Taos Airport Ian Wilson's Scoping testimony Regarding the often cited need for a long crosswind runway at the Taos Municipal Airport:      From my knowledge as a pilot and civil engineer – a crosswind runway is needed at an airport to make it safer for airplanes to land, and to takeoff, when there is a significant wind blowing across the airport’s main runway. A crosswind runway should be shorter than the primary runway. It is only used during occasional high wind conditions when airplanes obtain much of their needed air speed from the wind itself, and therefore do not need as much runway length as when there is no wind.      The main runway at the Taos airport is already oriented to the prevailing winds so a strong crosswind is not the normal situation. Since this shorter crosswind runway would only be used occasionally, during the less common high crosswind conditions, it could be constructed of gravel instead of pavement. Additionally since strong winds at night are rare, the runway would not need to be lighted. Larger airplanes are capable of coping with stronger crosswinds than smaller airplanes, so the crosswind runway would be used more by smaller airplanes that do not need a long runway anyway.      The proposed crosswind runway, which is over 50% longer than the existing runway, is gross overkill! A shorter crosswind runway would achieve the improved safety desired by all. Ian Wilson November 9, 2006