In general, there should not be any horizontal winds affecting the landing speed of the aircraft, and this includes headwinds as well.
During one of my careers, I had the opportunity to work with various fixed-wing models, including rotary-wing aircraft. Now, let me share my perspective on fixed-wing planes and how we can reduce accidents caused by outdated protocols.
All aircraft are different in terms of stability, some requiring more speed than others to maintain air lift and other factors that must be considered that include airframe aerodynamics and engine power.
In addition to the AOA ground lights at 5 kilometers of distance, there should be another sensor right at the starting strike lines on the runway detecting in real time altitude in meters and horizontal speed when the aircraft pass over these lines, and this set of parameters will give warning lights to the cockpit to continue with a safe landing or reject an unsafe one because I have seen pilots land halfway and almost reaching the end of the runway when they came to a complete stop.
When landing an aircraft, whether a 200-ton B737 or a 20-ton F18, both procedures are similar: flaps must be fully extended during landing speed or about and above the speed of V1 according to the model and payload, engine power at 20 percent, never idled, pitch controlled manually and air brakes manually controlled. Having the engines 20 or 30 perscent will increase stability and manueverability if there was the need to climb while descending due to any obstacle in the way or ground emergency. Some military pilots used the 30-100% thrust method while landing on aircraft carriers using the air brakes and nose pitch manually.
With these parameters in place, the landing should be smooth and easy, but what happens when they start removing caution or warning alarms from the cockpit, which is what Boeing started doing and this is why planes started falling from the sky.
When reaching minimums, most pilots opt to idle the engines and glide prior to touch down and this causes landing stall if the nose is maintained flaired even if the runway is meters below in other words, the gliding must be done spaceshuttle style in order to maintain stability.
I always maintained the engines at 20 percent thrust capacity and only functioned the airbrakes and nose pitch to control the vertical speed to minimize stressing the airframe if the aircraft would enter a mechanical stall.
There are two types of stall, mechanical stall and electronic stall and these two could occur during landing or takeoff. A mechanical stall means the aircraft is doomed and losing the pressure principle that keep the aircraft in the air. At this point the only element that will save the aircraft while mechanically stalling is some powerfull engines at full thrust, flaps fully extended and nose pitch down 45 degrees; an electronic stall, means the sound alarms light up and in some models the yoke vibrates to let the pilot know they are about to enter a mechanical stall.
With 20 percent thrust capacity and flap fully extended, liftoff is impossible and only creates drag which is appropriate for the landing.
After touch down, there should be an automatic reverse thrust (on turbofan or turboprop models only) with airbrakes activation for the first 6-8 full seconds, follow up by manual or automatic disengagement. Once these parameters are in place, the possibility for abort landing or take off should be eliminated.
The landing gear is made to sustain this types of impacts, but in some cases the impact twisted the airframe right in the middle of the fuselage and the damage was clearly noticeable. This type airframe damage will down any aircraft.
I once faced 30 knot crosswinds while landing an old Learjet model. The first attempt I used the crabbed technique and it just didn't work, I kept drifting laterally so I had to go around and try again but this time while retracting the flaps to avoid bouncing off the tarmac. What pilots do instead, they lower the front nose which could damange the entire aircraft.
This is what happens when regular protocol does not work. View
When it comes to strictly a crosswind situation, maintaining alignment with the tarmac using rudder function is way too difficult having winds over 40 knots instead, minimize using the crab maneuver angle too open.
As you approach the runway, you allow the crosswind to "deflect" or push the aircraft sideways using the ripping technique. This means that your aircraft aerodynamics won't be fighting the wind force, but will let the wind place you in the center of the runway.
The crab technique is used by experienced pilots who know how to use the ailerons to counteract wind pressure and avoid lifting one side and dropping the other, striking the engine against the tarmac.
