Airdale
Well-Known Member
Good afternoon folks. Not sure which part of the forum would be good for this topic, so I figured I 'd post it up here for the professionals.
I am currently on the Solo Cross Country phase of my primary flight training, with a total of 22 hours of flight time in a CE-172. I have a problem, a fear or anxiety you might call it, for gusting wind conditions, especially a crosswind. Here's how it started.
I went for my first solo x-country last week, a trip of 56nm along the coast of Florida to Georgia. The weather brief I obtained called for VFR conditions, with winds around 8 knots from the North until 11:00am, at which time the winds would pick up and blow 15 knts gusting to 24. My flight departed at 8:00am, leaving me plenty of time to complete the trip prior to the forecasted winds moving in. When I was 15 miles from my destination, the AWOS indictated 7knt winds from 030. I entered the pattern for rnwy 7 (airport only has one rnwy). Everything was looking good until I turned final. The wind was definitely not 7 knts as reported. I was getting blown sideways considerably and wind shear was making my task of mainting 60knts on final very very difficult. I flew the approach a little faster than normal to compensate for the wind and try to keep the aircraft under positive control. I had a good crab angle, and once I approached the threshold I switched to the wing low method and once with in the proper distance of the rnwy, I began to flare to bleed off excess speed. During the flare my crosswind correction was not enough to keep the airplane tracking center and I immediately began trying to keep the ground track straight so I didnt' side load the main gear. I touched down just right of centerline on the downwind wheel first as the wind grabbed my low wing and forced the right main on the ground. I immediately went full left aileron, and "forced" the airplane onto the ground to prevent a ground loop. Once the mains were down I lowered the nose wheel and a gust of wind once again picked up the upwind wing and lifted the wheel off, while I still have full left aileron. So I forced it down again and had to "dance" on the pedals to maintain directional control. To sum it up, it was a scary experience at the time and even though I handled it well ( I maintained control), it literally scared me. I foresaw myself doing a crazy ground loop and becoming a statistic for the NTSB.
Even though I was able to battle the wind and safely land the aircraft without damaging it, this even has me very timid with wind conditions. Anything near 10kts. and I get nervous. Since then, I have flown 2.5 hrs of x-country and I've had some minor crosswind conditions in which I have done okay with. Today I took off for a long x-country and turned back when I heard my first destination report steady winds at 9kts, peak gusts of 16. I landed safely back at the departure airport but I feel as though I need to overcome this fear of flying solo in crosswind/gusting conditions. I spent almost 2hrs with an instructor training in a 15kt crosswind, and I did very well, but flying solo I get anxiety about these wind conditions. I feel as though I made the right decision today to discontinue the flight because I didn't feel comfortable with those winds, but at the same time I feel like if I'm going to be a commercial pilot, I need to face the wind and deal with it.
Your thoughts? Sorry for the long post, just trying to figure out if what I'm feeling is the normal for where I'm at in my training. Thanks
Airdale
I am currently on the Solo Cross Country phase of my primary flight training, with a total of 22 hours of flight time in a CE-172. I have a problem, a fear or anxiety you might call it, for gusting wind conditions, especially a crosswind. Here's how it started.
I went for my first solo x-country last week, a trip of 56nm along the coast of Florida to Georgia. The weather brief I obtained called for VFR conditions, with winds around 8 knots from the North until 11:00am, at which time the winds would pick up and blow 15 knts gusting to 24. My flight departed at 8:00am, leaving me plenty of time to complete the trip prior to the forecasted winds moving in. When I was 15 miles from my destination, the AWOS indictated 7knt winds from 030. I entered the pattern for rnwy 7 (airport only has one rnwy). Everything was looking good until I turned final. The wind was definitely not 7 knts as reported. I was getting blown sideways considerably and wind shear was making my task of mainting 60knts on final very very difficult. I flew the approach a little faster than normal to compensate for the wind and try to keep the aircraft under positive control. I had a good crab angle, and once I approached the threshold I switched to the wing low method and once with in the proper distance of the rnwy, I began to flare to bleed off excess speed. During the flare my crosswind correction was not enough to keep the airplane tracking center and I immediately began trying to keep the ground track straight so I didnt' side load the main gear. I touched down just right of centerline on the downwind wheel first as the wind grabbed my low wing and forced the right main on the ground. I immediately went full left aileron, and "forced" the airplane onto the ground to prevent a ground loop. Once the mains were down I lowered the nose wheel and a gust of wind once again picked up the upwind wing and lifted the wheel off, while I still have full left aileron. So I forced it down again and had to "dance" on the pedals to maintain directional control. To sum it up, it was a scary experience at the time and even though I handled it well ( I maintained control), it literally scared me. I foresaw myself doing a crazy ground loop and becoming a statistic for the NTSB.
Even though I was able to battle the wind and safely land the aircraft without damaging it, this even has me very timid with wind conditions. Anything near 10kts. and I get nervous. Since then, I have flown 2.5 hrs of x-country and I've had some minor crosswind conditions in which I have done okay with. Today I took off for a long x-country and turned back when I heard my first destination report steady winds at 9kts, peak gusts of 16. I landed safely back at the departure airport but I feel as though I need to overcome this fear of flying solo in crosswind/gusting conditions. I spent almost 2hrs with an instructor training in a 15kt crosswind, and I did very well, but flying solo I get anxiety about these wind conditions. I feel as though I made the right decision today to discontinue the flight because I didn't feel comfortable with those winds, but at the same time I feel like if I'm going to be a commercial pilot, I need to face the wind and deal with it.
Your thoughts? Sorry for the long post, just trying to figure out if what I'm feeling is the normal for where I'm at in my training. Thanks
Airdale