I think one of the dumbest things I've done is read this whole thread in one sitting, so I definitely have to follow up with a story at least:
Last summer I took a friend's family up for an aerial tour of LA, except if you know anything about LA, it gets quite toasty in the summer. Especially in Van Nuys where it was easily 100 degrees+ on the tarmac. We took off without incident (full plane), and I showed them Hollywood, and we flew over LAX on the miniroute, up to Malibu again and back to Van Nuys, and by then the wind had shifted to a pretty strong crosswind. Add the large quantity of fuel and the full plane it was not going to be easy to land, but I set my heart at rest by thinking oh they'll give me 16R (the big runway) because it's close to the parking spot. Well I got 16R then on final a waiting Gulfstream got its IFR release, so they smacked me with a last minute 16L landing clearance. I stupidly accepted it, even though this was my first flight in that specific airplane with that big a load in a year at least. I was descending down for 16L and it looked pretty good then a rogue gust of wind blew me way off to the side and I couldn't hold the centerline. Since I was flying a low wing cherokee (the one in my picture), they sure love to float so I immediately knew I couldn't make the runway and applied full power, flaps up, go around. Figured it was better than landing between the runway and taxiway...
But this go around was different. The plane was full! It sluggishly tried to gain altitude but the airspeed wouldn't come up so I momentarily brought the nose down and saw the ground and a nice citation sovereign taxiing in front of me. I'll never forget that view, it seemed to last forever! Thankfully I was in a modified cherokee 235 so all of the horses came right back and I got back into the pattern with my heart beating rapidly and some tense passengers.
Mind you I was 20 and there were grandparents in their 70s and their offspring in his late 40sish so they definitely were a bit on edge.
Returned to land with a constant crosswind on the small runway again without incident though, no rogue gusts just some sweaty palms.
Got back on the ground and they asked me when they could go next. I guess it was fun for them somehow...
But the stupid thing here was loading the plane with lots of fuel AND lots of people on a really really hot day and accepting the small runway with a crosswind in an uncomfortable situation, and
my 6th wife. She can't help things either