It depends on the situation. When I worked at GFK we had a lot of
operations from the UND, the large college flight school. The airport
had parallel Ry 35's and a crossing Ry 26. The wind mostly blew north
and south but once a week or so the wind would go strong out of the
west, favoring 26. Due to the volume of traffic we stayed on the
parallels until the wund exceeded a 15 knot crosswind. The same thing
happens at any major airport, changing to the other runway is quite a
production.



smallg wrote:

Okay, I've never even had a flying lesson, which
may explain it, but yesterday afternoon I stopped
by a local airport to watch some planes, and noticed
that the tower had them all taking off and landing
more *with* the wind than against it. The wind
was blowing at around 10-12 mph (around 10
or so knots) and the windsock appeared to agree.
I know about crosswind landings and t-offs,
but I always thought once the wind was giving
more of a tailwind than headwind, it was time
to change directions. BTW, these were all small
planes, as this airport doesn't accomodate anything
bigger than corporate jets. Just curious, thanks!

-----
Jay McKenzie
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/pwp-wstviews