What's been your "closest call"?
I've had two.
Several years ago, I got CO poisoning over "nowhere" Nevada.
The nearest AP was Susanville, CA, but by the time I got there (20+ min), dumb thinking made me press on to Chester, CA 30 miles up the road where I had an employee living at the time. Unfortunately, Chester was IMC due to a massive forest fire in the Sierra Nevadas and I flew right into it..
I didn't dare make a 180, as I was already fighting conciousness, throwing up and had severe vertigo, so I contacted Oakland center and pressed on to Redding, CA straight ahead that was marginal VFR.
I flew 20 minutes in solid smoke with 0 visability, using only a handheld GPS unit in the dash for navigation, and got about 2 miles visability when I broke out of 1000' and landed uneventful.
Second incident was last year in my 340 with a leaking fuel injector spraying fuel all over the left engine, exaust, and puddling in the bottom of the cowling.
The only indication was the blue dye coming up from behind the prop and streaking down the cowling with the viscosity of oil.
I've had two.
Several years ago, I got CO poisoning over "nowhere" Nevada.
The nearest AP was Susanville, CA, but by the time I got there (20+ min), dumb thinking made me press on to Chester, CA 30 miles up the road where I had an employee living at the time. Unfortunately, Chester was IMC due to a massive forest fire in the Sierra Nevadas and I flew right into it..
I didn't dare make a 180, as I was already fighting conciousness, throwing up and had severe vertigo, so I contacted Oakland center and pressed on to Redding, CA straight ahead that was marginal VFR.
I flew 20 minutes in solid smoke with 0 visability, using only a handheld GPS unit in the dash for navigation, and got about 2 miles visability when I broke out of 1000' and landed uneventful.
Second incident was last year in my 340 with a leaking fuel injector spraying fuel all over the left engine, exaust, and puddling in the bottom of the cowling.
The only indication was the blue dye coming up from behind the prop and streaking down the cowling with the viscosity of oil.