Taxiing in the Wind

You’ll often find that it is always windy at the airport whenever you want to fly, whether or not you live in Kansas.

This means you’ll be needing to get very familiar with how to maneuver your newfound friend (airplane) around in the wind.

Watch the video above to learn about proper control inputs when taxiing in the wind.

Crosswind Taxi Correction

Given that the airplanes we fly are very light, and are really only designed to meet the wind head-on and not from any other angle, let’s take a look at how to taxi an airplane around on the ground when you have a crosswind or tailwind.

The image above describes how we should position the controls depending on where the wind is coming from.  To give you an easy way to remember this, think of:

• Climb Into

or

• Dive Away

When the wind is in front of you, climb into it. Keep the elevator neutral and turn the yoke into the wind as if you were looking to turn in that direction.

When the wind is behind you, dive away from it. Apply forward pressure to the yoke to lower the elevator. Turn the yoke as if you were trying to fly away from the wind. Lowering the elevator helps prevent wind from getting beneath the tail and lifting up the tail of the airplane.

It’s important to always be aware of the wind direction, both in the air and on the ground. In addition to proper control positioning, remember that more power will be required taxiing into the wind as compared to having the wind at your tail.