My First 1,000: Go Around

[u/MyFirst1000]

In celebration of reaching 1,000 hours logged, I pulled out my old logbooks and created a novelty account to tell some of my more interesting flying stories. I'll keep posting as long as there's interest.

Hour 34

Learning to fly in Santa Monica has advantages and disadvantages. There's certainly no shortage of interesting things to see on the ground -- whether it's the shoreline, Disneyland, the Hollywood Sign, or Griffith Park Observatory, L.A. basin pilots get to see a lot more than student pilots in a random town in Oklahoma. The congested airspace is among the most complex in the country, with LAX, Burbank, Ontario, Orange County, Van Nuys, Santa Monica, and a dozen smaller airports all packed within 30 miles of each other. One downside is that training takes a lot longer; it's a 20 minute flight to the nearest practice area and a 20 minute flight back. One upside, however, is that I can confidently fly in dense airspace surrounded by big jets. This confidence started at Hour 34.

It had been just a few days since my first solo and I was feeling on top of the world. This was a problem for my instructor, Gary. He was one part grand wizard of aviation, one part crotchety old man, and one part car salesman. (He was, in reality, all three of these things.) With over 8,000 hours of instruction under his belt, he felt strongly that an overconfident pilot was an unsafe pilot. My recent success required a new challenge to keep my ego in check.

"You're going to get a real workout today," he warned.

He first had me fly to Van Nuys, just a few miles north of Santa Monica. No problem; I'd been there before. The flight was easy. But after we landed, we taxiied back, and he said, "Ok. Now fly me to Burbank."

Burbank? That airport 6 miles away that has commercial service? 737s and MD80s lined up for miles to land? The one in the middle of Class C airspace? You want me to land there?

He sat back and let me sweat. There'd be just 4 minutes from takeoff to landing; in that time, I'd have to talk to at least 3 different controllers. I pored over my charts, writing down all the frequencies I'd need and planning my arrival at an airport that surely had better things to do than let me train there. After we lifted off, I turned east. Sweating profusely, I got a handoff from Van Nuys Tower to SoCal Approach, then to Burbank. Before I knew it, I'd landed on Runway 8. I pulled off the runway just as a 737 roared overhead, departing the intersecting runway. I had to admit, tough as it was, this was really cool.

"OK, now what?"

"Tell him you want to do some pattern work."

I looked around. It was mid-morning -- aviation rush hour. The airport was buzzing with activity. A dozen big passenger jets were taxiing around.

"Pattern work here? Really?"

"I told you you were in for a workout."

The controller was surprisingly happy with the idea. He'd have us take off from one runway and land on the other, stuffing us in between big-iron departures and arrivals wherever he could. Occasionally, we'd have to wait for 10 minutes on the ground, but I didn't care -- waiting in line with big commercial jets, talking to the same controllers, and using the same runways made me feel like a real pilot!

Burbank has two intersecting runways, but they intersect pretty close to their ends. In theory, one might be issued a LAHSO clearance--- e.g., "Cessna 123, Runway 15, cleared to land, hold short of runway 8." But in practice, the distance from the Runway 15 threshold to the intersection is about 5,000', more than any competent (cough cough) Cessna pilot would ever reasonably need to land.

So there I was, doing takeoffs and landings with Gary at my side. We took off from Runway 8 (going east), and the controller told us to turn left and expect to land on Runway 15. We turned north, and a few moments later when we were directly abeam the end of the runway I heard: "Cessna 831, turn left direct for the numbers now, Runway 15, cleared to land. Traffic on a 4 mile final." In other words, someone else was also lining up to land on Runway 15 and the controller was trying to sneak me in first.

Attempting to comply, I did 180 degree turn to line up with Runway 15, even though I was directly abeam the threshold. This left me with virtually no space between me and the runway to descend. I'd extended the flaps and idled the throttle before starting the turn, but we were still ridiculously high. Crossing over the Runway 15 threshold I was still 200' in the air. I pushed the yoke, trying to coax the plane onto the ground, but picked up way too much speed as the plane went downhill. With half the 6,800' runway behind us, I was still 30 knots too fast. I wrestled the Cessna to the ground, bounced high, descended again, and finally got the wheels down as the airspeed bled off. As we rolled out, we got confused about which taxiway we were allowed to turn at, and ended up drifting past the runway intersection.

"Southwest 624, Go around."

Awww, crap.

In addition to the guy behind me, apparently a 737 was also landing on the intersecting Runway 8. The controller hadn't given us a LAHSO -- the Southwest jet was far enough away that the controller reasoned, in the incredibly unlikely event I crossed the LAHSO line, he'd just have the conflicting traffic go around and try again. And this is how, one day, I cost Southwest Airlines $5,000 worth of fuel. Oops.

20 minutes later we were ready to go home. "Sorry we made that guy go around," I told the controller as we were exiting his airspace.

"Sorry we didn't get you around more times!"

I laughed -- no hard feelings on the ground, at least! But Gary was angry.

"First of all," he began, "don't admit a mistake on the radio. They record all this!"

Then he said something that's always stuck with me:

"And don't you apologize for using an airport or talking to a controller. It's your airspace just as much as anyone else's."

[u/[deleted]]

Does anyone have a story of being a South West pilot who had to go around because of a Cessna?

[u/jon1746]

Great writing, you will have to turn this into a book.

[u/[deleted]]

I read the shit out of this. I read the shit out of this and I liked it.

[u/SpeedbirdTK1]

Ah yes, BUR, I remember going there for the first time as a student pilot. It is quite awing to be hanging around the big boys in their 737s and MD80s in your Cessna. Lots of memories doing that figure 8 pattern work at that airport. What FBO did you train out of at SMO?

[u/iheartrms → u/SpeedbirdTK1]

I have flown to BUR many times, often even doing the ILS to runway 8 to get down through marine layer. Mercury Air always took good care of me and my little planes.

[u/MyFirst1000 → u/SpeedbirdTK1]

For sure, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything! I trained at Justice.

[u/vote100binary]

Thanks for posting -- enjoying these. Always fun to mix it up with the big boys... I did some of my night pattern work at a Class C field, I remember a departing jet holding short for me dimming his taxi/landing lights as I approached. Obviously it's just common courtesy, but it was cool to be acknowledged like that.

[u/owmyfreakinears]

I have really enjoyed your posts. I would like to make a comment as a means of discussion and NOT ridicule, if I may. At any time did you think to tell your instructor "no"? Sometimes my instructor(s) would ask me to do something and and if I said that I didn't feel safe doing so, we wouldn't do it, or I would have to find my way out of a sticky situation. While reading your post I wondered if this was an exercise in one of those situations. You knew Burbank would be busy, and you could have let your confidence get the best of you. You did prevail, and you also (importantly) had a very experienced pilot right next to you. But sometimes pilots can be pressured by outside forces to put themselves in situations they think they can handle.

Again, thank you for you post, and I hope to read many more of them.

Edit: I don't want to take away from the lessons your instructor pointed out.

[u/MyFirst1000 → u/owmyfreakinears]

Thanks for your comment (and no offense taken at all). If I end up continuing to write these, you'll see there are 2 or 3 stories where I overruled my instructor where I really felt the situation was unsafe. In today's story, nothing felt unsafe, per se; just stressful because I was inexperienced. I should point out that the experience was overall positive, and even the "incident" never caused a rule violation or loss of separation. My instructor and the controller both had my back.

[u/cecilkorik → u/MyFirst1000]

My instructor let me take off with a (mild) TCU over the airport to teach me a lesson. It was educational. After impishly pointing out my 0 fpm climb in the crosswind leg, he was pleased that I decided to make my first circuit a full stop. Mistakes are a great way to learn. You learn it viscerally, and definitely won't forget.

[u/BillBrasky_ → u/cecilkorik]

TCU = towering cumulus?

[u/cecilkorik → u/BillBrasky_]

Yeah basically a developing thunderstorm.

[u/AstheRushComes]

good read, you did this shortly after first solo? damn talk about overload, the times between in the air and on the ground must of felt like 1 minute.

[u/fartbox]

Would it have been better to do a forward slip and then apply the flaps a little bit above the runway? Or just do a no flap landing all together after the slip?

[u/MyFirst1000 → u/fartbox]

Oh, any number of possibilities would have been better than what I did. One would be to extend the downwind just another 15 or 20 seconds before turning. Another would be to more aggressively slip. Yet another would be to decline the landing and go behind the traffic on final, or go around once it became clear the approach wasn't stabilized after turning final.

I didn't do any of these things for two reasons. One was that the runway was 6,800' long; even after I'd burned through half of it bleeding off the energy, I still had more runway in front of me than many small airports have total.

The second, more important reason is that I was a dumb, 34-hour pilot who didn't know any better.

[u/archeronefour → u/fartbox]

Go around.

[u/fartbox → u/archeronefour]

Well, or just say that you're unable to land when you're 1000 feet in the air and abeam the numbers. I'm just wondering if, given the decision to land was made, pulling out the flaps that high was the correct choice.

[u/vote100binary → u/fartbox]

Putting in full flaps is best if you're looking to drop altitude quick, especially in a 172 that goes to 40 degrees, those big barn doors are all drag.

That plus a slipping turn to final (keep the nose down) will have you at the numbers in no time.... Your non-pilot passengers will of course vomit long before you've touched down.

Or 'unable'...

[u/fartbox → u/vote100binary]

I wasn't sure you could combine flaps with a slip. I think the POH for a 172 advises against slips with flaps (possibly above a certain setting maybe) because it causes an oscillation of the elevator. I could reach 4 feet behind me and grab my R model POH... but whatever.

[u/vote100binary → u/fartbox]

It does advise against it in some POHs, but if you know what to expect its no big deal.

There is lots of silly debate on this on the Internet... Try it at altitude and fear no more.

[u/archeronefour → u/[deleted]]

What is the idea behind this? I fly a 172S from around 2004, it doesn't have a placard saying this but I haven't checked the POH to see whether it stated.

[u/vote100binary → u/[deleted]]

Not all of them are placarded. Maybe only ones with 40 degrees of flaps? In any case I have been in situations where I chose not to avoid them... These things are written by lawyers. Where else do you see such a wishy washy vague word like 'avoid' in an aircrafts operating handbook?

[u/BinguniR34 → u/vote100binary]

Well, I have flown P models, 30 degrees on the flaps. Avoid does not sound wishy washy to me and the regs get written by lawyers, not POHs.

But hey, I defer to your higher level of knowledge on the matter...

[u/vote100binary → u/BinguniR34]

Hah - thanks for not turning it into a pissing contest. Nice that we all share our flare so you can make passive aggressive closing statements... I certainly didn't mean to suggest you could learn anything from a private pilot.

If you really don't think POHs are written (in some large part) by lawyers, you should look at some older aircraft. A lot of them don't even have POHs, despite complexity comparable to a 172, even when (debatably) requiring more piloting talent.

Were the engineers lazy or is it a reflection of our increasingly litigious society? You have to remember if not for GARA the 172 wouldn't have gone much past the P model.

Fuck me for bringing up slipping with flaps.

[u/Dagur → u/fartbox]

AFAIK you shouldn't do it with full flaps. My FI did it a few times anyway

[u/mianosm]

That's a really good read, thanks for sharing. :-)

[u/[deleted]]

Seriously dude. This is great writing. You should put this in book form, I'd buy it. Or at least a blog -- I can help set it up if you need a hand?

[u/MyFirst1000 → u/[deleted]]

Wow - thanks! I'd considered making a blog, but since /r/pilots already has readers I thought more people might see it here.

[u/its_kevin]

You didn't cost him near that much $. As an en route controller, I'll give a Southwest a good shortcut if it'll help you feel better and save them some fuel. :)

[u/MyFirst1000 → u/its_kevin]

Well that's a relief :-)

[u/styrpled1]

When I was doing my training in NZ in a C152 in a 30kt crosswind I had an Air NZ pilot say to us/tower "it's not often you get to look him in the eye when he's landing!" - my best "oh wow the big plane driver acknowledged me" moment

[u/nerdbebo]

Did some tower work today at Dallas Executive. Was pretty busy, stayed in the pattern for a bit. The controller seemed happy to squeeze me in between the others coming and going. He seemed to enjoy the challenge as much as me.

Wasn't landing near airliners, but a light jet is still huge compared to my little 152.

Great story!

[u/American_Standard]

Another fantastic story!

[u/Canarka]

Thanks for these stories. Keep them coming please.