onwards
Pattern Altitude
So flew out to o28 yesterday to pick up my daughter from camp...
It has been awhile since I had to do a go around, but goodness me, that's a crazy strip to land into!
It looks pretty tame, really - on top of a hill, very clear, has a bit of a bump in the middle so you can't really see one end from the other, but it's a decent size.
It was on my first approach that I realized it has been a long time since I had to deal with constant gusty winds in seemingly from all directions at once, at speeds varying from a few to a few tens of knots. I tried my best to get a good approach in, but was fighting like a madman just to keep anywhere near center line, and eventually ditched and went around vowing to do better on the next attempt.
Aimed lower and faster this time - less flaps, more speed - and got down to flare height still dancing the macarena on the controls. Holy crap, that place is nuts. I ended up having to slam it on the ground, hard enough to take a small bounce, throttle out, flaps up, and brakebrakebrake because the runway looked like it was ending and I forgot about it not being visible end-to-end.
Ended up stopping the plane comfortably 1000 ft off the edge
felt rather silly when I taxied to the ramp.
A couple of locals were working on a plane... I went to chat with them and mentioned my less than graceful landing, and one of them looks at me, laughs and says "yeah, well, welcome to Willits!" showed me the topography from the ground which made perfect sense for why it's so nutty coming in.
It has been awhile since I had to do a go around, but goodness me, that's a crazy strip to land into!
It looks pretty tame, really - on top of a hill, very clear, has a bit of a bump in the middle so you can't really see one end from the other, but it's a decent size.
It was on my first approach that I realized it has been a long time since I had to deal with constant gusty winds in seemingly from all directions at once, at speeds varying from a few to a few tens of knots. I tried my best to get a good approach in, but was fighting like a madman just to keep anywhere near center line, and eventually ditched and went around vowing to do better on the next attempt.
Aimed lower and faster this time - less flaps, more speed - and got down to flare height still dancing the macarena on the controls. Holy crap, that place is nuts. I ended up having to slam it on the ground, hard enough to take a small bounce, throttle out, flaps up, and brakebrakebrake because the runway looked like it was ending and I forgot about it not being visible end-to-end.
Ended up stopping the plane comfortably 1000 ft off the edge
felt rather silly when I taxied to the ramp.A couple of locals were working on a plane... I went to chat with them and mentioned my less than graceful landing, and one of them looks at me, laughs and says "yeah, well, welcome to Willits!" showed me the topography from the ground which made perfect sense for why it's so nutty coming in.
