Couldn't Get it Down

Gene Seibel wrote:

There are three kinds of landings - those that are work, those that
are a piece of cake, and those that are a piece of work.

I like that!

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

My most memorable go-around was a trip to Montauk Point at about 4AM or so. As
a fairly new pilot, I was taking some friends to a fishing charter that had
already been arranged, and in the earlier weather briefing I was concerned
about fog (because fog happens down there). I arrived, there was no fog at
all. However the winds were such that I was holding full rudder and full
aileron to keep the nose paralell to the runway. I was just about doing it
too, and a twin on the ground (the rest of the party) was reporting 20 kt
direct crosswind. Well, lets take a look. But coming in low over the dunes we
got bounced around quite a bit and I decided that this wasn't going to work
out. I gave it one other shot and thentold the twin that the wind exceeded the
capability of this aircraft. I decided we'd go on to Nantucket or Martha's
Vinyard and just bum around there for the day.

Upon later reflection, I realized I might have been able to make it in coming
the other way, over the town rather than over the dunes. But better to be down
here wishing you were up there....

In any case, although it was disappointing (and there was quite a bit of
pressure to get down), the friends with whom I'd been flying had a lot more
respect for me as a pilot for abandoning the approach rather than trying again
and again and maybe changing the shape of the aircraft. And they say that to
this day.

Jose




--
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"Teacherjh" wrote in message
...
snip
In any case, although it was disappointing (and there was quite a bit of
pressure to get down), the friends with whom I'd been flying had a lot
more
respect for me as a pilot for abandoning the approach rather than trying
again
and again and maybe changing the shape of the aircraft. And they say that
to
this day.

Jose

You were right, you made the right decision, and all that stuff... But as a
somewhat fanatical striped bass (or rockfish, if you are from the
Cheasapeake) fisherman I'd have asked you to do a low pass so I could jump.
Fishing Montauk with a good charter captain is one of the best of all
possible days.

Michael

You were right, you made the right decision, and all that stuff... But as a
somewhat fanatical striped bass (or rockfish, if you are from the
Cheasapeake) fisherman I'd have asked you to do a low pass so I could jump.


The wind and waves turned out to be too much for the tuna charter as it turned
out. They cancelled that and went out less far for bluefish or something.

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

Teacherjh wrote:

But better to be down
here wishing you were up there....

Wouldn't this be a case of "better to be up here wishing you were down
there?"

--Dave

--
Dave Buckles

http://www.flight-instruction.com

I was going to go pick up my 172 today, thinking that it SEEMED like
such a pretty day with the sun shining.

One listen to the weather report quashed those thoughts...The winds
aloft were impressive.

I'll try again tomorrow.

Ryan in Madison, WI

Until they resurfaced and reopened runway 10-28 at KSAF last year,
crosswinds were a fact of life, as when things kick up the prevailing
winds are usually out of the west and the other runways form a narrow
"X" (15-33 and 2-20). We usually lost a couple of planes a year to
runway lights and flips.

My hairiest landings were one winter day a few years back when the
winds started at 260@20G28, then 260@28G34, then I decided to do one
more for the heck of it but had to do a long downwind because neither
I nor the tower could see the incoming Lear making opposite traffic;
by the time I got back it was 260@38G44. I did manage to get the nose
cranked over with rudder and sort of hover-taxied down about half of
the 8000' of pavement waiting for a lull, then plunked it down.

I also landed in Amarillo into a gust front leading a huge storm, with
winds 34 gusting 44, 30 degrees off runway heading. The landing
wasn't too bad; the hard part was the taxi to get fuel (and get out of
there as quickly as possible before the storm hit.) The takeoff was
easy; taxi to the right side of the runway and point into the wind.
The runway was 300 feet wide and the stall horn was blaring while I
was sitting still. ;-)

Both were in a Cirrus, which in addition to its other qualities turns
out to be a wonderful airplane for crosswinds. (The demonstrated
crosswind component is 20 knots; I called a friend at the company to
mention that it was a tad conservative, and his response was "yeah, we
know, but we didn't want to print the real number in case some idiot
tried it.")

"Dave Katz" wrote

My hairiest landings were one winter day a few years back when the
winds started at 260@20G28, then 260@28G34, then I decided to do one
more for the heck of it but had to do a long downwind because neither
I nor the tower could see the incoming Lear making opposite traffic;
by the time I got back it was 260@38G44.

Dave, I couldn't get these links to work. Any ideas?
--
Jim (ducking g) in NC


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"Morgans" writes:

Dave, I couldn't get these links to work. Any ideas?
--
Jim (ducking g) in NC

They're links to fake web sites, asking you to give me all of your
financial information or your rec.aviation.piloting account will be
disabled. ;-)

Great writing!
I experienced a side landing once back in my training and I wasn't even
flying at that time. My instructor misjudged on how much she needed to yaw
and we landed sideway. I am warning you that you do not want to feel the
pain in your neck as the plane impact the runway sideway. The instructor's
quick actions after the impact saved our butt.