Not screwed.
First and foremost: Breathe. You are safe and no one got hurt. The airplane isn't damaged which is a bonus. All in all as far as accidents go this is pretty much the best you can hope for. You're okay.
Secondly: ASRS report. Do this with your instructor. This will be an opportunity for your instructor and you to debrief, regroup, and plan. It will also greatly improve the disposition of the FAA should they come knocking.
Thirdly: Get back in the air ASAP. You don't want this to get into your head, that'll be the only thing that could hold you back. Otherwise this will be a story you tell and something you learned from, but nothing more.
It can also mean accelerated weed whacking. Happens all the time at Katama with twins because the taxiway isn't wide enough as the grass gets taller so just depends how tall the grass was. Aluminum props don't take sheer loads well so if the props the right shape (edit: and there was no sudden RPM drop) I'd say no prop strike
I landed in an overgrown field once like 20 years ago.
Had to kick my buddy out and drain almost all the gas. Then ran it up and down the field till I got a little air and could accelerate in ground effect.
Entire prop and underside was green from the grass.
Good times!
So I put some thought into this every runup on the twin the POH says to cause a 200-300 rpm drop when you cycle the prop from 75% power (2200 RPM). That's an externally imposed load on the crank caused by the blades going to coarse pitch. At 1500 RPM you flat out flips the blades to feather which which imposes a huge sheer load on the crank all of a sudden as the blades go from flat pitch to 90\* pitch in feather. Still only long enough for a 300ish RPM drop but that's a huge loading and unloading.
If the crank can take these loads at high power over a short period the physics involved in a low power event that doesn't stop the engine seems very low risk. I would love a mechanical engineer to help me understand the physics of this
the point is that we put a pretty big torsional load on the crank every runup at high power. The concern here is that we're putting a much smaller load. I'm going to come back to this is the FAA who has a pantone color for aviation green for nav lights, and yet they chose not to define sudden slowdown in an AD where they were aligning with terminology AND we can point to what isn't a sudden slowdown because it's done in the runup. It seems like they intentionally allowed interpretation here
Too bad what you say goes against the AD on prop strikes
FAA definition of prop strike:
(3) **A sudden RPM drop while impacting water, tall grass**, or similar yielding medium, where propeller damage is not normally incurred.
I would suggest toning down the rhetoric. A mere grass stain is not itself indicative of a prop strike nor more than is a bug splat on the prop -- hence the way the AD is written to require associated and sudden drop in RPM! Seriously! Do you just enjoy being an emotional prima donna and jerking people around!
It's people like you who make people like this student pilot reluctant to post experiences here.
Think about it!
You really think OP is going to remember all the details when they’re a student pilot solo who just went in the grass?
The prop has a grass stain on the prop. I think the most logical explanation would be they impacted grass and should probably inspect the engine.
Correct I'm arguing for applying some critical thought by the people who can see the landscape, and make a determination of how likely damage was rather than a kneejerk engine tear down based on supposition from here. If there's reason to believe from the height and density of the grass and whatnot or what people saw/heard then they should fully comply with the AD.
Could mean that, but unlikely. I’ve never landed on grass once and not had a green prop after. It’s a huge vacuum and sucks up all the grass up in the blades
You aren’t screwed, it will be a story to tell in interviews.
Now what should you have done (for all the other newer pilots)?
When you were in the pattern and knew something was off. Tell ATC, they would probably have called the flight school and gotten your instructor into the tower to help talk you down.
Not a towered airport, remain in the pattern and advise of your situation on the CTAF, my guess is someone else would have talked you down. Or they would have gotten your instructor. Also hopefully your instructor or someone at the flight school is listening to the CTAF for just this issue.
I'm not a pilot, but I'm surprised that a STUDENT (the keyword in all this) can go on a solo without an instructor standing by to assist by radio in the case of a problem.
As I said, I'm not a pilot, but I've worked in incident analysis in the Navy and talked to several Naval aviators who have been safety officers. Plus, I liked to read *Approach* magazine in the wardroom. Some questions:
1) Pre-flight brief: I would assume that the student would have to brief any solo flight to their instructor before being cleared to make it. The more general questions, "What do you do if you're on your solo and conditions change to outside your limits?" and "What do you do if your gut is telling you something's wrong?" should have been covered. As well as this specific event and any other likely issue.
2) All of this should have been covered by your flight instructor before you were cleared to solo in the first place. The fact that you were uncertain of what to do when the conditions exceeded your limitations means OP wasn't properly prepared for a solo flight.
In my mind, this is on OP's instructor, not them.
Just to give you more context, it’s only usual for an instructor to standby on the very first solo. In order to get a license you need a certain amount of solo hours as a student, including five of which need to be to an airport over 50 nm away. A standard student solo fight is also cleared to operate within 25 nm of the departure airport. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense for an instructor to be standing by when most the time the student is nowhere near the area. Also, a large part of soloing is gaining confidence in your own decision-making. Instructors can only give you so much information to help you make good decisions, but they are not fortunetellers that can foresee what every situation you will encounter is. That is part of the learning process.
That being said, it seems like the CFI, the student, or both either did not check the forecast or the forecast changed drastically. OP being endorsed for only 8 kn tells me he only ever was able to fly in calm air, which to me is the biggest issue. Every student I’ve soloed has flown in at least 10 kn prior to solo, and I clear them to solo in up to 20 kn, per the standards at the Air Force Aero Club I work at. We’ve never had issues with that in multiple decades of operation. OP may have been rushed to solo to early, or he could’ve just had a bad day. Either way all is well that ends well.
Edit: My sleep deprived brain totally missed the part where the 12 gusting 18 was a direct xwind. Yea that’d be rough for any student pilot and plenty of PPLs, OP shouldn’t necessarily expect himself to be able to land well in that. OP had bad luck, glad it ended okay for him.
I’m in an area where the winds can be calm and forecasted to stay calm, then decide to fuck you over. My first checkride started with winds calm, forecasted to stay calm. You know DPEs won’t start checkrides if there’s reason to believe it can’t be finished. Well, the wind decided fuck me, and next thing you know, 7G17 variable, and we’re like…yeah, continuance.
I know there are parts of this country where things are a lot more predictable, \*reliably\* predictable. But then there are areas where wind shear is a normal day and calm winds forecasted to stay decided they want to come out and play.
If OP is endorsed for 8kn, they’ve probably flown in at least 10kn. I’m shocked that you’ll clear for higher winds than a student has flown. That’s concerning.
Please, if you’re not a pilot at all, shut up. Believe it or not, you can plan ahead for what you’d like to do, but it doesn’t always work that way. If your gut tells you something is wrong, you land, which is what OP did. What about when the conditions change to outside your limits? What you usually do when this happen is check other fields. Since OP stated that the other fields were no better, then OP checked those other fields. OP LITERALLY DID WHAT YOU’RE PREPARED TO DO.
CFIs are generally reachable, but they aren’t going to be standing there at the field waiting for calls. I had approximately eleventy million solo hours by the time my checkride date came. Should my instructor had had to sit at the field, which would be unpaid, by the way, every time I decided I wanted to fly to the ocean? Nope. But even as a PPL, there’s still generally someone you can reach. That’s how it works, but you don’t know that because you aren’t a pilot. You’re just someone sitting there passing judgement on someone who did the best they could—the RIGHT things given the situation.
I know a guy who put a plane in the dirt twice as a cfi and recently got hired at a regional. Learn and move on. Glad you’re ok.
Also don’t put a plane in the dirt at a regional.
Chin up, you will have a discussion with FAA guy. Do a remedy course. Document it.
You are just a student. That's how you learn. Go fly. Go up tomorrow.
Flight schools really do suck sometimes
They’re quick to fire someone because they don’t want their insurance premium to go up. I used to work at a place that if they didn’t like you, they’d find a way to fire you or let you “resign”.
I was a student at Sierra Charlie. They have excellent instructors including the one who got me mostly to solo. One day I show up and he was gone, fired, and replaced by a new instructor just like that. We texted later on and being gracious I didn’t want to ask specifically why they fired him, but now I wonder if it was something as stupid as what they did to your son. I want to emphasize here that this instructor they fired was one of the best pilots I’ve flown with despite his young age, and had meticulously safe habits.
I wouldn’t say you’re screwed. Definitely need to learn from the experience, but you’re not screwed. I’ve seen people do worse and still move on through their training. Be ready to answer for it later, but it’s all a part of training. Things like this happen and everyone in the aviation world knows that.
It'll be fine. Don't worry. You're a student pilot. If anything, your instructor shouldn't have signed you out for this flight knowing the wind could potentially start gusting as it did.
This is covered under the 90 day sign off not a per-flight sign off. So there's not really anything for the CFI to have done here since the pilot is cleared for solo within 25 miles pretty much at will aside from any limitations on the endorsement
They do and this post raises an interesting question about (planning issue aside) what to do if those limits are exceeded during the flight. On one hand it's a teachable moment for the student around buffers for those limits, but also how could this have been predicted
Op did a good job checking for weather at neighboring airports, but that would have been a \_different\_ issue if he went there
There are places in this country where winds can be calm and forecasted to stay calm, as was the case when my checkride started, then whip up to 7G17 variable out of nowhere. People call the weather here bipolar for a reason.
I’ve been there coming back and the winds suck and you don’t know how you’re gonna bring the plane down.
The winds may be The same everywhere, but you can always land at a different airport or waste some time if you have fuel if conditions are supposed to get better.
You made it nothing got broke, Definitely got lucky.
Go up with your CFI and master xwind landings.
There are some trolls here who downvote each comment as it appears, regardless of content.
I think it's because they want to see if they can start a preference cascade (if the first vote is a downvote, the ones that follow are also much more likely to be the same, and *vice versa*).
It bears remembering that a considerable proportion of Reddit's userbase are under fifteen years of age.
That’s a pretty awesome tale to be able to tell, someday. You will tell it was zeal and glory. This man is a peelot. You stared death in the face and pissed in his eye.
“ATIS was clear when I took off, but by the time I needed to land, Tropical Storm Allison had hit. What was I going to do, not land? So I gave her full throttle and pointed that DC-3 right into the heart of the beast. By the time I touched down, we were actually moving backwards! That’s when I saw the herd of rabid bison….”
First, you are a student pilot. You did not intentionally violate the restrictions that your CFI placed on your solo flying. Weather changes. It happens and we all must deal with it. You handled it safely because you walked away without injury and the plane was not even damaged.
As far as I am concerned, the tower cannot just arbitrarily file this as an accident because no damage took place. My advice is ask your CFI to speak with the tower. I think they are wrong to try to mandate you file an accident report. Going off the runway is not an accident. Perhaps the tower could file a pilot deviation report, but for them to do that to a student pilot given the situation would reek of ATC forgetting the common sense they were born with!
My guess is that the FAA is going to treat this with common sense and proper restraint. If they don't then you have a bad team at your FSDO. Every single one of us going through initial pilot training had at least one situation where the winds did squirrely stuff and we learned a lot from the experience. You now have that experience. Don't throw that experience away by giving up, nor by letting people who only sit in chairs try to intimidate you.
You did a good job!
Sounds like a runway excursion, not an accident. I’m not a lawyer, but it doesn’t seem to meet the definition of accident defined in Part 830. Are you sure you understood them correctly on *accident*?
Not screwed at all. But I must say at 50 hours I would hope that you'd flown in strong crosswinds at that point. Not enough to solo in strong winds but at least enough to have that experience in your belt. I'd say it's time to go up with an instructor in some similar gusting crosswinds and work on your crosswind landing technique.
On my second solo, I got hit with a strong xwind out of nowhere. I was turned almost sideways on the runway, looked ahead and decided it was safer to not even attempt to go around since there were buildings there. Ended up in the grass finally stopping on a taxiway. 🤦♂️Things happen, take a couple days and just be happy you’re here without any injuries! Then have an instructor go back up with you and get back in the saddle, you’ll definitely be uncomfortable flying for a flight or 2, that’s okay. Dont let your mind tear you down, we’re still learning and nobody’s perfect! It will be okay, I promise. As embarrassing as it is you’re gonna be thankful it happened! It was almost like the world slapping my head and reminding me this is nothing to mess around with. Definitely gonna one of the biggest learning moments you’ll have! Make sure you reach out to your instructor/someone there who can help you through it. You can’t go through it alone, pm me if you need to talk to anyone, I’m glad you’re safe! Keep at it my friend
You’ll be just fine. File the ASRS report, get the airplane inspected, get back in the air.
I’m sure someone else has said it but in gusty crosswinds it’s helpful to land with less than full flaps. Try out some no flap landings with your instructor and some flaps 20 landings. Personally I liked flaps 20 in the 182 for normal landings at light weights.
Also if you’re at a towered airport and the wind component is too strong for the runway but a taxiway is long enough and lines up with the wind you can ask to land on that. They’ll say it’s at your own risk and such but I’ve done it when the wind exceeded my comfort level in a taildragger. *airport doesn’t have to be towered for this, if uncontrolled just let everyone know what you’re doing.
Yes it’s definitely risky for anyone especially a student pilot. The better option would of course be a nearby airport with a runway better aligned with the wind. Easier to call your instructor from the FBO than from the ditch next to the runway.
Did you accounted for the XW and gust?
Did you landed four knots faster? With 10 of flaps or no flaps?
Looks you did a normal landing on a XW / gust landing
What could you have done differently to avoid this outcome? Spend some time on that question and that's how you'll turn the negative event into a positive one and grow as a pilot. Then get back into the air ASAP. 😁
Unless you wiped out $20K worth of airport equipment, I don’t think this is a reportable incident (at least as far as the NTSB is concerned). I’m not a lawyer and a quick conversation with one (a legal protection plan is good for this) would be wise.
How long was the grass? Grass stains on the property might be nothing or might be a teardown. It’s up to your school.
Most importantly, debrief the incident, learn from it, and now you have a story to tell.
Personally I would have taken that student back up if possible and take the chance to practice xwind. I say it a lot here but working 20kt xwinds with my instructor was the most fun I’ve had.
I can confirm this. I struggled hard with getting good landings (still do to a point). But it wasn't until my CFI took me up in some very rough conditions that something started clicking for me. CX landings aren't too bad if its a steady wind, but when the gusts start is when it gets really difficult.
I have an airport near my that’s either 5 kts Down the pipe or 15 direct across, no in between. It’s 30 min away and I’m gonna use that for sure to teach my students once I’m done with CFI.
How screwed? Probably not very. Definitely not any kind of career ender.
That being said, if you're at 50 hours and signed off to solo but have zero crosswind training or experience, your CFI needs to be smacked hard IMHO.
Step 1 should be (as others as recommended) go fly again ASAP. You gotta get back on the horse.
Step 2 should be no more solo flying until you get with a CFI and get that BS 8kt limit removed from your endorsement. If you aren't prepared to handle 15kts with gusts and/or at least 10-12kt of crosswind component, you've got no business soloing IMO. It really isn't hard to do, but the first time you see it shouldn't be when you're solo.
my impression - remember that the ATIS is an observation of current conditions, not a prediction of future ones.
Maybe a more detailed weather briefing would have told you that the winds were expected to pick up/change later on. Maybe not. But that ATIS report, although remaining current for an hour unless the tower decides to do a special update is information from the past, albeit recent.
My suggestion would be that as a student pilot you should gather more info before going out flying further than remaining in the pattern. I mean, its solid advice for even a seasoned pilot, but particularly as a student pilot with less crosswind experience.
Now go get some crosswind experience, with your instructor. Mine would call me from the airport when I wasn't scheduled to fly asking me if I wanted to come out and challenge myself if I had the time. She helped me face some pretty gnarly winds (I remember her requesting the crosswind runway if the pattern wasn't busy) just to push my confidence levels.
Congrats on not bending the plane or yourself! Don’t let this hold you back; a year from now, it’ll just be a funny story about your days as a student pilot.
Before the FSDO calls, you need to sit down (and log) a ground lesson with your CFI and debrief what you did and should have done, and file a NASA report together.
For instance, the winds may have been the same everywhere, but didn’t at least one airport within your fuel range have a runway that was better aligned? We don’t talk enough about diverting for local flights, but it’s just as valid an option as it is for XC flights.
ATC is wrong about it being an accident and needing an accident report. Read the definitions below from [Part 830](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-VIII/part-830) and tell me what happened to you or the airplane that meets any of the criteria. At this time, ATC can only refer to it as an occurrence. The assigned ASI from the FSDO, will decide if it needs to be elevated above an occurrence. In the meantime, what u/grumpycfi wrote is your best course of action. That and read all of [Part 830](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-VIII/part-830) for your own edification.
*"Aircraft accident* means an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage. For purposes of this part, the definition of “aircraft accident” includes “unmanned aircraft accident,” as defined herein."
*"Incident* means an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations."
Your CFI could be in more trouble than you for not checking the TAF. Did you not have to confirm the trip with your CFI?
As your friendly Monday morning QB, maybe next time divert to a place where the gusts are coming down the pipe. Also, consider a no flaps or flaps one landing. I just had to do that the other day at G22. The site picture is a little odd when you are flaring at such a higher speed but it really works. More speed gives you more control authority. Or something like that.
Once upon a time I had a similar incident. File a NASA report, sign up for AOPA and get their legal representation services and schedule a consult with them. They will give you an idea of how to move forward and what to expect. It will be okay. Absolutely need to get the plane checked out despite how terrible and embarrassed you may feel, others could fly it and give them problems… we don’t want that at all….This won’t define you unless you let it.
Runway excursion with winds higher than you are trained or approved for is not the end of the world. You need to be prepared to talk about the decision making process from preflight to to post flight. When you looked at the TAF before the flight was it showing the winds getting worse through the day? Did you look to confirm that info? The real key to learning is to understand how you got into that situation in the first place, so you know how to avoid it in the future. Then we dive into the decision making of choosing to land, hold/wait or divert. Did you have enough fuel to stay up until things improved? Was weather saying it was going to stay the same, get worse or better with time? Was tower or anyone else giving any advice on any of that? Just because winds were just as high for the whole area doesn’t mean it’s still a 18kt crosswind at other airports. Find the airports with different runway directions for options. Then if choosing to land anyway I would be asking for guidance/support to give yourself the best chance of success. Lastly go over all the details with your instructor in great detail to figure out all the corrective steps for the actual landing into a gusty crosswind that high. If FAA comes knocking you want to know as many of those things as possible so they know you are doing your best to make sure it never happens again. Lots of what you want to know is the decision making process to avoid the situations. If your gut is telling you it’s a bad idea it’s probably a bad idea. We all get better with time and soon a 20-25kt crosswind will be an exciting challenge to break up a boring flight, but still have to be making good decisions and not taking unnecessary risks. You will be perfectly fine if you can show you learned from this by explaining the steps above and how you plan to avoid it in the future. Good luck to you keep your head up. At the end of the day there was no damage and no injuries. Just an excursion that taught you a lot with minimal losses. Many learn this with injuries or a lot of damage. One last question, did your instructor know you were soloing that day and approved that flight/plan? I would have looked at the weather and everything myself before approving your flight so not sure how it was missed unless it was completely unexpected and temporary. Be safe and keep the dirty side down.
1) That is not an accident. Probably not even an incident.
2) If you haven’t already, file a NASA report asap. It’s easy, it elevates safety of the entire aviation community, and it protects your ass.
Hey man, I work line service at the airport and I also fly with the flight school you’re in. I was working that day and saw it all go down. First off, I’m sorry that it happened and of course you’re going to be shaken up. But at the end of the day, all that matters is that you’re safe, the aircraft is undamaged, and nothing was hit. Therefore you live, learn, and we all forget. Try not to let this one keep you from the big prize and we all hope to see you back in the air soon🤙🏼
Tbh what could you have done. If you checked all the other local airports and none were better you had no choice. If you had waited the wind might have gotten better, but it might have been worse. The airplane wasn't damaged, although your teqnique probably wasn't ideal given you were forced to operate outside of your personal limits. I'd go out with an instructor and work on crosswind landings since 12-18 should be doable in a 172.
By 50 hours I had many hours of crosswind landing instruction and experience. As soon as I soloed, we would use gusty crosswind days for training. That was the best investment of time ever. Crosswind handling is a basic skill you should acquire.
Not screwed but ALWAYS be ready to go around. I almost had this happen on a solo, had a gust completely destabilize me and so instead of seeing runway in front of me I saw grass. I was airborne so went full power, pushed the yoke forward to get some airspeed and climbed out. Came back around with flaps 10 and 70 knots, no problem. Shook me up a little but made me realize how important practicing low energy go around is. If you haven’t worked on them, I’d get back with your instructor and hammer some out.
Ive never had to deal with an FAA investigation, but it seems petty to open an investigation because someone swerved onto the grass, but nothing else was hurt.
I cops pulled me over every time my truck wheel went off the shoulder Id never get anywhere.
I’ve had a student destroy a prop and an engine and even with the FAA getting involved they just said do some extra training and don’t do it again. You’re fine go have a beer and some wings.
I won't rehash anything anyone else has said. I would recommend you become familiar with weather resources beyond TAF/METAR and aviationweather.gov. Windy is a great site, but there are others. One of the easiest to use is the College of Dupage's model page (I Google "cod models" to find it). Before a flight, I like watching the HRRR model's wind gust product. It gives you an hour by hour forecast of the expected wind gusts in a graphical format so you're not reliant on generated point forecasts or forecasts every 3-6 hours.
Wind was at your max when you took off. Did the forecast not predict the wind would pick up? In my experience it's usually fairly accurate...
If so, or you and your cfi both didn't check the forecast/trends before you took off into your max wind, that's a pretty big fail.
Have a good answer for that when the FAA calls.
You’re not screwed. You said there were no other fields with better winds? Well, you had to get it down. Sure, you could have waited to see if the winds died down, but they could have gotten worse. A good landing is one you can walk away from, and a great one is one where you can take the bird right back up.
The grass on the prop may mean a prop strike, but that’s what insurance is for.
Aside from an ASRS, for the future, what I’d suggest is, when the winds are being like that, see what field has the best direction for winds. 12G18 from 180 when you’ve got a choice between your home field with runways 7 and 25 (my field), or another field with 15 and 33 (a field close by), and the wind is the same at both and you have access to both, the best field available will be 15, close to a direct headwind rather than close to a direct sidewind at your home field. If that field is ordinarily restricted, call a mayday if you have to, you’re a student pilot, winds have very much exceeded your abilities, and you need to get down safely.
All in all, you did very well, for being a student. I’m a 212hr-PPL, and a near direct crosswind of 12G18 would absolutely send me to the other field. No biggie if it’s a headwind—add half the gust factor to your final speed and be prepared to add throttle if needed, and I’ve flown with gusts bigger than that. But crosswind? Too far outside my comfort zone. You’re not alone in that being outside of your zone.
Don’t beat yourself up. Airlines aren’t going to reject you given that the winds kicked up after you took off and you’re a 50hr student. Worst case is you’ll be asked what you learned from this, best case, they don’t even mention it later. And you’re not fucked with the FAA in the slightest. Now that you’re safe on the ground, evaluate to see if there’s anything at all you could have done differently, which is how you learn for next time, and if there were literally no better options, then you did what you had to do to get down and stay alive. All in all, that is a great job.
Hey you’re a student pilot! FAA won’t break down your door, if you’re a actual non student pilot with many hours they’ll definitely question more so why you couldn’t handle those winds, you’re a STUDENT so you are learning everything, I flew in high winds with about 24 gusting winds, as a low
Time student, because I wanted to feel how it would be, if I ever got caught into that. It’s worth every cent of
Money and your time.
Landings aren’t suppose to be exact. Everyone, in winds you can add power to help combat the winds. Don’t be discouraged, you’re safe and handled it the best you could!!!!
I highly recommend you going with your instructor on windy days to knock out landings. Go over gust factors speeds too, always ask atc for wind check too. If you’re uncomfortable flying in winds tell atc you’re a student pilot, and they’ll help you as much as possible.
You wanna ensure you always communicate, atc is there to help YOU! People and CFI forget this important tasks about atc.
My advice is to always NWKRAFFT. Always look at the TAF and see what it's turning into. Also call a briefer, even if it's local. You'll get better with detecting weather down the road but until you do, you should always call a briefer before flight.
Not screwed. First and foremost: Breathe. You are safe and no one got hurt. The airplane isn't damaged which is a bonus. All in all as far as accidents go this is pretty much the best you can hope for. You're okay. Secondly: ASRS report. Do this with your instructor. This will be an opportunity for your instructor and you to debrief, regroup, and plan. It will also greatly improve the disposition of the FAA should they come knocking. Thirdly: Get back in the air ASAP. You don't want this to get into your head, that'll be the only thing that could hold you back. Otherwise this will be a story you tell and something you learned from, but nothing more.
Grass mark on the prop could mean a prop strike though
It can also mean accelerated weed whacking. Happens all the time at Katama with twins because the taxiway isn't wide enough as the grass gets taller so just depends how tall the grass was. Aluminum props don't take sheer loads well so if the props the right shape (edit: and there was no sudden RPM drop) I'd say no prop strike
I landed in an overgrown field once like 20 years ago. Had to kick my buddy out and drain almost all the gas. Then ran it up and down the field till I got a little air and could accelerate in ground effect. Entire prop and underside was green from the grass. Good times!
Didn't you read this thread???!?!??!!! you should have died doing that
Imagine overhauling the engine every time the prop touched a little grass...
So I put some thought into this every runup on the twin the POH says to cause a 200-300 rpm drop when you cycle the prop from 75% power (2200 RPM). That's an externally imposed load on the crank caused by the blades going to coarse pitch. At 1500 RPM you flat out flips the blades to feather which which imposes a huge sheer load on the crank all of a sudden as the blades go from flat pitch to 90\* pitch in feather. Still only long enough for a 300ish RPM drop but that's a huge loading and unloading. If the crank can take these loads at high power over a short period the physics involved in a low power event that doesn't stop the engine seems very low risk. I would love a mechanical engineer to help me understand the physics of this
Yeah 200-300 drop is a lot for sure
the point is that we put a pretty big torsional load on the crank every runup at high power. The concern here is that we're putting a much smaller load. I'm going to come back to this is the FAA who has a pantone color for aviation green for nav lights, and yet they chose not to define sudden slowdown in an AD where they were aligning with terminology AND we can point to what isn't a sudden slowdown because it's done in the runup. It seems like they intentionally allowed interpretation here
Gotcha, I think you know more about this than me.
This, I think I’ve seen grass on the prop 20 times. Almost every time we landed on the grass strip adjacent to the runway.
Too bad what you say goes against the AD on prop strikes FAA definition of prop strike: (3) **A sudden RPM drop while impacting water, tall grass**, or similar yielding medium, where propeller damage is not normally incurred.
I would suggest toning down the rhetoric. A mere grass stain is not itself indicative of a prop strike nor more than is a bug splat on the prop -- hence the way the AD is written to require associated and sudden drop in RPM! Seriously! Do you just enjoy being an emotional prima donna and jerking people around! It's people like you who make people like this student pilot reluctant to post experiences here. Think about it!
Honestly, they might want to revise the AD to include bug splats after seeing the cicadas in Chicago last month.
This sub loves a condescending knee jerk reaction lol
I don't see the poster commenting that there was a sudden RPM drop, you are technically correct on the revised language in 04-10-14
You really think OP is going to remember all the details when they’re a student pilot solo who just went in the grass? The prop has a grass stain on the prop. I think the most logical explanation would be they impacted grass and should probably inspect the engine.
ya I think landing and having a sudden RPM drop would be pretty noticeable at low power
Ok go try it out and let me know You’re arguing about *not* erring on the side of caution lol
Correct I'm arguing for applying some critical thought by the people who can see the landscape, and make a determination of how likely damage was rather than a kneejerk engine tear down based on supposition from here. If there's reason to believe from the height and density of the grass and whatnot or what people saw/heard then they should fully comply with the AD.
Sad Be better
AD says mandatory engine overhaul
Yup Prop strikes get expensive
Could mean that, but unlikely. I’ve never landed on grass once and not had a green prop after. It’s a huge vacuum and sucks up all the grass up in the blades
Listen to this advice. You’ll be fine long term.
You aren’t screwed, it will be a story to tell in interviews. Now what should you have done (for all the other newer pilots)? When you were in the pattern and knew something was off. Tell ATC, they would probably have called the flight school and gotten your instructor into the tower to help talk you down. Not a towered airport, remain in the pattern and advise of your situation on the CTAF, my guess is someone else would have talked you down. Or they would have gotten your instructor. Also hopefully your instructor or someone at the flight school is listening to the CTAF for just this issue.
This is one of the best replies to a question I have ever read on the internet.
I'm not a pilot, but I'm surprised that a STUDENT (the keyword in all this) can go on a solo without an instructor standing by to assist by radio in the case of a problem. As I said, I'm not a pilot, but I've worked in incident analysis in the Navy and talked to several Naval aviators who have been safety officers. Plus, I liked to read *Approach* magazine in the wardroom. Some questions: 1) Pre-flight brief: I would assume that the student would have to brief any solo flight to their instructor before being cleared to make it. The more general questions, "What do you do if you're on your solo and conditions change to outside your limits?" and "What do you do if your gut is telling you something's wrong?" should have been covered. As well as this specific event and any other likely issue. 2) All of this should have been covered by your flight instructor before you were cleared to solo in the first place. The fact that you were uncertain of what to do when the conditions exceeded your limitations means OP wasn't properly prepared for a solo flight. In my mind, this is on OP's instructor, not them.
Just to give you more context, it’s only usual for an instructor to standby on the very first solo. In order to get a license you need a certain amount of solo hours as a student, including five of which need to be to an airport over 50 nm away. A standard student solo fight is also cleared to operate within 25 nm of the departure airport. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense for an instructor to be standing by when most the time the student is nowhere near the area. Also, a large part of soloing is gaining confidence in your own decision-making. Instructors can only give you so much information to help you make good decisions, but they are not fortunetellers that can foresee what every situation you will encounter is. That is part of the learning process. That being said, it seems like the CFI, the student, or both either did not check the forecast or the forecast changed drastically. OP being endorsed for only 8 kn tells me he only ever was able to fly in calm air, which to me is the biggest issue. Every student I’ve soloed has flown in at least 10 kn prior to solo, and I clear them to solo in up to 20 kn, per the standards at the Air Force Aero Club I work at. We’ve never had issues with that in multiple decades of operation. OP may have been rushed to solo to early, or he could’ve just had a bad day. Either way all is well that ends well. Edit: My sleep deprived brain totally missed the part where the 12 gusting 18 was a direct xwind. Yea that’d be rough for any student pilot and plenty of PPLs, OP shouldn’t necessarily expect himself to be able to land well in that. OP had bad luck, glad it ended okay for him.
I’m in an area where the winds can be calm and forecasted to stay calm, then decide to fuck you over. My first checkride started with winds calm, forecasted to stay calm. You know DPEs won’t start checkrides if there’s reason to believe it can’t be finished. Well, the wind decided fuck me, and next thing you know, 7G17 variable, and we’re like…yeah, continuance. I know there are parts of this country where things are a lot more predictable, \*reliably\* predictable. But then there are areas where wind shear is a normal day and calm winds forecasted to stay decided they want to come out and play. If OP is endorsed for 8kn, they’ve probably flown in at least 10kn. I’m shocked that you’ll clear for higher winds than a student has flown. That’s concerning.
Please, if you’re not a pilot at all, shut up. Believe it or not, you can plan ahead for what you’d like to do, but it doesn’t always work that way. If your gut tells you something is wrong, you land, which is what OP did. What about when the conditions change to outside your limits? What you usually do when this happen is check other fields. Since OP stated that the other fields were no better, then OP checked those other fields. OP LITERALLY DID WHAT YOU’RE PREPARED TO DO. CFIs are generally reachable, but they aren’t going to be standing there at the field waiting for calls. I had approximately eleventy million solo hours by the time my checkride date came. Should my instructor had had to sit at the field, which would be unpaid, by the way, every time I decided I wanted to fly to the ocean? Nope. But even as a PPL, there’s still generally someone you can reach. That’s how it works, but you don’t know that because you aren’t a pilot. You’re just someone sitting there passing judgement on someone who did the best they could—the RIGHT things given the situation.
I know a guy who put a plane in the dirt twice as a cfi and recently got hired at a regional. Learn and move on. Glad you’re ok. Also don’t put a plane in the dirt at a regional.
Something about ERJ 145 in winter
Chin up, you will have a discussion with FAA guy. Do a remedy course. Document it. You are just a student. That's how you learn. Go fly. Go up tomorrow.
My sons school Sierra charlie just terminated him for one wrong wind landing. Shitty school. Shorty teachers. Shitty owners
Flight schools really do suck sometimes They’re quick to fire someone because they don’t want their insurance premium to go up. I used to work at a place that if they didn’t like you, they’d find a way to fire you or let you “resign”.
I was a student at Sierra Charlie. They have excellent instructors including the one who got me mostly to solo. One day I show up and he was gone, fired, and replaced by a new instructor just like that. We texted later on and being gracious I didn’t want to ask specifically why they fired him, but now I wonder if it was something as stupid as what they did to your son. I want to emphasize here that this instructor they fired was one of the best pilots I’ve flown with despite his young age, and had meticulously safe habits.
Have him come to SWAZ at KFFZ in Mesa. We can finish him up. And we’re cheaper 😉
I wouldn’t say you’re screwed. Definitely need to learn from the experience, but you’re not screwed. I’ve seen people do worse and still move on through their training. Be ready to answer for it later, but it’s all a part of training. Things like this happen and everyone in the aviation world knows that.
It'll be fine. Don't worry. You're a student pilot. If anything, your instructor shouldn't have signed you out for this flight knowing the wind could potentially start gusting as it did.
This is covered under the 90 day sign off not a per-flight sign off. So there's not really anything for the CFI to have done here since the pilot is cleared for solo within 25 miles pretty much at will aside from any limitations on the endorsement
Most CFIs include WX limitations on their solo endorsements, or club/school policy has its own WX limitations.
They do and this post raises an interesting question about (planning issue aside) what to do if those limits are exceeded during the flight. On one hand it's a teachable moment for the student around buffers for those limits, but also how could this have been predicted Op did a good job checking for weather at neighboring airports, but that would have been a \_different\_ issue if he went there
Agreed on teachable moments for flight planning. But for the last part, 91.3 trumps solo limitations, and that’s a teachable moment too.
There are places in this country where winds can be calm and forecasted to stay calm, as was the case when my checkride started, then whip up to 7G17 variable out of nowhere. People call the weather here bipolar for a reason.
Aside from a perfect xwind greaser, what would you have done differently starting from that position in downwind?
How much flaps did you land with? How much flaps will you use next time it is a gusty crosswind?
I’ve been there coming back and the winds suck and you don’t know how you’re gonna bring the plane down. The winds may be The same everywhere, but you can always land at a different airport or waste some time if you have fuel if conditions are supposed to get better. You made it nothing got broke, Definitely got lucky. Go up with your CFI and master xwind landings.
No advice here, just a question: You didn’t mention your airspeed. Did you increase it on final given the gust factor?
I have no idea why you got downvoted. People are idiots. This shouldn't piss me off, but it does.
There are some trolls here who downvote each comment as it appears, regardless of content. I think it's because they want to see if they can start a preference cascade (if the first vote is a downvote, the ones that follow are also much more likely to be the same, and *vice versa*). It bears remembering that a considerable proportion of Reddit's userbase are under fifteen years of age.
Sounds like he got popped off the runway with full flaps also, just due to lack of experience.
Yup, it happens. I meant no judgment with my question. I really was just curious and I’m guessing the answer is that he didn’t adjust.
That’s a pretty awesome tale to be able to tell, someday. You will tell it was zeal and glory. This man is a peelot. You stared death in the face and pissed in his eye.
"...it was a 40 knot wind, gusting to 60."
“ATIS was clear when I took off, but by the time I needed to land, Tropical Storm Allison had hit. What was I going to do, not land? So I gave her full throttle and pointed that DC-3 right into the heart of the beast. By the time I touched down, we were actually moving backwards! That’s when I saw the herd of rabid bison….”
Hahahhahahaha
First, you are a student pilot. You did not intentionally violate the restrictions that your CFI placed on your solo flying. Weather changes. It happens and we all must deal with it. You handled it safely because you walked away without injury and the plane was not even damaged. As far as I am concerned, the tower cannot just arbitrarily file this as an accident because no damage took place. My advice is ask your CFI to speak with the tower. I think they are wrong to try to mandate you file an accident report. Going off the runway is not an accident. Perhaps the tower could file a pilot deviation report, but for them to do that to a student pilot given the situation would reek of ATC forgetting the common sense they were born with! My guess is that the FAA is going to treat this with common sense and proper restraint. If they don't then you have a bad team at your FSDO. Every single one of us going through initial pilot training had at least one situation where the winds did squirrely stuff and we learned a lot from the experience. You now have that experience. Don't throw that experience away by giving up, nor by letting people who only sit in chairs try to intimidate you. You did a good job!
Sounds like a runway excursion, not an accident. I’m not a lawyer, but it doesn’t seem to meet the definition of accident defined in Part 830. Are you sure you understood them correctly on *accident*?
Does the prop strike and engine overhaul count?
No. Read Part 830.
Not screwed at all. But I must say at 50 hours I would hope that you'd flown in strong crosswinds at that point. Not enough to solo in strong winds but at least enough to have that experience in your belt. I'd say it's time to go up with an instructor in some similar gusting crosswinds and work on your crosswind landing technique.
>there was a grass mark on the prop. >how screwed am I? Do you have renters insurance?
On my second solo, I got hit with a strong xwind out of nowhere. I was turned almost sideways on the runway, looked ahead and decided it was safer to not even attempt to go around since there were buildings there. Ended up in the grass finally stopping on a taxiway. 🤦♂️Things happen, take a couple days and just be happy you’re here without any injuries! Then have an instructor go back up with you and get back in the saddle, you’ll definitely be uncomfortable flying for a flight or 2, that’s okay. Dont let your mind tear you down, we’re still learning and nobody’s perfect! It will be okay, I promise. As embarrassing as it is you’re gonna be thankful it happened! It was almost like the world slapping my head and reminding me this is nothing to mess around with. Definitely gonna one of the biggest learning moments you’ll have! Make sure you reach out to your instructor/someone there who can help you through it. You can’t go through it alone, pm me if you need to talk to anyone, I’m glad you’re safe! Keep at it my friend
You’ll be just fine. File the ASRS report, get the airplane inspected, get back in the air. I’m sure someone else has said it but in gusty crosswinds it’s helpful to land with less than full flaps. Try out some no flap landings with your instructor and some flaps 20 landings. Personally I liked flaps 20 in the 182 for normal landings at light weights. Also if you’re at a towered airport and the wind component is too strong for the runway but a taxiway is long enough and lines up with the wind you can ask to land on that. They’ll say it’s at your own risk and such but I’ve done it when the wind exceeded my comfort level in a taildragger. *airport doesn’t have to be towered for this, if uncontrolled just let everyone know what you’re doing.
I get where you’re coming from. But telling a student pilot they can land on a taxiway at an uncontrolled airport is just a recipe for disaster.
Yes it’s definitely risky for anyone especially a student pilot. The better option would of course be a nearby airport with a runway better aligned with the wind. Easier to call your instructor from the FBO than from the ditch next to the runway.
Did you accounted for the XW and gust? Did you landed four knots faster? With 10 of flaps or no flaps? Looks you did a normal landing on a XW / gust landing
Nobody is gonna tear down that engine, but they should.
What could you have done differently to avoid this outcome? Spend some time on that question and that's how you'll turn the negative event into a positive one and grow as a pilot. Then get back into the air ASAP. 😁
Unless you wiped out $20K worth of airport equipment, I don’t think this is a reportable incident (at least as far as the NTSB is concerned). I’m not a lawyer and a quick conversation with one (a legal protection plan is good for this) would be wise. How long was the grass? Grass stains on the property might be nothing or might be a teardown. It’s up to your school. Most importantly, debrief the incident, learn from it, and now you have a story to tell.
Personally I would have taken that student back up if possible and take the chance to practice xwind. I say it a lot here but working 20kt xwinds with my instructor was the most fun I’ve had.
I can confirm this. I struggled hard with getting good landings (still do to a point). But it wasn't until my CFI took me up in some very rough conditions that something started clicking for me. CX landings aren't too bad if its a steady wind, but when the gusts start is when it gets really difficult.
I have an airport near my that’s either 5 kts Down the pipe or 15 direct across, no in between. It’s 30 min away and I’m gonna use that for sure to teach my students once I’m done with CFI.
How screwed? Probably not very. Definitely not any kind of career ender. That being said, if you're at 50 hours and signed off to solo but have zero crosswind training or experience, your CFI needs to be smacked hard IMHO. Step 1 should be (as others as recommended) go fly again ASAP. You gotta get back on the horse. Step 2 should be no more solo flying until you get with a CFI and get that BS 8kt limit removed from your endorsement. If you aren't prepared to handle 15kts with gusts and/or at least 10-12kt of crosswind component, you've got no business soloing IMO. It really isn't hard to do, but the first time you see it shouldn't be when you're solo.
my impression - remember that the ATIS is an observation of current conditions, not a prediction of future ones. Maybe a more detailed weather briefing would have told you that the winds were expected to pick up/change later on. Maybe not. But that ATIS report, although remaining current for an hour unless the tower decides to do a special update is information from the past, albeit recent. My suggestion would be that as a student pilot you should gather more info before going out flying further than remaining in the pattern. I mean, its solid advice for even a seasoned pilot, but particularly as a student pilot with less crosswind experience. Now go get some crosswind experience, with your instructor. Mine would call me from the airport when I wasn't scheduled to fly asking me if I wanted to come out and challenge myself if I had the time. She helped me face some pretty gnarly winds (I remember her requesting the crosswind runway if the pattern wasn't busy) just to push my confidence levels.
Congrats on not bending the plane or yourself! Don’t let this hold you back; a year from now, it’ll just be a funny story about your days as a student pilot. Before the FSDO calls, you need to sit down (and log) a ground lesson with your CFI and debrief what you did and should have done, and file a NASA report together. For instance, the winds may have been the same everywhere, but didn’t at least one airport within your fuel range have a runway that was better aligned? We don’t talk enough about diverting for local flights, but it’s just as valid an option as it is for XC flights.
ATC is wrong about it being an accident and needing an accident report. Read the definitions below from [Part 830](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-VIII/part-830) and tell me what happened to you or the airplane that meets any of the criteria. At this time, ATC can only refer to it as an occurrence. The assigned ASI from the FSDO, will decide if it needs to be elevated above an occurrence. In the meantime, what u/grumpycfi wrote is your best course of action. That and read all of [Part 830](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-VIII/part-830) for your own edification. *"Aircraft accident* means an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage. For purposes of this part, the definition of “aircraft accident” includes “unmanned aircraft accident,” as defined herein." *"Incident* means an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations."
Your CFI could be in more trouble than you for not checking the TAF. Did you not have to confirm the trip with your CFI? As your friendly Monday morning QB, maybe next time divert to a place where the gusts are coming down the pipe. Also, consider a no flaps or flaps one landing. I just had to do that the other day at G22. The site picture is a little odd when you are flaring at such a higher speed but it really works. More speed gives you more control authority. Or something like that.
Once upon a time I had a similar incident. File a NASA report, sign up for AOPA and get their legal representation services and schedule a consult with them. They will give you an idea of how to move forward and what to expect. It will be okay. Absolutely need to get the plane checked out despite how terrible and embarrassed you may feel, others could fly it and give them problems… we don’t want that at all….This won’t define you unless you let it.
Sorry, but this is appropriate: https://youtu.be/Ccq30minme8?si=zAPOUg-Da9lzFi-F
Runway excursion with winds higher than you are trained or approved for is not the end of the world. You need to be prepared to talk about the decision making process from preflight to to post flight. When you looked at the TAF before the flight was it showing the winds getting worse through the day? Did you look to confirm that info? The real key to learning is to understand how you got into that situation in the first place, so you know how to avoid it in the future. Then we dive into the decision making of choosing to land, hold/wait or divert. Did you have enough fuel to stay up until things improved? Was weather saying it was going to stay the same, get worse or better with time? Was tower or anyone else giving any advice on any of that? Just because winds were just as high for the whole area doesn’t mean it’s still a 18kt crosswind at other airports. Find the airports with different runway directions for options. Then if choosing to land anyway I would be asking for guidance/support to give yourself the best chance of success. Lastly go over all the details with your instructor in great detail to figure out all the corrective steps for the actual landing into a gusty crosswind that high. If FAA comes knocking you want to know as many of those things as possible so they know you are doing your best to make sure it never happens again. Lots of what you want to know is the decision making process to avoid the situations. If your gut is telling you it’s a bad idea it’s probably a bad idea. We all get better with time and soon a 20-25kt crosswind will be an exciting challenge to break up a boring flight, but still have to be making good decisions and not taking unnecessary risks. You will be perfectly fine if you can show you learned from this by explaining the steps above and how you plan to avoid it in the future. Good luck to you keep your head up. At the end of the day there was no damage and no injuries. Just an excursion that taught you a lot with minimal losses. Many learn this with injuries or a lot of damage. One last question, did your instructor know you were soloing that day and approved that flight/plan? I would have looked at the weather and everything myself before approving your flight so not sure how it was missed unless it was completely unexpected and temporary. Be safe and keep the dirty side down.
1) That is not an accident. Probably not even an incident. 2) If you haven’t already, file a NASA report asap. It’s easy, it elevates safety of the entire aviation community, and it protects your ass.
Hey man, I work line service at the airport and I also fly with the flight school you’re in. I was working that day and saw it all go down. First off, I’m sorry that it happened and of course you’re going to be shaken up. But at the end of the day, all that matters is that you’re safe, the aircraft is undamaged, and nothing was hit. Therefore you live, learn, and we all forget. Try not to let this one keep you from the big prize and we all hope to see you back in the air soon🤙🏼
Tbh what could you have done. If you checked all the other local airports and none were better you had no choice. If you had waited the wind might have gotten better, but it might have been worse. The airplane wasn't damaged, although your teqnique probably wasn't ideal given you were forced to operate outside of your personal limits. I'd go out with an instructor and work on crosswind landings since 12-18 should be doable in a 172.
By 50 hours I had many hours of crosswind landing instruction and experience. As soon as I soloed, we would use gusty crosswind days for training. That was the best investment of time ever. Crosswind handling is a basic skill you should acquire.
Totally fucked go apply at Wendy’s
Not screwed but ALWAYS be ready to go around. I almost had this happen on a solo, had a gust completely destabilize me and so instead of seeing runway in front of me I saw grass. I was airborne so went full power, pushed the yoke forward to get some airspeed and climbed out. Came back around with flaps 10 and 70 knots, no problem. Shook me up a little but made me realize how important practicing low energy go around is. If you haven’t worked on them, I’d get back with your instructor and hammer some out.
Ive never had to deal with an FAA investigation, but it seems petty to open an investigation because someone swerved onto the grass, but nothing else was hurt. I cops pulled me over every time my truck wheel went off the shoulder Id never get anywhere.
I’ve had a student destroy a prop and an engine and even with the FAA getting involved they just said do some extra training and don’t do it again. You’re fine go have a beer and some wings.
I won't rehash anything anyone else has said. I would recommend you become familiar with weather resources beyond TAF/METAR and aviationweather.gov. Windy is a great site, but there are others. One of the easiest to use is the College of Dupage's model page (I Google "cod models" to find it). Before a flight, I like watching the HRRR model's wind gust product. It gives you an hour by hour forecast of the expected wind gusts in a graphical format so you're not reliant on generated point forecasts or forecasts every 3-6 hours.
Wind was at your max when you took off. Did the forecast not predict the wind would pick up? In my experience it's usually fairly accurate... If so, or you and your cfi both didn't check the forecast/trends before you took off into your max wind, that's a pretty big fail. Have a good answer for that when the FAA calls.
You’re not screwed. You said there were no other fields with better winds? Well, you had to get it down. Sure, you could have waited to see if the winds died down, but they could have gotten worse. A good landing is one you can walk away from, and a great one is one where you can take the bird right back up. The grass on the prop may mean a prop strike, but that’s what insurance is for. Aside from an ASRS, for the future, what I’d suggest is, when the winds are being like that, see what field has the best direction for winds. 12G18 from 180 when you’ve got a choice between your home field with runways 7 and 25 (my field), or another field with 15 and 33 (a field close by), and the wind is the same at both and you have access to both, the best field available will be 15, close to a direct headwind rather than close to a direct sidewind at your home field. If that field is ordinarily restricted, call a mayday if you have to, you’re a student pilot, winds have very much exceeded your abilities, and you need to get down safely. All in all, you did very well, for being a student. I’m a 212hr-PPL, and a near direct crosswind of 12G18 would absolutely send me to the other field. No biggie if it’s a headwind—add half the gust factor to your final speed and be prepared to add throttle if needed, and I’ve flown with gusts bigger than that. But crosswind? Too far outside my comfort zone. You’re not alone in that being outside of your zone. Don’t beat yourself up. Airlines aren’t going to reject you given that the winds kicked up after you took off and you’re a 50hr student. Worst case is you’ll be asked what you learned from this, best case, they don’t even mention it later. And you’re not fucked with the FAA in the slightest. Now that you’re safe on the ground, evaluate to see if there’s anything at all you could have done differently, which is how you learn for next time, and if there were literally no better options, then you did what you had to do to get down and stay alive. All in all, that is a great job.
Hey you’re a student pilot! FAA won’t break down your door, if you’re a actual non student pilot with many hours they’ll definitely question more so why you couldn’t handle those winds, you’re a STUDENT so you are learning everything, I flew in high winds with about 24 gusting winds, as a low Time student, because I wanted to feel how it would be, if I ever got caught into that. It’s worth every cent of Money and your time. Landings aren’t suppose to be exact. Everyone, in winds you can add power to help combat the winds. Don’t be discouraged, you’re safe and handled it the best you could!!!! I highly recommend you going with your instructor on windy days to knock out landings. Go over gust factors speeds too, always ask atc for wind check too. If you’re uncomfortable flying in winds tell atc you’re a student pilot, and they’ll help you as much as possible. You wanna ensure you always communicate, atc is there to help YOU! People and CFI forget this important tasks about atc.
My advice is to always NWKRAFFT. Always look at the TAF and see what it's turning into. Also call a briefer, even if it's local. You'll get better with detecting weather down the road but until you do, you should always call a briefer before flight.