Most Unstable Airplane Flown in Xwind Conditions

A Piper Vagabond is a bit of a handful, as it's so short coupled. Probably why it's one of my favorite airplanes. I also ferried a Stinson 108 across the country and ran out of rudder more than once. Giant tail, little rudder.
 
jrh said:
That looks downright terrifying in a crosswind.

Honestly, I haven't flown anything really terrible in a crosswind. I scared myself pretty good in a Piper Super Cruiser, but I'm not sure if that was actually because of the design or if it was just my lack of experience with landing from the back seat, using heel brakes, and having one of those flimsy little "shopping cart" wheels for a tailwheel.

My 140 can be sporty also, but it's fairly tame as far as tailwheels go. Now that I've flown it a lot, I'd fly it anywhere I'd be willing to fly a C-150. But it was humbling when I first started out with it in crosswinds.
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It's kind of terrifying with no wind! The picture shows how small the tail is, but doesn't really convey. Most thrilling airplane ride I've ever had. Got to fly it in the air - just a neat machine.
 
WacoFan said:
It's kind of terrifying with no wind! The picture shows how small the tail is, but doesn't really convey. Most thrilling airplane ride I've ever had. Got to fly it in the air - just a neat machine.
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I imagine if a blue whale and a mailbox got together... that would be the result.
 
Hard to chose.

7ec Champ: light, little aileron authority, same for rudder. it's fine until about 7mph, then it is really difficult
402b: fine until on the ground, then it is a fight because it weather vanes so easy. Huge tail, lots of surface area behind .
 
This:
CRC+TU+17-12-73.JPG

An Inter-mountain A-9 Callair, way too stable on the roll axis, and horribly unstable on the pitch axis... in fact its not much fun to fly period.
 
On land the UC-1 Twinbee without a doubt. It's just weird to land in general... on water it's easy.. but land is a whole different story.

Most of the time the tailwheel doesn't lock when you want it to and visa versa.
 
I have personally never flown one but I thought think the ERCO Ercoupe would be tough with no rudder pedals.
 
Of all that I have flown, I would say the most unstable (or rather tricky) to land in a good crosswind was the Beech 18.

Not that it was necessarily unstable, but it could be rather touchy considering it was a taildragger, but more because it was fairly responsive in the roll department (piano hinged ailerons), had good rudder authority when on approach and a huge elevator. If you started fighting the crosswind, you could easily find yourself over-correcting and wandering all over final.

Best thing it had going for it was the lockable tailwheel. Get it down on the mains, crank in your aileron, and stand on the brakes... get it slowed down and get the tail down and you were golden (especially if it was real gusty) as long as you had the tailwheel locked... if not, you could be in for some very quick foot work. :)
 
ctab5060X said:
Of all that I have flown, I would say the most unstable (or rather tricky) to land in a good crosswind was the Beech 18.

Not that it was necessarily unstable, but it could be rather touchy considering it was a taildragger, but more because it was fairly responsive in the roll department (piano hinged ailerons), had good rudder authority when on approach and a huge elevator. If you started fighting the crosswind, you could easily find yourself over-correcting and wandering all over final.

Best thing it had going for it was the lockable tailwheel. Get it down on the mains, crank in your aileron, and stand on the brakes... get it slowed down and get the tail down and you were golden (especially if it was real gusty) as long as you had the tailwheel locked... if not, you could be in for some very quick foot work. :)
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What was the airplane like without the tailwheel locked (X-wind or not)?
 
WacoFan said:
What was the airplane like without the tailwheel locked (X-wind or not)?
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Depended on the tailwheel and how comfortable you were with the airplane.

If you had a good one, it was like any other free castering tailwheel aircraft...

If you had a bad one (even just slightly out of whack) it could get a little interesting.

Company I flew for had an E18S and a C-45. I only flew the E model Super 18, but I did get to taxi the C-45 before we started working on it. The E model had an awesome tailwheel... you could taxi straight and true without it being locked (could also back it straight into the hangar without touching the steering wheel on the tug too much). The C-45 had some issues... it wanted to S-turn on its own when you taxied, and would wander left and right when pushing it into the hangar.
 
Milesar said:
I have personally never flown one but I thought think the ERCO Ercoupe would be tough with no rudder pedals.
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I got a chance to fly in one last week, and was very impressed by it. You just fly it in a crab all the way down, It's got a trailing link gear and straitens itself out. The owner said he's just as comfortable in that as any other plane in x-winds.
 
ppragman said:
The 207 is a good airplane, even in a cross wind, but a few years back I ran into a 40kt direct crosswind in Akhiok that pretty much maxed out my abilities to land it.
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The 207 needs a bigger rudder. You run out of rudder long before you run out of aileron and with that wide gear you could do much more. Even on pavement.
 
The CRJ-200 does pretty good in crosswinds as long as you fly the wing from the second you start rolling. I HATE flying with people who dont use proper aileron control on takeoff and landing. It's unnerving rocketing down the runway with a significant bank because the upwind wing is trying to fly. Especaially since the wings are so close to the ground.
 
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