Glad you cleared that situation and thx for sharing! Great attittude to let us take part of you mistake that could have happened to anybody. I think, one of the main mistakes was a too early retraction of the flaps while you started your go around, this is why you (nearly) stalled.
“Impact terrain” is a little dramatic. “Touch down momentarily on mowed grass in the clear way alongside the runway” works just fine. Otherwise thanks for sharing your valuable experience
03:32 You were pressing the left pedal in fear after the not flaring well pilot error. That is called Pilot Panic Pedal. I learned that syndrome in 1995 from an EFATO CFi that saw that on scared EFATO students AND pilots he tried to teach aerobatics and EFATO. Pilot Panic Pedal. They push the left pedal in fear. They dont remember doing that after. They blame "The wind".
I had a similar kind of day early in my flying days. Bounce to a go around when I had a windshield full of grass... followed by my flap switch getting stuck up, dumping all 40 degrees on the go a few hundred feet off the ground with trees ahead. It woke me up for sure, but my passenger (lunch run) hardly noticed a thing. I'm glad it turned out ok for you!
WELL DONE! AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE! I bounced 3 times on my third solo cross country into the wind off the ocean in Rhode Island. Had to shoot the landing just below TPA due to strong winds. FBO guy told me to relax, get a soda and shake it off. It happens to every pilot.
Thanks for posting. I learned how to fly when I was 19 at Tillamook, ORE.. Now I am 75, and quit flying about 8 years ago with about 1,800 hrs. I was a SEL INST rated PP. I, too, had more than one "meeting with Jesus" while flying. Best of luck with your flying experiences.
too fast, too high, too much power. You need to concentrate on speeds - 90/80/70 over the fence. Get out of the pattern, get to 3500AGL and practice slow flight and get comfortable with approach to landing setups. Not precisely sure about Cardinals, but I'm guessing that from abeam the numbers, you should drop to around 1600-1700 rpm and 1 notch, that should give you the right speeds and around -500fpm descent. You'll get more confidence working on all this at altitude as opposed to just pattern work. Good luck.
A bit of friendly advise. Make sure you’ve let the airspeed to bleed off before the wheels touch the runway. Too fast and the wings will still be doing their job creating lift which makes it very hard to control the A/C. Make sure you’re at your target airspeed when crossing the runway threshold and you landing will be better.
This is how you know you're going to be a good pilot. You assessed and managed to make the right call to add power and go around. A bit more authority on the controls will come and you'll nail it.
Man, your ADM was excellent: you chose to go around as soon as it started porpoising; you got the nose down just enough when it was approaching a stall, even though you were near the ground; and you told tower to stand by while you focused on flying the airplane during the go-around. That's the kind of pilot I like to fly with.
Very very good decisions made to divert to a towered airport with a big runway. Some days are just like this. Lessons learned here will be super useful as you continue your flying adventures :)
If you’re drifting left of centerline, you have to be willing to put more crosswind correction in and KEEP IT IN! Right aileron into the wind while controlling left lateral movement with left rudder.
Don't feel bad. I once landed a 747 in what had to be a wannabe landing strip in the middle of a corn field, was descending too fast and ended up bouncing like a run away basketball and couldn't stop in time and went through a fence. I was so upset with myself I just left it running there and went to bed afterwards. Happens to the best of us.
Thanks for sharing this and impressive job recovering from the balked landing. Lowering the nose so low and with a strange sight picture must've been difficult. You're a good pilot
When you make a mistake that bad (not using the rudder during slow flight along with misjudging your airspeed) it shakes your confidence. If I were this guy I would have gotten out of the pattern for a few minutes to think for a minutes then retry the landing. Glad he's safe and learned something from being a "Bone Head".
ONly go to big runway airports. Small airports with trees or airplane on side You will crash on them. Be brave.. Control it, retract that nervous left foot. Dont freeze and just look at the airplane going to side and grass. CFI aerobatics, Bush Pilots and EFATO 5 kinds.
Dear BG, I´ve just bought a Cardinal and facing the same kind of landings like you, I think in this case you lost all the flying energy to high on the runway and it felt from a couple or 3 feets, may be flare closer to the runway could solve this. Thank you for sharing. I will share you mines.
If you’re carrying extra approach speed for gusts, you have to level off before landing flare, to bleed off the energy. Forcing the plane onto the ground 10 kt over normal touchdown speed causes nosewheel contact, and porpoising, not to mention keeps you from lowering your upwind wing. Now the only way to counter a strong crosswind is to skid the wheels sideways, which stresses your landing gear. The second landing was much slower, and you had better control authority, because you were able to carry power and actually slow the plane behind the power curve. The absolute key to not sucking is confidence in your ability to control the plane in slow flight. I.E., not fearing the stall. Way too many instructors are afraid of stalls. If your instructor has you practicing landings before you master slow-flight, get a different instructor. Master slow flight. Then landings will become a breeze.
Thanks for sharing this ,I like to trim the plane in a slightly nose high on final. It has helped keeping the plane at a approach attitude and prevents less bouncing.
This same situation--bouncing--happened to me one time in the C172. I realized my landing speed was too high at 80 Kt. The best thing you could do is go full throttle and go-around like you did. Once, you manage to start your climb, you MUST keep your nerves under control and try a new clean approach and landing. ATC will always work with you and assist you as much as they can.
I too am thinking about going back to finish my private I started 30 plus years ago..nervous as hell. When your a kid you have no fear, different now as an adult.
Ya, that was a bad landing but not the worst by far. Thank goodness Cessna made such a forgiving plane. I had a three bouncer once while I was a student. And I couldn't find the airport once coming back from the training area. I circled over Disneyland and the controller from Fullerton had to guide me to the airport! This was the 1970's. Now they might shoot me down for that! Anyway when you bounce like that you don't want to let the nose down. You hold it off and let it settle as the airspeed bleeds off. Cessna's are pretty forgiving. If you let a Mooney do that on the third bounce you will get a prop strike every time.
Maybe think of a plane as a glider first of all so when you land it's not about steering into the runway, it's aligning it in glide over the runway and letting it sink onto the runway. basically no power on the engine. When it hard bounces I assume that means you had too much speed or you pitched it into the runway. Let it sink in a glide.
“I chose the longest runway.” But given that the crosswind is what was messing you up, not to mention the wake turbulence from jets also using the longer runway, your better decision would have been to accept 36, given winds of 350@6. You don’t need 8000’ of runway for that plane. That’s not a good decision under the circumstances. It almost cost you everything, including your plane. Learn from that.
From a ADM and risk management perspective, the lesson is to not try to knock out all the cross country requirements in a single flight, especially in weather, and after a nice big lunch that can tire you out and make you sleepy, not to mention fighting a headwind on the way back. A qualifying XC requires 150 nm for all legs, you planned 200+ nm on both legs. That is a grueling plan. Most people do that in three different 150nm flights. Right-size it. Getting greedy and rushing it is needlessly dangerous. That’s what people shouldn’t try, in real life or at home. U42 U14 KDTA would have been more conservative and made more sense, with an option for 41U on the way down or way back instead. Get there, get back, don’t get too far, take the weather out of the picture, similar runway configurations, variety of pattern entrances, etc. I just did it in the sim, it’s a lot funner than an autopilot trip direct to KDTA.
