In flight pranks

[cforst513]

not sure if this thread has been started already, but another thread on this board (http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?p=693976#post693976) begged to ask the question:

what are some of the best pranks you have played on people while flying? i was on a prog check with our chief pilot and we were told of traffic very close at 12 o'clock on our turning climb out of KSFB. we start looking up and all the sudden he screams "OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!" i freaked out and pushed the control stick forward, diving out of the path of the other 'airplane'. he started laughing and said he was kidding.

have you guys any stories like this?

 

[CRFLyPutt]

We have a guy who loves to sleep when it's not his leg. I like to reach over and hit the cabin altitude alerter test switch and watch him break his neck reaching for his O2 mask before he realizes it's a joke.It's comforting to know he can literaly do the first memory item in his sleep.

 

[gern_blanston]

Your chief pilot is an ass.

 

[UnAnswerd]

I paid a mechanic to reverse the aileron linakages. This guy went down the runway, lifted off, and proceeded to make a VERY steep right turn until the aircraft was almost inverted. He never recovered, but unbelievably, he lived. When I went to visit him in the hospital, I started laughing, and told him about the practical joke. He wasn't laughing.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

not sure if this thread has been started already, but another thread on this board (http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?p=693976#post693976) begged to ask the question:

what are some of the best pranks you have played on people while flying? i was on a prog check with our chief pilot and we were told of traffic very close at 12 o'clock on our turning climb out of KSFB. we start looking up and all the sudden he screams "OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!" i freaked out and pushed the control stick forward, diving out of the path of the other 'airplane'. he started laughing and said he was kidding.

have you guys any stories like this?

I can see your chief pilot doing this at Pinnacle in the near future...

"TRAFFIC"....push her over at 410 dude....haha kidding....

..

real dorky man, real dorky...

I agree with the above, your "chief pilot" is an ass.

 

[AA717driver]

On the Shorts 360 the systems test panel is on the sidewall right next to the FO. Two captains and classmates were flying together (never a safe thing) and they were having a landing contest.

On the final leg, just as the guy in the left seat got into his flare, the other guy hit the stick shaker test. The natural reaction of jamming the stick forward ended the competition for the day.

That's a good one... TC

 

[crash-proof]

I can see your chief pilot doing this at Pinnacle in the near future...

"TRAFFIC"....push her over at 410 dude....haha kidding....

..

real dorky man, real dorky...

Well I see two have already pitched in on this but man, that was funny. Ever heard of a thing called "boy cried wolf"? Maybe next time it's the real deal but you'll think he's kidding.


*drunk post...
I'm slowly getting inebriated, it's a beautiful florida sunday morning and I'm happy.

 

[minitour]

I was the "recipient" of a nice little joke once.

Doing some aerial photo work in a 172 with a friend of mine, we tried turning on the computer but it didn't work. So...while he flew, I had to crawl over the front seat, over the back seat, and reach into the cargo area to turn on the CUP...on the way back up...uh...lets just say I did some flying of my own. That's the last time I'll go w/o a seatbelt like that...geez...

-mini

 

[stingray]

Back when I was still instucting, me and a friend saw another friend of ours get in the plane with his student. After they started the engine, we Knowing that it will take them a few minutes to get the plane moving. We snuck up from behind the plane and tied the tail back down. If was pretty dam funny, watching them putting fullpower in and going nowhere, cycleing the power back and forth. he sort of figured it out as he saw us laughing our a#s off a few planes down the line.

 

[User546]

Sometimes on deadhead legs after a long day of flying we'll take turns sitting in the back having lunch/dinner while the other pilot sits up front and works the radios and fly the airplane.

One time I was flying with the Chief Pilot (whos notorious for pranks) who was sitting all the way in the back row with a food tray on the table in front of him. As customary on deadhead legs I was flying left seat, and when he got all settled and into his meal, I reached over and threw on the Stick Shaker test switch. Soon as the sticks started shaking I screamed "OH MY GAWD!!!!" and acted like I was panicked. He jumped up so fast, and dashed for the cockpit, I don't think his feet even touched the cabin floor! He left behind a dismounted table, and his food tray all over the cabin aisle - which in the aftermath I got to clean up for the prank! Ever since that it's been an ongoing war of pranks between the two of us.

We had another new captain in our company that on his first flight out one of the F/O's was walking him thru the cockpit inspection, and actually convinced the guy to turn the oxgyen switch to "Manual Drop". He did, and of course a whole cabin full of oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling in the cabin. And anyone who's ever had to restuff those O2 masks back into the ceiling will know how cruel of a prank this really was!

 

[stingray]

One of the things to do in these corporate jets. depending on the location of your coffe pot. in most of ours its right behind the the left seat. so the guy in the right seat usally will get coffe for the guy in the left seat if asked, because its easier for them to reach with out getting out of the seat. The cup of coffe, as it is given to the left seat pilot is a lot of times moved over his right shoulder and handed to them. The joke part is useing an empty cup of course, is dropping the cup into their lap. and watching them jump and freq out. Its been done to me a few times.

 

[Flying Illini]

When I was instructing I had two students (as was customary at our 141 school) for an 8am-10am slot. One guy was notorious for sitting in the back seat and sleeping instead of observing while his partner was flying. I warned him several times that I was going to have to do something extreme if he didn't break the habit himself. He didn't so I had to...I took the airplane from his partner (after discussing what we were going to do...his partner was pretty excited) and proceded to enter a steep turn and let the nose fall through about 30 degrees down. Once there with the engine at idle we both started screaming and his partner who was sitting left seat threw his hands on the ceiling. We were very convincing b/c when the sleeper in the back woke up, he flipped out and braced himself with his hands on the ceiling, feet on the back of our seats and shrieked like a little girl. I recovered and both of us up front were laughing so hard we were crying. The guy in the back (who takes jokes very well) realized what we had done, looked at us, started laughing, and then said to me...ok, you win...I won't sleep anymore. And he didn't! He started flying better too, b/c he wasn't repeating the same mistakes his partner had made anymore.

 

[Goose Egg]

Your chief pilot is an ass.

My thoughts exactly.

-Goose

 

[WizardPilot]

I went to pick up a girlfriend of mine who needed a ride back home and 2 of my friends came along for the ride as well. The girl didn't want the right seat so she was in the back with my friend which she had met a few times and apparently had a little thing for. After about an hour they got real quiet so I check my rear view mirror, (1966 c-182, yes, it has a rear view mirror...haha) and sure enough they are just making out in the back seat. My buddy was getting action and I wasn't gettin squat besides some good flight time. Whatever, I was having a good time so I told my buddy in the front with me to hang on, and we did a quick zero g with a sudden but light pull back and that stopped them, they were freaked out. They just looked forward at me like "Whats going wrong, are we going to die?" I told them the weather was getting choppy and to tighten the seatbelt just to be safe. They just held white knuckled hands the rest of the trip with a look of fear on their faces for about 5 minutes before they realized I was giving them a hard time. I was laughing at them the rest of the trip. Good times

 

[Arrow11]

There's a pretty famous prank in the C-130 world, probably been repeated once or twice...

With a full load of paratroopers down the back the co-pilot comes out of the cockpit with 2 pieces of rope, one end of each piece tied to something in the cockpit (troops can't see in the cockpit). He asks the loadmaster to hold them while he takes a piss or checks something down the back, the loadie takes one rope in each hand and explains to the pax that the pilot has tied them to the controls for a second and he just need to keep the wings level.

Loadie says "watch this" and pulls left rope, aircraft banks left, then the right rope aircraft banks right, pretty cool huh? Finds the youngest, greenest paratrooper and says "wanna go?", young paratrooper of course says yes..

Loadie says try a couple of banks, paratroop pulls on ropes and everything works prety good....try a couple more..this time the aircraft enters a steep right turn which gets steeper and steeper, then it goes the other way, oscillating badly back and forth....the loadie starts shouting and grabbing the ropes, the co-pilot comes up from the back, shouts WTF and goes back in the cockpit, where order is restored and the captain has been flying all along.......

 

[BD King]

Told to me by the FE. Somewhere over the Atlantic in a KC-97, the newbie went pee pee and the guys locked the door and rang the bail-out bell. In a fit of panic, the guy knocked the door off of its hinges.

www.bdkingpress.com

 

[CL60]

Silent but Deadly..................

A friend of mine, (who is well known for releasing an incredibly foul smelling intestinal odor from what must be a rotting digestive system), unleashed an SBD in the cockpit one day.

Before the smell could reach my side of the "office" he said in a frightening tone, "oh my god...I think we have a cabin fire. Do you smell smoke"? Knowing that an inflight cabin fire is just about the worst situation to be in, especially at 30W, I sniffed the air to test it for this unseen "smoke". Unfortunately, I did not smell smoke but instead inhaled a vile gasseous vapor compiled of rotting grilled salmon and the necrosing flesh of an alcoholic's intestines that only moments before was quietly gurgling its way out of my co-captain's rear main seal.

After recovering from the initial shock and salivating that is a normal reaction just before you vomit, I opened the dump valve and went on 100% ABO. He was laughing so hard that he unwillingly honored me with the remander of his personal brand of nerve gas.

 

[P-Dawg_QX]

When you're riding in someone's jumpseat, I think a great gag is to point out the window and say, "Traffic eleven o'clock!" Then while they're both looking outside, reach out and pull a T-handle or two.

 

[PAPA FOX!]

I paid a mechanic to reverse the aileron linakages. This guy went down the runway, lifted off, and proceeded to make a VERY steep right turn until the aircraft was almost inverted. He never recovered, but unbelievably, he lived. When I went to visit him in the hospital, I started laughing, and told him about the practical joke. He wasn't laughing.

I hope you are kidding. That is not fuc*ing funny at all. He could have easily been killed and your @ss would be locked up for a long time as well as the POS mechanics. The pilot should have noticed this during his before T.O. checklist id he were diligent. Come to think of it they SHOULD charge the mechanic with reckless endangerment and attempted invoulintary manslaughter and then charge you as an accessory.

I started laughing

Bet you won't be when you meet big Bubba, huh?


Listen, I'm all for practical jokes but surely you should know this is anything but funny, kid. There is a certain line you don't cross. Just thank GOD every day that is wasn't your @ss in that plane that day.

 

[414Flyer]

I hope you are kidding. That is not fuc*ing funny at all. He could have easily been killed and your @ss would be locked up for a long time as well as the POS mechanics. The pilot should have noticed this during his before T.O. checklist id he were diligent. Come to think of it they SHOULD charge the mechanic with reckless endangerment and attempted invoulintary manslaughter and then charge you as an accessory.

Yes, I am quite sure he was kidding

The strings from the cockpit dates back to C-47 days. Sometimes for a prank, especially before a checkride, sometimes a guy would hide in the far rear of the plane and manipulate the control surface cables during the flight, or so I read, just to mess with the guy going thru the checkride.