New Beginnings

[Joe LaMantia]

Crab to Slip, or if it's really blowing all slip seems to work pretty good in the TriPacer. I tend to stay on the ground if it's really blowing hard and Jerry's right about finding a runway lined up with the wind, especially when it's beyond the crosswind component for the aircraft being flown!

Joe

[jrees]

I've always considered a "slip", as a way to loose altitude quickly, yoke down and to right (ex.) with left rudder. Drops like a rock. A wing low approach is same, without the extreme down pressure on the yoke, plus more adjusting the wing into the wind angle with amount of rudder to stay straight. A wing low approach takes more time to get the hang of, but i've always liked it better than a crab. The crab never felt natural to me. Guess whatever works for you, but if you practice the low wing approach, after time you will probably use it instead of a crab.

[RetroAcro]

A wing low approach takes more time to get the hang of, but i've always liked it better than a crab. The crab never felt natural to me. Guess whatever works for you, but if you practice the low wing approach, after time you will probably use it instead of a crab.

Ah this old gem, back from the dead. :-) Above is the real answer...whatever works and whatever you like to do. But IMO, there's no practical reason to slip all the way down final in any airplane. That is a way for instructors to give students extended practice at countering the x-wind, and to set up their approach such that workload is reduced in the final stages of the landing. But just because you may have been taught that as a student pilot doesn't mean you need to do that for the rest of your flying career.

A more professional way to do it would be to crab down final, and then make the transition to the slip during the roundout. It's more comfortable for your passengers since your'e in normal coordinated flight for as long as possible. Either way, you're likely going to be touching down in a slip. How late you choose to transition from a crab to a slip is purely a matter of pilot preference, skill, and comfort level. Some choose to start the slip at 700' AGL, others choose to start it at 7" AGL...and everywhere in between. This whole slip vs. crab debate is what you might call a false dichotomy. The actual touchdown is made using the same technique in most light airplanes.