Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 3; Flight Crew Total 144; Flight Crew Type 70
Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Weather
This evening; I decided to take off from my airport (SFZ); visit a nearby VOR; and return. It was intended as a quick; easy flight.Warning signs about the day manifested itself with a call. The WX briefer mentioned that there was an AIRMET for moderate turbulence below 8;000 as well as an urgent PIREP for low level wind shear at an airport about 30 NM away. Winds at North Central (SFZ) were 33014G21KT. These were right down one of our two runways; and I was seeking out more challenging conditions to push my personal minimums.The line worker told me 'good luck with those winds' as she was fueling my airplane. I told her that they were right down the runway and she agreed with a 'yeah; I guess so. I guess you should be okay.'After preflight and taxi; I started my run-up. I noticed that the plane was really getting buffeted on the ground by the winds and I thought to myself; 'this is rather windy.' I considered turning around but told myself that I came this far and I may as well fly; with the stipulation that if I felt uncomfortable while airborne I would return immediately. I finished my run-up and took off.I climbed to about 2;000 feet or so and was on my way to the Putnam VOR. Almost immediately after passing 1;000 feet I started to experience moderate turbulence. Shortly after the plane banked 30 degrees to the left in under a second without me changing any flight controls. I decided to abort my flight immediately.A 180 degree set me up for a 45 entry to 33. Due to the winds the plane was essentially ground-tracking sideways. The sensation was that of not flying forward but instead to the side with a massive crab. This spooked me; and this is where my questionable aeronautical decision making of taking off turning into a poor decision. My base for 33 was so unusual and I was feeling so uncomfortable with the situation that I decided to climb and join the pattern for the longer; wider runway 23. At this point; I both consciously and subconsciously just wanted to get on the ground. I was finding myself in somewhat unusual attitudes while fighting to maintain altitude; and the AWOS was now reporting winds variable between 270 and 350 13G27... a 15 knot gust factor with unpredictable winds. An experienced professional pilot may have had no problems with this; but I am not that pilot. I was determined to get on the ground but also scared. What I should have done was abort the approach to 33; overfly the field on the upwind; and reenter the pattern and try again. Instead; I decided to switch to the wider; 'safer' runway. Instead of having a gusty; wind-shear-prone approach with winds right down the runway; they were now giving me a direct crosswind with all the same wind-related problems. Keep in mind that my Skyhawk has a max demonstrated crosswind component of 15 knots; I was now becoming the proverbial 'test pilot'.Predictably; my approach was very poor. Approach speed in my 172 is 75MPH with flaps up and 70MPH with flaps down; I was approaching with 100MPH with 10 degrees in. I knew this as well and instead of going around; I said to myself 'I have 7;000 feet(!) of runway; I will float down the runway for a considerable period of time so let it float and it'll come down when it's ready.' There are two problems with this line of reasoning: I didn't have 7;000 feet; I had 5;000; and that crosswind had a slight tailwind component to it as well. As predicted; I floated for what seemed like a very long time. Finally; the wheels came down; but I started porpoising. I let it bounce a few times; hoping to let it settle; but the end of the runway was fast approaching. After four bounces I executed a sloppy go-around in which I forgot to turn off the carb heat. There's a church that we are supposed to use as a noise abatement landmark that indicates we can make turns at 1;450 feet MSL... I was at 750 feet MSL by the time I was over the church. The airport altitude is around 50 MSL.Thankfully; my trainingregarding avoiding power-on stalls and spins by not pitching up aggressively and utilizing heavy right rudder on takeoff prevented me from making a poor situation even worse. After gaining my composure I set up for a base entry to runway 33; like I should have in the first place. I was able to set up a respectable approach to 33; landed the airplane; and put in an urgent PIREP very shortly after tying down.I am very fortunate to be able to submit this report right now. I ventured forth into conditions that I thought I could handle and those conditions turned out to be beyond what I can handle at this stage in my private aviation career. I made a series of poor decisions regarding bad Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM); specifically go/no-go; subpar runway selection and sloppy go-around technique that could have very easily bent metal or worse; ended up with me killing myself. This all happened within the span of 30 minutes. I intend on talking with an instructor regarding this experience and to fix my go-around technique; and hopefully I will avoid situations like this in the future.
A C172 pilot reported having difficulty dealing with gusty wind conditions.