Heading west to go south

[gkainz]

Flew back home to Denver from Custer, SD today on the tail edge of the big cold front that blew thru here last night and this morning. Around 1 pm the cloud cover scattered enough for a comfortable margin for VFR, but with that came the winds. I had about 15 knots gusting to 25 at 30 degrees off runway heading for departure, which was a little challenging but manageable. When I pointed the Cutlass south towards Chadron, GPS was showing a 161 knot ground speed .... Whoooohooo! So, Custer to Chadron to Scottsbluff went by in a flash, with just a few climbs/descents and heading changes to dodge the clouds and a rain squalls. The turn to the southwest at Scottsbluff to Greeley and home to 48V was another story, tho... a BFF 198° radial only required a heading of 240° to hold the track... I love flying sideways!

 

[Richard]

42 degree correction angle? I think that takes the cake, the most I recall is around 15.

 

[gkainz]

It was an interesting ride ... surprisingly, no abrupt or sharp turbulence, but lots of 500 to 1000 ft altitude variations as I rode the mountain waves coming home, with the occasional surprise 30° banks thrown in just to keep me on my toes. Saw in the paper this morning that areas in the Colorado Rockies had lots of tree blow-downs with this little front.

 

[Anthony]

Yeah it was windy around here yesterday and last night. Glad you had a relatively decent flight. A few weeks ago at FTG I had a 90 degree gusting crosswind, almost went around, but with full aileron and lot sof opposite rudder it worked. The wind was shifting 180 degrees at times, so even changing runways may not have helped. The winds do get, ahh, interesting around here.

 

[gkainz]

Thanks, Anthony. My first pass at 48V was a go around. I entered midfield and before I got squared away I was way too close already, and knew even before turning downwind to base that I was not going to even try to salvage the approach. Flew the upwind pass to figure how much correction I was going to need (not quite all the rudder, but darn close) and mentally gave myself a couple of passes to work it out. If it was too much, I was going to pop over to BJC and call the front desk for a ride back to my car and bring the plane home to them today. The landing gods smiled and the next pass worked out right on the money, down the center line to a nice greaser of a landing .... TA DAH!!! Hmmm, no audience for that one, of course!!!

However, in replaying the flight home in my head today, I got to wondering... the takeoff from CUT was a little dicey with some significant "get your attention RIGHT NOW" gusts, combined with an uphill runway (don't know if that's a factor, but something was a little different on this departure). So, I started wondering today "Takeoff was successful, if not exactly pretty, but how sure am I that I could have put her back down again if I needed to?" I'm not 100% sure of the answer. I'm quite sure I could have landed again with a few passes to get the wind right and get lucky between gusts, but on the first pass with some kind of emergency? I'm just not real sure ...

So, comments, anyone?

 

[Richard]

Thanks, Anthony. My first pass at 48V was a go around. I entered midfield and before I got squared away I was way too close already, and knew even before turning downwind to base that I was not going to even try to salvage the approach. Flew the upwind pass to figure how much correction I was going to need (not quite all the rudder, but darn close) and mentally gave myself a couple of passes to work it out. If it was too much, I was going to pop over to BJC and call the front desk for a ride back to my car and bring the plane home to them today. The landing gods smiled and the next pass worked out right on the money, down the center line to a nice greaser of a landing .... TA DAH!!! Hmmm, no audience for that one, of course!!!

However, in replaying the flight home in my head today, I got to wondering... the takeoff from CUT was a little dicey with some significant "get your attention RIGHT NOW" gusts, combined with an uphill runway (don't know if that's a factor, but something was a little different on this departure). So, I started wondering today "Takeoff was successful, if not exactly pretty, but how sure am I that I could have put her back down again if I needed to?" I'm not 100% sure of the answer. I'm quite sure I could have landed again with a few passes to get the wind right and get lucky between gusts, but on the first pass with some kind of emergency? I'm just not real sure ...

So, comments, anyone?

Comments? Yeah, don't ever get complacent on take offs. For that matter, might as well include all lo level maneuvering in that. Hell, just throw in phases all of flight. Be eternally vigilant of flight conditions and their effect upon your craft.

However, hats off (thumbs up) to you for early recognition of a bad approach and subsequent go around.

Anytime something is different you can--should--expect a change. That uphill takeoff--how much did that factor into something being different, who can tell; but it did present something different. Caveat, Aviator.

WRT your question if you could have put her down again given the conditions reminds me of the debate over Part 91 0/0 takeoffs. Each pilot must answer that question for themselves given their competency and proficiency, all the while being completely cognizant of the current conditions. See also, Personal Limitations.

Last comment: I think it absolutely vital that a pilot mentally review the flight after the fact. This is when insight develops, it's also reveals the true nature of this board. Onward and upward, dude.

So, I started wondering today "Takeoff was successful, if not exactly pretty, but how sure am I that I could have put her back down again if I needed to?" I'm not 100% sure of the answer. I'm quite sure I could have landed again with a few passes to get the wind right and get lucky between gusts, quote]

Don't ever, ever count on luck. Take it when it comes, but don't count on it.