Aviation stories told here

[EatSleepFly]

That attitude + 475 hrs. = Smoking Hole

 

[rumpletumbler]

nahhhh. The guy I flew with 90% of the time was an Eastern strike guy who got screwed. He was more pilot than I was before he ever started training. He was incredible and taught me a lot but the other guy was just an idiot who thought he was cool.

 

[N49185]

So there I was...

... As a young, newbie student sitting at the beginning of runway 22 at Newport in our trusty old 152, waiting for the right moment to give it power and go. As we reached rotation speed, we hit a patch of decrepit runway, which induced quite the nosewheel shimmy, and this loud (LOUD), annoying siren started blaring. I was going to continue the takeoff, but my CFI motioned for me to pull power, as he cursed. It turns out that that planes ELT was a but sensitive, and needless to say, it has been repaired.

 

[Jmmccutc]

So there i was...

...my second solo XC, i was coming throught the CLE class B and approach asked me to decend to 2500, at this point it was about 3000 ft. cigs msl, and 5 or 6 mile vis, i recieved a traffic advisory that an ERJ-145 was about 5 miles and would pass infront no factor, due to the low clouds i couldn't see the plane...and a few minutes later they advised me that they were three miles, but again no factor...well they were a factor, when they busted out of the clouds they were so dam close a little kid was waving at me from the window...

And there my buddy was...

...doing his first night solo consisting of some pattern work...to set this up you have to know that he had his radio on but turned down due to what he described as an "anoying pilot making too many radio calls"...one of our flight instructors also flys the Goodyear Airship Spirit of Akron, well that anoying pilot was the FI announcing a low pass over our airport for a bunch of us waiting on the ground...my buddy was about to turn base when *POW* the lights on the blimp light up about 50 or so yards away...after getting back on the ground we asked him what the hell he was doing...and he said he was so close he could actually see the individual lightbulbs on the jumbotron...

 

[TCAS]

I had just upgraded to Captain on the Saab 340 and with no seniority was called out on reserve to fly the last leg out of the hub to an outstation on a holiday evening. After signing in I walked to the gate to grab the release and head out to the aircraft. As I was about to go out the door to the aircraft this attractive middle-aged woman walks up to me and asks if I'm the Captain flying the flight to the outstation. I told her I was. She proceeds to tell me how she's been at the airport all day trying to non-rev on a flight but keeps getting bumped due to the aircraft being weight restricted due to heavy passenger loads and fuel. She then tells me that she'll do "anything" to get on the plane as she has to get home tonight to be at work in the morning. Being a commuter myself I sympathize with her plight. I looked at the release and saw that dispatch had given me a second alternate that wasn't needed. I went over to the gate agent with the woman and asked her what number this woman was on the standby list. The agent told me that she was the only one but that it wasn't looking good since I was going to have have to bump 2 revenue passengers because of all the extra fuel I was carrying. I called dispatch and asked about dropping the second alternate. He tells me that not only don't I need the second alternate but with a wind shift at my destination the weather has cleared and we can drop the first alternate also if I want. He sends a new release with the changes and I tell the the agent to put on the two revenue passengers that were going to get bumped plus the non-rev. The non-rev asks for my name, which I give her thinking she'll send a thank you note to the chief pilot.

We load up everybody and blast off to the outstation. When we get there it's severe clear out and we land with no problems. As the passengers deplane the non-rev sticks her head in the cockpit and thanks me and the F/O for getting her on the plane. She then asks if we're going to the overnight. I said yes and she asked where we stayed. I told her and she said that's a nice hotel and off she goes.

The F/O, F/A and I head out to the front of the terminal and catch the shuttle van to the hotel. We check in and head to our rooms.

I'm in my room about 15 minutes when the phone rings... It's the non-rev passenger asking if she can come up. I give her the room number and a moment later there's a knock at the door. She spent the next four hours personally thanking me for calling dispatch and getting her on the flight. I offered to let her spend the night but she reminded me she needed to be at work in the morning so she dressed and left. She never did send the thank you note to chief pilot but I have one of those once in a life time memories!

 

[jarhead]

TCAS

You should send that one into the Penthouse Forum

 

[mar]

Aargghh!!! That NEVER happens to me

TCAS--Great story. God I gotta get out of freight.

I'd dump alternates left and right.

Granny fuel is for old women.

 

[500and2]

I've never done anything like "this"

so.... There I was,

On a x-country mission to visit some college buddies in a C-150,

~In flight Photo~


I departed Auburn, Ca (KAUN) at 5am and headed "direct" to Friant VOR (FRA) courtesy of my "FLY BUDDY" Loran-C, enroute to my FUEL/LUNCH/Bathroom stop of Lancaster, Ca. (KWJF)

An accomplished pilot, with 300+ hours, I never missed a radio call, always had the CDI centered, and could recite the FAR's in my sleep. (smell the sarcasm?)

I was flying along on a heading of ~130 degrees and was at the appropriate VFR altitude between 6 and 8 thousand feet.

Anyways..... Somewhere between Oakland Center and Fresno Approach, the following radio transmissions were heard:

ATC: "Cessna 14Q, SQUAWK ALTITUDE"

ME: "Roger, 14Q"

after a minute or so

ATC: "Cessna 14Q, Confirm SQUAWKING ALTITUDE"

ME: "uhh... ROGER, 14Q"

ATC: "Cessna 14Q, say altitude"

ME: "level 7,500"

!!!!!!!!!!

Whoops!


After correcting my mistake, and apologizing to ATC, I arrived at Fox Field (with my tail between my legs)

Thankfully, I didn't have to make a "call" to ATC....... They probably got a good laugh out of the "Cessna 150" that was being HIJACKED at 7,500 msl

hahahahah


Guess

 

[Pilot124]

Great thread MAR...........TCAS tell us more stories
So there I was...I had just got my private and was working on all the x/c time needed for my inst. I left EVV and leveled off at 6500 for my flight back to CMI. I started cross checking radials to find a fix on my location when I started smelling smoke. So I did what any young pilot would do, *I paniced* then I got ahold of myself and told EVV I was now experiencing smoke in the cockpit. Since I was doing what I was told and using dead reckoning/pilotage I started looking for an alternate, and informed EVV. Right off my 2 o'clock was Mt. Carmel (AJG) which I headed for while EVV departure is telling me that Mt. Carmel is at my 2 o'clock. I line up for rwy 31 and open up the wiskey door to get the smoke out. As soon as I can see again I notice a plane back taxiing for 31. I scramble to find the CTAF and state my intentions. While dialing in CTAF on comm 1..I notice that Comm 2 is the one that is smoking so I quickly turn it off and pull the circuit breakers and land right over the ac back taxiing. After landing and checking my shorts I noticed that comm 2 had stopped smoking since I pulled the breaker. I called dispatch and informed them of the situation. Did a short run up to see if the fan,Transponder,Comm 1 were all working. Everything was good and I took off to finish the trip. Most pilots never have an emergency, I am just glad I kept my composure and was able to land safely. It was a tense hour flight back though..That was a long time ago and have never had anything eventful since..

 

[TCAS]

Great thread MAR...........TCAS tell us more stories

I wish I had more but that's been it for me. I figure that pretty much used up my mojo for the rest of my flying career.

When the gods smile upon you it is wise not to get greedy and ask for more!

 

[Jmmccutc]

we need some more stories to bump all the polls away....

 

[mar]

Unforecasted weather?

I think it was Dec 22, 1997.

Either that or Dec 23. But in any case it was just after the winter solstice--the shortest day of the year. In Bethel that means about 4 or 5 hours of daylight. The sun rises about 10:30am and sets about 3pm.

I'm coming back from the Bering Sea coast in a Cessna Caravan. All I have on board is a kids snow mobile. Before I land in Bethel I need to make one more stop in Nunapitchuk about 30 miles due west. As I get closer and closer the clouds (wouldn't you guess?) get lower and lower. There's a light snow fall and the wind has picked up.

In addition to the falling snow visibility is also reduced by the blowing snow. For all intents and purposes I'm essentially caught out in a ground blizzard with the associated whiteout.

It's not really a big deal because as I've pointed out, there's nothing to be concerned about geographically and I was instrument current in a fully equipped instrument airplane.

But the unforecasted wind and deteriorating visibility has me cursing the weather gods one more time.

Nevertheless, I manage to find the village easily enough and do my last bit of business. Drop off a little mail; pick up a little mail. And then I blast off for Bethel a quick 10 minutes away.

En route I pick up the ATIS and I'm anticipating having to pop up for an IFR clearance for the LOC/DME BC to Rwy 36.

Bethel also has an ILS to Rwy 18 but it's really gusty out of the northeast. In fact, the ATIS is calling the wind 040 at 29 gusting 38.

Whoa.

Visibility: 1/4 SN BS
Ceiling: 900

Holy cow. I pop up and get in line in the stack at the FAF NAPAC.

I call up dispatch and let them know I'm number three for the approach but we're all holding for vis. I also inform them I have about one hour of fuel and I'd like them to call around and find an airport with some visibility *and* lights because it's getting dark.

The result: Every airport with lights within an hour is either at mins and going lower or below mins. The entire delta is engulfed by the blizzard.

As all of this is transpiring a Twin Otter requests and is approved for the ILS. The Metroliner below me informs Center he'll need to return to Anchorage. So that's leaves just me.

Company and Center would both like to know my intentions. I tell them I'm gonna need just a few more minutes to collect my thoughts.

I decide that I'd rather try the Back Course to an airport that I'm familiar with than burn a bunch of fuel to divert to an airport with an ILS. And I wasn't too comfortable with the thought of trying the ILS at Bethel with a 35 kt quartering tailwind in spite of the success of the Twin Otter.

So I request the approach clearance for the Back Course and get switched to tower. When I check in with tower I recognize the voice. The tower guys and the pilots are real tight in Bethel. We'd play cards and have BBQs every summer. Their only instruction that night was, "...report NAPAC inbound."

"Roger."

And then I commenced the best damm Back Course approach I'd ever flown. I decended to the MDA of 460 and never went below that. There was no need to go below the MDA as the ceiling was 900. All I had to do was track the localizer right to the antenna. And, in fact, with 1/4 mile vis that was the first thing I saw.

At an indicated airspeed of 90 kts with a 35 to 40 knot headwind my groundspeed was somewhere on the order of 50 to 60 kts.

The Caravan is a wonderful airplane.

I crossed the threshold at 460 feet, landed and cleared the runway. Just then, tower calls, "Say your position on the approach."

"Clearing at Charlie."

"Uh, roger. Give us a call when you get in."

I was so focused on flying the approach I forgot to report NAPAC inbound. That's when they were going to clear me to land so---basically---I landed without a clearance.

Oops. But over the phone, he said, "Hey I know you were busy, but I just wanted to let you know."

Guess who bought the beer for the next BBQ?

After I got inside the office, I promptly filled out a NASA form and met with my fellow pilots and dispatcher who helped try to find me a viable alternate.

I often look back on that flight and wished that I had simply declared an emergency. At the time it didn't feel like one. It just felt like another decision we face every now and then out in the bush. But in reality I was out of options and needed to land soon. Declaring an emergency would've just got the monkey off my back.

Live and learn. Every day: Live and learn.

 

[ibaflyer]

So there I was.... a new IFR certified pilot still proud of my accomplishment when I get a letter from the FAA saying that there was a problem with the D/E and I was going to have to re-take my IFR Checkride again. I think that they called it a 709 ride. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong)

Anyway, after a number of phone calls I get to the bottom of this whole mess. It seems that there was another student that took his checkride and passed but just was not too happy with the D/E so he sent a letter to the FAA complaining about the checkride and said that he did not feel that the D/E completed all aspects of the checkride. (Did not include a circling approach)

Well the FAA, because they are sooooo reasonable, fires off a letter to the D/E about his checkrides, He tells the FAA to Kiss his A$$ and that he would surrender his D/E certificate. So the FAA, in their ultimate wisdom, say " in that case, we have no other option than to re-examine all of your IFR checkrides since this complaint was filed. Hence, the nice letter I get from the FSDO saying that I need to make an appointment for a new checkride.

I make the appointment, the new D/E says that it is a nice day and he needs to get out of the office so he comes here to my local A/P and gives me my checkride. I take-off, put foggles on, fly to CAK, fly the ILS 23, he calls that he has the airport in sight at the outter marker and then asks me to do a side-step to RWY19. End of check ride.

That's all! I was amazed. All of these phone calls, letters and appointments for this?

Ah yes.... Our tax dollars at work

 

[Duke Elegant]

Great thread mar.

This means I have some good competition so I'd better get cracking.

I love hearing stories from pilots and crew no matter what their experience. After all , some of my yarns are about my early years which were most enjoyable.

Keep them coming guys and gals ....

Duke

 

[VNugget]

Everyone has a story

Alright, if you REALLY want student stories, here's my getting lost story. Except I wasn't really lost. Hope it's worth a chuckle.

This is my second solo cross country, the 150nm one. The middle leg calls for a fligt over Rio Vista airport as a checkpoint. (For those with a San Francisco sectional, it's on the south side, near the very top, right under the Travis AFB Alert area). I was flying from Sacramento, and the terrain befor it is pretty featureless so I was relying mostly on dead reckoning. It has two crossing runways. A slight glitch in the "system" had arisen several days before, during my planning, when I had made a tick mark on it to measure my distance from, which obliterated one of the crossing runways. This resulted in my expecting to fly over a one-runway airport. Combined with the fact that I had started the timer in the wrong mode, so I had no time, and the winds aloft forecast wasn't very accurate, I wasn't very sure of my position during the 10 or so minute prior to that checkpoint.

Well, when I came across an airport with TWO runways, I was duly confused. I started circling overhead to try to figure out where I was. Quickly running all the airports I knew of in my mind, the closest match of the runway configuration I had in my mind was Tracy airport. Thse familiar with the area will realize that Tracy is quite far away from Rio Vista, and I thought that if I had gotten THAT far off track, maybe flying wasn't for me Next, what else was I to do but make the dorkiest radio call you have ever heard? On CTAF, "which airport on this frequency has a runway layout of [and I listed the numbers]?" No one answered.

By the time I got the sense to whip out my AFD and start looking up airports, a lot of planes had started to take off and land, I matched up what they were saying with what I saw, and it turns out I really WAS over the right airport.