Would you mind elaborating a bit. I've only flown a high wing.
The theory is that a wind gust with a swirling motion or coming up a slope from the side of a runway can “get underneath” a high wing and have a little more leverage to try to flip it over, so to speak.
Really it’s more of a problem with narrow gear and it happens to both types, but the gear is a bit wider on many low wings due to being placed further outboard under the wing and not needing to be attached to legs going to the main fuselage. Much harder to get leverage against the opposite wheel to go over it.
Some famous home built low wings that have narrow gear in the fuselage have lots of accidents on rollout in gusty crosswinds as much as high wings do. Especially fast landing ones with long transitions from flying speed to walking speed.
For the average pilot the improper placement of controls and follow through after landing contributes heavily to the loss of control problem on the ground and increasing numbers of runway excisions seen lately. Tricycle gear tends to make one lazy about getting the controls over to the stops and holding them there as the aircraft slows after landing. And in placing them correctly for taxi.
Whether it’s that laziness or something else, all instructors I’ve talked with lately are seeing folks who do not lock those controls over at slower speeds. No follow through and something in primary training is being missed.
I’ve had the Skylane out a handful of times in TAXI conditions I probably should have waited out. Especially with a STOL kit. Ha. 35 knots with gusts. It will rock mightily and make you nervous but if the controls are held properly to keep it planted, it’ll make it to the runway. Just don’t put the flaps down! Ha. Being that mine will fly at 42 indicated with 30 flap, I’m bumping up against it wanting to lift off with flaps down into the wind.
The standard “climb into the wind, dive away from the wind” ground control placement will get my nosewheel really light and want to weathervane it with flaps down and the wing is producing a lot of lift even though we aren’t intending to fly yet.
Compare this with a typical piper and it just doesn’t want to lift the nose. Especially any piper T-tail. That silly thing won’t do much of anything right up to liftoff speed. Then it’ll rotate quickly.
One of the other things the low wing pipers will do is if you have those controls locked over in say, a quartering headwind, the aileron will have enough authority in high winds to actually compress that oleo strut under the wing a bit and actually bank the whole wing toward the upwind side. It definitely feels more “planted” when it’s that windy. And it’ll lean toward the up aileron.
Getting the Cessnas to bank like that, they’ll usually start bouncing a bit and rocking back and forth rather than hold the lean.
Also helps with both to be very full heavy. Fuel in the wings dampens this rocking and rolling to an extent in both. Fuselage weight doesn’t seem to make much difference on either one from my experience.
