Today's Adventure

TylerSC

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Feb 19, 2016
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228
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Columbia, SC
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TylerSC
Today I left KCUB and headed to 01SC, which is a private strip in York, SC, that has a farm store. The weather leaving KCUB was beautiful. Wheels up at 9:30, smooth as glass.

The cruise was going really well. It was a little hazy with a high cirrus overcast, but nice weather. I got flight following first from KCAE, then KCLT. Deviated west to avoid the parachute operation going strong at KDCM. As I got closer to York, I started seeing small cumulus-type clouds ahead and below my altitude. It started looking like they might be over my destination.

01SC is a grass strip about 2500 feet long. I've only ever landed on grass in a powered plane one time (many times in gliders). It looked REAL small from the air. As I got to the field at 1000 AGL, I saw that the small CU-type clouds were at about 1200-1400 AGL, and probably counted as broken to scattered. The very leading edge of the "cloud front" was just getting to York. They were maybe 100 yards across. Oddly, the wind was blowing from about 110, but the clouds were coming from the north to the south. It was also kind of weirdly hazy-looking and windy. There was some pretty good bumpiness as I pulled power and passed abeam the landing end of runway 18 and started my descent.

I was high, speed a little too fast, just discombobulated and not happy. Clearly it was going to be a crosswind from the left. My goal was to nail a slow, power on, full flap soft-field landing, but that was not going to happen. So about 200 AGL I aborted and did a go-around.

I was blowing all around on upwind. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the windsock swinging 30 degrees side-to-side. I decided to just bail out and go to Union County, 35A, for gas.

In retrospect, I have wanted to make this flight for some time. I have studied the field on Google Maps, etc. I could have gone around again, set up a wider pattern, and probably made the landing OK. -- but -- the little man on my shoulder started saying "screw this!" The turbulence, wind shear, small field, grass, and little weird clouds blowing in somehow against the wind all added up to giving up and flying elsewhere.

I think what happened was, I had TOO good conditions in the early part of the flight, so I was not in "challenging conditions mode" when I arrived, and switching gears was stressful. Also, the weather was decidedly odd, and the reality is that I could have gotten covered up by a low ceiling.
 
I'd say good call. Live to fly another day! Scrubbed my plans to fly to NC today because I figured it would be as you encountered. Things get interesting when a front is coming through. I poked around the edge of the cold front last week and got some nice wind shear at 2000'. I also saw a ground speed of 120 knots prior to that!

Not sure if you've been there, but Holly Hill (5J5) is grass and about the same length (2500'). It's a nice little airstrip, just off I-26, about 50nm SE of CUB.
 
I'd say good call. Live to fly another day! Scrubbed my plans to fly to NC today because I figured it would be as you encountered. Things get interesting when a front is coming through. I poked around the edge of the cold front last week and got some nice wind shear at 2000'. I also saw a ground speed of 120 knots prior to that!

Not sure if you've been there, but Holly Hill (5J5) is grass and about the same length (2500'). It's a nice little airstrip, just off I-26, about 50nm SE of CUB.

See, if you did that in the real Southeast we'd laugh at you. ;):)
 
Lower Alabama is where I now live. Trained and bought my plane, flew out of KHTW for 7 years.

C'mon Dam party!
 
^^^^ I wouldn't wish that on anyone! :eek: :)
 
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Sounds a little like my takeoff this morning from PAJN. Strong wind shift at departure end of rwy at about 200ft. Kept me busy..:)
 
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