I was flying home yesterday evening after a day trip to McCall, Idaho. The flight home started well, we departed KMYL at about 7pm with my family: two daughters in the back and me and my (8-months pregnant) wife up front, 28 gallons of fuel, and light baggage. It was still hot out, about 90F, and density altitude was 7800' when we departed with light winds.

No, this is not another "high-DA got me in to trouble" story.

Takeoff went great and we were off the ground in about 1500' of the 6000' runway. In my mind I pictured the FBO workers puzzled at how this little stubby-winged plane with four seats full easily cleared the small hill and trees off the south end of the runway and I kind of marveled as the little Tri-Pacer with just 150 ponies safely lifted us off the ground and we slowly but steadily cruise-climbed to 7500'.

The 80 mile trip home was great and uneventful. I was expecting it to be pretty bumpy with lots of small puffy cumulus clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky, but was pleasantly surprised when we found the air to be mostly smooth for that time of day. We put on some tunes and one daughter quickly fell asleep.

As we approached and descended towards Nampa, everything was routine. I did notice some haze near the ground off to the west, but didn't think too much of it. Self-annouced at 10 miles out, then 5 miles out. As we were about 2 miles north of the airport, I checked the AWOS a final time, sounded good... winds @ 6 knots right down the runway. I did note there was a pretty significant pressure drop for this short flight, was 30.15" when we took off and now 29.95 according to the AWOS.

We entered the pattern with the windsock still showing light winds, and upon turning base, then final, the winds were starting to get a bit squirrelly. But from previous experience landing there many times, it is not atypical to be a little turbulent off the east end of the field in the heat.

On short final, I perked up a bit as I found myself having to push the ailerons to full deflection at times to keep level and centered. Winds were not as they were 2 minutes earlier. With a lot of yoke wrangling and rudder pedal dancing, we touched down with both notches of flaps in, and I thought this rough-ride landing was over. The mains were on, nose wheel still in the air, and I was waiting for the nose wheel to drop which usually takes a couple of seconds when the CG is aft.

Well, the nose wheel never dropped. Instead, a huge gust came from the front and right and we instantly ballooned up about 10 feet and were quickly drifting to the left edge of the runway. I knew we were really slow (and dirty) and this plane would likely pancake in when the gust died down... Muscle memory kicked in and I firewalled the throttle and pushed the yoke forward to try to retain some semblance of control. At full throttle (flaps still out) even with full-right aileron, we were still drifting left in a right bank and I felt the right main tire lightly rub the runway as we were drifting sideways. We kept drifting left and were now off the left edge of the runway and a few feet off the ground and not really climbing. I was really concerned we would whack the runway lights as I slowly milked the flaps out and just concentrated on getting the hell away from land so we had some time to make sense of things.

We finally started to climb and hitting something on the ground became less of a concern.

After a wild ride getting to 500' or so AGL, I finally had some time to process things. Staying in the pattern (with no other traffic), started checking the AWOS... winds were now 22 gusting 28 with a significant crosswind component. Wind sock was straight out and violently changing direction. So much for the light winds I was expecting 2 minutes before entering the pattern.

After the landing attempt, my wife and kids were understandably scared with comments like "Daddy, I'm scared" and "What are we going to do?" flowing over the intercom. I said we had enough fuel and will keep doing laps with landing attempts until it works out. Gust fronts don't last forever and eventually we will be able to land. I asked my wife to visually check the right main tire just to make sure the side load didn't damage the tire, and she said it looked OK.

So now, kind of aware of what we were up against, and having plenty of fuel on board, I just did a lap around the pattern to sort things out and consider options. Checking AWOS from airports a bit to the west showed that the winds were slowly decreasing, now only 18 knots, gusting 22. On our second lap around, knowing what we were in for, made a second attempt at landing. On short final, it was a big nope. Still requiring full deflection inputs to keep control. I aborted the second landing about 20' AGL and climbed back up to pattern altitude.



On the third of fourth lap we made another attempt at landing. Still a pretty mean crosswind, but as luck would have it, we got the mains on and I dumped the flaps right away and chopped the throttle. The nose wheel slowly came down and we slowed down as the plane was finally done flying. I taxied back to the hangar with my tail between my legs.

Inspected the right gear after we got out, no damage or visible scuffs. Everything looked fine and we put the plane to bed and drove home.

So... got a great lesson last night. I've flown in some nasty winds before, but it is a little different when they are a surprise.

1) Put the clues together. The haze we saw to the west on approach was a clue that something was coming. The drop in pressure was another big clue.

2) No matter what the AWOS reports, be prepared for anything. In just a moment things went from calm to what-the-hell?.

3) And the one thing I did right... if a go-around is an option, take it. I don't recall having to do a real go-around in the last 200 hours, certainly not after the mains were on the ground. I am pretty sure if I attempted to salvage the landing it would have gotten ugly as we were fighting for control and I think the plane would have dropped really hard and off the runway after the gust velocity dropped. Nearly certain we would have bent something or worse.


So, it was a "great" landing because the airplane can be used again, and an excellent refresher after many hours of pretty routine and expected conditions to stay vigilant.

Thanks for sharing with us Scott. And great job on getting the family down safely!

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

perfect explanation of why hand on the throttle is so important I suppose!

awesome story. glad the family is safe, wife, kids, and the bird.

scottf, I think you nailed it. Stay vigilant! Great save!

In my short 11 years owning my plane I have heard to many scenarios where the pilot had the deer in the head light look. Did nothing or the wrong thing and crashed. Personally the 235HP lyc in my Maule has saved my butt a time or two. Much harder in your plane.

Cheers...Rob

The tactical situation is always fluid. Good job staying glued and getting it down. Tri-Pacer is a great airplane. I owned three of them.