Oh no, not another landings post....

[Don D Cake]

Sorry about this but I need some advice....

I have 30 hours of dual and 2 hours of solo with about 100 landings logged. I'm doing solo circuits at the moment. Last Sat I was trundling around the circuit in a PA28, there was a xwind of about 7 kts, 30-40 deg to the left of the runway centre line. The first few landings were fine, I crabbed to the left on final, raised the nose to roundout, applied some right rudder to correct the yaw and a little left aileron to stop the drift. Float, float, float then touchdown. So far so good. The last landing was horrible. I was a couple of feet above the runway when the aircraft suddenly yawed left. Before I could correct it I touched down and (so it seemed at the time) I was hurtling towards the grass at the runway's edge. I didn't know how well PA28s take corners so I applied just enough right rudder to straighten up (I'm sure I heard the nose wheel scrubbing) and as I slowed down I re-found the runway centre line.

I can only guess that either there was a change of wind velocity just at the wrong moment or I completely miscontrolled the landing. My instructor told me not to worry about it but I am. Am I being overly concerned or could/does this happen to even experienced pilots?

[FlyingForFun]

Your instructor is right - don't worry about it. With only a couple of hours of solo time, you can't expect your landings to be consistent yet. In fact, I'm not sure I know of any pilot who would claim their landings are consistent. One of my instructors once told me that he could always predict whether his landings would be good or not - if he said to a student "watch, I'll show you how it should be done" he could guarantee a bad landing!

The most important thing to remember is it's never too late to go around. Even after the wheels have touched. I also screwed up a cross-wind landing like that - but I did it on my skills test. Realised it was going wrong just as the wheels were about to touch. Added power, the mains touched down, lowered the nose enough that she didn't leap into the air without enough airspeed, and went around. The examiner commented that with a bit more experience, I'd have been able to recover, but that since I wasn't confident I could recover, going around was exactly the right thing to do. And he passed me, too!

A change of wind velocity very close to the ground isn't uncommon, although if this is the field you regularly fly from, it's strange that you hadn't noticed it before. Maybe the wind was from a different angle to usual? Ask an instructor who's been flying from that airfield for a while if it's common. But sometimes a gust hits you, things start to go pear-shaped, and there's nothing you can do to anticipate it. The more you fly, the more times this will happen, and the better you'll become at recognising and fixing it.

Apart from that, the fact that you seem to have been aware of what was happening the whole time is a very good sign. When I had about 30 hours, my landings consisted of flaring a bit and seeing how bumpy the landing was - I wasn't sufficiently aware at that stage to really understand what was happening. And I didn't really gain that awareness until I started flying tail-draggers. So it sounds like you're doing fine - keep it up! :)

FFF
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[Who has control?]

I sound as though you encountered our old friend windshear.

You were happily compensating for a wind from the left, which suddenly vanished. The effect was as you described - quick piroutte to the left, sudden contact with the runway.

It happens to us all. I've just about mastered getting the new aircraft onto tarmac when I did my first grass landinglast weekends. And boy did I bounce!

[Don D Cake]

Thanks for the feedback, I feel a lot happier now. I thought about going around, I always do on a balloon or bounce, but I immediately discounted that option as I was on the runway and facing the wrong way so to speak. The airfield's Cambridge, I haven't flown a great deal there as most of my training has been done at Luton - they don't allow student solos there.

[Circuit Basher]

Seems like you've had the advice that should help sort it out.

Here's a little more light-hearted advice:

Letter to Captain (http://groups.msn.com/CircuitBasher/funnies.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=20)