Winds on long runways

A vein carries blood. A weather vane indicates wind direction.

On 13 Jul 2004 10:29:33 -0700, (Shawn)
wrote:

I have been wanting to post this experience. I hope it's ok to hijack
this thread since the winds were in fact 180 degrees different on each
end of a 4000' runway.

My own Cessna 206 has been out of commission for about six weeks due
to top overhaul and long annual. I got tired of not flying so I went
out with my old instructor in his 172. After 2 landings he told me to
let him get out and go fly by myself a while. How quickly I forget how
awesome it is to fly!

Anyway, the winds were relatively light (10 knots) and the afternoon
was hot. On my last (4th) solo landing I had an experience I have not
seen before. After touchdown the plane started weather veining into
the wind. Aileron up deflection on the upwind side (into the wind)
didn't help (and thinking about it, I don't think aileron would assist
in a weather-veining situation). I applied full opposite rudder and
that wasn't enough. I actually had to apply light braking on the
opposite rudder to get straightened back out.

I have looked through the archives and not seen much discussion on
weather-veining tendencies or techniques. I guess since my 206 is a
lot heavier perhaps I have gotten a bit out of practice.

Was my brake response correct? It was all I could think of. I was a
bit high on final so applied full 40 degrees flaps, perhaps that
additional drag added to the cause?