Landing in a Crosswind: The Crab, the Slip, and the Art of the Sideways Arrival

Runways are fixed strips of concrete; wind blows from wherever it pleases. When the two disagree — when the wind crosses the runway rather than flowing down it — the pilot faces one of aviation's most fundamental handling challenges: the crosswind landing. The problem is geometry. An aircraft flies through the air, not over the ground, so a crosswind pushes it sideways, and an airplane pointed straight down the runway will drift off the centerline. Worse, touching down while moving sideways imposes dangerous side loads on the landing gear. The pilot must arrive aligned with the runway and tracking straight down it, despite a wind trying to do otherwise. Pilots use two classic techniques, often combined. In the crab, the nose is turned into the wind so the aircraft's ground track stays aligned with the runway — like a canoe angled upstream to cross a current — and the crab is removed just before touchdown. In the sideslip (wing-low) method, the pilot lowers the upwind wing to counter drift while using opposite rudder to keep the nose straight, touching down on the upwind main wheel first. Most pilots fly a crab on approach and transition to a slip in the flare. Every aircraft has a "maximum demonstrated crosswind component," a figure from flight testing that bounds the conditions a competent pilot should manage. It is not a regulatory limit but a serious advisory. Whether to attempt a given crosswind — or divert — is an aeronautical decision that rests with the pilot in command per 14 CFR §91.3. Few skills separate the polished pilot from the merely adequate one quite like a smooth arrival in a stiff crosswind.