Tell your scariest/worst experience flying freight

[CrimsonEclipse]

Pardon if this is a dumb question, but is flying into a thunderstorm more or less inevitable after flying freight for long enough?

Have most / all freight guys done it?

Sooner or later you will have to deal with one. Sometimes the big red
splotches are filled with rain and no turb. Sometimes, the little ones give
you one hell of a kick. It becomes second nature to pick through imbeded
storms. The interesting part starts when you have an electrical failure
(or two) like losing the radar (or even having one in the first place).

I have no really scary stories to tell in cargo. All of my pucker inducing
moments were in corperate.

CE

 

[inthewind]

Though not cargo I also have some scary stories from flying the AH-1W Cobra.

Once on an NVG/Hellfire missile training flight I was flying as -2 and as I a good wingman I was only looking at lead. Next thing I know the hair on the back of my neck stands up so I look away from lead out front. I realize that he is flying through a gap in a ridge but that I am headed straight for the side of the ridge in America Mine at 29 Palms. I instinctively pulled the collective into my armpit, we missed the ridgetop by a few feet. I was shaking for a while after that one. It took a few beers to calm down after the flight.

Another occasion in Saudi, we had dropped off the Huey out of our flight of three. Again I'm dash two in a flight of three. Lead says over the radio that we are headed 180 at 80 kts. The Huey took off and is trying to catch up to my anticollision light that he thinks is headed south at 80 kts, meanwhile lead callsign "Genius" has decided that he wants to head back to the boat on a 090 heading without telling anyone. Well me as a good dash two is looking at him and staying in position, not looking at my RMI. Next thing I know Genius yells something unintelligible over the radio and starts to descend (we were at 300') I decide that if he's going down so am I. Next thing I know a Huey passes over the top of us with less that 10' to spare.

On a formation training flight in Socal my dash two lost sight of me during a center turn. My Copilot says to me, "Zipper it looks like he's gonna hit us!" As lead it is my job to look at where the flight is going, not at my dash two, but I look over and immediately agree. I rolled the helo over to 90 degrees AOB and pulled for all I was worth. Well dash two was still on a collision course with no idea where we were so I rolled the beast inverted and pulled even harder. (My copilot said that he had never felt more g's in a helo nor seen the collective so high in all his life.) Dash two passed so close that I could see the streaks of grease on the rivets on the bottom of his bird as he passed overhead. Once he passed I thought, "great, I made it through that but here I am in the middle of a split-S in an aircraft that doesn't do inverted flight!" Somehow I pulled it through the dive and recovered. I landed in the grass by the runway and shook uncontrollably for about 20 minutes after that one. Needless to say there were a few choice words exchanged in the readyroom in the de-brief.

Last and definitely worst! I was ferrying a PA-23-160 for a buddy of mine when the right engine $hit itself right after takeoff. I was maybe 100' off the deck and had no hope of that beast flying. I couldn't turn into the good engine so was forced to try to land in a goat pasture. The airplane now sits in a junkyard and I got to spend a month in the hospital and six months in physical therapy second guessing that flight. I have steel plates and screws in my leg to remind me. My ex-wife has a quarter mil to remind her of the incident.

Anyway, good luck at Airnet. Remember that if there is ever a doubt about whether or not you should takeoff then there is no doubt. It's much better to be tardy than absent.

 

[Flysher]

I have no really scary stories to tell in cargo. All of my pucker inducing
moments were in corperate.

CE

well lets here em anyway!!!

:beer:

 

[Flysher]

Anyway, good luck at Airnet. Remember that if there is ever a doubt about whether or not you should takeoff then there is no doubt. It's much better to be tardy than absent.

Thanks alot! Good words to live by there, I'll remember that.

 

[cforst513]

Anyway, good luck at Airnet. Remember that if there is ever a doubt about whether or not you should takeoff then there is no doubt. It's much better to be tardy than absent.

how much do they allow you to be tardy b/c of weather before they start to question your flying abilities? basically, if they find that you divert for most of the weather, is airnet going to keep you on very long?

 

[uscpilot]

how much do they allow you to be tardy b/c of weather before they start to question your flying abilities? basically, if they find that you divert for most of the weather, is airnet going to keep you on very long?

I dont know of anyone that was fired for this. That does not mean that it has not happened. If there was a problem the pilot in question would go to LCK and have a talk with the CP, and possibly an ACP, or the DO. Not really a big deal, they just want to know what the problem is. People that I know of that have done this either got over it and kept flying, or quit. Like I said I dont know of anyone fired for just this.
If you are scared chew on this: we have never lost a pilot to weather. Of our four fatalities two fell asleep, one wake turbulence, and the last was a fire while airborne. With the training and the experience that you gain on the line you will quickly develope good judgement. In my experience the flight department is fairly understanding of baggage that comes with having a green pilot (dispatch on the other hand, well...).
The question implys that there is a black and white answer, there isnt one. The best answer I can give is not to worry about getting fired for delaying or diverting for weather. Hundreds of freight pups just like you have come through the ranks of Airnet (or any 135 freight) and grown into better pilots.
Good Luck!!
WDR11

 

[inthewind]

how much do they allow you to be tardy b/c of weather before they start to question your flying abilities? basically, if they find that you divert for most of the weather, is airnet going to keep you on very long?

cforst,
In sixteen and a half years I have only diverted four times. And cancelled a handful. My comfort margin is often larger than my FOs'. What I am saying is when it is too bad to fly in my/your opinion then it's too bad. Call dispatch the CP or whoever but better to live to fly another day.

 

[cforst513]

i wouldnt say that i am scared of the weather. it's more inexperience than anything. i still have a long ways to go before i meet airnet's mins, but i would love to go there eventually. sounds like a great place to work, build time, etc. thanks for the info, though.

 

[jeroom]

Flying F/O on the mighty L-188 Electra on a Emery contract DEN-MCI-DAY-PHL-BDL back in 1979, we had 1 st generation black and white radar, tuff to pick out anything but level 3 or better. We are solid IFR at night. Had the autopilot on, airplane starts loosing altitude, so I click off the autopilot, I can not move the elevator, this is serious enough that we wake up the FE, we look outside with the inspection light and find we are covered with ice, we flew into freezing rain. We are now going down about 1,000/minute. We try boost out, cycling the hyd pumps; we are still going down. About 11,000' over the center of Kansas OAT goes above 0, ice pops off, and everything was normal. We flew to MCI at 11,000' F/E even stayed awake.

Good one...

 

[Flyingdude]

Too many to pick just one

Their was too many incidents to actually pick one out. Between the crap planes and equally bad weather it was interesting almost daily. Between the failed windsheild heat strip with a solid sheet of ice, boots that are always half infated, gyro issues, radios failing in IMC, cabin heaters that fail often in the winter time, brake failures, engine failure, fuel pooring out from one of the cowlings just after takeoff, all instrument lights that go out in IMC at night which requires you to hand fly an instrument app. working the yoke and throttle with one hand and holding the flashlight on the panel with the other, flying in heavy rain with water leaking onto the electrical panel below your left arm just to mention a few cases of many more. Anyone that has been a freightdog in bad airplanes knows what I am talking about, you have all been there. After 1,000 hrs. of that, I would never do it again even if I was starving to death.