Thread: Go-arounds vs. crow hops

Yesterday I came home to 24kt winds, down the runway but gusty. My 1st 2 attempts looked pretty good until I contacted my mains and then I was 8' in the air again. I did 2 go-aounds but the third attempt was similar and I was tired of flying in the conditions so I hit the throttle for a couple of seconds and regained a good pitch attitude and energy state and landed.

Gusty winds are tough but they do seem to have oportunities between the gusts. I used to fly approaches when winds were up and gusty only to see if I could find a calm enough window to touch down.

I'm not advocating this technique but I am curious if others us it.

when I have to land in gusty winds exceeding 20 kts then I land in 15 or 0 deg flap setting. The nose is higher the less the flaps. 0 and -12 (or -6 for the US) feels a bit like landing a taildragger.
The highest winds I have been landing the CT was 42 kts in Sioux City. landing in -12, 80 kts on short final and watching out for the tremendous wind gradient at these wind speeds. The touch down was no problem and the CT very stable even so it was very gusty. Most sweat was lost while taxiing after the landing to the hangars.
The only time I had a crow-hop landing was when I came in after a glider tow and somehow had dropped the flaps from 30 to 15 and tried to land it like I was in 30. When I check out new pilots int he CT I usually find that a lot of them tend NOT to finish their flare and fly it into the ground a little bit above touchdown speed. The exercise I use to teach the correct flare includes low and overs at 2 ft and landing flaps with different power settings. Basically trying to stretch the flare over a couple of hundred feet.

cheers

Ernst

Hi Ed,
When I land in gusty conditions I have been picked back up, but immediately add power so as not to drop it out from under me. When it is gusty I always land under power with no flaps. Then I get into the brakes a little harder to slow me down quickly. I have been picked back up off the runway before, but immediately add more power level off and slowly reduce power back to the runway. I always carry some extra speed so it doesn't drop out from under me when or if the wind dies down. There is a picture of a Kolb that did this very thing a couple of days ago. To slow an approach and the wind droped and so did he. ooch I have also added power like you for go arounds. Better safe than a crunched plane.