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Wind sheer and flying a light aircraft

bpost
I wish I had the writing skills of mrmike and don mcmanus, but alas I don't so here it goes.
I flew yesterday after the Blue Angles went by Holzer Hospital, Gallipolis OH onto Point Pleasant Hospital WV.  It was cool seeing F-16's flying at 350 KTS (402.5 MPH).  A Cessna like I own and fly is going about 125 MPH.
Anyway, My buddy and I decided that such a nice day deserved us in the air too.  We too off out of runway 23 at KGAS airport with a slight cross wind for a touring flight to nowhere since all destination airports have attractions closed due to the China Virus BS.  I quickly noticed that below 2,500 AGL the turbulence was medium to uncomfortable .  When I came in to land after about an hour of just tooling around,  a gusting cross wind and huge thermals caused my stabilized decent to be an issue.
I was too high from the perspective of a pilot landing.  The speed was too high but time permitted me to bleed excess energy before the end of the run way.  I had the yoke pushed forward and was not really losing much altitude, I was about 2 miles from the end of runway 23.  I finally got 30 degrees of flap in and felt like I would be okay with this sink rate.
As I got to the railroad bridge about 3/4 mile from the Airport my airspeed went to down from a bit over 87 (80 is ideal)  towards 60 MPH real fast.  It was very unnerving to see an instantaneous, split second change like this.  I had to add a LOT of power and pull back on the yoke quickly to arrest the decent and not land on OH 35 making a fireball in the process, with me in the middle of it.
My buddy had landed a few minutes before me and had not experienced the wind sheer I did.  Now I understand how sinking air can cause an aircraft to hit the ground long before it intended to.  
Training kicked in at this time, the rule is always "fly the aircraft".  This training hit me just a second after my decent suddenly accelerated into a pending fireball.  I had just filled the fuel tanks and had only burned about 10 gallons off. 
If I had not reacted it could have made the papers, and not in a good way.
I hate to say it but the FAA requirements for earning a Pilot Certificate are written in blood and there for a good reason.  The landing was text book perfect in spite of the gusting cross winds.  I was tickled pink at the response over 500 hours in a Cessna 172 instilled in me. 
Flying is awesome and inspiring, nothing else can take you so close to God and his glory without being with Jesus.  God also reminds us from time to time that Mother Nature is a beioch, we winds will do as they do.


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Comments

16 comments

Date Votes
  • Butchdog2
    Mama says "always take a long a clean pair of underwear you might have an accident"!
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  • pulsarnc

    Glad you made it down in one piece and walked away 😅. Wind has a mind of it’s own at times . Flying is the most fun I have ever had with all my clothes on! That said , crosswinds landings can really test a pilots skills or lack thereof .

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  • Don McManus
    Great work, Bruce.
    A wind gust will do interesting things 2,000 Lb. of aircraft.
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  • NeoBlackdog
    Having seen and dealt with the results of a small aircraft suddenly turning into so much scrap metal and a fireball I want to tell you that I am VERY pleased that you made it down safe and sound, Bruce.    That experience is 30+ years old and still wakes me up at night.   
    Nice flyin'!
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  • mohawk600
    pulsarnc said:

    Glad you made it down in one piece and walked away 😅. Wind has a mind of it’s own at times . Flying is the most fun I have ever had with all my clothes on! That said , crosswinds landings can really test a pilots skills or lack thereof .

    skydiving is more funner..............100+ jumps here.......and I have seen naked jumps.......nothing like seeing titties flap in 150mph wind....lol
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  • Butchdog2
    Please include eye bleach with that comment.
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  • select-fire
    Don't mess with Mother Nature.
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  • SCOUT5
    That's why it's good to be good at what you do.
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  • pulsarnc

    Daddy was with the 82nd Airborne in WW2 . He said that they came around in basic looking volunteers for jump school . The paid an extra $30 a month . To a farm boy from eastern NC , that was more cash money than he had ever seen so he signed up . Said that he never did understand why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane 😀

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  • gruntled2
    I have a private pilot's license (airplane single engine land & glider) but it has been so long since I have flown that I have never had a bi-annual flight exam. I put on too much weight to be able to fly with two people in any two place aircraft or glider & besides I decided it was too expensive just to go for coffee & I don't like coffee anyway. Still I am glad I did it & I cherish the memories. I was about to buy an ultralight when the entire light aviation industry suddenly crashed & burned in the 70s.
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  • allen griggs
    I have many hours in ultralights and I have owned two of them.  I have even more hours in hang gliders.

    Glad you made it to earth safely the Sky Gods are not forgiving of errors.
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  • KenK/84Bravo

    Glad you are safe Bruce. Well done Sir.

    So I take it the Pucker factor was rather high? 😉

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  • Rocky Raab
    Sounds like not sinking air, but a tailwind gust. A 20-knotter will indeed get your attention at approach speed and altitude! Good thing you were in a plane with instant throttle response and low wing loading. 
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  • kannoneer
    I have been watching paramotor videos for quite some time. Now that is flying!
    Check out Tucker Gott on YouTube.
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  • bpost

    Glad you are safe Bruce. Well done Sir.

    So I take it the Pucker factor was rather high? 😉


    Actually, not really, in the second it took to go from a controlled decent into a holy crapola where is my airspeed I just reacted.  It was after landing that I was able to piece together what had happened.  FLY THE AIRCRAFT took over in an instant.  Hell the motor could have fallen off and I would still FLY THE AIRCRAFT.  :)  The time for pucker factor is when you are on the ground and looking back.
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  • SW0320
    pulsarnc said:

    Glad you made it down in one piece and walked away 😅. Wind has a mind of it’s own at times . Flying is the most fun I have ever had with all my clothes on! That said , crosswinds landings can really test a pilots skills or lack thereof .

    Agree on making it down safely.  I have watched many times when a pilot had to do crabbing or slipping during landings and I am always amazed to watch the landing.  I can only imagine you have the hair on the back of your neck standing up until those wheels touch down.
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