Coopere
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2015
- Messages
- 713
- Reaction score
- 163
went flying in the aztec today, and long story short I was coming in to land at my home airport and I knew because of the windy conditions I should increase the approach speed and I did, I was 100mph over the fence instead of 86mph as the book said, I was fairly heavy about 4650lbs gross...
due to the way the trees are parallel along the runway about 300-500 ft away I was expecting to have some turbulence as usual. the wind was about 12 - 15 kts gusting 20 (not from my field but from the closest metar some 15 miles away) the wind sock showed about a 60 degree cross wind at around 12kts...
in the flare i seemed to encounter some major decreasing performance windshear that resulted in a hard landing, landed fairly flat but I believe the mains hit first then the nose, my gut reaction once I felt the airplane sink was to raise the nose and protect the nose wheel It happened very quickly last airspeed I saw was 86mph and that should have been fine... If it was a normal landing I would say I was about 2-4 seconds from touchdown probably 1ft off the runway surface, but she sunk pretty fast
it was a firm plant onto the runway, with a clunk, no bounce, no skid or anything to indicate damage from the landing, I'm not used to this type of landing at all, generally my friends and family often ask if I have actually landed, I have gotten very skilled at greasing landings in the aztec, even my instructors for my multi ifr have commented that I seem skilled at the task,
I have to say out of 4 years of flying this machine and some 260hrs on her this was by far the worst landing I have made, ego bruising for sure, I expect more from my self and hold myself to a high standard in general plus I generally baby her...
that said I did a very through post landing inspection, no flat tires, no leaking oleo fluid, no flat oleo's, no bent parts visible from laying on my back looking up into the wheel wells, the gear actuators are tight and normal no play in anything that I can find without pulling the upper cowling and turtle deck covers, no hydraulic fluid ect...
from what I see, I can't find anything that is not normal... is their anything else I should check before another flight?
its probably fine, but I'm likely posting simply as a sanity check, I'm sure people have landed way harder than this, just for me it was pretty bad, kinda like hitting a speed bump in a car with a loud clunk...
I think this eventually happens to everyone, I just haven't had a bad landing yet and today I guess was my day....
live and learn..
advice welcome, next time I'm coming in wicked hot....
thanks guys
Eric
due to the way the trees are parallel along the runway about 300-500 ft away I was expecting to have some turbulence as usual. the wind was about 12 - 15 kts gusting 20 (not from my field but from the closest metar some 15 miles away) the wind sock showed about a 60 degree cross wind at around 12kts...
in the flare i seemed to encounter some major decreasing performance windshear that resulted in a hard landing, landed fairly flat but I believe the mains hit first then the nose, my gut reaction once I felt the airplane sink was to raise the nose and protect the nose wheel It happened very quickly last airspeed I saw was 86mph and that should have been fine... If it was a normal landing I would say I was about 2-4 seconds from touchdown probably 1ft off the runway surface, but she sunk pretty fast
it was a firm plant onto the runway, with a clunk, no bounce, no skid or anything to indicate damage from the landing, I'm not used to this type of landing at all, generally my friends and family often ask if I have actually landed, I have gotten very skilled at greasing landings in the aztec, even my instructors for my multi ifr have commented that I seem skilled at the task,
I have to say out of 4 years of flying this machine and some 260hrs on her this was by far the worst landing I have made, ego bruising for sure, I expect more from my self and hold myself to a high standard in general plus I generally baby her...
that said I did a very through post landing inspection, no flat tires, no leaking oleo fluid, no flat oleo's, no bent parts visible from laying on my back looking up into the wheel wells, the gear actuators are tight and normal no play in anything that I can find without pulling the upper cowling and turtle deck covers, no hydraulic fluid ect...
from what I see, I can't find anything that is not normal... is their anything else I should check before another flight?
its probably fine, but I'm likely posting simply as a sanity check, I'm sure people have landed way harder than this, just for me it was pretty bad, kinda like hitting a speed bump in a car with a loud clunk...
I think this eventually happens to everyone, I just haven't had a bad landing yet and today I guess was my day....
live and learn..
advice welcome, next time I'm coming in wicked hot....
thanks guys
Eric
