Flying again!
Well no super cool photos for this posting, but I have finally started flying again. Last night I was at the airport with my instructor. I was to meet my requirement for the commercial multi engine, which is 10 take-offs and landings to a full stop. -6 degrees C is pretty nice for the performance of the PA44-180 Seminole, as my density altitude was only 2800 feet, I really like that kind of performance. I was getting a realistic 1500 feet per-minute climb rate. In my limited stable of aircraft that is like a rocket! (Yea, you guys with the jets and turboprops, I don’t want any crap) so that was a lot of fun. After my second landing the tower had me switch runways from 13 to 31 on account the winds had moved, they were 310 at 9, when I changed. I was told to fly my runway heading out and then do a tear drop to come back for runway 31. I was descending thru 500 feet agl (above ground level) when it hit. WIND-SHEAR. Wow, I really had to fly. I bumped my speed up to 90 knots to keep from stalling, and the wings were dipping, I was also getting 500 fpm (feet per minute) up drafts followed by downdrafts. I was about puckered. And as I got closer to the runway, as suddenly as it started it stopped. I told the tower what I had experienced, I took off again and the pattern seemed normal enough, until I got to the same place. I have been in turbulence before, but it was all I could do to control the airplane. The airplane decided to bank like 60 degrees to the right so I decided to add full power for the go around and called the tower to tell them of this potentially dangerous situation, he was kind enough (and I was the only aircraft in the pattern at the time) to allow me a tail wind landing. This was much smoother that the other end of the runway! So we (my instructor and I) decided to call it a night with only 4 of the 10 required landings done. I hope tomorrow will prove a much smother night for flying. But on the plus side of this I got to experience wind shear and I know what to expect.