Sideways

“Cessna 18 Delta, cleared to land Runway 22. Hold short 28 Right.”

I was over Lake Michigan with ORD in sight—Chicago O’Hare Airport, named ORD for the apple orchard that once occupied the land. The controller said the traffic was continuous, with the heavies using Runways 28 Right and Left. He said he could fit me in if I could use Runway 22. He added what the weather reporting indicated. The wind was out of the west (270) at 32 knots. He expected me to likely go somewhere else, maybe DuPage.

I accepted Runway 22. To his surprise, but without indicating it in his voice, he cleared me to land on 22.

Was I crazy or vastly overconfident? No. I was prepared with one of the few Cessna 180s that had been equipped with what was known as crosswind landing gear.

By Tomás Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA – 1979 Cessna 180K, C/N: 18053081 N2810K (without the floats), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58210251

Normally, the wheels were held straight ahead by strong springs. If a strong enough force was applied from either side, the wheels would caster in the proper direction, and you could land sideways, facing into the wind, even if it was quite strong.

I landed short on 22, well before 28, tapped the right brake to stay pointed into the wind, and added power to avoid being blown off the left side of the runway.

It made strong crosswind landings possible without much difficulty. I wish I had it now on my GlaStar GS-1 in sunny and also frequently very windy New Mexico. It made many memorable trips possible that, without it, I would not have thought of attempting.

I also think I was rather naive or foolish flying into extremely busy O’Hare. After landing and taxiing to one of the general aviation FBOs, I discovered I was surrounded by corporate twins and jets of all sizes. While not unwelcome, I felt that I had arrived at a formal wedding dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers.

In spite of this, I was treated like any other customer. Some of the other passengers seemed to feel a smaller tailwheel airplane like the 180 was out of place and not quite elegant enough to be there, a little like Cinderella before the ball.

My passenger and I were given a ride to a nearby large airport motel where the IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America) was holding its annual meeting.

I later learned my passenger, Anna, was awed by this experience. She was from a German family that had lived on their farm in Yugoslavia for several hundred years, from which they had to flee after World War II.

They traveled on foot at night after escaping from a detention camp, sneaking across mountains to the Austrian border and a displaced-persons camp where they lived for six years. She spent those six years sleeping on a straw mattress on the floor among many other families before they were allowed to come to America.

She later told me she thought of that flight to Chicago O’Hare as her transformation from Cinderella to the princess who had worn glass slippers.

I was unaware the airplane was equipped with crosswind gear until I owned it. I was on the sloped apron of my home field. The slope put enough load on the gear that I found myself taxiing sideways down the slope. I quickly learned how to use the upwind, or uphill, brake and power to arrive where I intended.

My first landing using the gear was also an adventure. After a little practice, I had it under control and did not go off the side of any runway. I think the person who demonstrated the airplane to me for purchase did not know it had crosswind gear. It was a surprise, but a good one.

When taxiing sideways, I often had bystanders yelling at me to warn me that my gear was broken. The usual tailwheel tap dancing on the rudder pedals was required, but sometimes you needed to be a little more like Fred Astaire. Like Fred, you smoothed out with practice.

I left the country for a year to teach at Tehran University and unfortunately sold the 180. Back home, I returned to using the crosswind landing skills I had learned and used before owning the 180.

I still miss the 180 and its landing gear. The gear apparently was abandoned by Goodyear, its maker, as not viable for some reason. I think weight, cost, or maybe maintenance problems were the reasons.

My best option now in windy conditions is to plan to use airports with a runway facing into the wind. With a lot of experience using steep slips into short fields as a glider tow pilot, I occasionally tried to land in some rather stiff crosswinds. So far, so good, but I would really like to have that crosswind gear back.

It did take me into some fields that others might have avoided using common sense. Some were in big cities; others were in very rural backwoods places.

Once in a while, you do get yourself in a situation with no Plan B. It was once a problem with a strong, gusty, switching crosswind and low fuel.

The crosswind gear saved us from embarrassment, a bent airplane, or worse, and rescued a long-remembered, wonderful canoe trip with my daughter and son from Ely, Minnesota, into the Canadian Quetico Provincial Park.

We had many memorable events, including loons, the Aurora Borealis, and a night visiting kangaroo rat climbing the tent side to slide down the other side, many times. Our tent became the little woodland resident’s temporary amusement park.

The landing gear made the trip and the lasting memories possible, all because of someone’s very clever innovation and some very strong springs.

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George Frost

George was born in 1930 into an aviation family in New Jersey. Flying was delayed until age 30 as his P-47 pilot brother William did not return from World War Two. He started flying gliders in Ohio and has flown for 60 years in many different aircraft. He has owned a Cessna 180, an RV-6 which he built, a Glastar, and two sailplanes (a Schleicher ASW-15 and a Glasflugel CZ 304). Ratings are SEL, MEL, glider, tow pilot with 4500 tows, Commercial, and Instrument. George worked as a flight instructor, charter pilot, cargo pilot, and photo pilot for the agriculture department during summers while teaching Industrial Design at Kent State, and maintaining a design practice. He flew in two other countries, Iran and Switzerland. His total time of 3200 hours is in 41 different aircraft types.

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