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By Anon
Anonymous poster
#1413514
Pretty horrendous landing, in fact genuinely scared the living day lights out of myself, and thought I'd post my musings, I learnt something, and maybe someone else will (btw, I'm one of the students)

The verdict was "you only made only one mistake, you didn't go around"

Nice stable approach until close to the ground, when a bit of surface crosswind sent me left. So I moved back across the runway with a bit of right rudder, got back to the middle, and kicked it straight too early, and flared too early, way too early, so what did I do then ? I went "this has all gone to pants, go around"

Standard stuff, it happens right ?

THEN, I went to open the throttle, and had just moved it ever so slightly, when I foolishly, looked down the runway, thought "nah, it's fine, I'm on the centreline, and there's plenty of runway" and closed it. Yep, without thinking, (clearly), I slowly closed it because usually at that stage I'm in a hold off, but I wasn't, I was high. (Not crazy high, but high).

Of course, then I got some sink, way too much sink, and I'm not exactly sure what happened, other than I opened some throttle, and got my nose in the air so the mains hit first. During this excitement I'd also moved left again and now landed as if the left edge of the runway, was the centreline. I've typed that as if it happened as some sort of smooth procedure, it definitely wasn't, there was some over controlling, in and out of throttle, and similar for the joke.

I touched down on the left line, small bounce, but kept the nose up and touched down again, (was a very small bounce).

Backtracked the runway for another circuit, whilst considering what had just happened, my right leg started shaking a bit, and so I went back to the apron instead. (plus, I've not had a landing like that before, I wanted to make sure all was ok on the undercarriage)

What I learnt was this.

"GO AROUND"

If at any point, you're not happy, "GO AROUND", if anything isn't quite right "GO AROUND", any reason you like "GO AROUND" then, once you've decided to go around, just do it.

All was ok, and I went out and did another circuit before going home, the landing of which was fine.

It would have, and SHOULD have been my first solo go around, and my first one in earnest. Did I think I was keeping some sort of record ? It's the only thing I can think of putting it down to, what an idiot.

Anyway, you live and learn, I now have the voice of one of the flight instructors in my head saying "GO AROUND, and I can hear him saying it now, and next time I'm in any situation I don't like, if I don't hear him say it in my head, I will. As I thought I was going to get hurt there, just for a second, I thought I'd REALLY messed it up.
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By Rob P
#1413642
We all have.

I have had the luxury of switching to a taildragger 500+ hours in. From Day One I said to myself "I'll always go around if I'm even slightly unhappy" - no mean undertaking with Old Buckenham's QXC-sized circuit.

So the past three years have seen a few dozen go-arounds. Many more that I have ever done in the 25 years before.

Well done for your analysis of what went wrong. You have had a learning experience with no repercussions. That's a gift.

Rob P
By Dominie
#1416992
Landing at the end of a test for re-validation some years ago, the 20,000hr man in the back (that's about 19,700 more than me) waited until I had the Cub skimming the grass and without warning called "go around!" I did so and then in the climb asked "why?" He said "I just wanted to see what you would do". I don't know if he does it on everyone he tests but it was good practice!
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By Gertie
#1417023
Dominie wrote:Landing at the end of a test for re-validation some years ago, the 20,000hr man in the back (that's about 19,700 more than me) waited until I had the Cub skimming the grass and without warning called "go around!" I did so and then in the climb asked "why?"

Instructors do that. I had one recently.

Apparently there are such things as go-around accidents, and they like to see whether you can get them right (if you haven't done one for years maybe they're worried you'll forget the trim change, or something like that?).
By rusty eagle
#1417285
I had to go around a couple of times recently when landing a L4 Cub in gusty conditions. I'm old but not bold.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1417479
I always remember my first trip with Mrs Johnm as passenger and I had three goes at landing at Bembridge! These days go around is always set up on the basis that I might get to minima and have to fly a missed approach.
By ivanmia
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1418656
I remember my first visit to Old Buckenham with my wife. I wasn't happy with the approach so decided to go around. Her comment was "That was a quick visit, I thought we were going to have a coffee" :roll: I agree though, always have a 'go around' option in the forefront of your mind.