Maybe it was a short, challenging backcountry strip, or a routine runway with weather doing its best to ruin your day: gusty crosswinds, low ceilings, unexpected sink, or a surprise on the surface like a deer, some birds, or a nasty chuckhole.

What were the conditions? What lessons came out of that landing? It’d be great to hear your stories and any tips you’d share with other pilots to help them get out of similar situations.

When a 'meadow' is as flat as a pool table, that should be your first clue that it's probably a 2000 acre floating peat bog. Turns out the only two things on the face of the earth that are that flat is still water, and stuff floating on still water.

The landing was great. The roll out was going well too up until about 4 mph ground speed, then all of a sudden not so good. Both me and the dog got helicopter rides back to civilization.

Omg it looks like a perfect LZ. I’m never going to sleep well again.

One I won't forget was weather, which went from fine to IFR in a big hurry. Took off from Caldwell ID for a quick run to Ontario OR. Weather was OK when I left, AWOS was calling it "clear below 10,000 and 10 miles" and temp/dewpoint was over 10 degrees.1/2 way there vis started to go down, I did a 180 and followed I-84 back. Kept getting lower to keep the road in sight, by the time I got to Flying-J truckstop I was at about 200 AGL, turned to the runway heading, found the runway in a few seconds, and landed. Vis was less than 1/4 mile when I landed, total flight was about 25 minutes. Bought some new Gyros for the plane shortly after that, what it had were 50 years old and worked sometimes. That same day there was a fatal crash in the area, possibly someone else trying to follow I-84 to Nampa in a C-182 and didn't get there. Still no have no idea how weather went bad so fast.

Ted can verify this one, extremely high wind landing in Montana, I don't trust high winds to not drop out on me so we came in with a fairly high airspeed and still a really low ground speed. On touchdown the tail dropped a little and we shot back up over a hundred feet high. After a lot of burning brakes and skidding tires we got turned around and staggered into the wind shadow of some buildings where we were able to get ropes on and get anchored.

My most challenging landing was on a huge runway I’d been to routinely. I’ve always prided myself for being able to compartmentalize even in the toughest situations.

Due to a personal tragedy, I took almost two months off and chose my crew for the return to work flight. Before this flight I attended continuing grief therapy, peer counseling and union guidance as well as self determination that I was mentally fit to return to work. Keep in mind with such big life events there really is no time guidance on returning to the cockpit. The fitness to fly is up to the pilot alone. I had amazing support from the company, union and fellow pilots.

I felt fine to fly that day but I still I had to pull out my A game on that arrival and landing into PHX. I applied myself harder on that landing than any sketchy LZ I had ever been to in the bush. Concentrating on keeping a wide field of vision and sense of task due to the demanding environment (thunderstorms, changed arrival/runways 3 times and lots of traffic).

Things have gotten easier over time (few months) but I had to learn to mentally manage those emotions so I can play my part with the crew to provide a safe environment for the passengers. It sounds easy to check your feelings at the door. It’s possible but very difficult sometimes.
I will never get over the unexpected loss of my only Son (fellow Commercial Pilot). I can only learn over the rest of my life how to manage the emotions.

The point I’m trying to make is that it does not have to be a steep sloped, narrow, short muddy strip to make a flight challenging. One’s mental fitness can sometimes make the most simple flying task very difficult. In my 20,000+ hours that landing sticks out the most. I learned a lot on that trip.

TVATIVAK71 wrote:....
I will never get over the unexpected loss of my only Son (fellow Commercial Pilot). I can only learn over the rest of my life how to manage the emotions. ...

My condolences for your loss.

TVATIVAK71, that's heartbreaking. Headspace and focus are so important in an environment like flying.

I was flying over the Rockies eastbound from Washington to Montana on a flight with my wife and kids. We ended up vectoring around some thunderstorms, and then being asked to stay low by flight following. This added about a half hour to our trip, all of which was hot and bumpy. My three year old was sitting in the seat behind me, and was eating Ranch Doritos. Without warning, she vomits all over herself, and down the back of my neck. For the next half hour, it was all I could do to not throw up while we rode moderate chop into Glacier. I remember running through the landing checklist multiple times before everything was actually complete. Turned the intercom to ISO and focused.

In better news, she now eats Starburst. Last time she threw up, we were ready for it, and I remember thinking "That smells pretty good. Are there any Starburst left?"

Thank you. There are times when we shouldn't be flying, but we try to suck it up and get it done......not always the best plan. I can't imagine losing a child.....that has to be right at the top of mental trauma. So, thank you for taking some time to sort it out, and recognizing that the flying needed to wait. Would that we all adhere to that mantra.

And, thank you for sharing your story.

Darwin, CA, May 2019. Wind favored landing south, but runway slopes uphill to the north. There are power lines north of the runway so I chose to land uphill to the north. Unfortunately I misjudged the wind and landed with a pretty strong tailwind. The runway is (or was) pretty loose sand and gravel, and after touchdown I started drifting left with high groundspeed but very low airspeed. I was afraid to overcontrol, but the guy in the right seat saw the danger and firmly steered us back onto the center of the runway. The guy in the right seat was my CFI/ATP/etc. son.

TVATIVAK71, when I read your post I cried. My condolences. I hope you are healing.

You’re right Shane…it was blowing 46+ knots at Cut Bank as I recall on that “landing” (er maybe it was an “arrival”)

Yeah, I am pretty sure that was the highest known wind condition I ever landed in. Maybe we should have done like that Cub and just done a helicopter landing!

Thanks again for your help on that trip.
Shane

Thanks, for the condolences hotrod180, jcadwell, mtv and DaveF.

But to keep with the spirit of the thread. I guess thousands of hours of air taxi work 30+ years ago gave me more than enough sketchy landings that stand out. With the exception of the landing described in my previous post which by far exceeded anything I’ve experienced there is one off airport episode I’ll discuss cause it’s a lesson in letting one’s fear down in sketchy areas.

A creek I liked to fish on the Bristol Bay coast dumped out on an idyllic flat sand beach which at low tide was huge. But it was notoriously soft and I had been there tons of times and with a few thousand hours I had it dialed in. Lower the tire pressure and be ready to hold aft stick and add power to go around or keep from nosing over. Testing beaches with 8.50s sometimes firmly touching to see the sand spray or rolling tires at a low speed to put weight on tires to see the tracks multiple times then committing if it looks fine. I did both and it seemed fine. Came around and touched down tail low, just pulled power to idle and sand went flying and tail swung up full power wheel all the way in lap and screaming. I traveled a ways with that tailwheel kissing the ground before it went over upside down. Im not sure pulling power would have resulted in a non flip. There were lots of forces fighting each other in those last yards. It all happened quick.

Sand beaches with very little or no slope with creeks paralleling the beach in that neck of the woods are sketch. That incident followed me to an airline interview and a senior captain (who just happened to fly in the 60’s for the company I worked for) asked me what would I’d have done differently. I said I’d have avoided it till a lower tide cycle and landed by the surf where the waves packed it instead of high up on the beach like I did. Maybe get bigger tires. LOL I’d gotten away with it for so long and was very confident due to my experience with soft landing areas.

One of my mentors Dick Armstrong (Armstrong Air in Dillingham,Ak) once made a quip “You can try to make that off airport stuff as safe as you can but in the end there will always be a roll of the dice.” I sheepishly had to borrow a prop from him a year after he told me that. The plane in the incident was my family’s C-140. Now has a bigger engine and 29” airstreaks and completely restored. I use a Supercub on 35”s for any soft stuff now. Even then that plane is $$$$$ and I need to finish my career in aviation so I try to stay away from the bad stuff.