Scariest moment in flight??

[pipers]

I was just curious about some close calls that any of you may have had?? I haven't been in the flying bizzness too long, but I did loose my engine on my first solo-cross country. Luckily I was in the pattern and I had enough glide ratio to make it back to the field.....It turned out to be a bad fuel pump. Anyhow, I figured we good get some good stories on the board.

 

[Vandal]

Closest I've ever been to getting waxed was on my first solo cross country, I was landing at Pahokee, Florida. There was quite a crosswind and I also turned base way to early. I ended up being really long and just didn't have the good decision making yet to go around. I forced the landing and just barely made the last taxiway with some heavy braking. Was kind of nasty. Oh and on my first solo I took off with full flaps on my second time around...hehe instructor told me to lose em and I did all at once at like 300 feet....think I sank to 200. That was a little spooky as well. Luckily the rest of my training has been uneventful.

 

[Wiggums]

Did you lose the engine when flying a PA28? Did both the electric fuel pump and the engine driven pump fail at the same time? That would be pretty unlucky.

 

[publisher]

late night

One of a bunch but good lesson.

Headed back to Columbus one night in my Cessna 402. Beautiful night, no clouds, slight moon, stars....

Saw some lightening way off and turned on radar just to confirm and there was but one cell. The thing was it appeared about the same distance as Bolton, my airport.

Closer and closer to the airport, it appered to be just North of airport and I was headed up from the South. Approach flaps, gear, about 2 out now and turning for final.

About a mile out, 2nd notch and looking good. Aircraft starts to sink. Add some power, continual sink, Add some more,,,,, still sinking,

OK what is going on,,,, more power flaps up, gear up, take off power,

All of a sudden it is like we fly out of it, level off, just time to throw things back out and land, a bit fast but plenty of runway.

Lesson, not the most scared I ever was but one of those that you did not recognize what was happening to you very quickly. On the taxi in all hell broke loose from what can only be described as a small isolated thunder cell.

On my first instrument flight for real, I went into a huge cloud at 4k and came out a bit later at 7500. I was holding on, wings level and in no particular control. Big or little, these things are dangerous and can leave you feeling helpless.

 

[AWACoff]

Flying with "the Iceman"...autopilot on... lots of ice...below ref and slowing fast...at 4000ft. It's a pretty good interview story. Thanks Iceman.

 

[flyboy]

Flying IFR into Craig field in Jacksonville shooting the VOR approach in a 172. Ceilings at 600 OVC with mist and heavy wind. My passenger was an instrument student/friend that was fairly new to training. I decided to let him handle the radios and get some practice. I had the DME freq and NAVs already set up. I was concentrating on the needles while looking out the window at my tire to see if I could see the ground. As we reach about 4 DME, I noticed that we weren't keeping the needle and then the nav flags came on......both NAVs! I started shifting around and checking my approach plate for the freqs to see if I made a mistake. The current freqs were not even close to the approach plate. I started flipping in a hurry and then looked at the dme which was showing zilch. I looked at my friend and said, "what's going on here?" He looked bewildered and said, "well, you had the wrong freq in there and I set the correct one." I looked over at his approach plate which convieniently read "JAX International". I quickly got the DME freq back in and was about 1 1/2 miles out.

 

[Ned]

oops

Flying in IMC with a student on one of my first instrument lessons. The student is flying, we are doing a VOR approach, 1700 feet, all is well, the student starts the procedure turn inbound, I reach down at my feet to grab a chart and as I'm looking back up the student says 'I think I've lost control' and lets go of the yoke.

Both the attitude indicator and DG are tumbled, I pull the power out as we are in a steep dive, level the wings with the turn coordinator, and regain control at about 600 feet as we came out the bottom of the overcast. Whew! I don't think I could roll a 172 over as fast as he did if I tried. I almost quit teaching after that.

Now I don't take my eyes off the instruments for even a half second with a student in IMC. Duhhh Gues I had to learn the hard way.

 

[snoopy]

I had just gotten my instrument rating and took a business trip. Coming back I was in IMC and noticed that the rpm had dropped. I put in a little power. Then had some vectoring, then noticed it was down some more. Thought well maybe it was just wind changes upon turns, so put a little more in. In a couple of minutes, it had dropped again. This time I pulled the carb heat (never had done this before in my plane(Beech), it doesn't use it for landing). All of a sudden I hear a very LOUD pop and the engine goes rough and almost backfires! After I recover from mild heart failure, the rpms started climbing -- now I have to fly the ILS. It wasn't my best but did the job and I was glad to be done for the day.

--- Snoopy

 

[avbug]

I accepted a trip once in the fall. Short notice, but didn't seem to be a big deal. Got off the ground okay, cleaned up, climbing. Leveled at 410, fat dumb and happy. Then I experienced what quite possibly has been the single most terrifying experience of my flying career to date.

I realized it was my wedding anniversary, and I was going overnight. No card, no gift, and not only forgot and blew it off, but took a trip out of town to boot.

Nausea, panic. Bowels turn to jelly. Felt lightheaded. Deep, deep fear. Unable to tune radios or talk to ATC. Queasy. A terror I hope never to experience again.

Engine fires, failures, structural failures, pneumatic failures, hyudraulic failures, flap failures, jammed controls, landing gear failures, on board explosions, whatever...nothing even comes close. Don't ever forget your aniversary, because for darn sure your wife won't...and won't let you forget it for many moons to come.

Hell hath no fury like a wife sitting home alone on her anniversary night with a house full of screaming kids. I shudder at the thought.

 

[ShawnC]

Avbug you have to have a database of these stories, or at least them all written down somewhere. Everytime a thread like this comes up you seem to pull a new one out of a hat.

How old are you anyway, I'm under the impression your in your late 40s early 50s with all the expierences that you have had.

 

[aviatrix]

Too cute, avbug!! I cant stop laughing!

 

[Cardinal]

The scariest moment of my flying career occured not 3 hours ago, but i was safely on the ground at the time. My student, on his second or third solo flight, heard "a noise", panicked, flew the tightest pattern of his life, was ridiculously high and fast, forced it down to the runway anyway, and went carrening off the departure end, into the mud at at least 50 knots, airplane comes to rest a scant few yards from the fence. Amazingly, he split the runway lights and only managed to separate the nosewheel from the rim. I'm still shaking.

 

[Snakum]

Avbug's Newest Novel ...

I'm waiting for Avbug and BobbysAMD to collaborate on a book. I'm betting that between you two there's at least five hundred pages (small print). Any ideas for a title?

"Airplanes I Have Loved and Hated"

"Don't Tell My Mom ... She Still Thinks I play Piano In A Whorehouse"

"Aviation: The Horror ... The Horror"


Count me in for at least two copies, guys!

Minh

BTW ... perhaps 'Publisher' really is one ... your people should call his people.

 

[hiflt]

Good Idea

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

 

[TurboS7]

In May we have a HNL trip on the bid sheet. I jumped on it so that I could get CEPAC qualified and I have never been to HNL. To make a long story short I got my first choice, as I was bragging about it to my wife she asked me what the dates of the HNL trip were 23rd-30th of May. She reminded me I would be missing my youngest daughters birthday and our aniversary. So much for senority I couldn't blame it on anything else but my stupidity. When I was checking out on the 727 as a captain I was in the sim. I wanted my first taxi-out and take-off to be perfect. Right after take-off at about 400 feet the instructor froze the sim. At that point he said he was the tower and asked how I got airborne with a GPU and ground crewman attached to the airplane.....

 

[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...