This contributor had a scary encounter with a slippery runway
Name withheld by request
On a cold winter morning, I departed the Yarra Valley (Victoria) in my Jabiru J120, initially headed to land at an unfamiliar airfield near Tyabb to drop off something I had sold to a fellow aviator.
The buyer had emailed me some airfield information and said the preferred landing direction was from the east. I armed Ozrunways with the lat/long of the airfield and headed off. It was not far, perhaps 20 minutes at the most. When Ozrunways said I was close to the unfamiliar airfield, I still hadn’t seen it. I was already at circuit height when I suddenly did see it, a grass east-west runway, and it didn’t look overly long. I did spot the windsock but I pretty much ignored it because the guy I was meeting up with had said to approach from the east.
As it turned out, the wind at that location was fairly strong, blowing from the east, which I hadn’t noticed at first. I joined the circuit on the crosswind leg for 27, then downwind (all the usual checks) but turned base way too early. This was soon compounded by the tailwind once I turned final—but I ignored the wind direction. I was totally focused on landing from the east, as I had been told, and didn’t consider other landing options. Of course, since I had a tailwind, I had a much higher groundspeed than usual on final approach. There was no way I was even going to come close to landing unless I pushed the nose harshly and, if I did that, airspeed would have been through the roof. I just said to myself, well, messed that one up badly, no harm done, apply go-around power, clean the plane up and climb back to circuit height.
I decided to fly a much longer downwind leg so I would have more time to set myself up correctly. However, at that time, I still hadn’t given any consideration to the fact that I would have a tailwind and, consequently, a much faster approach. My approach on final on this second attempt was much more on track to where I should be.
As I rounded out and touched the ground, I was still too fast and the grass was short and wet. The runway was sooo slippery that my Jabiru slid from side to side. Braking was useless and my aircraft just slid all over the place; I’d never felt anything like it in 20 years of flying—I barely had any control at all.
It was a short runway with tall trees and power lines at the end. I only had a split second to decide if I was going to continue to try to stop the aircraft or apply power and go around.
I determined I was going to smash into the trees at the end—there was just no way to stop in time. I decided to apply full power and try to climb out and hopefully clear the power lines. My Jabiru only has one stage of flap for take-off and two for landing. Since I was slip-sliding away when I applied go-around power, I still had both stages of flap out; yet I dare not withdraw flaps for fear of that associated drop and crashing onto those power lines. As I flew over the power lines, I was close, really close and I couldn’t believe I’d found myself in that situation. I was pulling back on the stick as much as I could to climb at the max rate without stalling it. I was just waiting for the wheels to hit the power lines as the ASI showed 40 knots but, as luck would it, I cleared them. Once cleared I pulled one stage of flap and lowered the nose to build up some airspeed.
Fortunately, the land ahead wasn’t hilly. As the airspeed increased, I raised the remaining stage of flaps. Then, having got normal airspeed back, I climbed back up to circuit height, very mindful of what had just happened. Calming myself and regaining my thoughts, I flew a very long downwind leg before turning base. I still didn’t give the wind direction a thought—I just thought the landing was so terrible due solely to the soaking wet grass.
I turned to long final and made sure I slowed the plane right down and crossed the threshold at a lower than usual airspeed. On landing it was still slippery but nothing like the previous attempt. I applied brakes successfully and stopped the aircraft before running out of runway.
I turned the plane around and taxied up to the guy who was waiting for me, also a pilot. As I taxied by the windsock, I only realised that I was landing on a short runway, with wet grass, with a tailwind. Ohhhhh, now I see. The guy said, ‘I thought you’d see the windsock direction as you flew overhead and approach into the wind from the west.’
Of course, he was right, but I was more focused on finding the airfield than I was in truly observing the wind direction. As a consequence, I very nearly paid a big price.
Have you had a close call? Write to us about an aviation incident or accident that you have been involved in (as long as it’s not the subject of a current official investigation). If we publish your story, you will receive $500. Articles should be between 450 and 1400 words. Submit your close call by emailing fsa@casa.gov.au and your story could be published like this one and others in our close calls collection.
Oh dear. Twenty years flying and you land downwind. No wonder you withheld your name. I would be embarrassed too
Simon Philip Bromiley are you any relations to Walter??
20 years flying doesn’t necessarily equate to many flying hours or a variety of flying conditions and landing at different airfields . We all live and learn with a bit of luck.. Sometimes Lady Luck does shine as she did this time, just as well
Nobody could be as consistently negative as Walter, Walter must be Gods gift to aviation and the only pilot never to have made a mistake.
Just unfathomable that this guy is still alive! One day we surely will be reading about him in a not so lucky outcome! The most basic of airmanship/ decision making was lacking here! 20 years he’s learned very little!
I see the usual,suspects are here, my many fans -:) sad life you guys lead when you pursue every post I add, sheep are prolific in here but I guess we are in Australia
Thanks for sharing your experience, not matter what it is one of us can learn from it, we all can make a mistake or two here and there, which I am sure most of us have had in the past, but sharing it is great, and I enjoy reading them. Obviously you have learned invaluably from this near disaster. We all are only human and we ALL do make mistakes… Again thanks for sharing….If no-one shared we would not have this site to see everyone’s stuff ups that some of us can learn from…
When wind direction changes suddenly, good plans need to be changed quickly.
On a very long final from the west at Archerfield, ATIS indicated a downwind leg and landing to the west. The afternoon sea breeze then arrived and the TWR advised a change of runway / direction thus straight-approach! C210 full flap enabled me to reach threshold speed without need to request orbit to wash off now-excess airspeed.
Hope this example shows how quickly wind direction can change and how quickly runway change is necessary!
Good also that another pilot drew attention to this issue from another perspective.
Kudos to you, for sharing what could have been a tragic outcome but in the end was just a major embarrassment. Back in the pre GPS/OZ Runways era, I too have “fixated” on a planned arrival direction and got it wrong. Luckily I have always tried to land just after the threshold, so had a nice long runway to stop on – I was very red faced and a little shaky when disembarking my passenger. That was the day I learnt that wind can & does change direction from that forecast/expected. Now, I always overfly the airstrip, not only to check the windsock but also to do a general pre landing strip check. Now in the “electronic” era I also find doing a quick ground/airspeed speed check, will help with landing management.
“I was pulling back on the stick as much as I could to climb at the max rate without stalling it. I was just waiting for the wheels to hit the power lines as the ASI showed 40 knots but, as luck would it, I cleared them.”
Just out of interest, what is the Max Rate and Max Angle of climb speeds in the Jabiru?
considerably higher than 40kts.
Vs 51
Vso 47
Vx Vy 65/68
Man, this guy was lucky.
You pulled up until l the ASI showed what?!. 40 knots? Gosh. Please, please, please DO NOT PULL BACK any more that the maximum angle of climb speed.
Vx is the slowest (IAS), and is the Maximum ANGLE of climb. It allows one to climb to altitude within the shortest horizontal distance. (65 knots in a Jabiru) – pulling back any further means you will climb at a slower horizontal speed as well as at a shallower angle thus deteriorating your climb angle to clear obstacles!
Vy is slightly faster, and is the Maximum RATE of climb.
Please familiarize yourself with the above definitions, as you may not be so lucky next time and stall your plane on climb out. AVOID going less that the recommended speed in the Jabiru.
By the way, thanks for sharing your experience and acknowledging your mistakes, so we all can learn from it and reinforce what we have learnt from our own mistakes. It is only human to make mistakes when distracted and to learn from our mistakes. It happens to the BEST of us!
Cheers:)
That is correct for continuous climb, but in the end if you just need that little tiny extra to clear an obstacle you will probably be better off trading speed for height (just before the obstacle) even at the cost of not flying Vx after clearing the obstacle. Of course ideally you should never get yourself in that position, but if you do it’s better to keep Vx until you are close to the obstacle and then trade the speed for that tiny bit of extra height just before the obstacle.