"Newps" wrote in message
...
Baloney. If you get a chance go to any big airport on a day with light
winds. Most of these airports have preferred runways, landing in a
particular direction is preferred by the controllers for any number of
reasons. If the wind shifts to make that runway a tailwind, but it's only
5 knots or so, you will land with a tailwind or you will go somewhere
else. Same as my previous example about the crosswind.

Frankly, if a controller tells me I'm to land with a tailwind, he can get
stuffed. Aside from the "hey, that fence is rushing at me quite quickly"
factor, you also have the issue of the extra strain it's putting on the
tyres/landing gear because the ground speed is so much higher.

Generally, of course, the controller will try to accommodate you if you
don't like the "preferred" runway. This happened on my final PPL "skillls
test" - there was a highish (unforecast) crosswind on the east-west runway
by the time, and I wasn't sure whether the examiner would insist I used
that. So I said to him: "Do you want me to use 27, or are you happy for me
to ask for something different?". In hindsight, his reply was obvious:
"You're the pilot, you ask him for whatever you want - even if it means us
diverting". So I asked for RW22 (stiffish breeze only just off the
centreline) and got it.

I've been a passenger in a light aircraft where the controller has insisted
on the PIC using a particular (shortish) runway with a tailwind, though.
Fortunately, the PIC was (a) a 14,000-hour veteran and (b) a stroppy, but
polite old git. The discussion was an interesting one to hear, but the
one-sentence summary goes something like: "You don't have a clue what you're
saying, you don't have the performance documents or POH for this aircraft to
hand, and you're not responsible for the safety of this aircraft; I am,
though, so I'm going to do a visual approach to RWXX instead, and you can
lump it. When we're safely on the ground, if you want to come and argue with
me, that's fine". To the controller's credit, we sat and had a coffee with
him later and both sides explained their point of view in a grown-up manner,
and the controller went away with the understanding that if we'd landed with
the tailwind, we stood a good chance of being in the hedge at the other end.

D.