What is your "oh Sh*t" moment?

[Delta3]

The day before my PPL checkride I almost ran the plane off the runway. I was drifting right of centerline on touchdown and hit the left rudder too hard. After full pitch down and a whole lot of smoke I stopped.

After I parked I burnt my hands when I touched the brakes.

But luckily for me my DE, who was at the airport at the time didn't see me.

 

[414Flyer]

When I was a student getting my takeoff and landings at a towered airport, Sheppard AFB, and was supposed to stay below 2300' since T-38s own from 2500 up. I forgot about it , and noticed I was 2500'..oh **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**..looked around...saw a T-38 at my 7, and not much higher at all. Very very close...a big OH **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**.

When doing a tour flight in Hawaii, just offshore of the Waimea and waipio valleys north of Hilo..Was at about 1000', broadcasting postion reports, and was pretty close to the waterfalls. Then another C-172, not on the radio, goes in between me and the waterfalls, at our altitude.

Again in Hawaii, going around past Hilo from Kiluaea, got really socked in, low ceilings, bad vis. Ceilings got lower and lower, and my biggest concern was not hitting the 1,000 high cliffs, so I stayed off shore a couple miles, and down to 400' and couldnt see **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** except for ocean. Do I go closer to the coast, and hope i do not hit anything, or do I stay a couple miles offshore but lose all coastline reference? I did the later. Finally after a while it got better and I rounded the north point for Kona.

While flying an empty leg from FAR to MSP to get freight in a Seneca...started icing really bad. Started at 7k..tried 9k..stilll icing..tried 5k..still icing..Got about an inch or so, down to 120kias, and only halfway there. came close to diverting and or declaring an emergency going into the closest runway I could find. Luckily the icing stopped and I was able to continue and land at MSP.

 

[flywithruss]

I've had a couple of ice encounters ... one over northern Arkansas in a Cessna, and another over southern PA in a Cherokee. Both times the briefers swore up and down to me there was no ice along my route. Another fun one was some nice windshear in Teterboro about a year ago ... I'm going in with an A36 Bonanza to pick up some folks and do the ILS 6, circle to land runway 1, I'm following a G-IV. The Gulfstream reports windshear on the final to 1 ... thirty knot loss followed by a 20 knot gain between 300' and the deck. Got it down, but it was a bumpy ride.

 

[uavchaser]

another one

took me almost an hour to find my airplane registration after landing in San Felipe Mexico. Oh sh*t where did I put it!! Ended up paying overtime fees too because i came in late and they had to wait.

 

[Majik]

Flying single-pilot in IMC at 17,000' when I encountered unforecast icing. It was the 1st time I was able to use the de-ice boots (ice must build to 1/4" before you were supposed to inflate the boots).
My 1st reaction was, "Good, I'll finally be able to use those boots and see how this stuff works."
Exercised the boots, and the ice shed off the leading edge. I noticed my airspeed had dropped significantly so I added some power. Looked back out to the wings and noticed that it was time to inflate those boots again. Looked back at the ol' airspeed indicator and discovered I'm just above stall speed, Add max power. Say to myself, "This ain't right, is it?" Look back outside and see it's time to exercise those boots again. Back inside, the airspeed is continuing to slowly drop. Get on the radio and request an immediate descent. Controller replies, "What altitude would you like?" My reply, "One that is above the freezing level, cuz I'm iced up and unable to hold altitude!"
Luckily I was able to descend to 10,000' and let the ice melt while I tried to regain my composure. Always been a little leary of ice since then.

 

[tarp]

Let's see:

#1 Albion / Berlin NJ in a C-172 some 25 years ago. Basically let 2,000 ft of a 2500ft runway slip under the nose before I decided to land. I can still see that split rail fence and the grain in the wood as my prop spinner stopped about 12 inches away. The FBO just said "nice landing" after I had pushed the airplane back onto the tarmac and tied it down.

#2 Over Albany NY in a non-icing approved aircraft at 10,000ft, not realizing that 9,000 ft of lake effect clouds, snow and ice had slipped under me with about 65 kts of wind from the West. I was just fat, dumb and happy until I realized there were no more holes to the east, I was running out of fuel and couldn't make any point west (like back to Scranton) because of the great tailwinds I had. I am writing this note but not saying anything about how much ice was on that airplane when I landed.

#3 Having Baltimore tower give me a phone # to call - seems like they had built this new airspace called the Baltimore Washington Area TCA and I hadn't really called them soon enough. Geez, they only had to move one B-737 around me! Funny thing - I was based at BWI at the time - oh well.

#4 The first time the hot section on the jet engine let loose.

Not bad for almost 30 years of flying.

 

[jsoceanlord]

1) took off from a rural airport at night in a ce 172. there was a light in the distance that i thought was a plane entering the landing pattern. i was going to pass under it. we were almost level with this light - which was a farm house.

2)carb ice crossing the rockies in a ce 180

3)being lost at night in a piper cub and out of gas and heading for the nearest light, thinking it's a gas station near which to force land, and it's the airport.

4)being cocky after flying night freight in the rockies and taking off into a caribbean storm, thinking it's nothing, and not being able to see far enough to taxi in after landing.

5)trying to release a banner and having it hang up and fly between a couple tall trees.

6)dropping like an elevator in the mountains north of los angeles while 100 mph winds were blowing

7)taking off with sky divers in otay mesa, near san diego, when the winds were easterly and the cessna jump planes were groundfed. only the helio courier i was in could take off towards the mountains, which wecleard by 30 feet.

 

[JediNein]

1. Hour 499.9, I'm riding passenger, right seat, in a P210. I've had 2 hours of CFII training two months previous, and was almost of legal IFR currency. The pilot whiggs out thinking the autopilot or flight instruments are whigging out in IMC. Trim at the stops, 2000+ fpm down, almost at redline airspeed, well over 180 degrees off heading before I was able to get the pilot off the controls. Didn't hear ATC screaming at us 'til passing through 500' below assigned altitude.

2. Hmmm, putting the landing gear down in a Piper Arrow will assist in regaining control 7000' AGL and 7000' below the base of the cloud. The cloud had airliners diverting through a nearby state (Arizona), as it maxed out at Level 4. (One nasty TS)

3. I'm riding chief check pilot in the backseat watching two check pilots go at each other. On takeoff the check pilot flying overrotates and loud scraping noises are heard. Hit three times before I got the check pilot not flying's attention and he aborted the takeoff.

4. Giving a ground lesson while a T210 does two go-arounds outside. I ended the lesson when I saw the wingip touch on the third attempt. The tower evacuated when the ammo in the back of the aircraft exploded in the fire, no survivors in the aircraft.

5. Student pilot with less than ten hours, almost dark. I look up and see a big twin in an almost vertical bank with a green light on top. I bank hard left scaring the CFI shhless. He looked up to see his life flash before his eyes. The only reason I banked left instead of right was that green light.

6. Piper Arrow, a former UND craft, practicing landings for the commercial, solo, and hear this terrible noise on touchdown plus a start of a groundloop. already too slow to abort. The parking brake had slipped on. Maintenance records show several unresolved complaints about the parking brake engaging during flight.

The little things like door openings, instrument failures, electrical failures, system failures, and like in IMC or VMC don't bother me anymore. I guess you grow immune after enough exposure.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

 

[Typhoon1244]

Scary moment for a new-hire Brasilia F/O on his first trip: I'm standing on the ramp, waiting for the previous crew to get off the airplane, when our flight attendant, whom I'll call "Jay" (rhymes with his real name) walks up, extends a hand and introduces himself. But between the earplugs, all the APU's running around us, jets taking off and landing nearby, and my nervousness, it sure sounded to me like he said "hi, I'm gay."

I shook his hand--in a manly way, of course--thinking, "hmm, they didn't cover this in basic indoc...."

 

[mckpickle]

You know how there are guys who go through their entire career without anything EVER happening? Well I'm the other guy. I think the worst I ever had was departing out of Newark on a crappy rainy day. Giving IOE to a new hire. Got a FWD smoke warning about 5 seconds after lift off but it lasted less than a second. About 2-3 minutes later the #1 oil pressure started fluxuating. Then the cockpit started filling with smoke. I took the plane and had the FO run the air conditioning smoke check. In the 5 seconds that I turned to talk to the Flight Attendant the FO had run the wrong checklist and turned off just about everything electrical while IMC. Anyway, with the bleeds off the smoke went away and it seemed the problem was solved. 2 minutes later, the oil pressure started acting up again, the low oil pressure warning, then #1 engine fire warning. Somehow we got our heads out of our A$$es and made it alive. Learned a lot that day.

Funny thing, My FA and I had to commute home. I drove her to her house and had to carry her in. When I got to my apartment My legs hurt SO bad 6 hours after the fact, that I had to crawl on my hands and knees up 2 flights of stairs.

I dont know if Im becoming hardened or what but my last aborted Take off my blodd pressure didnt even rise.

You always wonder how you will react in an emergency, and sometimes even want to see yourself in action. I now know, and have no wish to ever have to see it again.

 

[momalley81]

What a thread for my first post...

Most recent ones come to memory-

Taking off on a 1500' grass strip in a stripped down super cruiser (is there such a thing as a NICE banner plane?), field is cut out of the trees, and boardered by marsh, creeks, swamp and trees. At about 150', the engine starts missing and backfiring, but doesn't quit outright, surging, and not putting out much power though. Can't turn back, and nothing but swamp to land in, playing with the throttle, mags, carb heat, you name it. Finally got it started back up at about 20' while getting ready to flare.

Turns out one mag was firing at 23 degrees, the other at 33... hmm, no wonder it wasn't running right.

Few months later, under tow on the beach, noticing that I've been slowly adding throttle for the past couple of minutes to hold altitude. Decide to try and get home now while I can. Engine is starting to run real rough now, throttle's wide open and I'm at 400, losing 50 fpm.

Now I'm just trying to find a place to dump the brand new panel I was towing where we could recover it later. Looking around, I'm over the Atlantic Ocean, nope, we'll never see it again. The beach is out, I'd kill somebody in the process. Don't have enough altitidue to cut across the barrier island and dump it in the intercoastal waterway. Just pulled a 180, and hope I can get to the southern end of the island, clear the bridge, and dump it in the brown water.

Make the decision if I go below 100' I'm dumping the banner nomatter where I am. Trying to troubleshoot now; tried switching mags, no dice, left just about quit, same with right. Carb heat? Lost about 600 RPM, started coughing and backfiring, puffs of black smoke coming out of the stacks. Waited a few seconds, only got worse, wasn't carb ice.

Mixture? It seemed like it almost quit from being over-rich with carb heat... I cleared the bridge by about 50'. Engine slowly smoothed out with a leaner mixture, but the CHT's were WAY up there... started to pull power back now, I've got a gentle climb.

Made it home OK, all 4 bottem plugs were lead fouled, and the #4 was dripping with oil.

Cleaned the plugs, was back in the air in an hour. Started to lose power under tow again, was able to catch it earlier though, slight roughness. All that ran through my mind, not, "OH $H!T" but, "not again!"

Landed ok, pulled the jug, the piston pin had slipped somehow, and hand been rubbing against the cylinder wall. The end cap was gone, found after a brief search in the oil sump and screen, along with most of the compression and oil scavenging rings...

Plane was back in service in 2 days... <sigh>

- Mike

 

[328dude]

Losing a propeller blade over Corsicana, TX on a MU-2 for a nightly check run.

Oh "$hit" was worn out fairly quickly.

 

[HappyFlying]

I managed to spin the examiner during my private checkride. He didn't like the way I had been taught to set up for a power on stall so he made me do it his way. I ended up so nose high that I lost my visual reference. When it finally stalled, it broke hard left and went on its back. I recovered quickly but I thought I had busted the checkride. He said he would have failed me if he had to take the controls. The " oh Crap" was more from thinking I busted the checkride than the fact that I put us into the spin.

 

[navigator72]

My scary moments

1. While practicing power on stalls over the beach at 1500'. I put myself into a spin. I managed to recover to at 500'. made me rethink my training. to this day, I don't really care for stalls.

2. While on my long X-cnty for my commercial, I flew my last leg at about midnight IFR (1st time in actual by myself). The only approach at my home airport is the NDB (I busted my instrument checkride on that approach). About 10 miles out in heavy rain I was told to hold at the NDB, When I got to the NDB, I coud see the airport through a low scud layer, I cancelled IFR and started my steep spiral home, while turning base I flew right into the scud layer and went solid IFR. Without being IFR and having misplaced JAX centers frequency, I figured I would estimate when to turn final...
I turned a bit too soon, I managed to undershoot final. I am about a 3rd of the way down the runway at this point flying parallel the runway, with a big wall of clouds at the far end of the runway, I managed to side slip the plane and land on the last 3rd of the runway(the part where the runway lights are glowing bright red). I managed to lock up the brakes and not hydroplane on the wet runway too badly and stop at the very very very end of the runway. After a slow taxi back to the ramp. I went home and drank many beers. What did I learn from this: Next time I won't give in to the get home-itis and do things the right way!

 

[Clearsky]

Geez, I get scared just reading some of these posts...maybe boredom is a good thing.

 

[d328pilot]

1. Flying for a check company, we picked up a run flying urine and blood samples. I ended up blowing a cylinder off of the engine and made an emergency landing. I did not know what was worse, knowing that i might crash, or imagining how "messy" it would be if i did crash and survive.

2. Carb ice in an archer with the weather at 200 and a half. Being young and stupid, i failed to recognize it. I was on the approach and the plane ahead of me went missed. There have been other times that i have been scared, but this was the only time that i didnt think i was going to make it. I made the approach and never flew anything with a carburator again.....not really.

 

[JediNein]

*SIGH* from this last weekend...

7. Departing off a high altitude airport in cold weather, we (myself + A&P/IA advanced student pilot) used as much runway as expected, then didn't climb worth snot. The airplane doesn't climb worth snot on an average cold day at sea level, so I didn't notice the crummier performance. We threaded our way through the hills and mountains surrounding the airport, using every thermal possible to gain a few feet. We were well below any altitude required to return to the airport, so just took our sweet time climbing.

What I found most interesting was the silence of the tower. There had been three planes waiting to depart behind us, but ATC didn't let any of them go. We made it to 500' AGL about midfield downwind of our departure runway (15 MINUTES!) later and 2-3 miles away (ridge soaring), when ATC asked if we were coming back to the airport or continuing.

We let the airplane sit overnight, then diagnosed. A failed cylinder.... No possible way to detect the problem, unless I had turned the prop through twice on the preflight. No vibrations during flight, either.

Okay, rebuilt the cylinder that day, and departed at sunset. This time over mostly flat terrain and the well-lit, familiar Central Valley. The student handed over controls to me, had enough time to trim, hands off, breathe a sigh of *COUGH*. ****engine!

That was it, just one more grumble, with absolutely everything in premo shape, as far as we could tell on the ground once again. . . It didn't complain again on the rest of the trip home.

I agree with Avbug, there is no such thing as a perfectly good airplane.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

 

[antinein]

My worst oh sh!t moment is on going. If jedi nein has had so much happen to her in only 500 hrs, I get scared just thinking about her being in the same sky as me. She seems to be an "Oh sh!t" magnet. I dont quite follow most of her incoherent babble. Christ almighty! She should look for a new career, along the lines of librarian. Where you awake when these things happened? Or did you make them up as you typed them?

 

[pipers]

I was in Katana on my first solo x-counrty. I was in the pattern on downwind and the engine died at my initial power reduction because the fuel-pump wasn't working. I made it the runway and ended up landing without incident....needless to say it was an interesting introduction to aviation.

 

[JediNein]

antinein

My very own hate group. . .

*SNIFF*

I'm touched.

Charter membership is closed. The rest will have to pay membership fees. I'm sure we could set up a student rate, ex-military rate, and a youth rate.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein