Your most boneheaded mistake as a CFI

[acaTerry]

Doing manuevers in an Arrow and needed to put the gear down for one. Pull the handle down hear the motor running and feel the gear coming down. I look at the gear lights and do not see the three green. I tell my student to abort the maneuver and let's figure out what the heck is going on. I go through the checklist and still cannot get the three green lights. I call up maintenance on the company frequency and explain the situation. They give me all correction methods and nothing is working. Finally he asks me "Are the Nav lights on?" Duhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! While doing the pre-manuever checklist my student put on the NAV lights and I never noticed. Granted I was a fairly new CFI at the time. Maybe I had 50 hrs dual given. My most embarassing moment yet because I was ready to call ATC and tell them to prepare for an emergancy landing.

You are definitely the first one to do that, and you will definitely be the last.:beer:

 

[whaleroast]

I got my PPL at small FBO that had about 5 152's, all of them pretty cruddy. I had a pretty interesting instrutuctor. One time, he insisted I don't turn the battery on to check the lights and the flaps because the battery was probably low on juice and he didn't want to waste the time to get it charged. So out we flew to the practice area, which was about 20 miles from the airport. It was 9/11 +5 and we had to get a clearance to go out to the practice area, so we had flight following with Center. We did a power-off stall and the flaps wouldn't come up from the lowest setting. So back we flew to the airport at like 60 knots. He even declared an emergency with ATC and squawked 7700. Rolled the fire trucks and everything. Here we come in the 152, full-flap landing. Pretty anti-climatic. I went home and told the war story to my friends, who thought I was pretty cool. Ah, the memories.

 

[VNugget]

Does a stuck mike for the entirety of my first given lesson count?

I was ready to pick up the ATIS at the end of the lesson, the student said that he's punching in the numbers but nothing is changing in the screen... I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned forward to investigate, and the same thing happened to me. Then I saw the little TX in the corner, and my stomach wrapped itself into a little ball when I rememberd that the last transmission I (intentionally) made was repeating my takeoff clearance. ********************!

After I un-stuck it, the only thing that came out of my mouth was a sheepsih "Uhh, tower, was there a stuck mike on frequency until now?" Wow, way to add 2 and 2 Sherlock Holmes!

Yeah... tower was real happy.

 

[IFollowRoads]

Letting mine expire.

I have a little money left for my reinstatement, but I've run out of time. I will shortly be back at my old non-aviation job begging forgiveness for leaving.

Congrats to all of you who were able to make a career out of aviation.

 

[pgcfii2002]

I mistakenly got my student into a cloud. Turned it into a lesson and taught him how to execute a 180 with the TC and return to VFR conditions.

 

[Mr Wu]

Flight school I worked at had a Seneca and an Archer on leaseback from the same guy. Guy was in jail, charged with conspiracy to commit murder (allegedly took out a contract on his wife.) Sooooooo, one friday morning I get to work and there are two checkouts on my schedule, one for the Seneca and one for the Archer. Checked out the first guy and signed him off. After checking out the second guy and while filling out the paperwork, I made the comment that he was the second guy from KS that was in today. Both guys left for their flights, turns out they were repo guys.

 

[Mr Wu]

Yeah, that was one of the "tricks" of the Arrow. Got briefed on it during my checkout. Happened to lots of pilots. Turning on the nav lights dimmed the gear lights. I think the Lance was the same. Don't recall the older pipers having that feature though.

Another one is when someone does an emergency extension and doesn't push the button again. Gear won't come up after takeoff.

 

[ozpilot]

Like most my primary training was in a C150. I never flew in rain until after my solo. After my solo I went out to the plane for some pattern work. It was raining and I could not find the 'switch' for the windshield wipers. I went back into the clubhouse and asked my CFI where it is ....

He smiled and told me to 'fire it up ...' Presto no rain drops! I still fly a Cessna and this one has no wipers either!

 

[skiandsurf]

Many years ago, I was teaching out of Brackett Field, near ONT. Doing an ILS to about 500 feet with an Instrument Student. Airport has 2 parallels that are really close to each other. We were cleared for the ILS 26L. When we broke out, I started putting my stuff in the back of the plane, and wasnt really paying attention to the rest of the approach. As we were rolling out, I thought ......hhhmmmm...we look like we are closer to the control tower than usual......the tower came on the radio and said.."well thats close enough. Turn left and CROSS 26L and contact ground".

 

[PURPLEHAZE21]

I once shot an ILS inverted for practice....and landed that way