My First In Flight "Oh Crap"

[ricecakecm]

Lessee....my "Oh Crap" list:

1.  Complete engine failure in a C-172RG.
2.  Multiple Alternator failures in various airplanes.
3.  Working with a student in IMC, supposed to be flying an NDB approach to the north, I look over and we're headed east.
4.  Manifold Pressure Gauge failure in a 182
5.  DG failure in a 182 in IMC
6.  GS failure in the same 182 in IMC
7.  A couple of aborted takeoffs
8.  De-Ice boot failure in Icing conditions (sequencing valve failed)
9.  Front door popped open after takeoff and going into IMC in a Baron.  Only way to shut it is to land.
10.  Nose baggage door popped open after takeoff in a Seneca.
11.  Various interesting aircraft attitudes with a student at the controls.
12.  Almost hot start of a PT-6.

Thats in my first 3000 hours of flying.  Do this long enough boys and girls, stuff happens. 

[mikeylikey]

^ Now it gets interesting.  My very first flight working toward my license at the Community College, the plane failed to take off and went over the end of the runway into a trailer park.  CAP assisted in crash site security after that one. 

My fourth flight, we landed and hit a long patch of ice, turned sideways and smacked into the side of a hangar.  I took a few weeks off from class for that one.

After my solo, the plane took off with another student, and landed in a cornfield on her return.  CAP once again assisted with crash site security in that one.  Fortunately she was not hurt, but did have to go to the hospital. 

Graduating day, they called me the most unlucky student.  I was a little offended, as most of the problems were actually Instructor issues.  It was an insteresting time though!   

[SJFedor]

^ Now it gets interesting.  My very first flight working toward my license at the Community College, the plane failed to take off and went over the end of the runway into a trailer park.  CAP assisted in crash site security after that one. 

My fourth flight, we landed and hit a long patch of ice, turned sideways and smacked into the side of a hangar.  I took a few weeks off from class for that one.

After my solo, the plane took off with another student, and landed in a cornfield on her return.  CAP once again assisted with crash site security in that one.  Fortunately she was not hurt, but did have to go to the hospital. 

Graduating day, they called me the most unlucky student.  I was a little offended, as most of the problems were actually Instructor issues.  It was an insteresting time though!   

You are forever and always banned from any aircraft I'm operating.

[mikeylikey]

You are forever and always banned from any aircraft I'm operating.

[SJFedor]

You are forever and always banned from any aircraft I'm operating.

Sorry dude. You're like a gremlin. 

[mikeylikey]

You are forever and always banned from any aircraft I'm operating.

Sorry dude. You're like a gremlin. 

Ya.....but riding with me will be the most thrilling flight of your life!  Plus who doesn't LOVE hospital food?   

[SJFedor]

You are forever and always banned from any aircraft I'm operating.

Sorry dude. You're like a gremlin. 

Ya.....but riding with me will be the most thrilling flight of your life!  Plus who doesn't LOVE hospital food?   

Hospital food is ok. Tube feeding solution isn't so grand though 

[JC004]

You are forever and always banned from any aircraft I'm operating.

If you do that, he will be on the ground with one of these.  Don't be flying over it.

[SJFedor]

You are forever and always banned from any aircraft I'm operating.

If you do that, he will be on the ground with one of these.  Don't be flying over it.

I'd be more worried if he had one of these:

[Duke Dillio]

^That one isn't so bad.....

Ask the guys about these bad boys:



You military pilots can stop shaking now.....

[MIKE]

Drifting.

[Gunner C]

^That one isn't so bad.....

Ask the guys about these bad boys:



You military pilots can stop shaking now.....

ZSU-23/4:  Where the "little bullet" vs "the big sky" theory gets tested. [/drift]

A couple of experiences:

When I was a student pilot, I was in the pattern for runway 17.  I was turing (left) final off my base leg. I was pretty happy about what was happening: altitude, airspeed, alignment - everything was just the way it should have been.  I put the last "notch" of flaps down when I noticed that there was a Piper Pawnee on SHORT final on the reciprocal.  Knowing from physics that two particles could not occupy the same space at the same time, I put the spurs to it and took it around.  Never heard his UNICOM call, he didn't hear mine (something about the O-F-F switch).

On the second, I was on downwind.  I was at the right altitude and speed.  I pushed the flap switch down and watched the indicator in the wing root hit 10 deg when I let it back up.  I quickly went through my pre-landing checks when my scan crossed my airspeed indicator which had just gone through 60 knots.  I gave the Cessna 150 all the power I could and put the nose down for airspeed (and life).  I quickly looked around for the culprit and noticed that my flaps were all the way down (40 deg) and the switch was stuck down.  I reconfigured the aircraft and made a normal landing.  I was going to do more touch-and-go's but I needed a change of shorts. 

I'll leave my three helo incidents in one day for another thread. 

GC

[Pace]

1. Alternator failure at night. (thankfully it happened on the ground so all it caused was an aborted takeoff)
2. Attitude indicator failure in IMC.
3. Near engine failure in IMC.
4. Several close calls with low time (former) students.
5. Almost got into a flat spin giving a CFI trainee their spin endorsement. (that's what I get for trying to spin from an accelerated stall)
6. Numerous near engine failures in a C172RG that had/has a bad accelerator pump with students who don't get the concept of smooth application of the throttle.

My only two "oh crap" moments before I became an instructor that I can remember (besides several stiff crosswind landings) were on solo cross-country flights.

The first was to BFE, Arkansas.  It was my first solo cross-country, and I was trying to cancel flight following.  Center informed me they didn't have any info on me even though half an hour earlier they had confirmed radar contact.  No biggie in retrospect, but it scared the crap out of me at the time that the person supposed to be covering my six had "dropped" me.

The second one involved an over-zealous airport manager with too much free time and a handheld aviation transceiver.  I made a position report and announced a 5 mile final.  Someone on the ground came back spouting off instructions using phraseology I had only ever heard used by a controller.  I don't think I've ever again whipped out a sectional as fast as I did that day looking to make sure I hadn't just busted someone's airspace.  Much to my relief, it was only a non-towered Class E with an airport manager who thought he would make himself a temporary tower.

I also had a FSDO POI pull my mixture on my initial CFI practical test nowhere near an airfield at no more than 2000' AGL.  If that wasn't enough, he pitched the plane up to stop the propeller from windmilling.  It's a good thing it restarted since the only thing below us was a river and a corn field.  God Bless the feds...

[flyerthom]

So my student pilot seat creaser was in PA. Anyone is familiar with Braden's Air park / Easton airport with its hump in the middle of 18-36. I took off on a student solo in a PA-28 151 Cadet (tapered wings rather than the Hershey bar.) Got out over the Delaware River that the tach started "jumping around." Being a clueless newbie, I thought the engine was about to fail. So back to Braden's I go.

Now Braden's Air park is small airport. The runway is 1956 x 50 feet with the 18 end a bit higher then the 36 end with a drop off in the center. At the end of 18 was a closed grass runway. At the end of 36 is a sharp drop off then a road. Fortunately for (cluless rookie me)  18 was active.

So back to the tale. The tach is jumping and I am worried that the engine will quit. I was way to green and scared to listen to the engine and hear how it was running. So I get back and start making radio calls in the pattern and asking for an instructor. No answer! So I just do my best and set up the landing. The tach is having a fit so I know (i.e think) there is no go around. I ended up floating the landing and touched down on that darn hump! I ended up rolling off the asphalt and across that grass strip! I saw a fence coming up fast and braked hard on one brake causing the aircraft to turn around that wheel (in a taildragger it would have been a ground loop) As it was no harm to me or the plane. Turned out to be a malfunctioning gauge.

[Duke Dillio]

My only in flight oh crap was when I was a cadet on an o-ride.  I was in the back seat.  The pilot had pillows sitting on the front and back seats.  He then stalled the aircraft and turned the nose down.  I watched the pillow start to float off of the seat.  He then leveled off and the pillow fell back down again.  While I later found out that this was a planned manuever, it didn't save my underwear.....

[SJFedor]

So my student pilot seat creaser was in PA. Anyone is familiar with Braden's Air park / Easton airport with its hump in the middle of 18-36. I took off on a student solo in a PA-28 151 Cadet (tapered wings rather than the Hershey bar.) Got out over the Delaware River that the tach started "jumping around." Being a clueless newbie, I thought the engine was about to fail. So back to Braden's I go.

Now Braden's Air park is small airport. The runway is 1956 x 50 feet with the 18 end a bit higher then the 36 end with a drop off in the center. At the end of 18 was a closed grass runway. At the end of 36 is a sharp drop off then a road. Fortunately for (cluless rookie me)  18 was active.

So back to the tale. The tach is jumping and I am worried that the engine will quit. I was way to green and scared to listen to the engine and hear how it was running. So I get back and start making radio calls in the pattern and asking for an instructor. No answer! So I just do my best and set up the landing. The tach is having a fit so I know (i.e think) there is no go around. I ended up floating the landing and touched down on that darn hump! I ended up rolling off the asphalt and across that grass strip! I saw a fence coming up fast and braked hard on one brake causing the aircraft to turn around that wheel (in a taildragger it would have been a ground loop) As it was no harm to me or the plane. Turned out to be a malfunctioning gauge.

Been there a few times. The only airport that surpasses it, in my experience, is Kutztown on the other side of the Allentown Class C. North/south runway with power lines at one end, a quarry at the other, and its got a big hump in the middle that makes no sense.

[mikeylikey]

^ Man.....hitting the lines would be embarrassing enough, but ending up in the quarry........yikes.  That would be an eye opener.

A few years back in Pittsburgh the County Airport lost 12 planes into the trailer park that immediately sits on the end of the end of the runway.  This all happened in a 4 year period.  It was later discovered that the ice crew decided that they did not need to do the entire runway in the winter, only every other day, and only when it dropped below 23 degrees.  I am sure dyslexia on the freezing temp played a factor too. 

Man......my CAP Cadet days were spent guarding Cessnas lying inside double wide trailers like they belonged there. 

[SJFedor]

^ Man.....hitting the lines would be embarrassing enough, but ending up in the quarry........yikes.  That would be an eye opener.

A few years back in Pittsburgh the County Airport lost 12 planes into the trailer park that immediately sits on the end of the end of the runway.  This all happened in a 4 year period.  It was later discovered that the ice crew decided that they did not need to do the entire runway in the winter, only every other day, and only when it dropped below 23 degrees.  I am sure dyslexia on the freezing temp played a factor too. 

Man......my CAP Cadet days were spent guarding Cessnas lying inside double wide trailers like they belonged there. 

Someone did a few years ago if I remember correctly. Glider tow plane w/ glider in tow sunk into the glider n hit one of the excavation tools/crames they had in there. Glider cut loose, plane crashed n burned. I remember cuz it wasn't long after I got my PPASEL rating, and my mother called me like crazy making sure I wasn't flying up there that day.

[mikeylikey]

^ Your like "No Mom, but I am tomorrow".  That set her at ease I am sure. 

[RiverAux]

Riding as an Observer when we had an electrical system failure and had to get back to the airport and land in very dim conditions just before dark and couldn't use the radio to key on the landing lights.  The airport was a small one and had to fly under the controlled space of a major airport nearby.  Mostly worried about being out of comm in this situation.