Scariest moment in flight??

[aero99]

QUOTE:
"Can you include a chapter of avbug's theories on useful monkies? Those are pretty amusing."


I thought he already wrote a book on monkies with all the "monkey stories" on this board.
Keep 'em coming!

 

[Pilotadjuster]

yesterday!

Flying SLC to southern Utah yesterday. Airmet for "occaisional moderate turbulence blo 16,000". No problem, been there, done that, usually not a big deal. Wrong! got into first a/p fine, little turbulence, nothing major. Tried to make it to Escalante, UT from bullfrog basin. Constant "moderate" turbulance the entire way (over some real nasty looking national park territory...), then whenever I got the 172 below 7500 feet, I started getting my head whacked on the ceiling of the a/c! Tightened my belt, went lower and started the same thing, with rolls ~ 45-60 deg in each direction, only recovering with full aileron and some rudder.

Anyway--didnt land there, went to Bryce Canyon instead (26nm); wind was 200@20gust29 when I landed, 160 @ 30 when I took off (landed with about an hour of fuel left, so I had boxed myself in, but good!). liftoff in about 200', then almost 90 deg sideways the length of the runway at 50' agl.

options, options, options. Not going to box myself into a trip like that again or ignore Airmets (they are for "little" airplanes, arent they?). Some fearless, all-knowing CFI....

Seems like a humbling experience comes just when you think you're getting pretty good at this stuff....

 

[328dude]

Scariest? Only one here. Losing a blade on a MU-2 over Texes wasen't fun. Especially after seeing the damage in the daylight.

Airplane was scraped along with my good jeans!!!!

 

[avbug]

Seneca III, doing an ambulance trip. Somewhere along the way I hear this loud bang, and look all over for the cause. Checking instruments, checking doors. Looking at the cowl for oil, the usual. Nothing. Turns out that a mother had put some big balloons in back, the big mylar kind. At altitude, they burst, made a hell of a racket.

Next time I went to pick someone up, same thing; big bundle of the large mylar balloons. I told the mother I couldn't take them; they'd have to be deflated. Right there on the ramp at PHX, she lets the whole bundle go. Two busy runways, lots of arrivals and departures, and a big bundle of reflective balloons rising out of the middle. I thought someone was going to show up to kick my butt, but no one did. So I kicked it myself. Repeatedly.

Terrifying in flight is a Shorts filled with skydivers, packed in there like sardines. Somewhere close to FL 180, gas is rapidly expanding, needs somewhere to go. Attempts to reroute it to some internal holding resorvoir fail at a critical moment, and with several minutes left to go before the door comes open, the gas becomes self evident. The point of origin is easily identified by the wave of jumpers rubbing their eyes, propogating out from me. All eyes turn, looks of destain followed by someone yelling "get a rope!"

Door comes open, not quite on jump run yet. Now or never. Scramble over bodies that can't move quite fast enough for a lynching (legs still asleep from the ride up). Dive for door, making sure that all remaining gas is expelled BEFORE leaving the airplane. Roll over on exit to wave and display large fecal-eating grin, and wave. Free at last. Except, in three minutes, they'll catch up on the ground. How low can I go and pull, make it to the parking lot, and drive off before the lynching takes place? Not terror, but suspense.

Discomforting would be getting out the door and realizing that one forgot one's parachute rig in the haste to exit. It's happened...several years ago a photographer back east made it out the door with his camera gear intact, but no parachute, and he filmed it all the way to impact. I wouldn't classify that as terror; the outcome is a given. Certainly I'd guess that it wasn't a comfortable ride down, but probably peaceful to some degree. All decisions are made for you at that point...for the rest of your life.

 

[Boeingman]

Fire warning light (false indication) one night in an F-4 crossing the Atlantic headed to Europe. Dang thing would go out for a while if you rolled inverted for a few minutes. Broke the boredom though.

However I don't think anything strikes fear into my heart like missing an aniversary with the wife like Avbug. Been there, done that.

 

[avbug]

The C-130 used to do that. Never at night, though. Usually it was sunlight, or a reflection of sunlight from something on the ground. Usually a 90 degree turn made the light go out, but not always. Sometimes that stupid handle would just sit there and flash, no matter what. (We could have shut it down, but without supporting evidence of a fire...what's the point?).

That was a big of a contrast with some of the radial engine powered aircraft, which would catch fire, but had no indicators. (Other than thick black, or white smoke). In fact, it was usually a good bet that the engine really was one fire...after all, it's a round engine.

Terror in flight is flying an old round engine airplane, and having nothing go wrong for several hours. The suspense drives you nuts.

 

[B-J-J Fighter]

A Question?

Avbug what military branch did you fly C-130's for or were they civilian 130's?

 

[AV1ATRX]

I find this thread very interesting, so I'm going to share my story. I was flying single-engine frieght one day, with about 850 pounds of checks on board. About 30 miles out from my destination, over water with nowhere to go, all the bags slid into the tail of the airplane. I was always nose high because I was carrying a full load - to the pound, so I was already at the rear CG anyway. But when all those checks slid into the tail, I could barely control the plane. However, I had no option but to keep going and try to get it on the ground at the big airport, since it was on the coast, and I was almost there. I can honestly say it was the scariest moment of my life, and to make it interesting to the end, I was on final, and there was NO WAY I could go around, and the Cessna in front of me cleared at the last taxiway. I never said a word to approach or tower, but they didn't instruct me to go around, not that I could have. When I taxied into the FBO ramp, the tail of my plane was less than an inch off the ground, but somehow I didn't scape in on the taxi in. I have always been religious, but there was no doubt in my mind that God was with me that day! I have no idea why the bags got loose - I had them strapped as tight as they could go, and it was smooth. I always climbed out fairly shallow, just in case, and I never figured out why they did that.

 

[TurboS7]

I was departing the beach in Bristol Bay with a C-206F, just as I got the airplane in the air my cargo net broke and all my fish slid to the back of the airplane. I was over the water and my nose just kept coming up I had to stick full forward I reduced the power just a little bid and very gingerly raised the flaps. As my aispeed began to increase I slowly regained control...Or maybe God sent some angels to grab the back of that airplane...the longer I am in this business I believe it was the latter.

 

[avbug]

That particular C-130 was US military, flown by civillians, for a private interest within a foreign government. It was normally operated for a US agency.

 

[jsoceanlord]

I crashed a 7 person hot air balloon into some power lines - which is the biggest cause of balloon fatalities. i also lost a fuel pump on climb in a ce 210 in the dark, and made a hail mary belly loanding on a taxi way - i thought i was toast.

and i've had about another ten close calls in flight where it was 50/50 whether i'd live. after a couple of those, my legs were so shaky i couldn't stand up for awhile.

once i was ground crew for a guy about to pick up an advertising banner; i was standing beside the pick up poles to make it easier for the pilot to see where to aim for pick up. the hook he was dragging missed and passed on the other side of me - away from the poles!!!!

 

[avbug]

When I was towing regularly, I flew and did set up, both. I was laying out a banner for a pickup by a new pilot, using a new ground crew. I was double checking the banner, and had found some twisted straps and a few little problems that needed correcting. Something happened, don't recall what and I tripped. My foot got entangled in the webbing in one of the letters, and the timing worked out such that I wasn't able to get it free'd up, and a 182 was about to do the pickup.

I went for a knife I carried, but it had gone sailing when I tripped, and I couldn't get it. I yelled at the new guy up by the banner. He saw what was up, and started jumping up and down to "wave off" the 182. The problem with that was that we had agreed that if there was a problem with the banner, everyone was supposed to lay down on the ground. If the person doing the pickup saw everyone laying down, he'd take it around and not pick up. Seeing someone near the poles, waving and whooping and hollering, he went for the pickup.

I had visions of him snagging that banner, and if I was really lucky, just getting a broken leg or displaced hip. I also had visions of a lot worse, and I suspected that surviving something like that would be the lot worse part. By sheer luck he missed the rope on the pickup, which gave me time to get cleared out of it and go smack the new guy upside the head.

The worst part was losing the knife. I'd had that knife a long time, and never did locate it.

 

[Snakum]

Avbug .... I swear .... you GOTTA write a book.

Minh
(Professional Monkey)

 

[avbug]

You mean write a book and sell it?

I could get paid for talking about my own stupdity? I'm definitely in the wrong line of work.

I'm leaning toward wanting to invent something. The good inventions are already taken; the coat hangar, the chia pet, and the little roller things that take cat hair off slacks. But I have to believe that something truly useful, truly meaningful, and truly affordable, is still there in space waiting to be plucked up and formed into a product.

Electric toilet paper. Edible hubcaps. Cockpit bears. Small stuff. Toys. I'm going to invent the self-writing, voice-activated, multi-color, ball point pen. It will be available in packets of twelve for a buck fifty, right next to the discount disposable razors and unwanted hair remover.

I'm going to get writing right now. Chapter 1: Thank God for Small Mistakes: My Parents on their Wedding Night. Chapter 2: Thank God bones knit quickly. Chapter Three: Thank God for Bandaids. Chapter four: Stupidity runs rampant. Chapter Five: Stupdity hurts. Chapter Six: The Naked, Stupid Ape. Chapter Seven: 101 Stupid Mistakes Not to Make When Cropdusting. Chapter Eight: 101 More Stupid Mistakes Not to Make When...