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Landing when you're not sure what the wind is doing
Pilot's Tip of the Week: "How should we approach landings at a strange field with no wind socks if we suspect a cross wind might exist?" - Anon.
Answer:
"First of all, have we done our planning? If we did we should certainly have a general idea of what winds to expect at our landing site. Validate this information with whatever resources are available to you on ATIS/AWOS/ Flight Watch/etc.
What was the wind doing to you as you approached the field? What is it doing to the trees, smoke, etc?
Remainder of answer HERE
Comments
I wouldn't use their suggestion at every field, especially a short field down in between trees (as is sorta depicted in their photo). You might find out too late that it is very nasty in that slot, and if there's rotor coming off the trees at the departure end it could seriously hamper your lift-- worse still if it's a one way runway, against a hill, etc.
I do think their suggestion of expanding your awareness to the wind signs around you (smoke, trees, birds (land, stand, and take off into the wind), flags, ripples on water, etc) is very important.
When things are nasty, I try and do a very long stabilized approach to really get a feel for what the conditions are doing, from which direction, how often and how hard the gusts are, etc and just keep bringing it in with power, ready for the go around at any time-- better yet, ready for flying to a different airport altogether (make SURE you have enough gas to have that option- some airports just suck in the wind and airports not too far away are not bad)