Captains,

It was always fun to have to do crosswind landings - for real - in the 707, 727 or 747.  Each one of these planes had to land with wings level since the engines on the 707 or 747 could hit the ground if the wings were not level.  The 727 needed to keep the wings level so as not to drag the outboard leading edge flaps.  In order to make a successful crosswind landing in these planes the pilot would need to "crab" into the wind during the landing. 

Establishing the correct crab angle was not too hard, but as the wind speed and angle would change as the plane descended, the pilot would be making constant corrections to the crab angle to keep the plane lined-up with the runway.  The critical part of the landing was the flare to touchdown.  The 707 & 747 had big wings and lower wing loading than the 727 so the flare was not as difficult as the 727.  In the 707 & 747 you could just hold the crab with wings level until just the last second before the wheels would touch.  At that point the pilot would use the rudder to take out the crab while keeping the wings level with the ailerons as the wheels touched.  In fact in the 747 there were so many main wheels that even if you were late taking out the crab the drag of the landing gear would bring the nose of the plane around while leaving a bunch of rubber on the runway. 

The 727 on the other hand was a bit more difficult to land in a crosswind because of the higher wing loading. In the 727 you would fly at a slightly higher airspeed and add some thrust as you started the flare and brought the nose in line with the runway since in reality this maneuver was really a side slip and lift would be lost.  This was not as big a deal in the 707 &747, but in the 727 if you did not add power the plane would smack down hard on the runway and sometimes give you a "rubber jungle" in the cabin as a lot of the Oxygen masks would fall out of the overhead compartments.  If ever that would happen, we would make the Flight Engineer stand at the cockpit door an say good-by to the passengers.  [smiley=engel017.gif] 

The 757 on the other hand would land in a side slip since the engines were much higher off the ground and keeping the wing down was not a problem.  In fact the 757/767 autopilot would automatically transition to a side slip at 500 feet AGL while doing an auto-land.

One evening landing in Las Vegas in the 757 we had a 25 knot crosswind and the autopilot did a really nice job of slicking on the landing.  At 500 feet on the approach the autopilot brought the nose to line-up with the runway while lowering the wing into the wind. As the flare was started the wing was kept down on the up-wind side and on touchdown, even the spoilers would deploy at a slower rate since only the upwind truck was touching the runway first because the wing on the upwind side was down to slip the plane sideways into the wind.  Really nice system.

Stay well, and keep flying!

Lou  [smiley=dankk2.gif]