Today I decided to take a friend up for a ride over to Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg. I had flown over the field on my last trip to Martinsburg but I never landed. I wanted to check out the airport and add it to my logbook. Once we got into the air I was surprised by the weather. While the surface winds were not particularly strong they made the approach tricky for some reason. On the way over to Gaithersburg we stayed below BWI's Class B airspace and bumped along at 2000ft. This was my friends first time in a GA plane and I was concerned that she would find the turbulence unpleasant. Since she is a little bit of a daredevil and agreed to fly with me without any hesitation it did not seem to be a problem for her. Once we got in the vicinity of Gaithersburg and got permission to switch to CTAF I began an approach. Runway 32 was right hand traffic and I was following another aircraft inbound. The pilot had a thick accent over the radio and I got some help from my friend keeping a visual on the other airplane. When I turned final onto 32 I could see that I was a little high. I was able to correct for it but as we got closer to the runway and I began the roundout something peculiar happened. A little burble of wind pushed me to the left of centerline and I noticed my airspeed dropped all of the sudden. My approach had now officially been destabilized and was not getting any better despite all my "pilot stuff." Time to get out and try again. I added full power and a slight push of the nose to gain airspeed. It didn't take long before I was climbing up and out and calling CTAF to advise I was going around.
I had performed a go around enough in my primary training, so it wasn't a big deal at all. It's all part of flying a small aircraft. Then I thought about my passenger. It's her first flight with me and there she is sitting in the right seat watching me abort the landing. I quickly explained that the wind gave us a push and that we needed to try again on the landing. It didn't seem to faze her and she joked with me later that I didn't really know how to land. Our next approach went smoothly and we landed without any problems.
I suppose I should include the explanation of a go-around in my pre-flight briefing because most people who fly commercial never experience one, or if they do they don't know that they did because they are not sitting next to the pilot.
Once we got the plane parked we headed inside for a break and got a soda. Once we finished I called in for a flight plan and we headed back to Tipton. The ride back was just as bumpy. Once were done and on the ground I always ask me passengers the same question. And that is, "Would you like to fly with me again?" So far I always gotten a positive response.
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