In flight pranks

[TDTURBO]

No, the pA-28 heavy.

 

[milehigh6080]

Your chief pilot is an ass.

I know his chief pilot and I will concur, he is an ass.

 

[hydroflyer]

I fly Cessnas now but have a few hundred hrs in all types of pipers, where is this hole you plug up, on the floor in the SIC seat? I never heard of this one but sounds fun.

It's not beneath the right seat, but below the left seat on the side of the fuselage just above the floor. There are two metal buttons, one is a pitot system drain and the other is the static system drain. I don't remember which is which. Pressing the static system drain in flight would be the equivalent to opening up the alternate static source and just makes the instruments jump a bit. Oh, and you don't plug it up, but rather push it open in flight to divert the air pressure from the line leading to the airspeed indicator to get that fluctuation. The buttons are spring loaded to stay closed. A little difficult but fun.

I was doing this to CFI level students, so they would be in the right seat, and I would be in the left. I do believe these were on the preflight checklist as something to drain before flight.

 

[VNugget]

When riding in the back of a 172, you can change the CG a fair amount by leaning forward or back. In really smooth air, when the 2 guys up front are distracted chatting with each other, you can really have the pilot wondering why the hell the damn thing won't stay in trim.

 

[FN FAL]

I passed a warm front in the drop zone's 182 while flying jumpers this weekend. The dz owner's wife's head was only about three feet away from the frontogenisis...there was no escaping for her.

 

[nosehair]

...there was no escaping for her.

She probably didn't realize there was anything different about you.

 

[robert garland]

Once new this chick that came up front after my landing with her panties around her ankles. She said nice landing.

 

[ePilot22]

Not Inflight

Ok, so this doesn't quite go along with the thread with respect to being inflight, but....

Currently I work full time at a corporation where we each have our own cubes and computers, see Office Space, and for the most part are in need of childish entertainment. So the usual office pranks happen often, i.e. keyboards, mouse, chairs, emails for each other to the NGPA and so on.

One of the more popular things to do is hide/stash food that will rot and smell a cube up. One day I find a smal container of cream cheese hidden in the back of my top drawer, for the most part I never really smelled anything. I discovered it by accident, but I knew who had done it so....

Another fellow co-worker/prankster and I decided to fill a small bowl (about three tablespoons) with some fried rice, egg drop soup and water, seal the top and put several smalls holes in it. In order to ensure maximum smell for an extended period of time we place the bowl inside the other guys computer terminal, which happens to sit less than two feet from his nose. And with the little fan inside, we figured the aroma was bound to make it's way out.

After two weeks or so with no indication of anything wrong we went to check up on our concoction. The rice had begun to frement but the smell wasn't that potent yet. The next step involved another small bowl and some cottage cheese! So now there are two small bowls slowly leaking out a less than pleasant smell.

Just yesterday, Nov. 8th, I get an IM from the guy. He's wondering if I can smell the warm garbage for where I sit!

All I could do was laugh and query him about what warm garbage smelled like. Of course I had to stop by his cube and it smells like a dumpster behind a bowling alley!

The best part is the bowls are going to remain inside his terminal and I don't think he'll ever know where the smell is coming from.

At least I hope he doesn't because I hate having to watch me back!:erm:

 

[F16TJ]

Back when I was a Lieutenant WSO (Weapons Systems Officer) in the F-111F at RAF Lakenheath, England, we had an ex-Army rotorhead pilot in the squadron. This guy wasn’t the strongest swimmer, so to speak, when it came to flying skills.

The F-111F was side-by-side seating and the cockpit temperature control knob was on the center pedestal between the seats.

The Aardvark was a bit of a pig (gross under statement) in the dive bomb and pop pattern dropping bombs at the range. We didn’t do it very often and it was done using an early generation HUD/bomb site.

So, I, and another WSO he used to fly a lot with, starting messing with this guy on the range. The range sortie would usually begin with dropping bombs using the radar and then progressing to the dive bomb pattern. Radar bombing usually consisted of level passes, or lofts…very benign. In the radar pattern, the pilot is flying and following the nav system, which the WSO is directing with his radar cursors on the target. Once in the dive bomb pattern, it’s all pilot, with the WSO making altitude callouts. So, the pilot works pretty hard horsing the Vark around the pattern. This is where the fun starts.

After the last radar pass, I’d covertly reach down and crank the heat up a little bit. Just enough to increase the heat coming out of the ECS, but not enough to change the sound of the airflow, which would happen if you changed it too much. Then, with each successive pass, I’d crank the heat up more.

This guy would start sweating and huffing and cussing himself out for having to work so hard at dropping bombs. In the mean time, I’d be laughing watching this guy sweating and floundering in the left seat. On the next to last pass, I’d reach down and slowly move the control back to full cold and he never caught on.

Before long, all the WSO’s in the squadron were in on the joke and all of them were doing it to this guy. He’d lament in the squadron about how hard it was to drop bombs in this jet.

To anybody in the know, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway for his Top Gun scores. He could barely hit the ground with his bombs!

Was truly the running joke in the squadron until he PCS’ed and he never caught on to “our” joke!

 

[Steveair]

I enjoyed playing this little trick on students in Cherokees/Warriors/Arrows...

On a cross country or some flight where your student isn't paying attention, I put my seat back to relax. After a few moments, I put my feet up on top of the rudder pedals to gain a little more comfort.

After a few minutes like that, I used my foot to move the control column back and forth (you can reach it under the panel w/ your foot), and boy have I gotten some great freak outs!

 

[pilotmiketx]

she really knows her stuff and is willing to go really fast with me.

My kind of woman.

 

[groundpointsix]

Not so much a prank, but i've found that while doing x-c flights with students if you keep looking out one side of the airplane while asking them where their checkpoint is, they will magically start turning in the direction you're looking.

 

[Lead Sled]

I used to work for a company that had a Mooney that we used to reposition pilots with. The chief pilot used to like to take advantage of his Mooney time to put on the hood and practice his instrument skills (Girls like guys with skills - Napoleon Dynamite.) While he would do this the guys stuck in the back seat would periodically reach up between the front seats and "adjust" the trim for him. He never did catch on and always complained about how hard that @#*$# Mooney was to hand fly.


'Sled

 

[atrdriver]

One I've heard from the ATR world. The AC breaks at an outstation and they need to position it back to a maintenance base with no passengers. Unbeknownst to the FA's, there will also be two deadheading pilots on board (you can see where this is leading!)

Well in the ATR there is a cargo bay inbetween the cockpit and the front of the cabin with a door on either end. The pilots need to walk through the cargo bay to get to the cabin and use the lav. So the pilots all got together for this scam and had the two deadheading pilots sit in the cargo bay for takeoff. Finally in cruise, one of the pilots come back to use the lav and starts chatting with the FA's. No big deal...

A few minutes later another pilot comes back to the cabin and the FA's get a little freaked out then. "Who is flying the plane?" etc. The pilots say the plane is on autopilot and not to worry. The FA's ask what about radio calls? The pilots explain they'll just check on when they get back to see if they missed anything. The FA's then relax a bit.

Finally the FO decides to return to the cockpit, but upon reaching the forward cabin door he realizes it's "locked". He starts freaking out and wiggling the handle. The captain comes up and has no luck with it either. Right about then the plane starts banking and pitching and the captain says the autopilot must have disconnected! The FA's are freaking out at this point needless to say! So the captain decides to rush the door from about halfway back in the cabin and right before he hits it he stops and asks "Has anybody tried knocking?". He then knocks and one of the other pilots let them in.

Needless to say the pilots didn't get any "action" that night I'm sure!

Funniest part is that most of our ATR F/A's wouldn't even notice if the second pilot came back into the cabin.

 

[ePilot22]

Nice

Not so much a prank, but i've found that while doing x-c flights with students if you keep looking out one side of the airplane while asking them where their checkpoint is, they will magically start turning in the direction you're looking.

Funny! I've got to give that a try!!!

The best part is the bowls are going to remain inside his terminal and I don't think he'll ever know where the smell is coming from.

At least I hope he doesn't because I hate having to watch me back!:erm:

Bad News! Word got out and he found it. Of cousre it took him 10 mins even after he was told where to look!

I hope I don't end up with a strange rash or something!!!!!

 

[RSRVWINDSURFR]

[FONT=ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva]Does anyone remember the story about the (AA?) crew that involved a sleeve from a gorilla costume, a banana and the cockpit panel camera? I heard about it probably 20 years ago, but it is still one of the classics.[/FONT]

[FONT=ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva]At the time there were camera in the cockpit that showed the panel and windscreen for the passengers. One of the pilots was wearing the gorilla costume sleeve. The cabin monitors showed this hairy arm pushing the power levers up for takeoff. At some point after the takeoff, the gorilla put his hand out and the other pilot put a banana in it. Funny stuff, but of course, some of the passengers were upset and the airline was embarrassed by it. It was in all of the newspapers and made network news.[/FONT]

[FONT=ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva]'Sled


[/FONT]

That is the funniest thing I have read here in a long time!

One time we were empty coming into CLE on the B1900. The baggage compartment separates the pax compartment with a divider that can be folded over from the cabin. When we taxied up to our parking spot, I ran to the back of the plane and climbed over the divider. When the rampie opened up the Bag door, I jumped out and scared him half to death.

 

[TrafficInSight]

When riding in the back of a 172, you can change the CG a fair amount by leaning forward or back. In really smooth air, when the 2 guys up front are distracted chatting with each other, you can really have the pilot wondering why the hell the dang thing won't stay in trim.

Or at least get him really annoyed that you wont sit still

 

[Bluestreak]

I was flying with my sister in an ancient 172 once,and the vent popped out and I said "Oh no ! It's the wing bolt!".One of my buds flew an Aztec for an FBO and got stuck when a starter failed.So,they sent one of the newly-minted CFI's to pick him up in the FBO's 210,the kind with the underwing courtesy lights.The switch for these lights is on the doorpost.It was a typical summer night with scattered thunderstorms and my bud would flip on the light for a split second,drawing the CFI's attention.After about the third time,he said "Man,that stuff is getting close!" Ah,but my bud was soon to be a victim of another joke.Another one of our bunch was taking a trip on Delta.While he was at the ticket counter,he asked for some stationery and an envelope and the agent obliged (this was around 20 years ago).So he mails it to my bud,saying he's Capt. Pete from Delta HR and wants him to come to an interview-he went ballistic."How did they get my name ?!" he cried.We still talk about that one.

 

[XJdriver]

When I was a new hire in the SAAB several years ago I had two seperate occasions where the captian would reach up and hit the fire test in flight. The first time I just looked up and said ha ha that was funny. The second time it happened I yelled "oh no a fire" and reached up as fast as I could and grabbed the fire handle and pretended I was going to pull it. I think he saw his career flash before his eyes. I got the last laugh on that one. I dont think he will do that to anyone ever again.

 

[ePilot22]

bumped...













eP.