Diana
Final Approach
Since the ice and snow were still blocking our Citabria hangar door last weekend, Tom and I flew the old beater Skyhawk to an EAA meeting. It was a good reminder that the Cessna 172 is NOT a Land-O-Matic (contrary to what Cessna advertised when it first came out).
The 90-mile flights coming and going were quite bumpy flying along below the cloud deck in moderate turbulence. It was bumpy enough to break Tom’s homemade peanut brittle into more pieces, and they all ended up in one end of the bucket. It’s a good thing we didn’t take a cream pie!
As we approached the little airport on the hilltop, I could tell it was going to be a fun ride trying to land with the gusting, shifting winds (crosswind 45 to 80 degrees). One airplane had just landed so I figured it might be possible. I announced my intentions at all the usual points in the pattern, and noticed an airplane to the south of the airport as I turned base to land to the south. We kept watching it and it came in and landed in the direction that was not logical considering it had a gusty crosswind combined with a tailwind. No radio announcements. I was hoping it would turn off in time for me to land, but it turned around and back-taxied, so I did a go-around. I had no idea if the pilot ever saw or heard me at the time. Oh well.
The second attempt at landing was the first time in a very long time that I absolutely ran out of rudder trying to line up with the runway, so I did another go-around, thinking I was glad we didn’t bring the Citabria.
As I entered the pattern for the third attempt, Tom and I discussed our options. The very short grass runway that was a bit more aligned into the wind was an option, but we didn’t know how soft the ground would be after the recent snow melt. I opted for using the same runway again with even less flaps. After fighting the gusting, shifting winds, I finally was able to line it up with the runway in the flare and made a not-so-pretty landing, and didn’t break anything (but the peanut brittle.)
I was talking with one of the pilots at the meeting, and he said, “you didn’t land with any flaps, did you?” He also said that he didn’t use flaps with his landing and that he landed with a quartering tailwind because he preferred a crosswind from his left. These are both options that I’d considered, actually. Of course the ultimate option would be not to land there. But, I’d have let Tom try one before we resorted to that. He said at the time “I’ll be quiet unless you want me to talk, but I’ll only give you five tries.” It’s not always easy being a CFI spouse.
BTW, when I had Tom read this before posting it, he gave me a smile and a quizzical CFI-type look and asked, “What is a ‘not-so-pretty’ landing??????”
The 90-mile flights coming and going were quite bumpy flying along below the cloud deck in moderate turbulence. It was bumpy enough to break Tom’s homemade peanut brittle into more pieces, and they all ended up in one end of the bucket. It’s a good thing we didn’t take a cream pie!
As we approached the little airport on the hilltop, I could tell it was going to be a fun ride trying to land with the gusting, shifting winds (crosswind 45 to 80 degrees). One airplane had just landed so I figured it might be possible. I announced my intentions at all the usual points in the pattern, and noticed an airplane to the south of the airport as I turned base to land to the south. We kept watching it and it came in and landed in the direction that was not logical considering it had a gusty crosswind combined with a tailwind. No radio announcements. I was hoping it would turn off in time for me to land, but it turned around and back-taxied, so I did a go-around. I had no idea if the pilot ever saw or heard me at the time. Oh well.
The second attempt at landing was the first time in a very long time that I absolutely ran out of rudder trying to line up with the runway, so I did another go-around, thinking I was glad we didn’t bring the Citabria.
As I entered the pattern for the third attempt, Tom and I discussed our options. The very short grass runway that was a bit more aligned into the wind was an option, but we didn’t know how soft the ground would be after the recent snow melt. I opted for using the same runway again with even less flaps. After fighting the gusting, shifting winds, I finally was able to line it up with the runway in the flare and made a not-so-pretty landing, and didn’t break anything (but the peanut brittle.)
I was talking with one of the pilots at the meeting, and he said, “you didn’t land with any flaps, did you?” He also said that he didn’t use flaps with his landing and that he landed with a quartering tailwind because he preferred a crosswind from his left. These are both options that I’d considered, actually. Of course the ultimate option would be not to land there. But, I’d have let Tom try one before we resorted to that. He said at the time “I’ll be quiet unless you want me to talk, but I’ll only give you five tries.” It’s not always easy being a CFI spouse.
BTW, when I had Tom read this before posting it, he gave me a smile and a quizzical CFI-type look and asked, “What is a ‘not-so-pretty’ landing??????”
