Yesterday, I drove out to the field, which is a 1600ft dirt affair way out in the middle of nowhere in the desert. I had been watching the weather all morning and eyeing a front on the radar. The wind was due to die down and then pick up mid afternoon. When I got out there it was about 11:15. I stopped and talked to my instructor because I am a student pilot with about 25 hours and I recently soloed. I have an endorsement for local flight only, provided the instructor is at the field and winds are less than 8mph.
My instructor was busy having his lunch but when I said "I think I'll do some flying, just around the pattern today.", he replied, "Nice day for it. I'll keep an eye on you.".
As I walked to my plane and begin my preflight, I'm looking around at some fairly low (2-3000ft AGL) cumulus and feeling a tiny spittle of rain on my cheek, I think cynically "Real nice day indeed!". I figured I could still get in some practice with my forward slips before things started to get breezy. On the ground it was barely blowing from the southeast as I rolled out the plane, maybe 2-3mph. Nevertheless, I was eying the sky and having doubts. That's when I should have stopped
I warmed up and taxied out to 14 and took off. The field was soft from rain a few days earlier so I did my best soft-field takeoff, up in ground effect inside a couple hundred feet and stayed there a few seconds until past the intersection, accelerating to 75 or so and then climbing like a homesick angel. I must have caught an updraft as I crossed the runway threshold because the needle topped out at nearly 1000fpm. That's unusual in my 65hp S-12. I've been on a diet but I haven't lost that much weight!
It's just as well I didn't have my Skyguard TWX AHRS in the aircraft because it probably would have told me I had exceeded 30 degrees pitch and gone aerobatic. Definitely not in my solo endorsement!.
Around that time, I wished I did have the Skyguard because I looked at the altimeter and saw a discongruous reading. Shock! I had set the altimeter incorrectly! I resumed flying by the posterior portion of my trousers and set up to land as I was abeam the numbers. In my plane that just means count to three and start turning right. I have no flaps, which makes the rest of this story a lot scarier.
I eased around to final from the downwind leg in a long, sweeping shallow turn. By this time, I was starting to get buffeting from turbulence as I cut power and pointed the nose to the floor. My approach speed was right on and yet when I transitioned, I floated a long time. I stalled about 5 feet off the deck and yanked the stick back hard into my nether regions to cushion the fall. I hit firmly but not really hard and bounced once. I came to a stop and turned off on the taxiway. I then adjusted the altimeter as I set up on the other runway, 20, as the wind was lining up with that .
I sashayed around a puddle of water and mud on the threshold and then straightened up. Although there was a puddle here, this runway was firmer, so I did a modified normal takeoff, staying on the ground past normal rotation speed and then pulled up into a zoom climb, again seeing a higher than normal climb rate. This time I got battered by gusting left quartering headwinds as I passed 50ft AGL. As I turned onto the crosswind, I had some trouble with the turn. As I passed the numbers and turned on the base, my stomach launched into my throat as I hit a pocket and dropped. I lost 150 feet in the blink of an eye and this is where I first felt a little nervous. As I turned onto final and lined up, I felt myself drifting left of center and saw the yaw string dart to the right. A right, quartering tailwind just gusted out of nowhere. I tensed up as I pushed the stick over and jabbed the rudder. I don't know how but I touched down smoothly, went into a wheelie and then hesitated a moment before slamming the throttle forward. It was in that moment, I should have just hit the brake...
As I came off the ground, I was immediately hit by violent buffeting. The yaw string started dancing like a man at the end of a hangman's noose. My butt clenched up as I turned on the crosswind. I immediately wished I had stayed on the ground and had a moment of panic where I actually thought of doing a 180 and putting the plane right back down where I took off!
Suddenly, a gust hit me from the left and I was thrown into a slip. Not the one I was wanting to practice. I gave her more stick and started turning but then the gust stopped and I was suddenly in a skid and dangerously close to stall speed. I pushed the nose over and regained control but now, as I turned downwind, I was 150 ft below pattern altitude. That's bad when it is a 400ft pattern!
At this point, turbulence is tossing me around like a rodeo rider and the wind doesn't seem to know which way to blow. I powered right through the turn onto final as the wind had pushed me well off course and I was farther away than normal. As I lined up and cut power, I looked over and saw my instructor, standing by the hangar, looking up. As I looked down at him, I wondered what he was thinking. As the wind pushed me around, I remembered a story he told me about a crash and wondered if he was about to see another...
On final, about 75 feet up, the bottom dropped out again and I found myself with the ground rushing up fast. I pulled back hard on the stick and managed to touch down smooth as you please, breathing a huge sigh of relief. I had only been airborne for 9 minutes but I was worn out. Back on the ground, the wind was now blowing at least 15mph and gusting, probably to 30.
As I tied up, I watched my instructor go out in his plane, take off, come back in for a landing,. execute a missed approach, fly over the field, checking the sock and then finally come in to land, wobbling all the way in. He has flaps, though, so I imagine things weren't quite as rough for him. I just got in my car and drove home. I felt a little embarrassed that I had taken off but now I imagine he probably was embarrassed because shouldn't have told me to go fly in the first place. I think he went up just to see what I was dealing with.
I learned a really important lesson about the unpredictability of weather and about listening to your reservations, no matter how small. I feel that as an A&P, having had that mindset drummed in for 2 years at school, I should never have untied the plane. I was blindly going along with what the instructor said, despite my reservations. I realize now I need to think for myself and not rely on someone else's judgment, no matter who they are.
I didn't actually kiss the ground when I got out of the plane but I sure was glad to be back on the ground. A new experience for me and one I'll never forget.

FWIW: it's cold as hell up here, but the air is glass smooth

This caught my eye:

Finkelroy wrote: ......I stalled about 5 feet off the deck and yanked the stick back hard into my nether regions to cushion the fall.

If you really were "stalled" five feet above the runway, there's not much you could have done to save the day. If you were still in a fairly flat attitude (not nose down) but the descent rate was higher than you'd like, then adding power is the proper course of action.

If your descent rate is high you are close to a stall. If the nose drops, you are stalled. Either way, hauling back on the stick and not adding power won't help you. Ask Air France ... or Colgan Air!

Thanks for taking me along with you on that. WHOOO!

Not a fun lesson, but a lesson no doubt about it.

This is the first ever occurrence of the word "sashay" on this site.

Zzz wrote:This is the first ever occurrence of the word "sashay" on this site.

Not sure why...it's a perfectly cromulent word.

I was out working in the hangar with my crop duster uncle one day when a 10- 12 kt quartering xwind came up. He told me to take a break and go shoot some landings. This was when I was just learning to fly the tail dragger and he wanted me to get the xwind practice. I took off with no problem, but I was getting tossed around pretty good by the time I turned final. A glance at the sock showed it swinging around pretty good between 45 and 90 to the runway. It was a wild ride, but I concentrated on everything I had been taught and making sure to keep the upwind wing low, I managed to get it on the ground in one piece in spite of my shaking legs.
By this time my palms were sweating pretty good, and I found I couldn't taxi without holding a fair amount of brake. Everytime a gust hit me I felt like I was going to tip over. Felt like an eternity to taxi back to the shelter of the hangars and out of the wind.
As I shut down, my uncle came over and asked "Why did you quit? Did you bend it?".
"No, but I might."
"Get back out there, it's the only way you'll learn. C'mon, I'll go with you!"
What happened next was probably the most beneficial training session I could have had. My landings were not the prettiest, but instead of ending the day in defeat, I ended it with more experience, and new confidence in the airplane and my own abilities. I still think back to that afternoon when I am in for an ass kicking and need a little extra confidence and resolve to keep myself out of trouble.

CFOT,

Your uncle may not be an instructor, but he is an effective teacher. There is a reason he did not go with you on the first trip. There is no substitute for confidence in our ability to control the aircraft in reasonably normal conditions. Good job.

Contact

Zzz wrote:This is the first ever occurrence of the word "sashay" on this site.

I'm proud to say in 61 years I've never used that word in a sentence.

Cromulent? D'oh!

Three things:
1. The "inner voice" that is saying "not today" is worth listening to. It has saved many a pilot from grief.

2. Weather can indeed change very, very quickly. All of us with more than a few hours in our logbooks have experienced that. It means staying aware of the weather as part of every flight, even if it seems like one of those clear and a million days.

3. "Sashay" is a good word for describing the way the girl from Ipanema walks, or as the dictionary says:
"1. walk in an ostentatious yet casual manner, typically with exaggerated movements of the hips and shoulders."
Not sure it applies all that much to aviation, but then, I'm always up for learning something new.

Cary

Well Finkelroy, look at it this way. Nobody got hurt. You didn't bend the plane. Chock it up as one of those truly valuable lessons that will pay off in the future. You probably learned more on that little flight, than you would in a dozen more in calm conditions. During primary training, if you don't have a least a few experiences where you hope nobody saw that, and you just want to go home....you probably aren't trying hard enough. The best training is "experiences" like yours...the trick is always being able to "go home" at the end of the day. Carry on....

Great story Finkelroy, thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of the story I posted of my first solo cross country this spring. I was scared and bloody happy to get that airplane back on the ground and let the sweat dry and shaking decrease before I got out of the airplane. I told the story on here and Gump said something like 'Sounds like your training is going pretty well'.

I'm also reminded of the comment one of the other Alaska guys made about scary experiences during training. After a few years, the things that scare the hell out of us in the training and new-pilot phases don't even elicit a second thought but people seem to find new, scarier things to worry about.

Allan

albravo wrote:Great story Finkelroy, thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of the story I posted of my first solo cross country this spring. I was scared and bloody happy to get that airplane back on the ground and let the sweat dry and shaking decrease before I got out of the airplane. I told the story on here and Gump said something like 'Sounds like your training is going pretty well'.

I'm also reminded of the comment one of the other Alaska guys made about scary experiences during training. After a few years, the things that scare the hell out of us in the training and new-pilot phases don't even elicit a second thought but people seem to find new, scarier things to worry about.

Allan

So very true. At each new stage we just don't know what we don't know. The only fix is to burn gas and get the experience.

And with crappy winds (NOT crappy wx as in MIFR/IFR for the solo student) the earlier in your training you learn to function in it, the better off you'll be in the long run with comfort and proficiency. Especially in conventional gear airplanes.

Gump

Finkleroy,

Have you gotten back out? I don't have anything to add, but want to make sure you've gone back out to shake off the tension and reinforce that 1) you've got this and 2) flying is fun. If that's with your instructor to regain some confidence, then do it. Thanks for sharing.

Brett


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UH-60andC-180 wrote:Finkleroy,

Have you gotten back out? I don't have anything to add, but want to make sure you've gone back out to shake off the tension and reinforce that 1) you've got this and 2) flying is fun. If that's with your instructor to regain some confidence, then do it. Thanks for sharing.

Brett


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I'm still on my student permit as well and my best learning has come from scaring the crap out of myself....
First Carb Ice: Did everything right, didn't do the death turn as it occurred on take off... experienced pilots praised my reaction, then explained I didn't really have to be flying -25 C weather. My self confidence took a kicking. I still fly a ton, but am overly conscience of carb ice all the time.
Thanks for sharing.. god way to learn.


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At somewhere around fifty hours tailwheel time I took off into a STOUT crosswind to practice my x-wind landings. The runway is sheltered from a small hill to the north, which both makes the wind on the ground appear to be a LOT less than it is aloft, and creates a nasty burble about 50 feet AGL. I've since learned to land in a field alongside the runway when the wind is out of the north, but I didn't know that then.

I tried to get it down on runway 25 half a dozen times, then turned around an tried half a dozen times from the other direction. About every third attempt I'd touch a tire as I was going around, but most of the time I just ran out of rudder before I could touch. I was really getting beat up, and starting to get a little scared and more than a little concerned. I think it was my fifteenth attempt at 3/4s of an hour of trying that I finally stuck it on the runway...with all the sound effects of a Starsky and Hutch episode.

When I taxied off the runway I saw the the local taliwheel instructor sitting in a lawn chair on the taxiway with three students. He waved, got on the radio and said "thanks for the show". I asked him what I should have done differently and he said, very matter of factly "try less wind next time...this wind is ridiculous." I always liked him for that.

Hammer wrote:At somewhere around fifty hours tailwheel time I took off into a STOUT crosswind to practice my x-wind landings. The runway is sheltered from a small hill to the north, which both makes the wind on the ground appear to be a LOT less than it is aloft, and creates a nasty burble about 50 feet AGL. I've since learned to land in a field alongside the runway when the wind is out of the north, but I didn't know that then.

I tried to get it down on runway 25 half a dozen times, then turned around an tried half a dozen times from the other direction. About every third attempt I'd touch a tire as I was going around, but most of the time I just ran out of rudder before I could touch. I was really getting beat up, and starting to get a little scared and more than a little concerned. I think it was my fifteenth attempt at 3/4s of an hour of trying that I finally stuck it on the runway...with all the sound effects of a Starsky and Hutch episode.

When I taxied off the runway I saw the the local taliwheel instructor sitting in a lawn chair on the taxiway with three students. He waved, got on the radio and said "thanks for the show". I asked him what I should have done differently and he said, very matter of factly "try less wind next time...this wind is ridiculous." I always liked him for that.

Nice![emoji106]


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As an instructor, it really brothers me that pilots have to learn so many simple but important things on their own. There is usually grassy or desert areas or taxiways that work fine. There is always some crosswind angle that can be taken out by just angling across the runway into a crosswind strong enough to get any light airplane down in the thousand feet from the downwind corner to the upwind big airplane touchdown zone mark.

When we are there, it is too late and poor instruction for instructors to say, "you shouldn't be there." Teaching good judgement and even avoidance is fine only when paired with techniques for when the tactical situation is fluid. We don't perfectly control when the tactical situation becomes fluid.

A fellow Brenco pilot, who had just began flying pipeline after age forced his airline retirement, let running out of rudder and multiple go arounds end in his stalling a 172 killing himself and an oil company employee. He had complained about wind and schedules, but would not consider my offer of angle across runway training.

contactflying wrote:As an instructor, it really brothers me that pilots have to learn so many simple but important things on their own. There is usually grassy or desert areas or taxiways that work fine. There is always some crosswind angle that can be taken out by just angling across the runway into a crosswind strong enough to get any light airplane down in the thousand feet from the downwind corner to the upwind big airplane touchdown zone mark.

When we are there, it is too late and poor instruction for instructors to say, "you shouldn't be there." Teaching good judgement and even avoidance is fine only when paired with techniques for when the tactical situation is fluid. We don't perfectly control when the tactical situation becomes fluid.

A fellow Brenco pilot, who had just began flying pipeline after age forced his airline retirement, let running out of rudder and multiple go arounds end in his stalling a 172 killing himself and an oil company employee. He had complained about wind and schedules, but would not consider my offer of angle across runway training.

Well...you can't teach people everything. I think most things have to be experienced to really be understood. In my case the wind seldom blows out of the north, so it's not until you take off into a north wind for the first time that you realize the difference between what you feel on the ground and what you feel at 50 feet. And if someone had told me about it, I still wouldn't have really understood till I felt it for myself.

There are no perpendicular taxiways, and the runway is 70 feet wide...doesn't buy you much trying to angle across it with a 90 degree x-wind and a fair amount of turbulence. Angling would also point you towards trees, in the event you had to go around. No thanks.

When I started using the drainage area along the north side of the runway it was a godsend, both because it's lower and a bit more sheltered than the runway, and because you can get away with a whole lot more crosswind on grass than you can on pavement.

But I was the first person to ever land out there, and it gave people fits...still does. People literally race up to my hangar before I've even shut down and tell me I can't land there...they're going to call the FAA...they're going to call the airport manager. The airport manager raced up once mad as a hornet...literally hopping mad while I pointed out that there's absolutely no regulation requiring me to use the runway. He still has fits when I land out there, despite knowing full well that it's perfectly legal.

It's just not an airport where people understand flying as anything not taught by the FAA...even something as simple as landing in the grass alongside the runway, which actually puts you further from all buildings, aircraft, etc.. I'm quite sure the local tailwheel instructor had never considered landing in the drainage area, and if he had, he sure wasn't going to kick a hornets nest by teaching his students to do it.

He didn't have anything else to offer, because there really wasn't anything else he could offer. I don't have a problem with that. I'm REALLY glad he sat there and watched rather than getting on the radio and trying to give me advice from the ground...

Sorry about your fellow Brenco pilot, but it's inaccurate to suggest that running out of rudder and multiple go arounds will inherently lead to a fatal stall, which is sort of how that sentence reads to me.

Some amount of flight instruction is mandatory, and GOOD flight instruction is priceless. But a tremendous amount of flying has to be figured out by the person doing it, while they're doing it. Some are better at it than others...some are luckier than others. Some of us will kill ourselves while figuring something new out. Holding the instructor accountable after the pilot has their ticket is, in my opinion, unrealistic.