D
dungoofed
Guest
A long time friend of mine was in town and we'd been talking about him, his wife, and kids flying with me. The night before we had met up for dinner and he threw out the idea of going today. Forecast for the next day was clear, sounded like a good idea
We changed the plans early the morning of because his parents also wanted a turn. I would fly from my home base to an airport closer to them, less than 30nm away. The airports are less than 15min flight time apart... if even that. I would be no more than 8 minutes from a familiar field at any given time and that fact stuck in my head even though I expected no problems.
I checked the weather that afternoon before heading to the airport. There were now some clouds across the area but they were all in the 3000+ range and winds were < 10kts. No problems for some short sightseeing flights. Forecasts in the area suggested these conditions would continue... except for one from my home field that said "thunderstorms in vicinity" later in the evening. I checked the weather radar and noted a storm well to the NW that looked like it was going to stay well to the north. I wasn't too concerned but decided that worst case I could just land at the remote airport, tie it down, and either wait for the storm to pass or retrieve the aircraft the next morning.
The flight to the other airport was uneventful, fairly smooth and calm for a summer evening. The expected clouds were over my head but high enough that clouds were never of issue. I made a nice landing in gentle winds and taxied out. I took up a load with 2 kids and their mom and we toured the area. Then up with the grandparents. Smooth flights, smooth landings, wonderful day. Everyone enjoyed themselves. My friend was going to go last, return with me to my home airport and we'd drive back. His wife decided she wanted to leave the kids with the grandparents and go along.
Up to this point in the story, there's no lesson to be learned. We had a good day, we had the sort of day with an airplane you go home proud of.
I pulled out my phone just to peek at where that "no-factor" storm had gone. Funny, I wasn't seeing it... oh the radar overlay on foreflight wasn't on. Oops.... and there it was. Big red and yellow radar returns to the west of the airport I was preparing to leave for.
So this was the point where I should have tied down and hopped in one of the cars right there and gone home. There was absolutely no reason to risk this but leaving the airplane there was going to be inconvenient and I hate leaving it outside in a storm. The storm wasn't there yet, I had a clear shot, I was less than 15 minutes away, and I was flying straight towards it so if I encountered anything bad I could do a 180 and land back where I was.
I explained to my friend and his wife what was up and that the plan was to turn back if we had any problems. They were totally down with it, he even seemed to find it exciting. "We're racing the storm" he said. That phrase triggered memories of cautionary tales which ought to have made me stop the whole thing right there. Obviously I didn't. I'm usually a giant chicken when it comes to these things. Weather forecasts across the area had been frequently "scattered thunderstorms" for a while and I'd canceled several flights in the past few weeks because of it only to be frustrated as I watched clear skies prevail all day long.
I actually had been feeling a bit foolish about chickening out all those times. I mean one always wants to be careful with weather and flying but if you only fly perfect days you don't get to fly much right?
And so we departed, I tuned in the ASOS at my home field as soon as I got to pattern altitude. Same light winds, same 3000+ clouds that had been there all day.... oh and "lightning distant all quadrants". I still have no idea what "distant" means but it sounds like "far" to me.My eyes scanning ahead saw one or two small patches of light rain.... nothing too worrying. I watched for the lightning and saw nothing. They sky was getting darker out that way but nothing too scary. My course would put me right into the downwind for the best runway option. We briefly had a few drops of rain hit the windshield... just light rain, no big deal. Air was still smooth, I was in familiar territory, I'd been flying great all day, and we were almost there. Very shortly I had the airport in sight and as predicted I was in a perfect position for a downwind entry on my chosen runway. There were dark skies beyond... but still no lightning. No heavy rain shafts that I could see. We were good, I hadn't pushed my luck too far.
I quickly grabbed the weather again... same boring winds and cloud reports with the same ominous lightning distant. No worries, I quickly ran through my before landing checklist as I entered the downwind. Boy that sky sure looked dark beyond... I was still heading straight for it in the downwind but I was about to land so again, no worries. Since I'd been trying to get there quick I had the throttle set pretty high all the way in and slowed down later than usual. My speed on downwind was higher than I usually do but I had it down into the white arc abeam the numbers. This runway was longer than I needed so if I landed a tad fast, not a big deal.
As I was working towards getting my airplane slowed and descending the air became bumpy for the first time. Normally not a big deal but with the weather bearing down it made me start wondering if I was going to have issues near the ground. As I said before I normally don't go anywhere near a storm and I'm not used to them so everything was making me uneasy. Airspeed was still too high and I wasn't descending fast enough so I pulled back the throttle a bit, things were feeling bumpier. What I needed to do for a good landing was extend my downwind a bit and lose some energy. I was flying towards the weather though, I didn't want to be doing that... and my speed was coming down, the descent was coming in... I made my radio call, put in the next notch of flaps early to help with the speed, and started a standard rate turn to base. As I was banking left a wind gust or maybe an updraft.. or both hit my plane. It felt like I was about to roll over but in reality it probably just pushed me from a 20 degree bank to a 30 or so. Worse my descent was arrested... I may have even surged up a bit. As I started coming around for final I could see two bright white VASI lights staring at me and beyond that I was way too high.... not just slightly high but way too damn high.
With this sort of situation and sight picture one should immediately start thinking about a go-around... and I did think about it. However a go around would mean the storm getting closer, that rough wind was right at my back. I didn't want to turn around and fly back into worse. I'd salvaged approaches almost this bad before, the runway was long, and if I wasn't going to make it I could always climb back out and I'd already be on course away from the bad weather and back where I came from.
So, too fast and too high with a storm at my back I chopped the throttle to idle, put in full flaps, and initiated a slip. I came in over the threshold too damn high with too much ground speed... way too much ground speed. Somewhere near midfield I was floating through ground effect and didn't touch down near the last 1/4 of the runway. On touchdown a combination of not transitioning from the slip quick enough(this was happening FAST) and excess speed caused some sideways skidding and swerving. Quick footwork and aileron control kept us on the paved part although I was worried I'd loose it any moment and all the while I was gripping the throttle tight in indecision as to whether to keep it locked down or open it back up and just get the heck out of this mess. No, we were slowing... slowing... not skidding anymore. I had it. I turned off onto the last exit onto the taxiway... seemingly calm but I could feel the slight tremor in my leg as I put pressure on the rudder pedal. My mindset immediately shifted to "let's get the plane inside quick in case something nasty is about to hit".
I never felt panicked. Even when I momentarily though I was going to skid off the runway I was only thinking about how embarrassing skidding off into the grass would be. That's not to say fear doesn't enter my thinking. That wind I hit on my base turn was I think now the gust front of the incoming weather. Rough, but just based on the "face feel" shortly after getting out on the ramp not beyond my ability to have safely landed in. I probably could have/should have gone around instead of trying to save a bad landing but at that point the wind would have changed direction and I'd have had to either change runways or land with a significant tailwind. I'd been used to calm wind landings all day and wasn't mentally braced for difficult crosswinds or bumpy gusty winds. Fear of the unknown intensity of the incoming weather lead to me deciding to continue this bad landing. As it turns out, I had enough time to have my airplane put away, chat with another pilot who'd landed earlier, then drive about 3 miles towards the storm before any of the rain hit... and the surface winds at least were never too bad.
What I really should have done is just tied the airplane down at the remote airport and waited it out. I should never have put myself into a situation that made me nervous enough to make further bad decisions. I should never have cut something that close, especially when there was absolutely no good reason to do so.
My friend seemed to enjoy the whole experience... he likes a little excitement. "more fun than a rollercoaster" was what he said. Maybe I'm still a chicken and it wasn't as bad to an outside observer as it seemed to me at the time. Either way, I'm not happy with my choices even though it ended well.
We changed the plans early the morning of because his parents also wanted a turn. I would fly from my home base to an airport closer to them, less than 30nm away. The airports are less than 15min flight time apart... if even that. I would be no more than 8 minutes from a familiar field at any given time and that fact stuck in my head even though I expected no problems.
I checked the weather that afternoon before heading to the airport. There were now some clouds across the area but they were all in the 3000+ range and winds were < 10kts. No problems for some short sightseeing flights. Forecasts in the area suggested these conditions would continue... except for one from my home field that said "thunderstorms in vicinity" later in the evening. I checked the weather radar and noted a storm well to the NW that looked like it was going to stay well to the north. I wasn't too concerned but decided that worst case I could just land at the remote airport, tie it down, and either wait for the storm to pass or retrieve the aircraft the next morning.
The flight to the other airport was uneventful, fairly smooth and calm for a summer evening. The expected clouds were over my head but high enough that clouds were never of issue. I made a nice landing in gentle winds and taxied out. I took up a load with 2 kids and their mom and we toured the area. Then up with the grandparents. Smooth flights, smooth landings, wonderful day. Everyone enjoyed themselves. My friend was going to go last, return with me to my home airport and we'd drive back. His wife decided she wanted to leave the kids with the grandparents and go along.
Up to this point in the story, there's no lesson to be learned. We had a good day, we had the sort of day with an airplane you go home proud of.
I pulled out my phone just to peek at where that "no-factor" storm had gone. Funny, I wasn't seeing it... oh the radar overlay on foreflight wasn't on. Oops.... and there it was. Big red and yellow radar returns to the west of the airport I was preparing to leave for.
So this was the point where I should have tied down and hopped in one of the cars right there and gone home. There was absolutely no reason to risk this but leaving the airplane there was going to be inconvenient and I hate leaving it outside in a storm. The storm wasn't there yet, I had a clear shot, I was less than 15 minutes away, and I was flying straight towards it so if I encountered anything bad I could do a 180 and land back where I was.
I explained to my friend and his wife what was up and that the plan was to turn back if we had any problems. They were totally down with it, he even seemed to find it exciting. "We're racing the storm" he said. That phrase triggered memories of cautionary tales which ought to have made me stop the whole thing right there. Obviously I didn't. I'm usually a giant chicken when it comes to these things. Weather forecasts across the area had been frequently "scattered thunderstorms" for a while and I'd canceled several flights in the past few weeks because of it only to be frustrated as I watched clear skies prevail all day long.
I actually had been feeling a bit foolish about chickening out all those times. I mean one always wants to be careful with weather and flying but if you only fly perfect days you don't get to fly much right?
And so we departed, I tuned in the ASOS at my home field as soon as I got to pattern altitude. Same light winds, same 3000+ clouds that had been there all day.... oh and "lightning distant all quadrants". I still have no idea what "distant" means but it sounds like "far" to me.My eyes scanning ahead saw one or two small patches of light rain.... nothing too worrying. I watched for the lightning and saw nothing. They sky was getting darker out that way but nothing too scary. My course would put me right into the downwind for the best runway option. We briefly had a few drops of rain hit the windshield... just light rain, no big deal. Air was still smooth, I was in familiar territory, I'd been flying great all day, and we were almost there. Very shortly I had the airport in sight and as predicted I was in a perfect position for a downwind entry on my chosen runway. There were dark skies beyond... but still no lightning. No heavy rain shafts that I could see. We were good, I hadn't pushed my luck too far.
I quickly grabbed the weather again... same boring winds and cloud reports with the same ominous lightning distant. No worries, I quickly ran through my before landing checklist as I entered the downwind. Boy that sky sure looked dark beyond... I was still heading straight for it in the downwind but I was about to land so again, no worries. Since I'd been trying to get there quick I had the throttle set pretty high all the way in and slowed down later than usual. My speed on downwind was higher than I usually do but I had it down into the white arc abeam the numbers. This runway was longer than I needed so if I landed a tad fast, not a big deal.
As I was working towards getting my airplane slowed and descending the air became bumpy for the first time. Normally not a big deal but with the weather bearing down it made me start wondering if I was going to have issues near the ground. As I said before I normally don't go anywhere near a storm and I'm not used to them so everything was making me uneasy. Airspeed was still too high and I wasn't descending fast enough so I pulled back the throttle a bit, things were feeling bumpier. What I needed to do for a good landing was extend my downwind a bit and lose some energy. I was flying towards the weather though, I didn't want to be doing that... and my speed was coming down, the descent was coming in... I made my radio call, put in the next notch of flaps early to help with the speed, and started a standard rate turn to base. As I was banking left a wind gust or maybe an updraft.. or both hit my plane. It felt like I was about to roll over but in reality it probably just pushed me from a 20 degree bank to a 30 or so. Worse my descent was arrested... I may have even surged up a bit. As I started coming around for final I could see two bright white VASI lights staring at me and beyond that I was way too high.... not just slightly high but way too damn high.
With this sort of situation and sight picture one should immediately start thinking about a go-around... and I did think about it. However a go around would mean the storm getting closer, that rough wind was right at my back. I didn't want to turn around and fly back into worse. I'd salvaged approaches almost this bad before, the runway was long, and if I wasn't going to make it I could always climb back out and I'd already be on course away from the bad weather and back where I came from.
So, too fast and too high with a storm at my back I chopped the throttle to idle, put in full flaps, and initiated a slip. I came in over the threshold too damn high with too much ground speed... way too much ground speed. Somewhere near midfield I was floating through ground effect and didn't touch down near the last 1/4 of the runway. On touchdown a combination of not transitioning from the slip quick enough(this was happening FAST) and excess speed caused some sideways skidding and swerving. Quick footwork and aileron control kept us on the paved part although I was worried I'd loose it any moment and all the while I was gripping the throttle tight in indecision as to whether to keep it locked down or open it back up and just get the heck out of this mess. No, we were slowing... slowing... not skidding anymore. I had it. I turned off onto the last exit onto the taxiway... seemingly calm but I could feel the slight tremor in my leg as I put pressure on the rudder pedal. My mindset immediately shifted to "let's get the plane inside quick in case something nasty is about to hit".
I never felt panicked. Even when I momentarily though I was going to skid off the runway I was only thinking about how embarrassing skidding off into the grass would be. That's not to say fear doesn't enter my thinking. That wind I hit on my base turn was I think now the gust front of the incoming weather. Rough, but just based on the "face feel" shortly after getting out on the ramp not beyond my ability to have safely landed in. I probably could have/should have gone around instead of trying to save a bad landing but at that point the wind would have changed direction and I'd have had to either change runways or land with a significant tailwind. I'd been used to calm wind landings all day and wasn't mentally braced for difficult crosswinds or bumpy gusty winds. Fear of the unknown intensity of the incoming weather lead to me deciding to continue this bad landing. As it turns out, I had enough time to have my airplane put away, chat with another pilot who'd landed earlier, then drive about 3 miles towards the storm before any of the rain hit... and the surface winds at least were never too bad.
What I really should have done is just tied the airplane down at the remote airport and waited it out. I should never have put myself into a situation that made me nervous enough to make further bad decisions. I should never have cut something that close, especially when there was absolutely no good reason to do so.
My friend seemed to enjoy the whole experience... he likes a little excitement. "more fun than a rollercoaster" was what he said. Maybe I'm still a chicken and it wasn't as bad to an outside observer as it seemed to me at the time. Either way, I'm not happy with my choices even though it ended well.
