wrote:

I can't speak to the 747 or 777, but I can the 767 and L-1011. There is
always controversy about it, but the truth is in watching the autopilot do
an auto-land. It's all crab until about 150 feet, HAT, where the autopilot
goes into align mode; that is it transitions from crab to wing down into the
wind with a slight amount of upwind rudder. This last throughout the flare
to touchdown.

Good pilots manually land those models using the same technique. So long as
the certificated cross-wind limits are observed and the technique is done
correctly you won't scrape an engine.

The most critical airplane with which I was familiar for scrapping an
outboard engine was the 707. There, you had to observe a 5-degree bank angle
limit, so in a 30 knot cross-wind some combination slip and crab became
necessary. If it is just crab it is really tough to "kick it out" at the
last moment without it becoming a spectacular event.

Did you ever intentionally land with the crab angle intact? This is
what is advocated by a gentleman on the MSFS group who says he is a
retired "heavy" captain.

I searched on Avweb and found an article about this by Deakin. He also
advocates kicking out the crab on all airplanes up to and including the
747, unless they have gear designed to be landed in a crab (B-52 and a
few others). However, I don't think the folks on the simulator group
believe it.

Why would kicking out the crab become a spectacular event?

Matt