Scary Times

I've only truly been scared in an airplane once. 

I was coming back to Gainesville after a cross country trip to Anderson, SC. And it was a clear, beautiful day. Cruising at 6,500 feet I felt the thrill that every aviator seeks. To "slip the surly bonds of earth" as John Gillespie Magee, Jr. put it, is a feeling like no other. About five miles east of my destination airfield at about 4,500, I flew through some moderate turbulence. Moderate turbulence in a small plane is about like if you were sitting in a pop-up camper, and a 7-ton adult elephant decided to scratch his back against your abode. This did not shake me up, because I had had enough aerodynamics drilled into my head to know that airplanes don't just fall out of the sky because of turbulence. The only way sure-fire way for turbulence to directly cause a crash (at altitude) is by structurally damaging the airframe, and that takes a shit ton of turbulence. For example, there have been fatalities on commercial flights caused by turbulence, where an unbuckled occupant broke their head (or neck) on the ceiling of the airplane. The planes landed safely with their expired passenger(s). 

Sorry for the ramble. To continue with my story. I flew through some moderate turbulence, which can make passengers nervous, but is not in any way a safety hazard, unless you're close to the ground.  Notice the foreshadowing. Anyway, this turbulence appeared to not be an issue, and I didn't experience any more significant turbulence until I was on final approach for runway 29 at about 100 AGL, literally not more than one hundred feet from the runway threshold. I had it made. Then a huge burst of wind came from the right, and down, catching my plane and hurling it to the right, and down. In about half a second I had gone from peacefully gliding towards my runway, on the centerline, to about 40 degrees off the runway, pointed at a tree. And I was really close to the ground. It was scary. 

Luckily, I had been well trained, and I just applied full power, held my nose down to prevent a stall, and took a second shot at the landing. I survived the incident without, well, incident. 

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor even eagle flew—

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

                              -John Gillespie Magee, Jr.