I am just curious about the hype to wing low landings in tricycle geared aircraft. I personally have never once landed in a wing low position in any tricycle aircraft. It is essential in a tail dragger and I have used it with them.
So far though, up to high 30s sustained crosswinds I have never used this method. I crab it in, flare while crabbed, and just before the wheels touch kick the rudder to align. Just my opinion though, what does everyone else do/think?
My comment, and Towhook's, (I think) is aimed at the above observation and the subsequent seeming acceptance of a small amount of sideload just because the tricycle "can take it".
In my personal tailwheel background experience, landing a Cessna 140 or a Cessna 150 is exactly the same as far as maintaining runway alignment at touchdown. Yes, the 150 is more forgiving of the slight sideload and will automatically straighten itself out whereas the 140 will continue to exaggerate and multiply the sideload force into a loss of directional control if the pilot discontinues to fly the rudder on the after landing roll,...but this is still the way a Tricycle should be landed.
At, and during, the moment(s) when you input (touch/kick) the rudder, just a moment(s) before touch-down, ..aaas I am swinging the nose around trying to time it to be aligned with the centerline (or exactly parallel to it) at the precise moment of touch-down, ...I find myself (usually) drifting away from centerline, unless, I am - at the same time - applying opposite aileron, (lowering the upwind wing) to hold the airplane over (straddling) the centerline, touching the upwind wheel first. Usually only microseconds first, unless it's a really strong wind, and strong winds are usually so gusty, you cannot perform this maneuver to the precise standards that I describe, so the "crab/kick" method appears to work just fine. But it's a tricycle - you can get away with it. That's good for the real world of low time pilots flying in strong winds, but as you know it won't work in a tailwheel.
So I don't teach it. Basic aircraft control requires that you be able to control the flight path throughout the stall into the touch-down.
I notice you teach full stall landings (normally) and so do I, as a result of tailwheel training also. Fully Stalled and Exactly Straight at TouchDown or Go-Around.
Go-Arounds were much more popular (and required training) in those days.
NoBody gos around anymore, during the flare because it isn't lined up straight. Just let it slam down in a screeching sliding crab. ..."Oh, Well! Try again."
But 152's (and such) can be taught to be landed as if it were a tailwheel: full stall nose high/tail low- exactly straddled over the centerline with no side load, which btw, is the PTS standard for PP but nobody that I know of in the last couple of decades has enforced it.
The airplane (tailwheel) used to enforce it - now flight instructors and examiners have to enforce it and it ain't popular because it costs money to get that good and the general (student) pilot population thinks that passing a PTS checkride is evidence enough of expected proficiency.
