To understand what a crosswind landing is you must first understand wind. I'm going to leave out lots of theory and facts to try and keep it simple. So for the techies "Pilot Stig" please excuse me.
Planes prefer to take off and land into the wind. In a perfect world the runway will be aligned with the direction the wind is blowing. When the wind is blowing off center of the runway a crosswind condition exist. The farther the wind's angle between the runway heading and the wind's heading the greater effect the wind has on an aircraft. This effects all aircrafts BIG and SMALL!
Check out the youtube link below to see what it looks like. Notice how the pilot lowers the wing and lands on one wheel first, while using his rudder to align the nose down the center of the runway. This is the proper technique. So next time you land commercially and say "man that pilot came down hard" 9 times out of 10 it was done on purpose and was a very well executed landing.
Crosswind Landing
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