Tell your scariest/worst experience flying freight

[Flysher]

You heard it folks. Lets hear about the time that you got the living Sh!t scared out of you, the time you stared the grim reaper in the face and won.

 

[81Horse]

Heh heh heh.

You first.

 

[NoPax]

if his time is correct in his profile probably hasn't done much freight flying.

 

[CaptainMark]

Took off out of Dubai enroute to Bombay(mumbai)...leveled off and realized they did not put catering on board..declared an emergency and went back to get it..doesn't get much worse than that! hopefully...

 

[320AV8R]

Flew a dead guy from Govenor's Harbor to Nassau in a light twin.

Pretty freaky.

Eeeeeech.

320AV8R

 

[81Horse]

Sweet Jeebuz! No catering??

Any story of mine would date back to the dawn of time (California Air Charter, the precursor of Ameriflight). And I'm not totally sure the statute of limitations ever expires on attempted suicide ... homicide ... homicide/suicide. Whatever.

But, you know -- good times.

 

[Flysher]

Yup your correct no cargo flying on my side, although Im in Airnet's hiring pool so that won't be for long :-D

I was just hoping to start a thread with a buncha good stories sorta like the poop thread

 

[81Horse]

Flysher, there are some fine stories buried in the posts of the "You Know You're a Freight Dog ..." thread.

 

[Flysher]

thanks buddy ill check it out!!

 

[flyinyourShorts]

My two years at Air Tahoma...... J/K ;-)

Although flying a 1956 vintage turbine Convair across the South China Sea might sound scary to most, I had a blast doing it! I wouldn't do it again at the same pay rate, thats for sure!

 

[LR25]

Took off out of Dubai enroute to Bombay(mumbai)...leveled off and realized they did not put catering on board..declared an emergency and went back to get it..doesn't get much worse than that! hopefully...

Dam, you beat me to it!!!!

But seriously, that would be an emergency, flying boxes or peeps.

 

[Captain Morgan]

Since no one wants to attack this seriously, I'll start!

There I was...

Over the Gulf of Mexico south of Pensacola in level 2 & 3 precip. flying for Airnet in a Baron. There was some level 4 and 5 stuff lurking and I approached a line that was a level 4 from the east. Our radar sucked, so I asked for a vector and asked what the picture looked like from the controller. His reply was: "You can do whatever you want, you're the only person up there..." About 10 minutes later a tornado warning had been issued for the neighboring county as reported from the controller. I think I prayed 100 Hail Mary's during that one. I landed and got a congrats from the Chief Pilot that night because people were diverting left and right. This is an example of what not to do. This was probably the second stupidest thing I done in an airplane. Have fun at Airnet...

 

[81Horse]

Great avatar, Capt. Morgan. My granddad had a Twin Comanche that could do that. Once.

 

[pilotyip]

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.

 

[Flybet3]

About 2 years ago I flew a caravan out of Cedar Rapids Iowa, my show time was about 9pm or so, DHL guys loaded my airplane I did the weight and balance started the engine and taxied to the runway. I got cleared for T/O so I powered up my PT6, at about 75kts the airplane rotated to about 20 degrees nose up. I tried pushing the yoke forward but the yoke was already full forward. So I began to trim like crazy forward. Got the airplane undercontrol and turned on the AP, then I re-did the weight and balance and after all the calculations I came to the conclusion that it was not a CG problem. Had a bit of a problem on the approach into CVG b/c the yoke had no more forward movement. So I had to use the AP all the way down to the flare. Before departing out of CVG I asked the DHL guys to load my plane a bit nose heavy. Took off and once again, nose went up high, this time I even got a steady stall horn, I just about pissed my self. I tried pushing the yoke and once again and nothing. So I trimed the living hell aout of it. The AP flew all the way back home, once I was on a downwind at CID turned of the AP and realized that I had a complete control failure. I tried banking the airplane, and nothing. So I used the AP once again the capture the LOC and Glideslope, and then basically landed the damn thing with the trim. Two hours later mechanics said it was a miracle that I was on the ground b/c the cables on the trim were broken as well. All the bolts and cables of the airplane were streched, and ripped.....lucky to be alive, someone upstairs must like me.

 

[Flysher]

wow, glad you made it back from that one!!!

 

[Flybet3]

wow, glad you made it back from that one!!!

sure thing. The funny thing is that when I called my CP and DO and explained, they kept saying. Well dude! it sounds like a CG problem, you just need to pay more attention to the loading. I answered "can you guys please just check the airplane?". 2 hours later they call me back..........
"Hey, well ummm.....you should've never taken off from CVG, the airplane is in bad shape. We could've lost you." I felt like saying, "wait, so it wasnt a CG problem?????"

 

[pilotyip]

flybet2, E. Gann made a story out of almost the same thing in his book "Fate is the Hunter"

 

[Flybet3]

flybet2, E. Gann made a story out of almost the same thing in his book "Fate is the Hunter"

Neeeeato

 

[Draginass]

Why didn't you abort at 75kts when the airplane demonstrated control problems? Running off the end at 10 kts beats a stall at 100'.

After that, and figuring out that the W&B was good, why would you take off again?

 

[cforst513]

Why didn't you abort at 75kts when the airplane demonstrated control problems? Running off the end at 10 kts beats a stall at 100'.

After that, and figuring out that the W&B was good, why would you take off again?

hindsight is 20/20, and i'm glad to see he's here to realize this. instead of chastising him, praise him for getting back on solid ground in one piece. he learned his lesson, i'm sure. many decisions we make aren't stupid when we're making them, it's only much later that we realize the errors of our ways.

 

[Flybet3]

Why didn't you abort at 75kts when the airplane demonstrated control problems? Running off the end at 10 kts beats a stall at 100'.

After that, and figuring out that the W&B was good, why would you take off again?

Well my friend, it's easy to come up with a solution while you're sitting infront of the computer. But when it's your first week on the job by yourself and the nose is that high up on the caravan, your first concern is to break a near stall situation. Remember when you practiced stalls??? what's the first thing you must do? think about that one. Secondly like I said, I pushed the yoke forward to get out of the nose high attitude and added max power, but the yoke being in a full forward position already all I was left at the moment was to trim forward. That was my first 135 job, and I had never experienced a control failure before. Technically I did not lose control of the airplane, therefor there was the possibility that it could've been a CG problem.

 

[Flybet3]

Why didn't you abort at 75kts when the airplane demonstrated control problems? Running off the end at 10 kts beats a stall at 100'.

After that, and figuring out that the W&B was good, why would you take off again?

Oh yeah, and everything happened so quick that by the time I began to trim I was 200 above the ground, and the W&B showed that when I departed from CID I was a bit tail heavy but withing the envelope.

 

[Flybet3]

hindsight is 20/20, and i'm glad to see he's here to realize this. instead of chastising him, praise him for getting back on solid ground in one piece. he learned his lesson, i'm sure. many decisions we make aren't stupid when we're making them, it's only much later that we realize the errors of our ways.

Well said, thank you. I guarantee you that after that day I checked the flight controls twice as much.

 

[Draginass]

Not trying to beat you up. Just trying to figure out why you did what you did. Once the airplane is airborne there's not much you can do but regain control any way you can. Now that you mentioned the fact that at the time you were inexperienced, that might explain taking off a second time when the control problem was unresolved.

Inexperienced or not, the moral of the story is, if it ain't right, write it up and make 'em look at it.

 

[Flybet3]

Not trying to beat you up. Just trying to figure out why you did what you did. Once the airplane is airborne there's not much you can do but regain control any way you can. Now that you mentioned the fact that at the time you were inexperienced, that might explain taking off a second time when the control problem was unresolved.

Inexperienced or not, the moral of the story is, if it ain't right, write it up and make 'em look at it.

You are correct sir

 

[BizPilot]

Dead Bodies

I'll second the Dead Body experience. Far scarier than any in-flight emergency situation.

In July 1996 I had to fly two bodies from Davenport, Iowa to Omaha in the middle of the night in a Navajo. Got the call late, and had a show time of 2a.m. Got my preflight briefing, of course there were embedded thunderstorms forecasted along the route with moderate tubulence up to 10,000 feet. Hurse shows up with a male and female who were killed in car accident. No body bags, just loaded the stiffies in the back and threw a white sheet over both bodies. Took off Westward. Level at 8000 feet. Nobody aloft, just me and a silent Chicago Center. Got into some turbulence to start with, bounced us around pretty good. Enough bumps so the sheet worked itself off of the bodies in the back. After 30 minutes into the flight, lightning began to flash in solid IMC. Just light to moderate rain along the way. Took a look in back and saw both bodies staring back at me with each flash of lightning. The sheet now had crumpled itself in the back of the Navajo. My calm demeanor quietly change to stark terror and trembling.

I called up Chicago Center and asked, "Center, are you still there?" with a nervous tremble in my voice. Center replied, "Yep, we're still awake........Hey, I see you have 1 soul and 2 bodies in your remarks......Are YOU ok, Sir?" I replied, "If I don't make it to the next sector, send search and rescue." Center, "(Laughing Sounds)"

 

[cforst513]

bizpilot, that is just creepy!! *shudders* i would FLIP OUT if i saw them looking back at me. what condition were the bodies in? did they at least look ok or were they kind of beat up from the accident?

 

[pilotyip]

Zantop used to have scheduled runs all over the US moving cargo at night. Moving bodies was not uncommon. One night coming out of Boston, they had a casket with an enclosed beloved. The L-188 takes off starts back to the sort point at YIP. There are usual jokes; about do you think he would prefer to sit in first class etc. At 3 AM over the Rochester, there is knock on the cockpit door, now you talk about being wide-awake, everyone is looking at each other to ensure it is not one of them. It is not, there is someone on the other side of the door. It dark, quite, middle of the night, and you have no explanation why someone from the back of the airplane is knocking on the door. The Capt. says to the FE, "Check that out", FE says "BS, I am senior to the FO have him check it out", The F/O goes back to the door having no idea what to expect, but fearing there is a dead man standing just out side the door. He opens the door and there is a man standing. The young man says "I am freezing, it is colder than hell back there." Turns out he is a loader from Boston who fell asleep in the back of the airplane during the load, no body missed him and he just rode in the back until the middle of New York when it got too cold to stay in the back.

 

[Atlanta Vicks]

Zantop used to have scheduled runs all over the US moving cargo at night. Moving bodies was not uncommon. One night coming out of Boston, they had a casket with an enclosed beloved. The L-188 takes off starts back to the sort point at YIP. There are usual jokes; about do you think he would prefer to sit in first class etc. At 3 AM over the Rochester, there is knock on the cockpit door, now you talk about being wide-awake, everyone is looking at each other to ensure it is not one of them. It is not, there is someone on the other side of the door. It dark, quite, middle of the night, and you have no explanation why someone from the back of the airplane is knocking on the door. The Capt. says to the FE, "Check that out", FE says "BS, I am senior to the FO have him check it out", The F/O goes back to the door having no idea what to expect, but fearing there is a dead man standing just out side the door. He opens the door and there is a man standing. The young man says "I am freezing, it is colder than hell back there." Turns out he is a loader from Boston who fell asleep in the back of the airplane during the load, no body missed him and he just rode in the back until the middle of New York when it got too cold to stay in the back.

I think that is one of the funniest reads on here! GREAT STORY!