Hi POAers,
Recently got current again after a couple year break, and it's great to be flying!
After de-briefing a recent flight, I realized that I missed or mis-heard two pieces of information, that each could have boosted the margin of safety had I listened more carefully to ATIS.
1. Listening to the KSAC ATIS, I mis-heard the runway as 30 when 20 was in-use. Thankfully with flight-following, this was easily cleared up with NorCal while still above TPA and ~4 miles out. While it worked out just fine, a radio failure or late hand-off without discussing pattern entry with approach could have led to less margin for error. Lesson learned: listen carefully to ATIS until you hear it very clearly.
2. On the flight back to KSQL, I heard the full ATIS but I didn't internalize the winds and compute/estimate the crosswind component. Actual winds per the metar after landing were 11G19 kts, with a significant x-wind component. Due to a much faster aircraft behind us, tower instructed "fly direct to the numbers". Between the unstable approach and gusty crosswind, I initiated a go-around at 100 feet.
Two lessons learned on this one:
(a) to internalize the wind components to stay ahead of the aircraft, i.e. planning crosswind technique in advance such as crab/slip
(b) to be more assertive asking/suggest to tower that I'd rather do a regular pattern, or do a 360/hold somewhere than rush an approach in gusty/sporty (for me) conditions.
Any & all feedback welcome. I'm not beating myself up over these, but thought they were worth sharing for others to learn from. Cheers PoA!
Recently got current again after a couple year break, and it's great to be flying!
After de-briefing a recent flight, I realized that I missed or mis-heard two pieces of information, that each could have boosted the margin of safety had I listened more carefully to ATIS.
1. Listening to the KSAC ATIS, I mis-heard the runway as 30 when 20 was in-use. Thankfully with flight-following, this was easily cleared up with NorCal while still above TPA and ~4 miles out. While it worked out just fine, a radio failure or late hand-off without discussing pattern entry with approach could have led to less margin for error. Lesson learned: listen carefully to ATIS until you hear it very clearly.
2. On the flight back to KSQL, I heard the full ATIS but I didn't internalize the winds and compute/estimate the crosswind component. Actual winds per the metar after landing were 11G19 kts, with a significant x-wind component. Due to a much faster aircraft behind us, tower instructed "fly direct to the numbers". Between the unstable approach and gusty crosswind, I initiated a go-around at 100 feet.
Two lessons learned on this one:
(a) to internalize the wind components to stay ahead of the aircraft, i.e. planning crosswind technique in advance such as crab/slip
(b) to be more assertive asking/suggest to tower that I'd rather do a regular pattern, or do a 360/hold somewhere than rush an approach in gusty/sporty (for me) conditions.
Any & all feedback welcome. I'm not beating myself up over these, but thought they were worth sharing for others to learn from. Cheers PoA!
