Spin-off from forced landings...closest calls.

[JimG]

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.

 

[viper548]

Last year I was working with an instrument student in a 172. Approach told us there was traffic at 1 o'clock, alt unknown. I scan for traffic while the student flies the ILS. We get handed off to tower and still don't have the guy in sight so my student started looking too. Right about the time we should be intercepting the GS the student does a hard nose-over. A plane passed slightly in front of us and maybe 50ft above. Had the student not seen him and descended we probably would have hit him. The other plane was not in contact with tower and this was inside class D airspace and either his transponder wasn't on mode C or it wasn't working.

 

[NookyBooky]

One Saturday I was running late and almost missed the tri-tip sandwiches at Camarillo. I don't know what I would have done if they had run out of steak before I arrived.

That was one hell of a close call!

 

[chperplt]

Who makes a good tri-tip in Camarillo???

 

[HMR]

Who makes a good tri-tip in Camarillo???

Waypoint Cafe next to Channel Islands Aviation.

NookyBooky- Glad you're still with us. That was a close call!

 

[Bryan D]

RV4 in severe turbulence while coming over the mountain ridge east of Albuquerque, bumped my noodle on the canopy, saw stars. Tower gave me semi-priority, they held a Bonanza short while I was on a four mile final.

Engine quit on a PA12 while on a long descent over the same mountain ridge to the same runway at Albuquerque, engine restarted after I pitched the nose up a few degree's. I had unported the fuel pick up at the rear of the tanks.

Engine quit twice on a Cherokee Six I was ferrying from NJ to SC on a ferry permit. Airplane hadn't been flown in a number of years, the fuel system was contaminated. The engine quit once over Chesapeake Bay and again after wheels touched down in SC. I coasted off the runway and had to be towed to the ramp.

I experienced an accelerated stall about 70' agl in a Super Cub while releasing a aerial banner. It felt like a snap roll, left wing just fell out of the sky, about 70 degrees of bank. I thought I was a goner this time but, I got full right rudder and aileron lickity split and it recovered. Same thing killed two pilots earlier this year at the exact same spot, same airplane, same manuever while training.

 

[cougar6903]

Was that is SC? Please PM me.

 

[JD2003]

I lost the right engine in a Seneca II over the Sierra Nevada mountains on the way into Sacramento. Started to drift down and get close the the rocky white peaks. Got it re-started but it was pretty close.

 

[Kream926]

partial power fail on crosswind in a 152

 

[BD King]

Near miss. How close? My student was under the hood and asked what that noise was. T'was a Baron.

www.bdkingpress.com

 

[EagleRJ]

Near miss. How close? My student was under the hood and asked what that noise was. T'was a Baron.

It's not a true NMAC unless you can hear the other airplane!

Wound up face to face with an Ag-Cat one time just after clearing the departure end of a grass strip. He came out from behind a treeline, and luckily, we both broke right. Passed belly to belly- probably 50-75 feet. His R-985 was louder than my own engines!

 

[sandman2122]

As a student going solo for the, oh 4-5th time, I did a full flap touch-n-go in a C152. You could only imagine what happens when you forget to raise the flaps on the "go portion"! I'm surprised I didn't scrape the tail when it got airborne and I didn't pancake it on when I realized at @40', with the stall horn blaring, that the flaps were full down.

That gets me to my second mistake: immediately raising the flaps full UP! I lost @ 39' during the recovery, should have simply landed but no I had to take it around the pattern to prove I'm not an idiot.......

No wonder flight school insurance is soo expensive, thanks to students like me.

 

[Kream926]

the school i went to (<---- i can say that now) wont let students do T&G's solo, probably for that reason.

on a related story

a kid was doing one of the night solo patterns and managed to flip a 52 on its back somehow. heres how it went down.....

absolutely no flare....hit on the nose so bad that rumor has it the bottom of the cowl hit the rnway.....tried to go around but to no avail stalled it and it wound up on its back....kid's ok though

went to go look at the plane the next day heres how bad it is....

the prop is bent not like a normal prop strike but about half way bent in. spun the prop freely, driveshaft is broken.

so now it just sits there on the side of the hangar with the other plane that the other "contract" student broke, probably going to be scrapped. all they got was a slap on the wrist. a domestic girl a while ago tore off the nose gear on a solo, came back ok and did the best soft-field landing and she was grounded for a few months. go figuer

 

[mattpilot]

As a student going solo for the, oh 4-5th time, I did a full flap touch-n-go in a C152. You could only imagine what happens when you forget to raise the flaps on the "go portion"! I'm surprised I didn't scrape the tail when it got airborne and I didn't pancake it on when I realized at @40', with the stall horn blaring, that the flaps were full down.

That gets me to my second mistake: immediately raising the flaps full UP! I lost @ 39' during the recovery, should have simply landed but no I had to take it around the pattern to prove I'm not an idiot.......

No wonder flight school insurance is soo expensive, thanks to students like me.

Dang.. i did the same thing on a freakin small airport i've never been to before. Scared the shat out of me! Was just after i got the PPL, but without instructor.

the school i went to (<---- i can say that now) wont let students do T&G's solo, probably for that reason.

You done with Spartan? Since when? Btw, you could do t&g's.. you just had to have your PPL and the instructors OK.

 

[mattpilot]

I've had a few personal close encounters with "yellow short planes".

 

[Bernoulli]

Total electrical failure while in IMC at night with high terrain nearby. Flew away from terrain then descended into known VFR cond then got back lost com. Interesting flight.

 

[JediNein]

You know you are truly jaded when the student under the hood sees the wingtip of the other plane in their side vision, looks up, and in answer to his "WHA? *#*%!!", you ask if he thinks the other pilot's rolex is 5 minutes fast, too.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

 

[Cpt. Underpants]

On my last flight they ran out of caviar and lobster from First Class and we had to make do with regular crew meals!

 

[NookyBooky]

On my last flight they ran out of caviar and lobster from First Class and we had to make do with regular crew meals!

Finally a close call that rivals my own. The rest of you are pu$$ies.

 

[schoolio]

I was taking a friend flying from ILG to Bader Field in Atlantic City to get a good look at the strip in a 172SP. I'll admit I wasn't completely familiar with the airport, had no idea what the winds were, and was just coming in to land. So we're on final, I'm definitely going to be long, but I think I can still squeek it in on the runway. Winds were throwing me all over the place, and I bounced the wheels once, realized I wasn't going to be able to stop, and about pushed the throttle through the firewall. I had full flaps in, and was climbing out at about 45 knots. I made a very shallow turn and retracted the flaps very slowly to make sure I wasn't going to lose any lift. Needless to say, I scared the crap out of my buddy, and myself, and it was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done in aviation (not being familiar with the airport). That same week, another plane ended up in the bay off the same runway, killing the pilot.