Landing choices after a long flight...

455 Bravo Uniform

Final Approach
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455 Bravo Uniform
If it helps anyone:

On a return flight (2 hours out, 3.5 hrs back due to headwinds, I had a choice to land straight-in 10 mile final or use the crossing runway.

I had a choice. Straight-in had pretty hefty crosswind. Crossing runway was almost head on winds.

It was night, and a long flight, and I figured I’m already lined up, so we’ll just land. Ugly landing, no damage.

Lesson for myself - don’t be so lazy and ready to land that I don’t take the chip-shot. It was a long day. Worked out ok. Learned something as always.

Side thought: how bad of a pilot am I really when every flight teaches me something. (But I think that’s what keeps flying interesting.
 
Unless it was an emergency situation, I’d always choose the favorable runway over landing with a stiff cross wind.

I would too. So I surprised myself with the stupid choice. Blaming it on fatigue and ready to stretch & pee. Seriously.
 
Depends on the cross wind, I normally fly a pretty tight pattern so taking another runway isn’t a issue, my time thing wouldn’t be the pattern entry but where I’m parking.
 
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Just my opinion but the reason I use the autopilot almost exclusively on a long cruise is not that I'm lazy or can't manually fly the aircraft, it's to conserve energy and maximum brainpower for the approach and landing.

It sounds like you learned a great lesson and might do things differently next time.
 
After a long flight, I agree, make it easy on yourself, but th wind is not the only consideration. A landing into a setting sun after a long trip, or a poorly lit runway would cause me to chose the cross wind. I try to go out of my way to chose crosswind landings when fresh and at my home field(when my friends aren't looking).
 
Ten miles out you could have adjusted to make the favorable runway a straight in.

I coulda. I shoulda. Heck it was an easy direct left base entry. That’s my point. I was lined up on final since Pittsburgh, 3.5hrs away, lol.
 
I’ve found when tired, it’s dark, or a new airport with something tricky about it, flying the pattern reduces the risk of screwing it up considerably. Especially when I’m tired I intentionally avoid a lazy straight in because it’s always been worse if I don’t. Flying the standard pattern you’ve done a thousand times is a lot harder to mess up.
 
I’ve found when tired, it’s dark, or a new airport with something tricky about it, flying the pattern reduces the risk of screwing it up considerably. Especially when I’m tired I intentionally avoid a lazy straight in because it’s always been worse if I don’t. Flying the standard pattern you’ve done a thousand times is a lot harder to mess up.
I was at first uncomfortable with straight in approaches, as I'd only practiced in the pattern; my CFI showed me a couple of tricks (mainly to keep altitude until I really needed to get down) and it's never been an issue since.
 
If it helps anyone:

On a return flight (2 hours out, 3.5 hrs back due to headwinds, I had a choice to land straight-in 10 mile final or use the crossing runway.

I had a choice. Straight-in had pretty hefty crosswind. Crossing runway was almost head on winds.

It was night, and a long flight, and I figured I’m already lined up, so we’ll just land. Ugly landing, no damage.

Lesson for myself - don’t be so lazy and ready to land that I don’t take the chip-shot. It was a long day. Worked out ok. Learned something as always.

Side thought: how bad of a pilot am I really when every flight teaches me something. (But I think that’s what keeps flying interesting.

Either your CFI failed to give you the 411 on this or you forgot what they told you.
 
Flying into the crosswind runway gave you a chance to do an "overhead break" so you could look cool like all the 5 striper RV pilots who like to look like the pros.

This makes no sense ... he was straight in, the overhead was not needed and using those maneuvers to get to the wind favored runway would've been the better option for the fatigued OP. I guess it's 'RV bashing" this week rather than Cirrus?o_O:(
 
I was at first uncomfortable with straight in approaches, as I'd only practiced in the pattern; my CFI showed me a couple of tricks (mainly to keep altitude until I really needed to get down) and it's never been an issue since.
I'm comfortable with straight in approaches, but if I'm tired and have concern about my performance on landing, I force myself to fly the pattern and remind myself that going around is better than crashing from forcing a bad situation. I make sure I fight the desire to get down quick because I'm tired. It's a micro-"get-there-itis" situation.
 
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I’ve found when tired, it’s dark, or a new airport with something tricky about it, flying the pattern reduces the risk of screwing it up considerably. Especially when I’m tired I intentionally avoid a lazy straight in because it’s always been worse if I don’t. Flying the standard pattern you’ve done a thousand times is a lot harder to mess up.
Plus one to that. You pull your checklist and run it. Ultra long finals you can get complacent. Like try to land with autopilot engaged - just sayin...
 
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