Gut Feeling

Yesterday I had the offer to fly a friends plane, a Piper Cherokee 140.

While I have around 100 hours in Cherokee models, it has all been in Archers and Arrows, never a 140.

I thought it might be good to go for a short flight with an instructor first, just to see if there were any quirks with this plane.

The flight was simple and uneventful, apart from a rough mag during runups, which was easily cleared.

After the circuit, I was going to take my friends for a short flight, however I had noticed alot of rain coming towards the airport from the west. The instructor said that the rain had been slowly moving towards the airport for hours, and that it wouldn't be a problem. My gut said I should wait and see.

I should have listened to my gut...

As we lined up on the runway for takeoff, the first few drops of rain began to fall. I asked tower to remain in the circuit rather than our previously planned scenic flight, and we took off.

By the time we got to downwind, the rain had gotten pretty heavy, and three other aircraft had quickly joined the circuit in front of us to land. I decided to ask for a full stop, and we were cleared number 4 to land. I slowed down so we would have room behind the plane in front of us. Just as we turned onto base leg, tower issued a SPAR that I really didnt like:

SPAR issued, surface wind 230 degrees 30 knots gusting 36 knots

Just 3 minutes earlier when we took off it had been 230 degrees at 10 knots!

On finals we watched the 152 in front of us struggling to keep on the centerline and land. He was going so slow that we were gaining on him, and I didnt want to slow down any more. He was going all over the place, and I really thought he was going to crash on the runway. Eventually I had to make the call to go around, but beyond the far end of the runway the rain was just a wall that I couldnt see past.

I asked the tower for an immediate low level left turn even though we were only just over the runway, as I didnt want to keep going into the wall of water in front of us. I turned left, and climbed to just 500 feet, as I didnt want to loose sight of the ground. The rain was getting very heavy, and we were really getting pushed around by the wind.

We got cleared to join behind a 172 that was already on finals, but by the time we got on to finals, the rain was so heavy I lost sight of the other plane. I could see the approach end of the runway, and the PAPI lights on the side of the runway, but that was it. I told tower we had 'lost the traffic' and they said it was ok, he was already down, and we were cleared to land.

On finals at an approach speed of 75 knots, with a 30+ knot headwind, it felt like we were going nowhere, and I was quickly loosing forward visibility. I was keeping an eye on my airspeed, the artificial horizon and altitude, as I felt we were about to loose visibility altogether. I asked tower whether they could see the other side of the rain squall we were in, and they said that conditions to the west of the airport were markedly better. I advised that I would attempt a full stop, but if unsuccessful, I would simple go around, continuing straight ahead, to which they advised that I was cleared full stop or to overfly the runway at my discretion.

I maintained 100 feet and headed straight at the papi lights, since that is all I could properly see, fully expecting that we would not be able to land and that I would have to just continue on towards the better weather, when all of a sudden, we were through the other side of the rain, and the runway was just passing underneath us. I continued down, flared, and probably did the best landing I have done in a long time!