Dumbest thing you've EVER done in an airplane?

[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.