Dumbest thing you've EVER done in an airplane?

[BSeals71]

Giving an aircraft check out to a 6,000-hour pilot.
Practicing single engine ILS in a light twin and he shut down the wrong engine.
That was fun.

 

[Fury220]

Yep. Salt Lake Center did the same thing to me one morning a year ago.

Cruising along in the Bonanza and I could see we'd be skimming through the tops of a residual thunderstorm from the night before.

SLC said nothing ominous ahead and 50 miles beyond that was clear, VFR....

10 min. into it, we were getting our teeth shaken out of our mouths, rain hitting the windshield so hard, it drowned out the engine noise.

Thankfully, he was accomodating in giving us an immediate 180, lest I declare an emergency and ruin his whole morning.


I fly with an Avidyne EX500, with satellite wx now and make up my own mind....well worth the $600/year, even if it is for once or twice a year.

That was the odd thing in my case. Only very light precip, little to no chop, and then ZAP.

That got the E bomb outta my mouth pretty quick, and I did my OWN dam 180. ATL Center did a good job after that. I've got some pretty good pics of the damage.

 

[FN FAL]

Ok, I gotta tell you guys the dumbest thing I ever did in an airplane...

Using the term "chief" with some 135 customers. Never mind that they were execs from a local American Indian tribe. Gotta hand it to those guys, they are not thin skinned. I felt pretty stupid about it after the trip, but I think those guys took it with a grain of salt. I flew many trips with those guys after that, but I always felt badly about the faux pas.

 

[Singlecoil]

Mine would have to be closing the cargo door of the 207 and leaving the big metal clamp part of a cargo strap dangling out. I took off and immediately heard it banging away back there on the side of the aircraft. But that wasn't the dumbest part. Another dumb move was deciding not to immediately land again and rectify the situation. The dumbest part was trimming the airplane for a climb, getting out of the seat, going back to the cargo door (I'm talking about the aft portion with the little red handle, the door that opens AGAINST the slipstream), opening the door, and holding onto the door while pulling the strap back into the airplane. Had that maneuver gone wrong, I've always wondered what the NTSB report would have said. The things you do when you're 23.

 

[Ill Mitch]

Pushed forward on the stick just a little too much in the top of an aileron roll in a T-6. I will NEVER do that again.

OH Yeah, I almost forgot. I dang near went to work for a commuter airline once.

Now that was scary!!!!

Did you get the bang the big "Flame-O-Doom"? He he...

 

[JimG]

"That got the E bomb outta my mouth pretty quick, and I did my OWN dam 180. ATL Center did a good job after that. I've got some pretty good pics of the damage." -Furry220

I wrote the controller at SLCenter was "accomodating", but he really didn't have as choice....I was declaring an emergency if he didn't and neither of us wanted that.


Singlecoil,

I knew a woman who did that in a V-tail Bonanza once coming out of KPHX many years ago.

In severe turbulence no less.

The operative words are "knew" and "once". She also killed a couple of people who were out BBQ'ing as she went in their back yard inverted.

Yep...it's amazing we live beyond our 20's.

 

[landlover]

"That got the E bomb outta my mouth pretty quick, and I did my OWN dam 180. quote]

whats the E bomb?

 

[Goose Egg]

whats the E bomb?

Unless I'm missing some expletive out there that starts with E, I'm guessing it stands for emergency.

-Goose

 

[Hogan]

dumbest thing

I ALMOST took up an airplane that was lacking AROW. Had just accepted job at new flight school that paid well, but didn't have many aircraft or CFIs. The pilot that was giving me the check out didn't know where to find the documents in the A/C. Told me the students had to find them. When the W&B was missing he said there was not one for the A/C. I backed away at that point because it was the most often used plane in the fleet. The CFIS were taking it up without the paperwork on board! When I mentioned the airplane was "unairworthy" in the eyes of the Feds he gave me a long speech about his time in the military and how a piece of paper did not make the airplane unairworthy because he knew the airplane. It was only illegal if you got caught. I didn't fly with him. Got "the other guys are doing it speech" which was so high school I decided to quit. Dad was a flight engineer in the AF and in three wars and when I told him about the goings on he said "Son, we ALWAYS had the weight and balance manifest onboard". So I think I made the right decision.

 

[GravityHater]

Giving an aircraft check out to a 6,000-hour pilot.
Practicing single engine ILS in a light twin and he shut down the wrong engine.
That was fun.

When I got my m-e, both the instructor and the de protected the mixture on the operating engine with a hand. I was insulted at the time, but understand now!

Actually I don't think the PTS includes an engine shutdown on any approaches, it is always at altitude only and the approaches are done with simulated zerothrust.

 

[DJS]

172s have 4 wheel drive, don't they?

I won't share the dumbest (I still shudder at the sheer unrelenting chain of stupidity that went into that one...) but I just did one I can share.

This morning I went to pick my wife up at a small rural airport near her brother's house where she was visiting. After a good landing (which they were watching) at this rather short strip, I shut the plane down and hop out. I'm Joe Cool, the pilot dude who can just go here and there, avoiding traffic, flit from airport to airport, yeah, you all should go learn to fly too, sure I'll take you all flying some other time. Yep, being a pilot rocks and I know everyone looks up to me. Anyways, see you later. Bye.

After starting the engine, Joe Cool starts to pick his way through unfamiliar sidewalk-like taxiways towards the far end of the runway. The quasi-taxiways dead end and it turned out I really needed to be about 100 yards behind where I was to get out on to the runway and back taxi.

There isn't really enough room to turn around and stay on the asphalt, so rather than shut the engine down, climb out and do the 172-push-down -on-the-fuselage-turn-the-plane-around thing, I decided, heck, the grass looks pretty good, I'll go 4 wheeling and...of course Joe Cool gets his right wheel stuck in a mud hole in the ground.

Had to shut the engine down anyways, gather everyone around to pull the 172 out of the mud and push it back on to the pavement.

Man, that was embarassing.

 

[LAZYB]

...or not closing the cargo door...

I "heard" of a cheechacko that had his first paid gig in DLG. Finally got the 207 loaded, went in for the paperwork, and came back out and jumped in the plane.

Had his "E.A.R." plugs in and a Telex earmuff headset. The TO roll seemed kinda long and the plane was a little on the loud side, but...not all that accustomed to the big singles and gross+/- takeoffs, continued the TO while pondering the reasons.

Anyway as the end of the runway is coming up, said hero, "eased/muscled" the plane off. All of a sudden there was a loud bang and a/c flying particulars improved greatly and it got quieter. Seems the fwd portion of the cargo door was still "tethered" to the strut when he taxied out.

Flying the "mail" you couldn't even see the back of the cabin. Probably 20 cases of pop right behind the front 2 seats, then canned goods, with toilet paper & tampons in the back, and mail bags on top of all this - right to the roof. Cargo handlers ran a rope from the front cargo door handle and looped it around the wing strut a couple of times so the door wouldn't be in the way of the loading process.

Landing back at DLG wasn't something he was looking forward to and just continued on to Manakotak.

Got used to always walking around an a/c when "he" returned, before climbing in, and lighting the fire.

Mine would have to be closing the cargo door of the 207 and leaving the big metal clamp part of a cargo strap dangling out. I took off and immediately heard it banging away back there on the side of the aircraft. But that wasn't the dumbest part. Another dumb move was deciding not to immediately land again and rectify the situation. The dumbest part was trimming the airplane for a climb, getting out of the seat, going back to the cargo door (I'm talking about the aft portion with the little red handle, the door that opens AGAINST the slipstream), opening the door, and holding onto the door while pulling the strap back into the airplane. Had that maneuver gone wrong, I've always wondered what the NTSB report would have said. The things you do when you're 23.