The wind was blowing out of the south, 23 knots gusting to 27, when the 172 touched down on Runway 14. The crosswind was about 40 degrees. A pilot on the ground, using a handheld radio, was at the approach end of the runway giving wind advisories to a group of airplanes returning from a nearby Sunday morning fly-in. He watched as the 172 touched down “a little too much tail low for the wind, I thought, but still on the grass part of the runway.” (The runway, about 3,300 feet long, had a 22-foot-wide band of blacktop in the center of a 100-foot-wide grass strip.)
“I believe all three wheels were down and he was safe,” the witness reported. “Then he called to say he was taking off again to do the landing over.”
