1. I was flying to an airport I had never been to before. This airport was on one of the islands close enough to Okinawa that you could fly to it in a small aircraft. I was relatively new to flying and had done most of my landings at Kadena Airforce Base in Okinawa. The runway at Kadena was about 2 miles long and probably 150 feet wide, it could accommodate any aircraft. The Cessna I was flying needed nowhere near this length, so it was a very forgiving runway. You could land near the end of the runway and still have plenty of time to come to a stop. The airport I was flying to had a shorter runway, it was still long enough to easily land on, but was probably half the length the runway at Kadena. The first problem is that I came in way too high. I immediately chopped the power, and put full flaps, but I still wasn't losing altitude quickly enough. I put the aircraft into a forward slip, To execute a forward slip, I banked into the wind and applied opposing rudder (e.g. Right aileron + Left rudder) in order to keep moving towards the target. If you were the target you would see the plane's nose off to one side, a wing off to the other side and tilted down toward you. Still, I wasn't losing altitude fast enough and I was picking up speed. I should have executed a go around, and aborted the landing, but I stuck with it. When I finally touched down, I was near the end of the runway and had a pretty good head of steam. My first instinct was to apply full power to see if I could get airborne again. However, I was concerned that if I did not get airborne in time I would hit the fence while still accelerating. In an instant I made my decision. I stomped on the brakes, harder than I had ever done before but the fence at the end of the runway was still rushing towards me. Thankfully I stopped, but I did overrun the runway into the grass. Fortunately, I did not hit the fence or do any damage to the aircraft, but it was my worst landing ever. It would have been particularly awkward if I had damaged the aircraft because I was on a small island and spoke nowhere near enough Japanese to communicate the problem. It would have been particularly embarrassing too because it was entirely my fault and easily avoidable. I still don't know why I stayed with the landing. I was not in a hurry, there was no-one else in the aircraft it would have taken all of 5 minutes to have set up for the landing again and come in low enough that I comfortably landed.
2. I was flying in the evening, after work and perhaps I was a bit more tired than I realized. I was setting up to land at the Air Force base, a maneuver I had done many times in the past. Because the Air Force base is operational, the pleasure aircraft have lowest priority for landing. I radioed the tower and asked for permission to land, and was told to "hold over the water tower" This meant I was supposed to fly in circles around a particular landmark while waiting for incoming traffic to land and clear the runway. My flight instructor had pointed out the various landmarks that the air traffic control refer to on many occasions and I had held over the water tower several times in the past.
For whatever the reason, I went to the wrong water tower. Critically, I flew directly across the approach path to get to the other water tower. As I was crossing the approach path, the incoming traffic flew just below me, It was close, I could see every detail of that aircraft, had I been 50 feet lower, we would have collided. I then realized my error and immediately proceeded to the correct water tower and held. The Air Traffic Controller then instructed me to land immediately and to phone the tower immediately after I secured the aircraft.
I thought I was going to get yelled at and possibly lose my flying privileges for awhile. Instead, this very polite senior officer calmly, but sternly, asked why I had done what I did and I explained that I had made a mistake. He informed me that the other pilot had not reported it or complained and that we could just chalk it up to a learning experience. I never did get the water towers confused again.
3. This is the only one that was not my fault. Typically, when you depart and set up to land at the air base, you have to come in via a set number of landmarks. One of the most popular is a lighthouse that is located about 5 miles from the air base. I was coming in for a landing and was told to proceed to the lighthouse and given an altitude to maintain. As I was approaching the lighthouse, another Cessna from the Aeroclub was also in the area, but I did not know that … yet. It is usually pretty tricky to see other aircraft when you are in a small plane. The visibility is not grab because half the view is taken up by the instrument panel. Additionally, you really cannot see much above you, because the wing is directly above the cockpit. You have limited side visibility as well. Consequently, when Air Traffic Control warns you of other aircraft in the area, it typically take a few moments to find it, even when they tell you directly where to look.
In this case, I was unknowingly heading directly towards another aircraft and fortunately we were not at the exact same height, I was slightly higher. We were probably each traveling at about 90 mph, for a closing speed of 180 mph or 1 mile every 20 seconds. I only saw the other aircraft for a moment as it passed directly below me. I don't think the other aircraft saw me at all since I was above. I could see both the occupants clearly, it was over in a blink of an eye but the memory is still vivid. There was no follow up to this one. Since we were flying under visual flight rules, it is the pilot's responsibility to avoid other aircraft. However, the tower had ordered me to fly to a certain location at a certain height. Arguably it was the other aircraft's fault, but I don't really think they had done anything wrong. It was simply a matter of coincidence that we had both chosen to be in nearly the exact same place at the same time. Who knows, perhaps I had other close calls that I didn't even realize!
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