Since we've had fairly low and windy weather much of the week, I hadn't had a chance to fly since Sunday, and with a little free time this afternoon, I figured a gas run would be a good idea. There was a line of weather to the north, roughly paralleling the Texas coast, but all of the motion was along the line, and the line itself was sagging only very slowly south towards us. My usual cheap fuel airport is about 20 minutes up the coast, and I watched the XM for a few minutes to see if the timing was going to work - it would be close, but I had several good options of other place to go if I guessed wrong and lost th race, so there was little danger of a problem.
When I took off from home base, the wind was 160 @ 9, gusting to 21, so I trolled out and took of on runway 14. I made a very quick trip over to the fuel stop, turned around in just 7 minutes (taking on 25 gallons of fuel at $3.47/gallon - darn cheap these days!), and was headed back to home base. the line of weather was creeping slowly south, and as I approached th field, I actually passed under what looked like the roll cloud, but it was 1500' up, and the visibility was excellent - the rain hadn't really started. Not wanting to waste any time (since I had ridden the motorcycle to the airport, and didn't want to get wet!), I entered directly onto the downwind for 14 as I came in from the east, and took quick look at the wind sock - straight down the runway. Our AWOS transmitter has been a bit intermittent, and I wasn't hearing anything, but no matter - there was no traffic, as the weather looked worse tan it was. As I turned base to final, I was surprised to overshoot quite a bit - but then, I was still carrying carrying excess speed, decelerating nicely for a touchdown. I glanced again toward the sock - still straight down the runway.
As I crossed the threshold, I thought "wow, I'm going fast!", but the touchdown was smooth, and the roll-out easy to control - and as I passed the sock at mid-field, it was straight down the runway - pointing the WRONG WAY! I punched the AWOS button again, and it had come back, now calling "...wind 330 at 10, gusting to 22..." !!
Holy smokes, a 150 degree change in wind direction, and an absolute gust value change of more than 40 knots in just 40 minutes - quite a surprise! of course, when I glanced at the wind sock, I "saw" just what I expected to see - it was parallel to the strip - and my brain didn't look for witch end was pointed which way.
No harm, no foul in this case, but an interesting thing to remember - the winds really Can change that fast, and with no other traffic on the CTAF or in the air, it is easy to just land the same way you took off....
(Oh yeah, the temperature dropped about 30 degrees as well - the front had more power than it appeared!)
Paul
When I took off from home base, the wind was 160 @ 9, gusting to 21, so I trolled out and took of on runway 14. I made a very quick trip over to the fuel stop, turned around in just 7 minutes (taking on 25 gallons of fuel at $3.47/gallon - darn cheap these days!), and was headed back to home base. the line of weather was creeping slowly south, and as I approached th field, I actually passed under what looked like the roll cloud, but it was 1500' up, and the visibility was excellent - the rain hadn't really started. Not wanting to waste any time (since I had ridden the motorcycle to the airport, and didn't want to get wet!), I entered directly onto the downwind for 14 as I came in from the east, and took quick look at the wind sock - straight down the runway. Our AWOS transmitter has been a bit intermittent, and I wasn't hearing anything, but no matter - there was no traffic, as the weather looked worse tan it was. As I turned base to final, I was surprised to overshoot quite a bit - but then, I was still carrying carrying excess speed, decelerating nicely for a touchdown. I glanced again toward the sock - still straight down the runway.
As I crossed the threshold, I thought "wow, I'm going fast!", but the touchdown was smooth, and the roll-out easy to control - and as I passed the sock at mid-field, it was straight down the runway - pointing the WRONG WAY! I punched the AWOS button again, and it had come back, now calling "...wind 330 at 10, gusting to 22..." !!
Holy smokes, a 150 degree change in wind direction, and an absolute gust value change of more than 40 knots in just 40 minutes - quite a surprise! of course, when I glanced at the wind sock, I "saw" just what I expected to see - it was parallel to the strip - and my brain didn't look for witch end was pointed which way.
No harm, no foul in this case, but an interesting thing to remember - the winds really Can change that fast, and with no other traffic on the CTAF or in the air, it is easy to just land the same way you took off....
(Oh yeah, the temperature dropped about 30 degrees as well - the front had more power than it appeared!)
Paul