Watched Landings

BobDDuck

BobDDuck

Island Bus Driver
Why is it, that when there are 5 aircraft (including 2 FlexJets and an Army chopper), a full ramp AND a control tower watching you make the worst landing ever. 6 HOPS! All on one wheel. I thought I was going to roll over for a seconds. And then you make a perfect greaser with a 10 knot, 30* cross wind but it is at an incontrolled field with no aircraft parked at the ramp and nobody in sight. Oh well. It all happened on my long XC (for ppl) today. 2.6 hours closer to "getting there". Actually I think I learned more on this flight then anything in the past (solo stuff anyways) but as of right now I can't remember any of it. I sure hope it all comes back.

Ethan

Ah, remembered something. Be sure to check that you have an AF/D or something similar with you. They don't list runway numbers on a sectional. I felt sort of silly say "zanesville traffic, 7959G is downwind for runway that is sort of in the 180 to 220 direction."
 
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Ah, remembered something. Be sure to check that you have an AF/D or something similar with you. They don't list runway numbers on a sectional. I felt sort of silly say "zanesville traffic, 7959G is downwind for runway that is sort of in the 180 to 220 direction."

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Glad you learned this early... you are actually required to know before you go, but no one will know whether you do or not until you make a call like that
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you could just say zanesville traffic request runway in use.

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not trying to sound like a di%k here but isn't that what ATIS is made for??
 
Zanesville has an ASOS which give wind, temp, dewpoint, altim and density altitude. I don't know if all ASOSes are like this, but it is actual broadcast over the VOR located on the field. I did try to request the runway in use but there was nobody there. There was a line guy at the FBO but he must have been away from the radio when I called in. Although he was quick to ask if I needed any fuel when I was taxiing in.

Ethan
 
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Why is it, that when there are 5 aircraft (including 2 FlexJets and an Army chopper), a full ramp AND a control tower watching you make the worst landing ever.

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cuz maybe you are super-drooling at the cool airplanes and not minding your own flying
smile.gif
:):) Sorry, couldnt resist.
 
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They don't list runway numbers on a sectional

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Did you circle the field above PA and fly the rw before entering the traffic pattern? You can usually pick up the numbers off of the rw. That is of course if they were painted in the first place. It's probably a mistake you won't make again, but remember you are supposed to be familiar with the fields you will be landing at, rw lengths, direction, etc...

All in all, it sounds like it was a good flight. Congrats. At least you didn't get sick on your XC like I did.
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Point taken... however, I didn't see all of that stuff (well, at least what it actually *was*) until I managed to somewhat stabalize my landing and do the go part of the touch and go. Ok, so it was really touch-touch-touch-BOUNCE-touch-touch and go... but anyhow, to make matters worse, I was cleared for a right hand downwind for departure but I miss understood what the tower had said (because I was still a little shaken from the landing) and started to turn left. So he had to yell at me to turn right so all the pretty/shiny plans taking off behind me and going MUCH faster then I was could take left hand departures. At least I called student pilot on the way in. Otherwise it might have gotten ugly!

Ethan
 
Yup thats Zanesville
Took me a cross-country to figure out that weather is broadcasted over the VOR there.
That's what AFD's are for
 
I almost always do a midfield flyover 500-1000 ft above pattern altitude before entering the pattern at an uncontrolled field if there are no other airplanes around. This allows me to observe the windsock and double check the runway headings if I'm unfamiliar with the airport.

If there are a lot of other airplanes in the pattern, it's still possible to do a windcheck flyover, just be sure you are at least 1000 feet above pattern altitude.

Checking the windsock like this is especially important if you fly a taildragger, as I'm learning.....
 
don't feel too bad bob..

after finishing my instrument rating and starting on my commercial it's been awhile since I've looked out the window flying.. so just last week I went to Jackpot nevada (06U) on a x-c which has an insane approach.. and touched down perfectly with swirling winds.

When I got back to salt lake airport on my landing I had a bad bounce and decided to go around
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(first time telling the tower I was going around)

tower got excited and asked why and if I needed fire trucks.. which I told them no "just had a gust of wind and didn't feel safe about continuing" I'm sure a few captains holding short of the runway had a good laugh on my part..
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basically that really ruined my day/week so i'm going to fly with a cfi and master my aircraft again..

to sum it up you'll lose it and gain it back time to time just have to keep at it but be prepared to go through that again hope you/we get better

Matthew
 
The stupidity of your action is directly proportional to the number of people watching you!

One of those laws ...
 
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Ah, remembered something. Be sure to check that you have an AF/D or something similar with you. They don't list runway numbers on a sectional. I felt sort of silly say "zanesville traffic, 7959G is downwind for runway that is sort of in the 180 to 220 direction."

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Next time tell them you are "landing south".
 
AFter 50 hours of instrument work my landings had become absolutely attrocious....200 hr pilot bouncing her in, flaring too high at night, floating 2/3rds of a 5000ft runway.....it happens to us all.....ive seen some pretty bad landings and made some pretty bad ones....dont be embarrassed...just learn from your mistakes.
 
I wasn't really embarrassed by it... More annoyed that I had done it. Although I have been told by several people that PKB has some of the toughest xwinds east of the rockies, even when the wind is hardly blowing. I guess I'll agree with that. The point I think I was making is something like what JT said... The bigger the audience, the dumber (bigger) the mistake. Oh well, I'll just chalk it up to a learning experience.

Ethan
 
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Why is it, that when there are 5 aircraft (including 2 FlexJets and an Army chopper), a full ramp AND a control tower watching you make the worst landing ever. 6 HOPS! All on one wheel. I thought I was going to roll over for a seconds. And then you make a perfect greaser with a 10 knot, 30* cross wind but it is at an incontrolled field with no aircraft parked at the ramp and nobody in sight. Oh well. It all happened on my long XC (for ppl) today. 2.6 hours closer to "getting there". Actually I think I learned more on this flight then anything in the past (solo stuff anyways) but as of right now I can't remember any of it. I sure hope it all comes back.

Ethan

Ah, remembered something. Be sure to check that you have an AF/D or something similar with you. They don't list runway numbers on a sectional. I felt sort of silly say "zanesville traffic, 7959G is downwind for runway that is sort of in the 180 to 220 direction."

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Just tell them you just wanted to work on your saves for when you start flight instructing!
smirk.gif
 
I do that with a friend of mine sometimes. Nothing that is unrecoverable or unsafe, and most of the time we set a "floor" at altitude to recover at or before.
 
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