A new short record

This will be short. More later.

On day 2 of a 3 day. Great 3 day trip. Great crew.

Started early with a 5AM van. First flight was nice. A whole 3 passengers on board. I'm sure the profit was gone as soon as we deiced.

Arrived early. My leg. VFR at the hub, but low clouds were quickly rolling in. Just an hour sit. In that hour vis went down to 1/8th a mile....100 foot cloud deck. Ouch.

Weather at the next outstation was 200 1/2. Sounds good but the ILS is out....and the approach lighting system was out....so below mins.

With the low vis at the hub and the out station. Delayed. Pushed 50 minutes late with a whole 7 passengers.

Vis was still 1/8 mile but the RVR was 800...so we could takeoff...but no return. We had a takeoff alternate and two destination alternates.

Headed to the outstation. I briefed the GPS approach to runway 4R. In range the Captain got the ATIS...4R closed. Only runway was 29....a 5200 foot runway.

I have landed on shorter....in a Piper Seminole.

My shortest in a jet was previously 6000 feet....6080 to be exact.

The performance chart showed I only needed 3100 feet. Of course I don't land at the end of the runway...I land in the touchdown zone...hopefully the 1000 foot markings....leaving 4200 feet. Sounds great....but I'm not Chuck Yeager.

I briefed the GPS 29 approach. I stated I would plan on using maximum reverse and brakes....and probably plan to turn off at the end.

Then more news from the Captain....winds were 190@15G20. So now I had a gusty crosswind and a short runway. Yeah this is looking great.

Eight hundred foot ceilings. Once we broke out I went visual. I stayed right on the VASI till about 150 feet then "ducked under" as landing as assured.

Around 30 feet I began to "kick" the nose over and align it with the runway. Traveling 125 knots I didn't mess around with trying to "grease" it on. I planted the mains...or thought I did...turned out somewhat soft...most likely due to the wind.

Heavy on the brakes and maximum reverse. The very light plane slowed down quickly. The Captain called "80 knots" with 1000 feet left. Exciting.

My new personal record....for a short runway.

Leaving was even more exciting as we were full. The performance charts showed we were 100 pounds under maximum takeoff weight for the runway.

Captains leg. I called rotate with maybe 1000 feet left. Exciting.

By the time we got back to the hub it was 700 and 10SM. Quick turn and out to the overnight.

Nice overnight. Tomorrow starts with a 5AM van. I go to the hub...back to this outstation and back to the hub. I then finish at 2PM....and off for a while. Vacation.

Time to watch TV...it took me quite a while to get my Roku box working...it is incredibly geeky as the Roku box can't click "ok" for the hotel wifi. I carry a small Asus hotspot router that takes in the hotel wifi and then shares it with my own personal SSID. I have to connect the Asus hotspot router to the hotel then connect my Ipad to the Asus hotspot. I then use my Ipad to click "ok" to agree to the terms and conditions. The hotel wifi approves my router which then means anything to connected to the router is approved. Quite geeky and not for the faint of geek.