Filming crosswind landings and storms: spots, weather and safety

The wind pushes against your jacket, gusts howl across the meadow, and out over the approach path an Airbus hangs at a slant in the air. The nose points clearly beside the runway, the wings rock, then at the last moment a firm kick of the rudder – and the main gear sits on the centerline. Filming crosswind landings is among the most exciting tasks in spotting, and the clips of them are among the most popular aircraft videos of all. This guide shows you how to predict storm days, choose the right spot, get steady footage in the wind and when to pack up.

What makes a crosswind landing worth watching

An aircraft prefers to land into the wind. If it blows at an angle to the runway, it pushes the aircraft sideways. The crew compensates for this on final approach with a crab angle: the nose points somewhat into the wind, and the aircraft still moves exactly along the runway axis. In spotter jargon this is called “crabbing,” because the aircraft seems to edge in sideways like a crab.

Just before touchdown, in the flare, the crew lines the fuselage up with the axis using the rudder and counters with the ailerons so the windward wing doesn’t come up. This moment is called the de-crab. It is the heart of every good crosswind video – and it often lasts only a few seconds. The flight safety database SKYbrary describes that with a crosswind of around 30 knots on final approach, a crab angle on the order of 10 to 12 degrees can be typical. From the ground, that looks spectacularly slanted.

There is also letting a wing hang down into the wind, the so-called slip. In airline operations it is hardly used alone on final approach anymore, among other reasons because engines under the wings come close to the ground at too much bank. How crab, de-crab and slip work in detail is explained in our article Crosswind landings.

For you as a videographer, what counts: the stronger the crosswind and the gustier the air, the more movement you see – roll motions of the wings, corrections on the rudder, sometimes a touchdown on just one main gear first. And sometimes the crew aborts the approach. A go-around is no drama here but a normal procedure when conditions don’t fit.

Predicting storm days: wind, direction, gusts

Good crosswind days can be spotted a few days ahead. You need three pieces of information: the wind direction, the mean wind speed and the gusts. Weather models and map services show you this as arrows and colored areas; how to read them for spotting is explained in the guide Windy and other weather maps.

On the day itself, the airport’s METAR is the best source. An entry like 24028G45KT means: wind from 240 degrees, 28 knots on average, gusts up to 45 knots. If something like 210V270 follows, the wind swings back and forth between 210 and 270 degrees – which makes approaches even more turbulent. A detailed guide to deciphering it is at Reading METAR and TAF.

For Germany, the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) issues the warnings. Its scale runs from wind gusts of around 50 km/h (Beaufort 7) to hurricane-force gusts of about 120 km/h (Beaufort 12). For spotters that means roughly: with warnings of wind and storm gusts it gets interesting; with severe weather warnings of storm-force or hurricane-force gusts it is about your own safety, no longer about good clips. The DWD values apply at about ten meters above open terrain – at an open airport edge you feel them fairly directly.

Estimating crosswind yourself

How much of the wind acts sideways on the runway depends on the angle between the wind and the runway axis. Pilots use a simple rule of thumb for this that you can adopt directly:

Angle between wind and runway	Crosswind share	Example: 30 knots of wind
15 degrees	about a quarter	around 8 knots sideways
30 degrees	about half	around 15 knots sideways
45 degrees	about three quarters	around 21 knots sideways
60 degrees	almost all of the wind	around 26 knots sideways
90 degrees	all of the wind	30 knots sideways

The runway number times ten is the approximate heading of the runway: runway 23 points roughly to 230 degrees, runway 33 to 330 degrees. How the designations come about is explained in the article Runway designations at airports.

The right airport and the right spot

Not every storm brings crosswind. The tower chooses the runway direction so that takeoffs and landings are made into the wind as far as possible. If an airport has runways in several directions, in a storm it takes the runway that best matches the wind – the crosswind share shrinks. How the decision works is covered in the guide Understanding runway direction in use at airports.

For crosswind videos, airports whose runways all point in the same direction are therefore interesting. If the wind comes across there, crews have no alternative:

• At Düsseldorf Airport, the two parallel runways lie on the 05/23 axis. If the storm blows from the northwest or south instead of the southwest, it arrives at an angle. From the Düsseldorf observation deck you have the runway system in view.
• The east-west systems in Munich and Frankfurt also get crosswind as soon as the wind turns clearly north or south.
• Hamburg Airport has two crossing runways, 05/23 and 15/33. So it can switch – still, slanted approaches regularly occur there in strong wind when noise abatement or traffic requires a particular runway or the wind lies between the axes. At the Affenfelsen you stand at runway 15/33.
• In Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport distributes traffic across several runways in different directions. Whether the Polderbaan is active in a storm depends heavily on the wind direction – check beforehand.
• Madeira-Funchal Airport is known for its demanding wind conditions at the steep coast. From Pico do Facho you overlook the approach – a destination for spotters who deliberately seek out windy approaches.

Which side of the runway?

For crosswind clips, viewing direction matters more than usual. If you stand leeward, that is, on the side the wind blows toward, the aircraft’s nose on approach points slightly away from you into the wind, and at the de-crab you see the fuselage line up toward you. Windward, you have the nose pointed more toward you, but the wind at your back – more pleasant for microphone and tripod. Both perspectives work; what matters is that you have a clear view of the last seconds before touchdown.

Ideal are locations roughly level with the touchdown zone or just before it, with a view at an angle into the final approach. Right at the runway threshold you see the crab angle well but often miss the touchdown. As for light, the weather helps you in a storm, by the way: dense cloud cover makes the direction of light almost irrelevant.

Camera, tripod and sound in a storm

Wind is the natural enemy of every telephoto lens. At 400 millimeters, a single gust is enough to make the image shake. The basic principle: as low and as heavy as possible.

• Keep the tripod low: Extend the lower, thick leg sections and leave the thin ones in. The center column stays down.
• Hang weight on it: Hang your backpack on the hook under the center column so it dangles just above the ground.
• Body as a windbreak: Stand next to the camera on the windward side and shield it.
• Adjust the focal length: Better to stay a bit wider and show the landing in context than a shaky close-up. Choosing the right focal length is explained in the article Lens and focal length.
• Use stabilization: Lens and sensor stabilization help handheld and when panning. On a very steady tripod, some manufacturers recommend switching it off – in a storm the tripod is rarely steady. More tips in the guide Steady aircraft videos.

Settings for motion in the wind

For natural-looking motion, the rule of thumb has proven itself to set the shutter speed to about the reciprocal of double the frame rate, so 1/50 second at 25 frames per second. In a storm with sunny breaks you need an ND filter for that. If you want to slow the clips down later, you shoot at a higher frame rate – how that works cleanly is covered under Slow motion in aircraft footage. The other basic settings are summarized in the article Video settings for aircraft.

When in doubt, focus continuously with a medium focus area and not on the smallest point. Rain and sleet showers otherwise like to confuse the autofocus. A rain cover or a simple plastic hood protects camera and lens, and a deep lens hood keeps drops off the front element.

Sound: wind noise is the most common mistake

Without wind protection, the audio track of a storm video consists of hiss and rumble. A fur windscreen over the microphone dampens that noticeably, and a setup location shielded on the windward side helps additionally. Many cameras have a wind filter in the menu; it cuts low frequencies but also takes away some of the engine rumble. How to record engines cleanly is shown in the guide Recording engine sound. And if you want to lay radio traffic underneath, read Publishing aviation radio in videos first.

Problem	Cause	Fix at the spot
Image shakes	Gusts on tripod and lens	set up lower, hang weight, shorter focal length
Dull rumbling in the audio	Wind hits the microphone directly	fur windscreen, mic in the lee
Blurry sequences	Autofocus jumps to raindrops	larger focus area, continuous AF
Drops on the lens	Rain from the front	lens hood, wind at your back (windward side), cloth within reach

Telling the landing as a story

A strong crosswind clip doesn’t start only just before touchdown. Pick up the aircraft on final approach as soon as the crab angle is visible, and keep it in frame until rollout. That way you see the whole sequence: slanted approach, wing movements, de-crab, touchdown, lining up on the runway. You can always cut later.

• Pan smoothly: A video head with fluid damping makes pans smoother than a ball head.
• Not too tight: Leave room in the direction of flight and around the wings. In a storm the aircraft moves sideways more than expected.
• Include go-arounds: If the crew aborts, keep filming. A go-around in a storm often tells more than a smooth landing.
• Show context: A windsock, bent trees or spray on the wet runway make visible how strong the wind is.

More on visual language is in the article Composition in aircraft videos, and an overall overview of videography at the fence in the guide Shooting plane spotting videos. For publishing, the rule is: keep titles and descriptions factual. Sensational terms like “near crash” for a normal crosswind landing or a go-around do not do justice to the crews’ work – and it doesn’t go down well among spotters either.

Safety at the spot: when to pack up

Storm days have their own dangers, and they almost never come from air traffic but from your surroundings.

In a thunderstorm, the well-known 30/30 rule applies: if less than 30 seconds pass between lightning and thunder, seek shelter immediately in a car or solid building and wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder. Ladders and steps have no place at the fence in a storm – what else applies is covered under Ladders, steps and tripods at the airport fence.

More basic rules:

• Use public areas: Even in spectacular weather, you stay on paths and designated spots. The legal situation is summarized in the article Is plane spotting allowed?
• No drone: No-fly zones apply around airports, and in a storm a drone flight is uncontrollable anyway. Details in Drones at airports.
• Park with care: Don’t park under trees and don’t block access roads or farm tracks – emergency vehicles are out and about a lot on storm days.
• Stay warm and dry: Wind chills strongly. A waterproof outer layer, a hat and a thermos extend your session. More tips in the guide Plane spotting in bad weather.

Planning a storm day step by step

Conclusion

Good crosswind videos don’t happen by chance. You spot the storm day on the weather map, compare wind direction and runway axes, choose an airport without an alternative runway and a spot with a view of the touchdown zone. At the fence, a low, heavy setup, wind protection on the microphone and long takes from final approach to rollout decide the quality. And above everything stands safety: trees, flying debris and thunderstorms end every session – no matter how spectacular the next approach would be.