Botched Go Around - Stained my shorts.

4

49 and dumb.

Guest
First time in a long time I thought I might buy it today.

100 degrees and humid. 3000 feet DA. 24012G22 and I was landing 27.

A bit out of practice. A bit out of my comfort zone, but I thought "you always chicken out! You can't get experience unless you get it! You can handle these winds."

I ultimately did, but made some mistakes the biggest where I thought I was done.

Just me in a 180 HP well maintained 172 with 30 gallons of fuel. Should be no problem.

Very squirrelly over the threshold. I touch down on the left main and balloon so firewall the throttle and hang out in ground effect.

Start to climb out and get to maybe 50 feet and start to mush sink. Seemed higher than ground effect and I haven't sunk from that high before.

Luckily very long runway and no trees so I recovered and climbed out and chickened out of there.

I think I bumped the flaps from 20 to fully retracted which, with the density altitude almost got me. The sink happened just after I retracted to 20 . . . But the switch was all the way up.

Scared myself pretty well today. Time to go up with a CFI. I was trying to build confidence and went the complete other way.

Private Pilot with 500 hrs but only 7 this year.
 
49 and dumb. said:
First time in a long time I thought I might buy it today.

100 degrees and humid. 3000 feet DA. 24012G22 and I was landing 27.

A bit out of practice. A bit out of my comfort zone, but I thought "you always chicken out! You can't get experience unless you get it! You can handle these winds."

I ultimately did, but made some mistakes the biggest where I thought I was done.

Just me in a 180 HP well maintained 172 with 30 gallons of fuel. Should be no problem.

Very squirrelly over the threshold. I touch down on the left main and balloon so firewall the throttle and hang out in ground effect.

Start to climb out and get to maybe 50 feet and start to mush sink. Seemed higher than ground effect and I haven't sunk from that high before.

Luckily very long runway and no trees so I recovered and climbed out and chickened out of there.

I think I bumped the flaps from 20 to fully retracted which, with the density altitude almost got me. The sink happened just after I retracted to 20 . . . But the switch was all the way up.

Scared myself pretty well today. Time to go up with a CFI. I was trying to build confidence and went the complete other way.

Private Pilot with 500 hrs but only 7 this year.
Click to expand...
What was your landing flap setting?
 
For this reason, I've been introducing power-on stalls in landing configuration, but only once the students have mastered regular stalls and uncoordinated stalls (wing drops). I never did this during my own primary training, and I think it was a serious limitation. It was always power-off in landing configuration, or power-on in takeoff configuration. Go-around stalls typically occur in a power-on landing configuration. The stall can get ugly, and requires a lot of elevator down force to correct, which can take someone by surprise.
 
49 and dumb. said:
First time in a long time I thought I might buy it today.

100 degrees and humid. 3000 feet DA. 24012G22 and I was landing 27.

A bit out of practice. A bit out of my comfort zone, but I thought "you always chicken out! You can't get experience unless you get it! You can handle these winds."

I ultimately did, but made some mistakes the biggest where I thought I was done.

Just me in a 180 HP well maintained 172 with 30 gallons of fuel. Should be no problem.

Very squirrelly over the threshold. I touch down on the left main and balloon so firewall the throttle and hang out in ground effect.

Start to climb out and get to maybe 50 feet and start to mush sink. Seemed higher than ground effect and I haven't sunk from that high before.

Luckily very long runway and no trees so I recovered and climbed out and chickened out of there.

I think I bumped the flaps from 20 to fully retracted which, with the density altitude almost got me. The sink happened just after I retracted to 20 . . . But the switch was all the way up.

Scared myself pretty well today. Time to go up with a CFI. I was trying to build confidence and went the complete other way.

Private Pilot with 500 hrs but only 7 this year.
Click to expand...
When was the last time you did a go around? With 7 hours in the past year I'm thinking the answer might be awhile ago. Good to practice maneuvers before you need them.

Is this an older 172 where the flap switch is just Up and Down? These have gotten many pilots in trouble.

Were you monitoring your airspeed? I've seen many people raise the nose too much during go-arounds and end up on the back side of the power curve.
 
Glad you are all right. I applaud your decision to go up with an instructor. everyone has had a confidence “check”. Maybe less flap and carry some speed for gust factor? A good CFI can get this sorted. Best wishes!
 
Wow! Thanks for the feedback. @GeorgeC fuel injected 180 HP.

@luvflyin 30 degrees/full flaps in thiss 1999 C172SP.

@sarangan I'll add departure stalls in landing config to my BFR syllabus. The heat and bumps and xwind all combined. Any individually I likely would have handled but clearly got overwhelmed with all at once. Can't let that happen.

@dmspilot its a 1999 with detects at 10 and 20 but more useful going down vs up. I can't easily find the detente going up.

When I had finally recovered I went to retract the last 10 only to see them all the way up. I wish I had a go pro to see what I messed up.

I need to fly more often, period. Again with an instructor will help.
 
49 and dumb. said:
When I had finally recovered I went to retract the last 10 only to see them all the way up. I wish I had a go pro to see what I messed up.
Click to expand...
Offhand, that sounds like rushing. Initial procedure in any airplane comes down to full power and transition to a shallow climb attitude, typically combined with an initial flap position. The power is essential. Beginning the pitch transition and flap reduction are very important but they must be deliberate. The pitch transition especially. Mooney Ovations are a poster child for how quickly thigs can go awry.

I'm going to disagree with @sarangan on the need for full flap power on stall training for this (it's not a bad idea for many other reasons). Point is, you need more go-around practice so that the pitch does not get you into power-on stall position close to the ground to begin with. We sometime justify a "need" to touch & goes as go-around practice. They are in reality very different.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I'm going to disagree with @sarangan on the need for full flap power on stall training for this (it's not a bad idea for many other reasons). Point is, you need more go-around practice so that the pitch does not get you into power-on stall position close to the ground to begin with. We sometime justify a "need" to touch & goes as go-around practice. They are in reality very different.
Click to expand...

Agreed. But isn't the goal of all stall practices to recognize their signs and avoid getting into a stall?
 
Maybe a bit of a review from the Airplane Flying Handbook....

In part...

Turbulent Air Approach and Landing
For landing in turbulent conditions, the pilot should use a power-on approach at an airspeed slightly above the normal approach speed. This provides for more positive control of the airplane when strong horizontal wind gusts, or up and down drafts, are experienced. Like other power-on approaches, a coordinated combination of both pitch and power adjustments is usually required. The proper approach attitude and airspeed require a minimum round out and should result in little or no floating during the landing.
To maintain control during an approach in turbulent air with gusty crosswind, the pilot should use partial wing flaps. With less than full flaps, the airplane is in a higher pitch attitude. Thus, it requires less of a pitch change to establish the landing attitude and touchdown at a higher airspeed to ensure more positive control.
Pilots often use the normal approach speed plus one-half of the wind gust factors in turbulent conditions. If the normal speed is 70 knots, and the wind gusts are 15 knots, an increase of airspeed to 77 knots is appropriate. In any case, the airspeed and the flap setting should conform to airplane manufacturer's recommendations in the AFM/POH.

-----
Lift Off--
As the airplane leaves the ground, the pilot should continue to maintain straight flight and hold the proper pitch attitude. During takeoffs in strong, gusty winds, it is advisable to add an extra margin of speed before the airplane is allowed to leave the ground. A takeoff at the normal takeoff speed may result in a lack of positive control, or a stall, when the airplane encounters a sudden lull in strong, gusty wind or other turbulent air currents. In this case, the pilot should hold the airplane on the ground longer to attain more speed, then make a smooth, positive rotation to leave the ground.


Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
49 and dumb. said:
Wow! Thanks for the feedback. @GeorgeC fuel injected 180 HP.

@luvflyin 30 degrees/full flaps in thiss 1999 C172SP.

@sarangan I'll add departure stalls in landing config to my BFR syllabus. The heat and bumps and xwind all combined. Any individually I likely would have handled but clearly got overwhelmed with all at once. Can't let that happen.

@dmspilot its a 1999 with detects at 10 and 20 but more useful going down vs up. I can't easily find the detente going up.

When I had finally recovered I went to retract the last 10 only to see them all the way up. I wish I had a go pro to see what I messed up.

I need to fly more often, period. Again with an instructor will help.
Click to expand...
Any avionics logfiles available from this flight? Or a Foreflight tracklog?
 
@Patrick there is a gtn650 in the plane - would that have avionics logs? What info could I glean there?

I looked at flight aware. Doesn't tell me much.

In hindsight, I ballooned. I applied full rudder and likely didn't apply right rudder immediately. Then over applied. I did push for airspeed and started to climb away feeling normal. Solid controls.

I'm 99% certain I dumped all the flaps, or at least from 20* to 0* which is when I got mushy and pushed further to avoid a stall.

But I feel I got lucky much more than I was positively in control and I'm really lucky I didn't have a wing drop 1st not enough right rudder and then too much.
 
sarangan said:
For this reason, I've been introducing power-on stalls in landing configuration, but only once the students have mastered regular stalls and uncoordinated stalls (wing drops). I never did this during my own primary training, and I think it was a serious limitation. It was always power-off in landing configuration, or power-on in takeoff configuration. Go-around stalls typically occur in a power-on landing configuration. The stall can get ugly, and requires a lot of elevator down force to correct, which can take someone by surprise.
Click to expand...

I do power-on stalls with flaps with all my students (I teach mostly in Cherokees). The stalls are very different in that configuration and I think it is essential to see how it behaves.
 
Maybe. Check if you can see "Home - Utilities- Logs" to export a log.
 
There is a Terrific book I used to give all my students. It's called "The Killing Zone" by Paul A Craig. It talks about the time from when pilots get their certificates up to about 250-500 hours. He calls it "The Killing Zone" and explaines in detail why he believes it is. I can't recomend it enough.
 
As a pilot with similar flight experience I sometimes find myself going to fly after more than a month away from my bird, and my techniques are rusty the first few flights. There are a few things I do to help alleviate this. First I go over the TO and Landing procedures and V speeds in my POH and checklists. Second on my first few landings I land the airplane in the "go around" configuration. That means I land with the flaps set at the takeoff or climb setting and on final I turn off the carb heat (if equipped) and set mixture full rich, and prop governor to full RPM. Now if I have to go around all I have to do us push the throttle and maintain correct attitude and airspeed. Then on subsequent landings I add more flaps on final. I also critique my landing performance after each landing to see if I performed the procedures correctly.. This may or may not help you with your rustiness but it helps me.
 
Another thing you can do is go out to your practice area and do some slow flight and ground reference maneuvers. Get used to how your airplane handles at different maneuvering speeds and do some slow 360 degree turns right and left, S turns over a road, and turns about a point. Try to do them with no flaps, climb flaps and full flaps, and at 1.3 and 1.2 VS speeds. Get really used to how your bird performs slow and on the back side of the power curve. Always keep a safety margin and be ready to abort to straght and level if you feel you have overstepped. Do this a few times on subsequent flights and your rustiness will be polished away. Hope this helps
 
Nice of you to share your experience. 7 hrs in last year is rusty and as you suggested a CFI is a great idea to do some air work. All of it helps with confidence and more importantly procedures. It’s not a forgiving hobby.


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