Talk:South Lewis County Airport

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Crosswind runway

Hey @Tedder!

Long time and looks like you're remaining busy. Hopefully you remember our conversation on the tricky inclusion of the SLCA runway being described as a "crosswind runway"? If not, here's the referesher - User_talk:Shortiefourten/Archive1#Toledo_crosswind_runway

I reach out because by sheer chance I came across a recent article - The Chronicle (Centralia, Washington) - South Lewis County Airport now has a new refueling station along with a new airport operations manager - which states the following:

South Lewis County Airport was originally built by the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration during World War II to train pilots with crosswinds, and many pilots from throughout the region still use it for that purpose today.

With a little bit better definition, is it worth the inclusion? I don't know and that's why I reach out. Previously, due to a lack of definition, we agreed the crosswind mention came across as confusing. Since I don't know a thing about runways or airflight, I'm just wondering on the matter. No feelings either way outside of making sure we properly summarize history and all that.

As before, I defer to your expertise on the matter!

Shortiefourten (talk) 20:32, 13 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, and nice to see you. I certainly see you pop up on my watchlist because we intersect on articles.

I personally think it's a little strange, but there's enough citations and they're not interviewing the same person that said that. I'm fine including it.

In the early days an "airport" was a giant grass circle so one could land at any direction- always into a perfect headwind. That evolved to what we might think of as the WW2 era fields with three runways in a triangle, that way you're never more than 30 degrees from a perfect headwind, so the amount of crosswind you have to deal with is .. uh, half the total wind. Local examples are Quillayute Airport and Chehalis–Centralia Airport (formerly 3 runways, now one, but the two are visible on a satellite view), and probably almost everything on the Washington World War II Army Airfields list.

After that, generally runways are built along the prevailing wind- think PDX or LAX for obvious examples.

It's harder for inexperienced pilots and those that are taildraggers .. so all planes until after WW2, roughly speaking. So describing it as a "good crosswind airport" seems like advertising a flaw that they're trying to make into something positive. Like a realtor advertising a house as "located at the corner of two very busy roads".

That's mostly to give some context and my approximate and likely only partly-true history of it for your education and entertainment. I'm not saying that for or against inclusion- at this point, I don't have much complaint against inclusion because of multiple sources. tedder (talk) 23:07, 13 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]