I’ve decided to start a new series I call Close Calls, where I describe scenarios I’ve experienced in my 3000+ hr flying career (all VFR), that had me thinking about what went wrong. None of these situations have resulted in crashes, but all of these could have.

Today’s close call happened at the 2012 World Gliding Championship at Uvalde, Texas, where I was towing with our club’s Piper Pawnee.

There were 100 glider contestants from all around the world and a tow operation like clockwork was the goal. So short landings next to the starter field were in order. We would side step during the roll out in front of the field onto the runway, wait for the two rope hook-up and full throttle off again for the next tow. I was on the second or third tow, when I was coming in slightly slow, eyeing the taxiway across in front of the landing field next to the concrete runway. I tried to milk it in across the taxi way, when I got hit by a gust which slammed me on the ground in front of the taxi way. I immediately sensed a strong upward acceleration, like on a trampoline, resulting in the airplane pointing 30 degrees nose high into the sky at close to zero airspeed. The sloped terrain in front of the taxiway I crossed had catapulted me back into the air, but without airspeed! I was terrified and slammed the throttle all the way forward into the wall, hoping that the 260 horses would wake up in time to save me from a great embarrassment. And the reliable O-540 did what it was built for. It pulled through and the well mannered Pawnee was hanging off the propeller at full power in 30ft, slowly regaining speed and lowering the nose. I executed a go-around and landed uneventfully shortly after. Learning: carrier landings are just that: coming in too short is not an option. Keep up the speeds and be prepared for gusts. Don’t get too eager to show off the shortest landing in front of a crowd.