Best of Aviation 2022
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I really enjoy these short Av minutes! As a GA pilot, I've only had two incidents that really scared me, a downdraft on final over the ocean, where I thought I was going into the drink! It was so severe I almost hit my head on the top of the cockpit and my seatbelt was on, and a wind-shear just over the numbers as I was landing that blew me clear off the runway and almost into a barb-wire fence! But I quickly got control both times and landed. I didn't even get shaky until later, after I had landed and realized what could have happened! At 3:40 Somehow, this reminds of when a very good friend of mine has received his (I think it's called) Single Engine Solo Rating. He took me for a flight from Rockhampton (Australia) to Blackwater, about a 400km round trip. We landed at Blackwater fine, and spent half an hour on the ground. The Blackwater airport was located next to a new open-cut coal mine area. We took off in a fairly strong crosswind which wasn't a problem, and as we ascended and made a turn to the East, we saw a giant, thick cloud of black and grey dust blow from the mine across the runway. The mine had blasted overburden just as we took off. If we'd been a minute later taking off, I'd bet the engine would have choked in that cloud. When we got back to Rockhampton, there was a 17-knot cross-wind, and we were in a little thing rated for 15-knots. He landed anyway. And it was eventful! I don't know about you, but when your pilot yells "Woah!" as a gust of wind catches the aircraft just as wheels hit the ground and throws the little single-engined Cessna sideways, and it near wing-strikes the runway, I'd call that eventful. But hey, any landing is a good landing.
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