True Confessions
This page is dedicated to allowing pilots to tell their tale of getting away with something that could have cost them their plane, their license, or their life.
The postings are intended to be informative, and cautionary to others. The submitter may identify themselves, or post anonymously by allowing one of the moderators to place the text on the page, thus preventing others from looking in the "History" of the Wiki to see who made a particular modification.
Please take the stories in the spirit they are offered, that we might all learn from someone's mistake and thus avoid putting ourselves in that position in the future.
There is no shame in a go-around!
I had just entered the downwind with a bit of extra speed due to merging with a couple of people in the pattern doing touch and go's. On final, I still had a little more speed than usual, but plenty of runway, so no worries. (Some of you already know what happened next). The mains touched down perfectly, and I lowered the nose. Then "bounce", I'm in the air again, (rebound from the nose wheel). Oh no, the dreaded porpoise! My first thought was of my instructor telling me there is no shame in going around. I thought I might have it under control (my bad), but then it bounced again. At this time, the emails I had read on the Gang kicked in. In particular, I remembered reading one "experienced" contributor's email about putting the throttle to the wall in a bad situation and how no face lost in a go around, but much face is lost in a botched landing. So I throttled-up and went around. My daughter was my passenger and she was laughing at the bouncing, "can we do it again". This was much better than me crying over a bent aircraft.
Should have gone around, but didn't...
My story also concerns go-arounds - the one I should have made and did not. Soloed but not yet licensed, I'd spent the day practicing crosswind landings. Hopped over to a nearby field, hillier and different terrain than my home field. On descent to the runway, it's rough and wild. Too wild for my skill level. Just before touchdown, correcting for left crosswind, I notice the two windsocks, one at each end of the field, pointing in different directions. Right at touchdown, suddenly it's all from the right. My nose swings hard left as the wheels touch and just like that I'm off the runway, into a shallow field of small boulders separating the taxiway from the runway. A few wild bounces later, somehow without dragging a wing or flipping, the plane bounds out of the boulder field onto the taxiway. The only physical damage was one torn wheelpant. What really suffered was my confidence. After waiting for the winds to subside, I somehow took off and got it home, but resolved never to fly again. Thank God for my mature, experienced instructor. He told me some of his own true confessions, and dogged me to get back in the cockpit. I'm licensed now, and deeply grateful for the chance to keep learning. Many successful go arounds later, I have a healthy respect for crosswinds and for the wisdom of going around.
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