Roger wrote in
:
Bertie, this brings up an incident I had in the Cherokee 180 many
years ago. It resulted in quite a discussion with many asserting I
didn't do the right things and quite possibly I didn't but I'd like
your input.

I was on final for 06 at our airport. It was a gusty day so I was
carrying a good 90 on final when at 300 feet the ASI basically and
abruptly went to zip and I was on the express elevator down. I'd never
seen the ASI drop to the peg like that. I knew two things. What
nature takes away in gusts she eventually gives back. The other was at
300 feet and essentially zero for IAS I'd become a lawn dart if I
shoved the nose down as I was not going to accelerate enough get
flying speed and enough energy to flare in that distance unless the
wind changed. It would have been different if the ASI had been a
little low or at least had some indication.

Of course at the first instance of sink I instinctively went full
power. The only thing I could think of at that point was to put the
plane in the best attitude for survival on impact if it didn't start
flying. The one thing I didn't want was to hit nose low. The
airspeed came back as I was entering ground effect and at that point I
was able to ease the nose down and pick up a enough speed that I made
a normal landing. Actually the landing was a good one if you didn't
count the last few hundred feet of final. :-))

Yow! Sounds like you did the right thing to me, alright. Proof is in the
pudding of course and you got away with it, but I have to agree with you,
putting the nose down would have been disasterous. I had a similar
experience to your's in a glider which ended up with us landing short of
the field but no damage. Difficut to train for things lke this though.
Familiarity with the feel of the the airplane at and beyond the edge
obviously paid off for you, I'd say!

Bertie