What would you have done???
Hi All,
I had an interesting flight the other day. Everything went according to plan until the moment I was cleared to land. I was returning to base after the usual precision and non precision approaches in piper Seneca I. I had planned for flapless landing jst for fun, I was cleared to land on 10, I did my checks trimmed the aircraft to 100mph passed the MDA.
I was 100 ft below the MDA and 200ft above the touch down zone when the controller tells me to land and stop before the intersection of 18 (which is only 180m from threshold) uses break break and instructs other aircraft to depart from 36. Before I could intervene the other aircraft said rolling. And the radio went busy with othe calls.
I didnt know what to do, I had a lot of thots but only a second to decide. The main reason for my stress was that the aircraft requires 210m of runways with full flaps to come to complete stop (according to POH) and the intersection was about 180 m away and I was flapless.
I pulled the three notches of flaps (in stages while maintaining pressure on the control) landed on the numbers and used max breaking... i had roughly 30 m to spare and there it was, another seneca lifting off the ground right in front of me.
I had to make decision and I chose to land... i dont know if it was right decision but i had taken this decision on the basis of the following thoughts that popped up in my mind in that fraction of second.
1 what if I dont stop before the intersection and the other aircraft doesnt lift off or executes a rejected t/o
2 should I cross the intersection and land, that way I would have plenty of runway to stop, but what if he lifts off and collides right into me
3 if I execute a missed approach and dont get enough power to climb away then I might crash into him or I will have higher speed to deal with and thus creating a greater chance of 1 to happen.
Guys please comment on what I should have done to mitigate the risk, would it have been better if I had chosen to Go-Around. The reason I am asking is bcoz, I have been taught that one is committed to land once DA or MDA is passed. I would appreciate your point of views.