onwards
Pattern Altitude
So my parents are visiting, and I took them flying for the first time. We went to Columbia (o22) on Friday, and boy, it was hot. 40 deg C by the time we got there.
Now, o22 is not particularly high up - 2200ft - but it was over 6000ft DA. And because of the geography around that strip, thermals are always an issue. I warned my folks of turbulence (thankfully, my GF was on board too, and she sat by my mom so I knew if my mom freaked my GF could calm her down). Indeed, as we hit the mountains it became quite bumpy, but not too bad.
Then I got in the pattern, and as I was getting on final, it became quite obvious that this was going to be a challenge. Wind was coming in from 240, at 10 knots for runway 17. Ok, fine, a bit of crosswind.
Except that it was also gusty. The first one I didn't expect and it pushed the nose out quite a bit. I worked the plane back on center and literally as we were touching down, I got a strong gust pushing the plane out again to the left, hard. It was all I could to keep it from side loading heavily... And it bounced. I felt like one more gust like that and we'd be off the runway if I couldn't settle it down by then.
And this is where I made a decision that I rarely make - I pushed the throttle in and went around. I still had pienty of usable runway - 3000ft - but I did not feel comfortable trying to put it down with that bounce, and the thing with o22 is, there are tall trees at the edge... And with such a DA, if I didn't push it in right then, I couldn't be sure we wouldn't go into them if ran out of runway. At that point I knew I could still accelerate in ground effect and clear the trees (which we did with about 50ft to spare but positive climb rate - hot days like that make for sucky performance at near gross).
Anyway, executed the go around, came back, landed comfortably (this time using only 20d flaps instead of 40d, which was my big mistake the first time), and got off. Felt a little silly for being overly cautious, but i still think I made the right decision. Then I discovered my dad took a video of the whole thing... I watched it and felt so much better
The funny thing is, my mom actually cheered on that first landing - she thought it was really smooth, and was completely shocked when I went around and landed again. I explained later that while I felt a bit embarrassed by my failure to land it properly the first time, I didnt want to take the risk that another gust would cause us to crash either to the side or into the trees. She said she appreciated that
So there you go. I'm still not sure if I really needed to abort like that. But even three days later, I think I did right. What would you guys do? I am going to post the video once I get it from my dad so you can have a look, too.
Now, o22 is not particularly high up - 2200ft - but it was over 6000ft DA. And because of the geography around that strip, thermals are always an issue. I warned my folks of turbulence (thankfully, my GF was on board too, and she sat by my mom so I knew if my mom freaked my GF could calm her down). Indeed, as we hit the mountains it became quite bumpy, but not too bad.
Then I got in the pattern, and as I was getting on final, it became quite obvious that this was going to be a challenge. Wind was coming in from 240, at 10 knots for runway 17. Ok, fine, a bit of crosswind.
Except that it was also gusty. The first one I didn't expect and it pushed the nose out quite a bit. I worked the plane back on center and literally as we were touching down, I got a strong gust pushing the plane out again to the left, hard. It was all I could to keep it from side loading heavily... And it bounced. I felt like one more gust like that and we'd be off the runway if I couldn't settle it down by then.
And this is where I made a decision that I rarely make - I pushed the throttle in and went around. I still had pienty of usable runway - 3000ft - but I did not feel comfortable trying to put it down with that bounce, and the thing with o22 is, there are tall trees at the edge... And with such a DA, if I didn't push it in right then, I couldn't be sure we wouldn't go into them if ran out of runway. At that point I knew I could still accelerate in ground effect and clear the trees (which we did with about 50ft to spare but positive climb rate - hot days like that make for sucky performance at near gross).
Anyway, executed the go around, came back, landed comfortably (this time using only 20d flaps instead of 40d, which was my big mistake the first time), and got off. Felt a little silly for being overly cautious, but i still think I made the right decision. Then I discovered my dad took a video of the whole thing... I watched it and felt so much better
The funny thing is, my mom actually cheered on that first landing - she thought it was really smooth, and was completely shocked when I went around and landed again. I explained later that while I felt a bit embarrassed by my failure to land it properly the first time, I didnt want to take the risk that another gust would cause us to crash either to the side or into the trees. She said she appreciated that
So there you go. I'm still not sure if I really needed to abort like that. But even three days later, I think I did right. What would you guys do? I am going to post the video once I get it from my dad so you can have a look, too.