Tell your scariest/worst experience flying freight

[LR25]

Took off out of Dubai enroute to Bombay(mumbai)...leveled off and realized they did not put catering on board..declared an emergency and went back to get it..doesn't get much worse than that! hopefully...

Dam, you beat me to it!!!!

But seriously, that would be an emergency, flying boxes or peeps.

 

[Captain Morgan]

Since no one wants to attack this seriously, I'll start!

There I was...

Over the Gulf of Mexico south of Pensacola in level 2 & 3 precip. flying for Airnet in a Baron. There was some level 4 and 5 stuff lurking and I approached a line that was a level 4 from the east. Our radar sucked, so I asked for a vector and asked what the picture looked like from the controller. His reply was: "You can do whatever you want, you're the only person up there..." About 10 minutes later a tornado warning had been issued for the neighboring county as reported from the controller. I think I prayed 100 Hail Mary's during that one. I landed and got a congrats from the Chief Pilot that night because people were diverting left and right. This is an example of what not to do. This was probably the second stupidest thing I done in an airplane. Have fun at Airnet...

 

[81Horse]

Great avatar, Capt. Morgan. My granddad had a Twin Comanche that could do that. Once.

 

[pilotyip]

Flying F/O on the mighty L-188 Electra on a Emery contract DEN-MCI-DAY-PHL-BDL back in 1979, we had 1 st generation black and white radar, tuff to pick out anything but level 3 or better. We are solid IFR at night. Had the autopilot on, airplane starts loosing altitude, so I click off the autopilot, I can not move the elevator, this is serious enough that we wake up the FE, we look outside with the inspection light and find we are covered with ice, we flew into freezing rain. We are now going down about 1,000/minute. We try boost out, cycling the hyd pumps; we are still going down. About 11,000' over the center of Kansas OAT goes above 0, ice pops off, and everything was normal. We flew to MCI at 11,000' F/E even stayed awake.

 

[Flybet3]

About 2 years ago I flew a caravan out of Cedar Rapids Iowa, my show time was about 9pm or so, DHL guys loaded my airplane I did the weight and balance started the engine and taxied to the runway. I got cleared for T/O so I powered up my PT6, at about 75kts the airplane rotated to about 20 degrees nose up. I tried pushing the yoke forward but the yoke was already full forward. So I began to trim like crazy forward. Got the airplane undercontrol and turned on the AP, then I re-did the weight and balance and after all the calculations I came to the conclusion that it was not a CG problem. Had a bit of a problem on the approach into CVG b/c the yoke had no more forward movement. So I had to use the AP all the way down to the flare. Before departing out of CVG I asked the DHL guys to load my plane a bit nose heavy. Took off and once again, nose went up high, this time I even got a steady stall horn, I just about pissed my self. I tried pushing the yoke and once again and nothing. So I trimed the living hell aout of it. The AP flew all the way back home, once I was on a downwind at CID turned of the AP and realized that I had a complete control failure. I tried banking the airplane, and nothing. So I used the AP once again the capture the LOC and Glideslope, and then basically landed the damn thing with the trim. Two hours later mechanics said it was a miracle that I was on the ground b/c the cables on the trim were broken as well. All the bolts and cables of the airplane were streched, and ripped.....lucky to be alive, someone upstairs must like me.

 

[Flysher]

wow, glad you made it back from that one!!!

 

[Flybet3]

wow, glad you made it back from that one!!!

sure thing. The funny thing is that when I called my CP and DO and explained, they kept saying. Well dude! it sounds like a CG problem, you just need to pay more attention to the loading. I answered "can you guys please just check the airplane?". 2 hours later they call me back..........
"Hey, well ummm.....you should've never taken off from CVG, the airplane is in bad shape. We could've lost you." I felt like saying, "wait, so it wasnt a CG problem?????"

 

[pilotyip]

flybet2, E. Gann made a story out of almost the same thing in his book "Fate is the Hunter"

 

[Flybet3]

flybet2, E. Gann made a story out of almost the same thing in his book "Fate is the Hunter"

Neeeeato

 

[Draginass]

Why didn't you abort at 75kts when the airplane demonstrated control problems? Running off the end at 10 kts beats a stall at 100'.

After that, and figuring out that the W&B was good, why would you take off again?