WIND SHEAR!!! WHEW!! I made it!!

[VW Pilot]

Yesterday, Friday, 25 2006.....My 23 Birthday....

Me and My instuctor left KVOF {VanderBerg) for a flight lesson about 8:43 AM
in a Piper warrior. Everything was ok for most of the practice. The weather was already kind of building that morning but there was some sunshine and still some time to fly. So we practiced some power on/off stalls, steep turns, level flights, engine failure forced landings and traffic entry procedures.....And I made my first landing for the day...So we went around again.....for a second landing ans dark storm clouds started to gather around...then came the rain...The wind had shifted so we were using RWY 23......I was on final and just off to the right was a large ugly cloud...And with it was some gusting winds producing a challenging crosswind.....We were about 100 to 175 Feet above the ground when a gust of wind pushed the plane down and over almost on it's side....My eyes were as large as dinner plates and all kind of profanity filled the cockpit....Now I'm a beginner and don't know alot about recovering from this.....So my instuctor quickly hit the power and somehow got the plane back....meanwhile, I could see a BMW's windshield below on Interstate 4 ever so close.....Scary..for my 23 Birthday....Geez.

My question is, are all wind shear recovery techniques the same? It all happened so fast I could barely see his actions.....All I could really see was him snaping the throttle foward.. So what other advice could other CFII's provide? Lucky I have an instructor that used to fly in the airlines flying a large 777 so he has good experience. I cannot say it was a bad thing to experience because I saw some tecnique and learned some but not enough...I asked later but I still didn't get a grip on what happened...So any tecniques or suggestions or info about how to deal with these situations
would be greatly appreaciated!!! Next time I'll watch the weather a bit closer for starters.... Thanks...

 

[midlifeflyer]

All that really happened is that windshear resulted in an immediate loss of airspeed. It might have been a vertical draft or shearing of a headwind to a tailwind to no wind. In both cases, the effect is pretty much the same - I picture Wiley Coyote running off a cliff and standing still momentarily in mid-air before he drops 1000' to the ground. In both cases the response is the same - power and pitch to maintain flying speed and control descent. Notice that these are the exact same things you do in every phase of flight, just more extreme.

It all happened so fast I could barely see his actions.....All I could really see was him snaping the throttle froward..

Most of windshear recovery comes down to the ability to detect the change early enough to do something about it. The good news is that this is something that we learn how to do as we learn to fly and we can learn it better if we pay attention to it.

A good example is a nice crosswind landing. Not as severe as windshear, but a crosswind is rarely completely steady. One of the differences between the airplane constantly drifting left then right and back again and the one that seems to be on rails despite the wind is a pilot who sees the movement so soon that the correction takes place before the airplane really goes anywhere.

My own worst encounter was similar to yours. We decided to divert for developing thunderstorms. On short final to our diversion airport, it suddenly felt that the bottom dropped out from under us. We went from close to idle to full power, planning for a go-around, but there was not enough power to do any more than stabilize the descent. It's the only time I've ever touched down on a runway at full power.

BTW, happy birthday

 

[VW Pilot]

I assume the landing was not very smooth....Thanks for the information.

 

[papanovember]

Not all windshear recoveries are the same. You experienced a loss of airspeed which is what happens when you lose a headwind component like mentioned above. You can also experience a gain which is when a tail wind or calm wind shifts to a head wind. In this case you will have to pull the power back a little as your airspeed jumps up. One nice things is small piston driven planes are way more responsive then turbines. Ask your instructor about this. It is way easier to recover then in a big jet as the turbine may take up to a few seconds to spool up. You'll also notice urgent pilot reports for wind shear 10 knots or greater. These are almost always reported by transport category aircraft. I see this much shear everyday. That's what happens when you live in a venturi.

A go around can also be a good option in a windshear situation just come back and try again. Unless you are flying into a one way no go around airport.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I assume the landing was not very smooth....Thanks for the information.

Interestingly enough it was. While I still needed power all the way to touchdown, ground effect had is usual effect of increasing lift and helping to reduce the descent rate. So while it was no greaser by any means, it wasn't particularly rough. It was a lot of work, though.

 

[Gorilla]

Windshear recoveries can take a loooong time when you're in it. I've done one serious one real life; +/- 80 knots in an MD-80. That one lasted about 40 seconds. Fortunately we caught it early at 190 knots or it could have killed us.

In the sim, which I've been told are realistic, the whole thing can take 30 seconds to a minute to fly out of, and as has been mentioned, they come in all sorts of yummy flavors.

 

[IFollowRoads]

My eyes were as large as dinner plates and all kind of profanity filled the cockpit....Now I'm a beginner and don't know alot about profanity...

That's why we train

 

[VW Pilot]

Hehe...That was funny, ROADS...