The International Cessna^® 170 Association

HI Guys- just wondering if anyone has tried the Goodyear Crosswind gear on their Cessna 170? The gear was an option in the 170 IPM. I have a couple of sets, brand new, which came on some Helios (Couriers) which I salvaged. THere is a report/study of the same Crosswind Gear from the Vietnam era. Apparently there was some groundlooping going on with the L-19's in Vietnam and a study was done about whether the addition of crosswind landing gear would help solve the problem. According to the study the groundlooping of L-19's was reduced by half with the addition of the crosswind gear. As I mention, i have a couple of sets in good condition and while refurbishing a 170A am intrigued with the thought of trying the gear. Any thoughts or actual experience out there? Cheers and thanks/ Bob Wallace

My 1955 170B came from the factory (and subsequently to me in 1982) with Goodyear crosswind landing gear. I never worked up the courage to intentionally land in a crab with it, but I did enjoy the looks on fellow pilots’ and passengers’ faces when I’d make a turn on the ground fast enough to kick them into their detent and taxi along with the nose 30 degrees to one side. I also got some pretty funny looks from line boys when they’d turn me into a parking spot and I’d stop with one wheel pigeon toed.

I think it was on the second annual inspection on my watch we found that a couple of the LARGE conical roller wheel bearings needed to be replaced, and the cost of that was going to be more than switching to Clevelands. Also, IIRC, a full set of Cleveland wheels and brakes WITH tires weigh less than ONE side of the Goodyear crosswind gear WITHOUT a tire. I’d have to go into the records to be sure, but I seem to remember shaving 20lb or more off the empty weight. There was also the issue of the floating Goodyear brake discs locking a wheel when the retaining clips became worn.

Thanks. BDriver- I noted the weight difference- there's more metal in the Goodyear gear. For the record and W+Balance I will weigh them. The brakes in mine are all brand new so I would watch it. I think that once using the crosswind gear your control is in the brakes-no? How did you pull the pins to unlock? Many thanks/ BW

In reality, I know little about the crosswind gear, but I know this:
My airplane had crosswind gear from the factory long before I owned it. About 1/3 of the maintenance entries in the first 25 years of the logbook mention something about the crosswind gear, until replacement with Clevelands, not much mention of landing gear thereafter.

Cheers,
Pete

walloceans wrote: ↑Sun Jun 22, 2025 12:13 pm Thanks. BDriver- I noted the weight difference- there's more metal in the Goodyear gear. For the record and W+Balance I will weigh them. The brakes in mine are all brand new so I would watch it. I think that once using the crosswind gear your control is in the brakes-no? How did you pull the pins to unlock? Many thanks/ BW

There are no pins to pull on the Goodyear crosswind landing gear. There are just detents loaded by very strong springs, and are activated solely by side loads on the gear.

Bob,

I have about 500 hrs flying my last 170A with crosswind gear. My partner in the plane flew it since he owned the plane buying into it about 1965, more so more than 50 years of ownership and probably more that 2000 hrs. He never flew our plane without the cross wind gear.When I lost my medical and we decided to sell as my then 82 year old partner decided it was time to quite flying, we removed the cross wind for straight Clevelands in order to make the sale easier, I flew the plane twice with the straight gear.

I still have a serviceable set and some spares though no plane to put them on.

The cross wind gear was installed on my 170A shortly after leaving the factory. Besides my partner I also knew the previous owner who was a local flight instructor who taught 100s of students how to fly and they did it in the 170A with the cross wind gear, and many of those students then bought into the plane as a partner and flew it a while.

When the subject of removal of the gear would come up with my partner he would say the cross wind gear saved the plane from ground looping 100s of times, yet it was ground looped twice with the same instructor but 2 different students. Each ground loop required replacement of the gear box structure. They were fortunate in those days, the airplane was ground looped both times at Sky Manor airport in NJ about 5 miles from Van Sant airport in PA which was the home of Johny Van Sant. Johny was a collector of all types of airplanes but mostly I understand Cessna 170 and L-19 parts. He had many truck loads of surplus stuff. Johny actually legally built several L-19s or more technically Van Sant 305s from the surplus. So the knowledge, expertise too repair and the parts weren't far away. Otherwise I'd guess my 170A would have been destroyed in the '60s.

As has been stated, there are not pins or activation method. The knuckle in the axle is spring loaded to be straight. If a side load in applied enough to over come the spring the knuckle will "break" to its full swivel position either full forward or aft and the other side axle with naturally follow. I have it documented someplace but recall the angle is about 20°. In order to straighten the axles you have to get a little speed and momentum and apply the appropriate brake to imply a side load to compress the spring which holds the axle straight.

Lots of thought has to be used taking off and landing with cross wind gear. It's a lot of fun to take of sideways BUT your runway must be wide enough cause your rolling sideways. If you runway is sloped to the left or right, your tail will want to point in that direction. Landing is a little more critical on a sideways sloped runway. You always must land on the upper side of the runway because as you slow down you WILL put a side load on the gear and they WILL break out and your tail WILL go down the slope.
I could tell a few stories but here is one. I was landing at an unfamiliar runway at convention with another member the late Jim Wildharber as a passenger. It was a grass runway with a cross runway in the middle on it. I hadn't noticed the second half of the runway fell of a few degrees and also several degrees to the left side. I landed on the first half of the runway and started slowing down and we crossed the cross ruwway and I saw the sloping terrain in front of me. We were not of the upper side of the slope and I knew we were in trouble. I tried my best to apply brakes and keep the gear straight but there was no stopping it. The gear snapped out and our tail went left and we tracked left and worse I could not correct because that would put my tail off the runway to the left. As it was several tires marking the runway edge passed under the fuselage between the main gear and the tail wheel before we came to rest with no damage. Jim just said, "that was exciting" . He actually got back in the plane with me for the trip back to our convention home airport.

Taking off and taxiing sideways was fun if you have the room to do it. Really made people look. If you pulled into a parking spot and locked a brake to spin the tail around, the inside gear would break out and stay that way. It was an instant and reliable parking brake because the plane would not roll until significant power was applied to straighten the axle. Yes you could, with some help, grab the tire and pull it a bit straight and rock the plane to get the gear to snaps straight. Some of the most joy however was leaving the wheel broken out and going to breakfast then on return finding a group of pilots hovering over the wheel waiting for my return to see what I was going to do about by "broken" axle.

The key to operating the cross wind gear is understanding them and how they work. Mechanically they are pretty bullet proof with the exception of the brake cylinder and the puck design. You see like most Good Year brakes the puck is a kidney shape. The puck sits on a very thin piston in a kidney shaped thin surrounding. The puck is forced forward and of course moves in and out as the brake is applied. Over time the forward thin surrounding wears away and the puck starts to wear into the side wall of the master cylinder. It will wear until the thin piston will not seal and the cylinder will blow out and braking action is lost. When this happens the brake cylinder is toast short of a repair such as a sleeve. My partner and I never had to resort to a repair but when we removed the gear we only had on good right 2 left brake cylinders. All the parts of the cross wind gear look similar but are not the same as the straight Good Year wheels and wheel cylinder though I think the pucks might be interchangeable.
The other problem with the brakes that does take some regular maintenance is the pucks wear unevenly. This is because the cylinder piston is too thin. The piston can and does take a slight cant in the bore pushing on the aft end of the puck more because the front of the puck is being forced into its surrounding being held back and the rear of the puck moves free. This can cause the piston to jam. My partner Leroy would inspect the pucks regularly and if not wearing flat, he'd grind them flat.

Bob if you have 2 sets of gear you have a life time supply specially if I send you all the stuff I have. I've been looking for a home for them.
There are still a few operating these I think. Last year I was in contact with one but they probably have removed them by now. I'd estimate you'd be one of a hand full operating them. If I still had my 170 I would have been another.

Pictures and more here: viewtopic.php?p=67991#p67991

Cross wind gear install instructions viewtopic.php?p=104060&hilit=cross+wind#p104060

Interesting Bruce, thanks for posting.
Johneb