How strong of a wind can a commercial plane land in?

Question

I am flying down to Raleigh on Friday in a regional jet. It now appears Ernesto will be arriving around the same time but as a Tropical Depression or less. Should I be worried about significant delays or is this just a rain storm?

Answer 1

The low visibility associated with that kind of weather is going to be more of a factor than the wind unless the wind reaches 30mph or better. if the direction that it is coming from aligns with the runway the plane will simply land into the wind. with no problem. I would expect the ride to be bumpy. If turbulence bothers you , I recommend that you postpone your trip.

Answer 2

Every commercial airliner is certified by the FAA to a specific limit of crosswind that it may land in. The limit is most often defined by the ability of the control surfaces to maintain the runway heading into the crosswind during and after landing with some margin to spare and the ability of the landing gear to tolerate whatever off-runway heading that the plane will use in initial touchdown (some aircraft are designed to land with the nose still pointing into the wind and the landing gear has to tolerate large initial sideloads as a result.) These limits must be demonstrated safely during flight test before the aircraft is put into service.

Everything is defined around amount of crosswind that can be tolerated as headwind straight down the runway is wonderful - you just touchdown at a lower groundspeed. Conversely, tailwind makes your speed relative to the ground faster at touchdown. Whenever there is much tailwind (about 10 mph), the airport simply switches to use the other end and make it a headwind.

Trigonometry is used to convert the actual wind into two components - headwind and crosswind, and the crosswind component defines the landing limit. (Obviously a 50 mph wind 10 degrees off the runway heading is less of a crosswind than a 20 mph wind 90 degrees off the runway heading).

Most commercial aircraft are certified to about 38 mph crosswind. However, most busy airports, especially those with regular strong winds, will have more than one runway and will use the one most closely aligned to the wind. Raleigh Durham has two.

All of this in answer to your direct question -how much wind can they land in. There are other considerations like the amount of turbulance, lightening, visibility and how close the clouds are to the ground. The airlines often have company rules that are more restrictive than the airplane's actual limits to provide an extra margin of safety.

My advice - take your trip as planned but call you airline to check for any major delays just before leaving for the airport. There could be mechanical or operational delays anytime.

Answer 3

There are a number of factors.

A headwind which is precisely on the runway heading is not generally a problem, but it is the relative strength of the gusts which matters.

If the gusts are extreme, this can make a landing very difficult, if not impossible. It is normal to add 50% of the amount of the gust to the approach speed as a safety precaution to reduce the risk of stalling. So, if the wind was 25 kts gusting to 45 kts, you would add 10 kts to the approach speed.

All aircraft have placarded crosswind limits, and to exceed those would be dangerous, as well as being illegal on a public transport operation. The crosswind factor is calculated from the strength of the wind and the size of the angle of the wind direction from the runway.

In any storm situation windshear is a very real danger.

Answer 4

I live right below the base leg for RDU Rwy 5R and am also a past licensed Cessna pilot. All of the above answers are correct in their own way. Be advised that the two commercial runways are parallel, SW to NE, reducing options should the wind be very gusty AND broadside. Ernesto is forecast to be over Raleigh on Friday afternoon. Fran hit Wilmington as a CAT3 and was still a hurricane when the eye came over my house as we are only 200 miles from the coast, so history shows it can still pack a punch this far inland if strong at landfall. Of course, your mileage and forecast accuracy may vary. Would I be worried? As of Monday evening, yes.

Answer 5

It all has to do with the size of the commercial jet, and the direction of the wind, for example, a 727 will not be able to land in a 45mph crosswind, but a 747 can, but a 727 can land in a 45mph headwind. Thats why airports like Chicago O'Hare have runways in all different directions, to compensate for the constantly windy conditions.

Now, an RJ is smaller than a 727 and is more likely to have problems in high winds. If there is high winds during your trip, they will simply divert you to another airport, or cancel your flight altogether.

Answer 6

depends on direction of wind, type of aircraft, and length of runway.