What is your "oh Sh*t" moment?

[ibaflyer]

This is more of an "aw sh*t" moment. I had completed my IFR rating and checkride without any problems but to my suprise after being rated for about 6 weeks, I get a letter from a FSDO stating that the DE who gave me a checkride was under investigation by the FAA.

They ( FAA & DE) were apparently having some kind of p*ssing match about things so the DE resigns, and ALL of the pilots from the last 15 checkrides that he gave had to re-schedule ANOTHER ride with someone from the FSDO to "make sure that the DE had complied with ALL the necessary requirements." I took the ride for the second time and I have been rated and FED free for 17 months now.

 

[350DRIVER]

Good question. My gut feeling is no but I'm curious too. OK, back to what I was going to say...

I would tend to agree with the majority as well on this one. They must have some pretty "good" kool aid at her flight school that they are giving to students for someone to buy into such stupidity if in fact those prices are for real... I cannot say I have seen anything like that, not to mention that she seems to take pride in posting about being the "chief"... come on- What is the name of this flight school.??

Back to laughing,- ps > I think it is a fair assumption to make that she is back in hiding?


c h e e r s

3 5 0

 

[Skaz]

Hawker Rider youre right about the a/c type. A very well known aviation personality and some pax were killed in a c210 last year in Johannesburg area due thunderstorm o/h airfield.

I do a lot of medevac in C402 and C208 in Namibia, we have "Oh Sh*t" moments on many flights.
Landing a C402 (day VFR)on 300metres of dirt road, uphill, between a bend in the road and a ditch, in the mountains.....produces many colourfull metaphors, 10 minutes of adrenalin induced shaking hands and squeezing the black juice outta the yoke.

Black hole approaches are done a lot, because there are only 4 airfields in Namibia with lighting, we use min 3 cars to set up lighting for medevacs on remote airstrips or dirt roads.

A black hole approach like that is difficult enough on its own, throw in cattle looming in the landing lights, or 1/2nm 300'agl on radar alitimeter and Rwy and cars suddenly obscured by THICK fog rolling in off the ocean....no 'accidents' yet, but have had a paramedic ( co-pilot too) p1ss their pants. No joke.
Africa's a tough country

 

[avbug]

Hawkerrider,

Let me get this straight...you're already on the runway and rolling out and hit a solid downdraft with precip, and decide that it's safer to be back in the air dealing with it?

 

[Geronimo]

Hawkerrider,

Let me get this straight...you're already on the runway and rolling out and hit a solid downdraft with precip, and decide that it's safer to be back in the air dealing with it?

That was my same question Avbug. Why in the world would you leave the safety of the ground to fly right into the storm?

 

[dmspilot00]

Hawkerrider,

Let me get this straight...you're already on the runway and rolling out and hit a solid downdraft with precip, and decide that it's safer to be back in the air dealing with it?

I was wondering precisely the same thing. What a bizarre thing to do. Didn't want to say anything though since I'm only a private pilot--but if someone as experienced as avbug thinks it too, well...

 

[Skaz]

heres a few different moments.....first job was flyuing a BN2 in Sabi Sands Game reserve. One day after last flight, pax been picked up and I'm standing at pilot's door, bag on seat, packing gear away, waiting for ride to come and fetch me. Its 5km to lodge and I'm not gonna walk!. Movement cathces my eye and I look up to see a Lioness creeping over the apron, about 15 metres away, stalking me......jumped in cockpit and slammed door shut! felt kinda faint after that. nothing like knowing youre not at the top of the food chain anymore, to put things into perspective for you! ride came along few minutes later.

different day, ride to lodge delayed, so jump on roof of a/c , shirt off just soaking up the sun. Look down to see huge male lion strolling over apron, walks right underneath right hand wing, over apron, crosses rwy and saunteres off into the bush. Man did I nearly cr*p my pants that day!

 

[bugchaser]

Some of these are pretty good. I have certainly had my share of Oh sh*t! moments. Try to keep them to a minimum these days. One of the more memorable was the time that I forgot about a highline wire that happened to run across the field that I was spraying. Never saw the wire until I was in it. One wire took a chunk out of the prop and then removed the leading edge from a five foot section of the wing down to the spar. The other wire hit the airplane about eye level on the wire cutter. This wire was stubborn and broke the wire deflector and then proceeded to remove most of the verticle stabilizer and almost all of the rudder. In the blink of an eye my cessna was severely modified. There was no convenient place to land, so I was determined to get the airplane back 30 miles to the airport. Luckily there was not much wind so the landing was pretty uneventful. Never really was scared until I got out and took a look at all the damage. Made me a little wire shy for some time. Had the airplane back in the air with a complete new verticle and rudder in 2 days.

There have been numerous other broken cylinders, busted oil pans, electrical fires, lost mags, and even a broken throttle cable or two. Those all just kind of become part of the job. What really is scary to me are the almost incidents the occur because of pilot error or misjudgement.

 

[Typhoon1244]

Here's a real "oh s__t!" moment: this was my first flight from DFW to DEN. The temperature in Colorado was 3-degrees celsius and supposed to go lower. My F/O had not brought a jacket that day since it was warn and sunny in Dallas, and I ribbed him about it a little. Then, in my "welcome aboard" P/A, I told the passengers I hope they'd all brought sweaters for our arrival in Denver.

Then, sixty seconds into the pushback, guess which of my belongings I realized was still draped over the back of a chair in the crew lounge.

Isn't it funny the ideas you'll come up with in a moment of desperation? "Maybe we can just stop the push long enough for me to run inside and grab it..." Uh huh. Right.

Like we said in the Army, "suck it up...."

 

[Hawker rider]

Well I feel like I have to answer to your guys' question about my aw....sh*t moment.

When youare doing about 90 knots in a lear 24, you're right at Vmc and it is a lot easier to get the plane in the air again then to get it stoppen without seeing the runway. It was not so much that we noticed the downdraft, we just hit bad rain and couldn't see anymore, at Homebase there is a artificial pond on the left and buildings after a small taxiway on the right.

We might have not made a very smart decision looking back at it, but in that split second we did IT. Being a little above Vmmu we could have accelerated enough to get the plane of the ground and then climb out of it, instead of taking our chances and hoping that we go straight, I've bounced off a taxiway since the accident, and I am glad we did the right thing that day.

It's one of those things, if we would have gone off the runway with 90 knots we would have been in a lot more trouble without power then make a tailstrike and get the plane wobbling int othe air.

Avbug, you have experience in the older lears, you know the deceleration of them is virtually nonexisten with 2 engines in idle.

not too brag, maybe someday somebody will delay a flight because of Weather and then i'll be proud.

M