Pilot, Be Ready !
Pat left a very interesting comment on “How to make good landings in strong winds“. Thank you Pat, and thank you for your blog in French. Pat described his rule for speed increase in strong wind, and closed his comment saying he never fly in more than 20kts.
Safe side and comfort zone
Pat’s attitude towards wind is certainly safe. High winds and light aircrafts are not always friends, and knowing his own limits is definetly a good point. Defining them with figures and condition is even better, as it gets the temptation out of the game.
With such a rule, Pat will always be on the safe side, and he will certainly remain within his comfort zone. No excessive risks, happy pilot, happy passengers.
Are you ready ?
Having clear limits is good on ground. Take-off is always an option, landing not. So what if once in flight you discover that your limits have been exceeded ? Diversion is an option, but if the problematic condition is wind, or visibility, this can affect vast areas, even too far for a diversion.
So sometimes you have to handle conditions outside your comfort zone, no matter if you’re an airline captain or a sunday pilot (don’t you think so, Pat ?). The only way to manage it is… training !
What is THE limit ?
Training is good to extend your comfort zone, but no reasons to fly in 55kts wind gusting at 85kts, particularly when they’re 90 degrees from the runway axis. This silly case is obvious, but what about 45kts ? Huh…. mmmm…. in some valleys this can happen, and be easily flyable, because wind is lined-up with runway, and steady.
Last time I revalidated my IFR rating in Avignon, Mistral wind was blowing at more than 35 kts ! I would may be not do it solo, or for pleasure, but with an instructor / examiner, this was good practice.
Oops, I did it again
So, is my rule broken ? I said that figures get the temptation out of the game, and then that it is sometimes possible to fly when the conditions overcomes the figures. So what ?
Experience. Do I need to say more ? If yes, leave me a comment, I’ll be happy to explain !
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Pat
Thanks for linking to my blog.
I fully agree with you on “sometimes you have to handle conditions outside your comfort zone, no matter if you’re an airline captain or a sunday pilot”. That’s why I keep training!
When wind is too strong for me I fly with an instructor.
This was the case 2 flights ago. Wind was roughly at the crosswind limit of the DR221 and I had a much intersting flight with my instructor.
But usually I don’t do “shaker flights” with passengers, unless unforeseen weather, of course. (but I never fly very far from my base, quite unfortunately…)
Nov 26th, 2007
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