Landing with a tail wind

stultus

New Member
Was going to go on a XC today but nixed it because of the fires and marine layer and Santa Anas...we've got a little bit of everything here in Socal!

So I went to the airport just to check things out. Wind was a light 5 or 6 knots straight down runway 22. So I decided take the mighty 150 up for a few turns in the pattern, and I get to about 400 ft agl start to turn crosswind and things get pretty bumpy and I realize the winds were a little stronger not too far off the ground. I manage to do reasonably well in the pattern, but have to fight her a little and on final I realize I've got a pretty strong tailwind and have trouble loosing altitude, so I decide early on to go around and shoot her again and double check the windsocks and tetrahedron...sure enough they still indicated 22. Still bumpy kinda bumpy, but I did a lot better bringing her down on this approach, on final I had a tailwind until I'd guess about 100 ft and which point it turned back into a headwind.

Did I do the right thing, or should I have actually landed with the slight tailwind on 4 rather than have the pretty strong tailwind pushing me in until I'm just about on the runway?
 
I think you did the right thing. You probably were experiencing some mechanical turbulence. That stuff can get a little tricky sometimes.

I let the windsock have the final authority when it comes to the actual wind affecting the runway. You did do the right thing to go around and take another look at the situation.

Good situational awareness.
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We were authorixed to land the Dash 8 with a 20 knot tailwind component!!!! But that's another story.

About Socal - no freakin' doubt! We landed in Ontario this morning around 10 and left around 4 - the sky was an eery yellow/gray color, viz was about 3nm in smoke, and the wind went from about 31 knots to 8 at 400 feet agl - from the same direction but an instant and dramatic decrease in velocity. By the time we left the airplane was literally a dark gray color from all of the ash and burnt pine needles that had fallen on it.

Jason
 
Ha I was doing aerobatics today in socal off the coast... it was like spin to the left, watch out for that smoke cloud, recover, line up with that 'horizon' cloud over there, try it again
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Back on the ground, my car's covered in a layer of ash... which means it's cleaner than normal!
 
BTW you did the right thing. I bet SZP can get some pretty wierd winds with that mountain right next to the runway.
 
Ed I was going to call you to see how your flight was today. What was it like - it was so smokey at my house - and now the ash is getting worse!
 
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Still bumpy kinda bumpy, but I did a lot better bringing her down on this approach, on final I had a tailwind until I'd guess about 100 ft and which point it turned back into a headwind.

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Good thing it was'nt the other way around, a headwind turned tailwind.
 
I took off the other day with a horrible quartering tail wind. Nice of the tower to have 5 as the active. Even more nice of them was after watching me blow all over the place make the other 3 aircraft turn around and taxi to another runway.
 
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BTW you did the right thing. I bet SZP can get some pretty wierd winds with that mountain right next to the runway.

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Thanks guys...glad to know I make the right decision every once in a while.

And, yeah, the winds can get squirrelly sometimes (we get to do "the dance" as my old instructor called it) but I've never experienced anything like yesterday.

I went down to SZP again this morning and the field is closed. It's surrounded by fire and the smoke looked pretty nasty
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fortunately, it was blowing south, so my clean car isn't getting ashed
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and my house is safe for now.
 
Here's a question for ya:

End of a long day, its dark, real dark, the WX is down to circling minimums just barely, never been to this airport before, the ILS has a 16Kt. tailwind component, runway is 8003 long. Flying a BE-200.

Q: Do you fly the ILS and land out of it or circle to land?

A: You do a little risk analysis, mitigate the risk best you can and make and live with whatever decision you make. I landed out of the ILS, I accepted the risk of the tailwind in lieu of circling at night in an unfamiliar area at minimums.

BTW: I was suppose to fly into Pasadena today but the company cancelled the trip due to the significant events going on out there. Sorry for all those affected by the fires.
 
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