What scared you in an airplane?

[bushman]

I did my pvt part 61 and my instrument part 141. Found out today that the aircraft had a mag problem which contributed to it not getting airborne. The particular club has a history of bad maintenance as well. None of this means much to me though because it was my own fault for not doing the proper checklist procedures. Never flown with two buddies asking questions every five minutes, just my teeth grinding eyes covered wife.

 

[MarineKC130]

Descending out of IMC at around 5000', no t-storms around. FE sees static building up on windshield wipers then all of a sudden, very loud boom and flash of white. Everyone's blinded for a second and when I can see again, I expect to see all our electrical systems screwed up or out. Everything ended up being fine, but it blew about a fist-sized hole in our radome and fried the antenna.

 

[InHot]

"Chapter 11"

 

[Snakum]

What has scared me over the years ...

In the summer of '95, as a primary student with about 4 hours, taking lessons in NC from a Dutch kid who liked to have a little too much fun Saturday nights (showed up reeking of alcohol) ... 'Dutch' decides to show me what a spin looks like one inibriated Sunday morning. I didn't fly again for almost a year.

Or ....... on climb out in a spam can at 20 hours ..... ink wet on a solo endorsement .... over nuthin' but trees the engine starts sputtering. It felt like I had ice in my veins for a couple seconds.

Minh

 

[starchkr]

A couple of stories here...

First, initial flight training in AUS (when it was still open), cleared to takeoff while approaching the hold short line. My instrutor yells STOP and hits the brakes as we make the turn onto the runway. Not knowing what he is so verbal about, just before i can ask what is wrong, a C-421 (tail number 666N, no kidding) lands over top of us. Without hesitation my instructor questions the tower as to what they were thinking, and the ensuing convo with the 421 and the tower reveals that the 421 was cleared to land on the parrallel or intersecting runway, but not the one he decided to land on.

This was a good one... on my private checkride, returning to AUS for the final landing before i was issued my ticket, we hear tower trying to talk to a lynguistically challenged person about which runway he is to land on. To no avail he just cannot understand the difference between 13L and 31R, we were following him to 13L, well we were going for 13L at least. On about a 2 mile final we were told to do a couple of 360's to the north to give way to the 150 landing on 31R who was cleared to land on 13L. I tell you what though, from our vantage point, he made a fairly nice pattern to the runway. Needless to say after we landed and taxied into the ramp, he was there talking on the phone to the tower, with my DE ready to rip him a new one when he was done with them.

Finally, the last thing that got me was flying into HOU a month ago in solid IMC with ceilings at 500 and vis at 3 miles. My aircraft decided it was time to start pouring smoke into the cockpit. Knowing that because of the low weather i couldn't just immediately turn off the master, i had to sit there and pray while i diverted to the nearest field to shoot the ILS. Talk about the scariest thing i have ever done... i had to actually catch myself from going full deflection on the localizer a couple of times while trying to figure out what is burning so i can try to stop it. The only thing i could do was to keep telling myself that if that **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** smoke/fire wasn't going to kill me, i wasn't going to let the **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** ILS do it either.

 

[aero99]

Not my story, but everytime my Father-in-Law tells the story of when he was flying in Hawaii, and the plane turned into a convertable, I get chills. He was in the row just aft of where the top came off, saw one of the FA's shoot out the top, had a piece of metal lodged in his head about 12 inches long and took 20 min to land in that condition.

He worked for Delta so he knew aircraft, and thought there was no way in h*ll he was making it out that one alive. When they were still flying the convertable, he thought they were just free falling because of all the wind. He said he was in shock for days after the incident.

 

[bobbysamd]

Hawaii B-737

Was that the famous incident about which they made the movie and all?

Chills and shock would be an understatement. I hope your father-in-law is doing well.

 

[aero99]

Yes sir.

Right after that happened, the Dr.'s told him he was going to lose a leg due to bad arteries (not because of the flight, just health problems) and that he probably only had a year or two left before a massive heart attack would take his life.

He is still alive and kicken- with both legs!

Tough ol bird. Stubborness has its virtues!

 

[A1FlyBoy]

I saw still shots of that 737. It is truly amazing that the crew got it down and not any more souls parished.

The UAL 747 that had the forward cargo door blow and peel several feet of skin above it off, sucking rows of passengers out, and losing two engines on the same wing enroute and over the Pacific... yet returning for a landing is another story that gives me chills.

 

[MarineKC130]

Clear right and above

Starchkr, never had that experience, but am glad that I got into the habit of looking and verbalizing every time I cross a runway, "Clear right/left and above." This habit pattern forces me to look down the runway and scan the approach corridor for the runway before taking/crossing. Since I fly multipiloted, it also gets the other guy to double check his side, even though I usually check both if the angle of the cross allows me to see across the cockpit. I try to pick up every safety habit pattern I see other pilots use. Another thing thats nice about flying multi-piloted cause you learn something to do or not to do almost every time you go flying.