Basically, I recovered from an imminent approach to landing stall
20 feet above the ground. This is not a good situation to get yourself in,
to say the least.
This scared me pretty good. I was complacent at my home airport

You don't say how much experience you've got, but I think you did just
fine. You came close to bending an airplane, and walked away
unscathed -- the best possible outcome. This extra shot of adrenaline
will serve you well down the road, trust me.

In short, you will never, EVER be complacent while landing again. I
know, because I (as, I'm sure, most pilots) have scared the crap outta
myself on landing a few times, and I now approach every landing as a
potential go-round.

Honestly, looking back at my first couple of hundred hours, I'm amazed
I didn't break something. Let's see, just off the top of my head I
remember these two:

- A landing in Rockford, IL, in a REALLY nasty crosswind, where I
froze on the controls with full left rudder applied. This was my
crosswind correction, but -- in a Piper -- the nosewheel and rudder
are linked. When I lowered the nose, guess which way the plane
headed, really fast? Oops....

- A landing at little bitty Sylvania Field (C89), in a Skyhawk, where
I had to do a go 'round and chose to raise the electric flaps
completely while low, slow, and out of ideas. Gosh, those trucks on
the freeway (at the departure end of Rwy 8) sure got big! Ooops...

I just asked Mary about her scary landings, and she replied that "We
try to block those from our memory..." I'm sure there have been
more, but you get the idea -- we all have them.

Another thing you'll find -- you ALWAYS nail the tough landings. If I
know the landing is going to be challenging (due to wind, or whatever)
it's almost always a greaser -- while the ones I expect to be a "piece
of cake" are usually the clunkers.
---
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"