Light to Moderate Turbulence + Crosswind Landing = "Excitement"

I had the day off today, so I planned a trip to a new airport to have lunch. Cambridge-Dorchester Airport had a restaurant on the field that was supposed to be good. I was taking a friend up for the second time and she told me that her mother was interested in taking a flight. A check of the weight and balance showed that I could take them both on the flight. We had planned it a week in advance and I was constantly watching the weather reports to see if it would be okay. There had been a lot of windy days leading up to the flight but it seemed like the forecast showed that the wind would hold off until the late afternoon. The winds at Tipton were light and once we got into the air we began to get bumped around. Based on my experience and the rating system, we were experiencing light to moderate turbulence. It was relatively frequent and not a whole lot of fun. It certainly wasn't something I wanted to have first and second time passengers experiencing. I know it was making me uncomfortable. I knew that I could probably smooth it out a little when we climbed and got out over the bay. Fortunately, much of our trip was over the bay so it did smooth out for us. Once we got out over the Choptank River and started to descend we began to experience the turbulence again. I got us over to airport and overflew the field to get an idea of how it looked. After a descent to pattern altitude it was time to bring it in. I wasn't satisfied with my first approach and was coming in too fast. I executed a go around and made a second attempt. The landing was a little steep and too fast which led to a float. My passengers didn't seem to mind although I admitted to them that it was far from my best landing.
We taxied over to the terminal building and shut down. The terminal was very nice for a local airport. We found the restaurant and sat down for lunch. I had heard some good things about "Kay's at the airport." The food was good, the prices were reasonable, but, it took us a while to get seated and the service was slow. I will come back and give them a second chance. They open at 7AM so I think I'll try an early morning flight out for some breakfast one day.
After lunch the winds had began to pick up and my weather report indicated some gusts at Tipton along with a possible crosswind. I didn't expect the winds to pick up until later on but there they were. The ride back was just as bumpy since we were down below the Class B once we got over to the West side of the bay.
The trickiest part was the approach and landing to Tipton. During the approach and in addition to the turbulence I tuned in to the airport weather and found out that I would have to contend with wind about 9 knots gusting to about 17. Not only that but the wind direction was variable and about 50 to 70 degrees off of the runway heading. This was going to test my crosswind landing skills. Still another disadvantage to this particular crosswind was that it blew from left to right across the runway producing a tailwind on the base leg. I told my passengers that it was going to get a little tricky and that I might have to execute a go around. I wanted my passengers to know that in advance to avoid any panic.
Not surprisingly my first approach was not what I had hoped for and it turned into a go around. On the second time around, the tailwind on the base leg combined with a downwind flown too closely for the wind, produced a poorly timed turn to final and a position to the right of the runway centerline. I continued my turn, but not past a 30 degree angle of bank to see if I could save the approach. By the time I got lined up I was too far along to get an acceptable approach, especially with the windsock pointing to the right and sticking straight up.
Another go around. I felt that my passengers were wondering if we were ever going to land. I also wondered if I was frightening them. I was determined to give it another concentrated effort before I decided to make an alternate decision.
I flew a carefully executed traffic pattern and paid a lot of attention to everything associated with the landing sequence. I got the airplane lined up on final with 20 degrees of flaps and a little extra speed for the gust factor. Now it was time to ride down the crosswind and gusty approach.
One of the ways it's done is with a side slip.
In this case it was left stick to keep from drifting to the right of the runway centerline, and right rudder to keep the nose of the airplane pointing straight down the centerline and in the direction of travel to avoid side loading the landing gear. You will also land on the upwind main wheel and then settle down onto the other side. The whole thing is a handful because you have to vary your control inputs to account for the gusts and changing wind direction. There were two occasions when I felt the right rudder pedal hit the stop. That meant I was all out of rudder. With all the skill and precision that I could muster I brought us in for what turned out to be a pretty smooth landing under the circumstances and probably my most challenging to date. It certanly made the adrenalin squirt out of my ears.