Let's imagine, the wind is blowing from the right while the Boeing is on short final. Why is then the.........

Question

......... right main gear touching down first, followed by the left on and the nose wheel?

(basically they touch down always with the side of the main gear from which the wind comes). Why?

Answer 1

'nickel's nailed it.

Any aircraft on landing has to touch down with the wing down into the wind to avoid that wing being lifted. This can be even more pronounced on a small, light, high wing aircraft in a good breeze.

Answer 2

Crab or side slip approach method, the touchdown is the same, upwind wheel first.

Answer 3

That is called a side slip. What you want to do is keep the wing into the wind while using opposite rudder to keep it aligned with the runway. The reason for landing like that is to prevent the wind from tipping the airplane over. Besides you have to remember that you are at a very low airspeed and the airplane is less manuverable then, and any gust of wind can push you off the centreline or even runway. So you have to set up for it well in advance.

Another method is to use the "crab", which basically means you hold the nose into the wind. Then whenever you are about 3 ft. off the runway you "kick out" the crab and use oposite aileron and appropriate rudder preassure to quickly align your aircraft. This method is a bit more tricky because it requires great timing and pilot coordination.

Answer 4

The pilot is "crabbing". Basically he turns the rudder so it yaws into the wind. Then turns aileron in the opposite direction of the yaw. He doesn't let go of the rudder pedal and yoke until a wheel is on the ground.

Answer 5

there are two ways to land the aircraft in a cross wind situation  (((wind blowing from one side of the aircraft)))  the side slip method or the crab method,, in the case you have mentioned the pilot was using the side slip method,,   here it what was hapening:

if the pilot didnt take any action, the wind blowing from the right was pushing the plane to the left so he couldnt  remain alighned with the runway,so to counteract this situation this is what the pilot has done:

he banked to the right but to compensate for the turning of the aircraft he also used left rudder in the same time,,   now imagine the aircrafts view           the left wing is up and the right wing is down    so which wheel is lower than the other??   the right whee is lower since the aircraft is in  a right bank attitude but not turning since he was using left rudder to compensate for the turning of the aircraft....    now   since the right wheel is lower   its definatly gona touch down first   ,,,,

Answer 6

Because the aircraft has to bank into the wind to remain aligned with the runway.

The rudder is moved in the opposite direction (to the left) so the aircraft and wheels are straight when landing on the runway.

This is called a side slip.