How affected by wind is the X-Air?

[Phil Perry]

I currently fly a Sportstar and realise that an X-Air is in a different league, but when coming close to buying a Sportstar I have also thought that I should maybe start smaller and cheaper, as it will mean not pulling equity out of my house!How usable is an X-Air in the day though, is it only a morning in the calm type of aircraft like a trike, or can it do more than a trike in terms of withstanding weather?

 

How does it do in cross winds? At the moment I'm fine (with white knuckles and ground teeth) in the Sportstar to land in a 15kts cross wind, but I suspect an X-Air will just get blown away?

 

Ryan

Hi Again Ryan. . . sorry about the power outage. . . .

I really don't know what type of X'Air you are talking about, so, before I go on for another page,. . . perhaps you can let me know.

 

One thing I DO know is, that CROSSWIND limits depend upon three things. 1) The wind velocity. 2) the angle of the wind to the runway you want to use,. . ., or HAVE to use, and 3) the experience of the pilot in command.

 

Most ultralight / Microlight, or VLA ie, very light aircraft have tightly defined limits with regard to controlability where the surface wind is presenting at an angle to the direction of flight when taking off or landing. these limits will be ( usually ) somewhat less than those in the flight manual of a similar sized, but somewhat heavier Light, or G.A. Aircraft.

 

Example, / . .a fifteen knot crosswind presenting from 10 / 15 degrees off to one side, may not affect your takeoff or landing TOO much, as long as you know how to control the aircraft to accomodate it, and don't allow it to drift off centreline too much, especially where the circuit is tight, or you have neighbours who complain and whinge a lot. . . .

 

A fifteen knot crosswind presenting at 90 degrees to your runway track will cause you some bloody severe grief in a Piper Warrior, Cessna 182, Cessna 310, and several other aircraft, but I won't list them all.

 

The C-152 for example is placarded in the POH that it's MAX crosswind capabilty is 17 Knots. . . . so, the aforementioned aircraft, although carrying a lot more inertia, are still on the edge of the envelope of standard controlability whilst close to the ground at this sort of sidewind velocity.

 

Suffice to say that if you read a poster who says ( as I've already seen on other threads on this very forum. . . , ) that thay've handled crosswinds of 40 or even 60 knots,. . . . . then I withdraw from any serious discussion now because they are talking complete and utter bloody nonsense, and since yours was a SERIOUS question, it deserves a realistic response.

 

At 40 or 60 Kts, most light sport aircraft would have been blown off the taxiway before getting anywhere near the strip, so come on guys, let's keep it real here, the bloke has asked a sensible question.

 

You say that you are happy ( ? ) to land your Sportstar in a 15 Kt crosswind,. . . are you talking about a SLIGHT 15 Kt crosswind ?? I hope so, because the Eurostar ( same aircraft ) we've got at our school wouldn't handle that unless it was only around 15 , maybe 20 degrees off runway heading, and then ONLY if the student was advanced in his solo training. If the crosswind was GUSTY. . . . .that makes it even more of a challenge to keep the thing doing what you want it to. . . This is of course, unless KNOTS in Australia are a lot smaller than they are here in Blightly. It's a nice, well sorted airframe, but it is VERY LIGHT (max 450 Kgs MTOW here, and that's everything, including fat students and petrol.)

 

Anyway mate, let me know what kind of X'Air you're thinking of, and if it's the same as ours, I can give you a lot more information. ( By the way,. . .if it's a Marque One, . . . it certainly WILL NOT handle a 90 degree 15 knot crosswind, . .. it will blow off the runway, unless you are related to Arnie Swartzenegger, and you hold the wing down into wind at around 24 degrees bank angle and scream like Bruce Lee until you get a few feet above the ground. . . . but, to do this you'd need opposite rudder to counteract the turn, and this would reduce the climb rate a bit., as this would be called a . . . . . SIDESLIP takeoff !

 

Happy crosswinding.

 

Phil