I had my Super Reaper (with twin rudders) and a friend of mine had his Kangaroo (also with 2 rudders). There was a STIFF cross wind, and we both had no problems coming down the runway nice and straight for take offs or landings. I can say first hand my Reaper handles any wind conditions quite well, as we have a pretty steady cross wind at our club usually.

AJC

Just as in full-scale birds, the skill of the pilot is where it's at. With the AMA rudder rule, basically all the jets, including deltas, have enough rudder and aileron/elevon to correct for drift and crab at touchdown.

Particularly windy conditions were present at the Lake Wales meet last year due to an off-shore hurricane with a 20-25MPH wind blowing at 90 degrees to the runway. It was amazing to watch BV, Larry Kramer, Jason Somes, Torrey Ward, Nick Smith from the U.K., and many other hot thumbs grease on one after the other with planes that included Roo's, HS's, Bandits, BobCat, Phantom, and F-100.

Similarly at Mississippi Jets this year, with nasty 20-25 MPH x-winds, David Reid, Vern Montgomery, and others put on quite a show during the spot landing challenge. When pilot skills were lacking, BobCats, HS's, Roo's, F-16's and others were trashed.

I have found that keeping the nose straight is fairly easy. It's correcting for constantly changing drift and sink rate as you settle to the runway that separates me from the pros.

Practicing on a high-wing, tail-dragger, prop plane till you get the right hand talking to the left hand during the cross-controlled, cross-wind situation, will save allot of expensive mistakes with a turbine bird.


Tom