Near Mishap

[rodsmith]

I have been doing stop and goes at a neighboring airport. This airport is on top of a mesa with steep drop offs each end, feels sort of like landing on a long aircraft carrier. I like this airport because it is totally fenced, don't worry about deer like our airport. I think the pavement is about 30' wide, looks like more because it has nice graded gravel each side, as I found out the gravel isn't level. Yesterday after doing some early morning still air testing, I made 3 landings there, and they were very smooth. Decided to do the same thing this morning. My first landing I touched down smoothly and let it settle in 3 point, almost immediately I felt the left wheel drop off the pavement and the plane tilt to the left. My thought was I'm ground looping. I guess I instinctively got on the right brake, because I was going straight, but all the time I thought I was going to ground loop. Seemed like it took forever to stop because I didn't want to brake too hard. When stopped, I looked at the left wingtip and it was about 2' off the ground, the gravel shoulder was that steep. I was able to taxi back onto the runway, went ahead and took off, just flew around a few minutes trying to settle down. I wanted to just fly home but thought, no you have to make a few more landings here. I did and they were both good landings. So what happened? I think maybe I have gotten too comfortable with my landings. I may not have have lined up on the center line as I was approaching. I have been fighting a tendency to land more to the left. When the tail comes down I am totally blind forward. I do not recall looking along the side of the cowling at the edge of the runway like I normally do, must have drifted to the left. 5-10K wind appeared to be straight down the runway so I don't think that was a factor. What I did well was not trying to steer back onto the runway. Don't think that would have turned out well. Stay vigilant, Bearhawks are too precious to wreck due to carelessness like I nearly did.

[jaredyates]

Thank you for sharing Rod. Something similar comes up very often when I do transition training. If the runway has a marked centerline and the left seat pilot is flying, if they drift 3 feet left of the centerline, they end up drifting way farther left. I think it has to do with losing visual contact with the centerline. Once they lose sight of it, they lose track of how far off they have gotten. If they put the left main on the centerline and never let it cross, they tend to stay closer to the middle, because they never lose sight of the centerline. There are other ways to keep oneself centered, but this is a trend that I notice especially early on, when those other references are not yet developed. Not to say this was your cause, but it may be something to ponder.

[svyolo]

I have been doing exactly that since you told me. Helps a lot.

[Bcone1381]

Great Idea! I think I'll incorporate that.

[Nev]

Thanks for sharing Rod. Glad it worked out OK.

[rkennell]

Rod: When people like you and others, have been willing to share their experiences, we all learn and benefit. Thanks.

[Dpearson]

Thanks for sharing. Glad you and your plane are ok.