GrassStripFlyBoy Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Was out this weekend, beautiful winter conditions for Feb (mild temps and lots of sun) except for windy - blowing steady teens and gusting into low 20's. Realized that at about 40 odd hours of CT time that is my new wind limit. Flew triangle shaped cross country hitting three airports, no more than 45 degree cross winds, and feeling like it is normal jump in and go without any stress as I left off in my old Cessna. I share this as I know many people have posted questions on how these CT's perform in wind, learning to land it well, and general comfort when it starts blowing. I think this machine is a sweet ride, even when the conditions are not ideal. I cannot praise these CT's enough, I'm having a blast in it. Especially when bucking a 40k headwind, that would be very painful in my old 90k Cessna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrassStripFlyBoy Posted February 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Another thought here, I experienced for the first time why others have shared to pull up the flaps immediately at touch down. On my second airport landing wind was blowing hard and with 15 degrees all was normal touch down, then could feel gear/plane start to fly tip toe style right on the runway, hit 0 degrees and reeled it back in as fast as I could with brakes as well. Will make a note of that going forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmi Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 2 hours ago, GrassStripFlyBoy said: Was out this weekend, beautiful winter conditions for Feb (mild temps and lots of sun) except for windy - blowing steady teens and gusting into low 20's. Realized that at about 40 odd hours of CT time that is my new wind limit. Flew triangle shaped cross country hitting three airports, no more than 45 degree cross winds, and feeling like it is normal jump in and go without any stress as I left off in my old Cessna. I share this as I know many people have posted questions on how these CT's perform in wind, learning to land it well, and general comfort when it starts blowing. I think this machine is a sweet ride, even when the conditions are not ideal. I cannot praise these CT's enough, I'm having a blast in it. Especially when bucking a 40k headwind, that would be very painful in my old 90k Cessna. I am not too far off from where you are and went out flying today as well but , man, there was some serious wind at just 1200 agl - I noticed circling around ..I was going 84 mph ground speed and then wham ...170 mph on the other side Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okent Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 I tried landing with zero and -6 flaps and that seemed to help as well in those windy days. The plane is a little more time handle compared to a cessna but I sure like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animosity2k Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 2 hours ago, okent said: I tried landing with zero and -6 flaps and that seemed to help as well in those windy days. The plane is a little more time handle compared to a cessna but I sure like it. What speed do you cross the threshold at when using 0* flaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animosity2k Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 4 hours ago, Warmi said: I am not too far off from where you are and went out flying today as well but , man, there was some serious wind at just 1200 agl - I noticed circling around ..I was going 84 mph ground speed and then wham ...170 mph on the other side I experienced similar the other day, was at a 75kt ground speed on my trip out, and on my return I clocked a new speed I've never seen before in my CT even after ferrying it home from California to Ohio, 139kt pretty damn close to VNE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Koerner Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 But... Vne is based on calibrated airspeed, not ground speed. So the wind does not matter. Mike Koerner * * Not a CFI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmi Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 9 hours ago, Mike Koerner said: But... Vne is based on calibrated airspeed, not ground speed. So the wind does not matter. Mike Koerner * * Not a CFI Yeah , my air speed was about 110 knots - but I have never experienced so much wind and so close to the ground before as to swing my ground speed so widely hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 15 hours ago, Warmi said: I am not too far off from where you are and went out flying today as well but , man, there was some serious wind at just 1200 agl - I noticed circling around ..I was going 84 mph ground speed and then wham ...170 mph on the other side That is about 40 kts winds. You probably could have gotten down to 0 ground speed on the GPS if you had tried. I did that once with the CT. Never actually saw 0, but my ground track on the GPS changed about a 180° without changing my heading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 13 hours ago, okent said: I tried landing with zero and -6 flaps and that seemed to help as well in those windy days. The plane is a little more time handle compared to a cessna but I sure like it. Everybody has their own preference, but personally I don't like landing at 0° or -6°. There is a little more roll authority and the airplane does "squat" better on the runway. However, the speed has to be kept pretty high and I just like my landings to be as slow as possible. I have never had much issue landing with 15° flaps, even in windy and gusty conditions, and it just feels better to me. I have landed on a grass strip with crosswinds gusting to 19kt with 30° flaps in and that was a handful and I don't recommend it. On the other side I don't like taking off with 0° flaps either, I don't like the high ground speed and long roll required. Again, everybody has their preferences and I'm not saying using those settings is "wrong"...just stating my preference and reasons why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmi Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 53 minutes ago, Tom Baker said: That is about 40 kts winds. You probably could have gotten down to 0 ground speed on the GPS if you had tried. I did that once with the CT. Never actually saw 0, but my ground track on the GPS changed about a 180° without changing my heading. Yes, that would have been interesting to do some local sight seeing while hovering - I will try that next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okent Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 I agree with Andy that my preference is 15 degrees of flaps as slow as possible but with gusty conditions it just smooths out the gusts a bit. At max gross weight and 0 flaps I try to cross at 55-58, -6 is 58-60. That keeps me at 1.3X Vs so there's plenty of margin. I have a spreadsheet that calculates stall speeds and VsX1.3 at varying weight:flaps:bank angle and I review this before landings when traveling so my numbers are as accurate as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted February 25, 2020 Report Share Posted February 25, 2020 1 hour ago, WmInce said: My standard flap setting is 15° for the CTSW. That includes crosswind conditions, unless they are severe and no other runways or alternate airports are within a practical range. For gusty conditions, I add 1/2 the gust spread to Vref. Landing flap settings of 0° and -6° require shallower approach angles, higher approach and touchdown speeds. Less preferable, although the increased speed provides more rudder authority. Except for training and practice, the only time I use flaps 30° is when when winds are calm/very light and the runway length is of concern. Except for practice and a chosen engine out landing, I do not use flaps 40°. The CTSW runs out of energy fast at that setting. Furthermore, the difference in the landing performance between flaps 30° and flaps 40° is negligible. YMMV. Agree with everything you said. We'll get you using grass runways and you'll learn to love 30° flaps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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