I'm an old pilot and EVERY LANDING SCARED ME. Without good training and equal amounts of skill and judgement, crosswind landings can be dangerous. The most difficult and scary crosswind landing that I ever had was in a Stearman PT-17. I felt like I had four hands and six feet in action and was darn lucky to boot.
The actual crosswind isn't really a danger. The gusty conditions are what really cause the issue. It's the sudden loss of airspeed that can be dangerous. I'm never scared, but maybe more focused on gusty days like those. If I was out in my own plane with plenty of fuel, it might be fun. But consider this, you just flew LAX to Tokyo and have been in the air 11 hours. You don't have a lot of fuel on arrival. You have enough for maybe 2 approaches on a day like this, and then you have to divert to your alternate. Your alternate will probably also be windy. You've already held for 15 minutes or so just to get your approach. You know if you miss you'll be holding more. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you really want to land on your first approach if possible. You don't want to miss because you were fast, long, etc. You want to give it your best attempt, yet keep a go around as an option at all times. At our airline, and most airlines I know, a Windshear Warning is a go around. So I'm always hoping the warning doesn't go off. If we go around, I would rather it be my choice, not the computers choice. On the cockpit video I posted before, we almost went missed a few times. It got really bad at 100 feet. As the camera is fixed, it's hard to feel what it was really like. All the books in the cabinet fell on the floor due to the side forces (yaw). Also, the target speed was 173. The actual airspeed was all over the place...up to 190, down to 150. I should say that Narita on a SW gusty wind is a wicked place. I'm not sure what causes all the turbulence, as the area around the airport is pretty flat. It gets pretty bad. It's probably the worst place I've flown ever. I'll try and video it some more when it's blowing, typically in the spring. Good times, Lou
