pilots........ fearless

[VH-ABC]

Recently, during a longish sector pushing into the breeze, I thought of the old saying... "Flying is 99% boredom, and 1% sheer terror".

Would anyone like to share stories of when they experienced that one percent... what went wrong... how they handled it... and what, if anything, they would do differently.




Safe flying.

[7gcbc]

sure,

Ballina, October a few years ago, Low time PPL say 60 hours, flying a tailwheel, say approx 45 trike, 15 tail.

#1
All happy until the river, sink, you get the picture, 90Kts sideways at 200ft, quick touch,X-wind puts me on the grass, too exciting, nice trees forget it, go around.

#2
Know about River this time, don't know about the those bubbles on the ground, make it past the river, get on line, looking good along the rwy until an x-wind picks me up and puts me neatly on the grass facing the trees....again, full throttle, and away we go again......

river, trees, x-wind, HA! I laugh at the dangerour! , I spit at them , the are but little annoyances at this stage....

#3
not really, I was so scared I really thought the fun was up, but got organised, got determined and got in at the 3rd attempt, and yes there was a hellav x-wind even with full into wind stick and opp rudder, still put me on the grass after the shade from the trees faded near the apron at ballina.


what went wr0ong ? - Weather , Inexperience.

What would I do Differently ? - Not a thing, except perhaps divert!!


I reckon its called living :O

[Chadzat]

In my relatively short flying (un-professional) career I've had a 1% flight.

It was my first solo navex pre-PPL with about 40hrs in the book.

I was going outbound OCTA via the lane of entry/exit which happens to be a lake/resevoir. I was slightly to the left of whee I should have been (to the right of the Lake), i had just written in my TOD and looked up to see another aircraft coming STRAIGHT AT me. The first .5 of a second after than involved me comprehending that is an actual aircraft there, then after that it involved grabbing the yoke with both hands, rolling it to the right and pulling up fairly hard!

Thankfully the other pilot did what he was meant to and went right also and I counted only about 3 seconds from when I first banked right to when he went past me. It was pretty close. I managed to see what aircraft it was and when I got back from my nav managed to catch up with the other pilot (also pre-PPL) whom I actually knew.

Turns out we were both left of track, I had my landing light on and he didn't. Now the outbound/inbound procedure has been changed to give a bit more seperation.

I'll be thankful if I don't see another aircraft like that for a while!

[Ultralights]

and 1% sheer terror

cruising along in a sapphire, (open cockpit) at 4500, just below the base of the cotton balls, and bouncing along in moderate turb due to thermals, and left a thermal and straight into a nice downdraft! a very rapid decent for a few hundred ft! at -2 G, not fun when your not expecting it in an open cockpit aircraft! for that split second i thought i was going straight out the top without a chute!

what i did wrong-- left the canopy on the ground!
how to avoid it again--- harness VERY tight!

[Like This - Do That]

A few years ago descending southbound just off the coast for a Victor 1. Flying a nicely equipped PA28-236, lit up like new year's eve fireworks - recog lights, nav lights, landing light, strobes.

I'd announced the start of my descent just South of Palm Beach and was looking, and listening, and keeping sufficiently off shore to avoid p1ssing off the locals (and wearing life jackets), squawking 1200 mode C, doing everything right, right?

In the space of about 0.5 sec a tiny little stationary dot became a head on PA28. I pushed nose down, he pulled up and rolled and we missed relatively comfortably ... but for a split second it looked grim. Laughed later when I realised that the poor bugger, just as scared as I was, had hit his PTT and uttered "F$%K!" for all the world to hear!

Haven't done a weekend V1 since, and also distrust anyone espousing "look out the window" as the sole means of managing separation. Frankly, I think mandatory mode C and clearances for popular trips like Victor 1s are the go.

[Super Cecil]

I once got a papercut from all the Casa bullsh!t you have to wade through. :8

Like this-Do that, it's not often you get a couple of Cherokee's with a closing speed of 800 Knots. You might want to have a look out the window a bit more often, Victor 1 does get busy at times. Maybe it's time to give up flying if it's too dangerous? :8

[Like This - Do That]

Super Cecil, OK OK OK 0.5 sec from tiny dot to window full of Cherokee is a bit of artistic licence, I'll concede your point. But it doesn't take 800 kts closure to make an aircraft on a reciprocal heading get big very quickly.

The PSA B727 - C172 mid air in San Diego 20 odd years ago is ample demonstration of that.

The thing is I WAS looking out the window .... I have 6/6 vision, I wasn't looking into the sun, I had clean windows, it was a nice clear day, very little turbulence, and I wasn't distracted.

Cheers

[DeltaSix]

1% Terror


Flying the PA31 coming back to YSBK one Friday night coming from the North.
I have passed Willy town when the strike finder in the aircraft registered massive lightning strikes some distance ahead like over Richmond.
Around 90 seconds later I found myself in the middle of blue continuous flashes - left, right, centre and wind shear enough to hit my head on the roof and turbulence enough for me to be unable to change frequency for a straight 30 seconds. One more lightning flash and it became so dark inside because of electrical stoppage that the 10 seconds of darkness was enough to make me pray and wish I was on the ground. Lights came back on and Sydney radar advised me to take the Avalon route instead of RIC due to severe electrical activity. Too Late I reckon but I took his vectors anyway but still can see lightning in front and cannot divert heading by more than 10 degrees as I will be in conflict with traffic.

There was nothing I could've done differently except maybe take a spare radio and a handheld GPS next time in case the lights stays off.


D6

[steve181]

landed solo at a grass strip, few moths later returned to the same strip with mother and sister. Well into the take-off roll I realised the grass was longer than previous time, I was too far into the roll to abort, the end fence got closer and closer, a hot flush came over me because it was one of those "ohh fu*k" moments. I lifted off allright, but it was way to close for my liking.

Next time if i've got a shadow of a doubt i'll do a P chart, It's amazing how quickly runway runs out when you need it most!

[karrank]

In the cabin of a E110 with Mr. Box and Mrs. Parcel, with a headset (RX only) on a long lead from the flight deck. On descent into MB at night I heard "entering cloud, strobes off" but didn't hear anything when we left the cloud.

Got traffic on an opposite direction lightie the crew never saw, but I saw zip under the wing farking close a minute after they stopped looking.

bit dull I know, but I usually work behind a desk...:cool:

[Chimbu chuckles]

Been in a zoom climb in cloud with trees flicking past the wheels in a twin otter....does that count?

[18-Wheeler]

Several of my more exciting ones.
http://www.billzilla.org/flying1.html
http://www.billzilla.org/flying2.html
http://www.billzilla.org/flying3.html
http://www.billzilla.org/flying4.html

[QSK?]

Bloody hell 18-Wheeler, why don't you change that stationary background you use for your stories. I can't read it because it just about makes me epileptic!

[18-Wheeler]

Tough it out son. :)

[Continental-520]

Hats off and 10 points to you, Squire.
Those were amazing, and you ought to be congratulated.

Wish I had such tales to tell. Particularly relished the last story, involving the PA-60. What a rush that must've been. Experiences like that sort out the sheep from the goats. Or rather, the goats from the sheep.

Good job.

520.

[Chimbu chuckles]

The Aerostar is certainly an interesting aircraft to fly...I think the PA60-700Ps I used to fly gave me 90% of my airborne frights and I have less hours in them (a few 100) than any of the other 5 or 6 piston twins I have flown with the exception of the PN68.

The nosewheel steering is indeed 'interesting' although both P2-ASI and VH-PHC had a mod with a second rocker switch on the outboard coming which fell easily to left hand thumb with elbow resting on lower clamshell door...the upper being open for taxi...don't wave your left arm around though or you could lose it to the left prop.

The Deathstar is completely electrical...and I do mean completely...kinda interesting when I lost an alternator on descent in IMC, below LSA over water inbound to an island in eastern PNG, and everything with the exception of the standby magnetic compass and the skid ball in the turn and bank froze in its current position (edit-no radios,radar,GPS etc either)...and nothing on the annunciator panel (blacked out) plus no popped CBs. My first inkling something was wrong was when the engine noise increased...the door seal had deflated (electrical vac pump driven) and the aeroplane was depressurising...when I looked back at the instrument panel everything was frozen in place...the few 'stby' instruments on the right hand panel had red 'vacuum' flags showing...not giving reliable info either.

Now skid ball, IAS,VSI and bubble compass is real limited panel :uhoh:

Once I got the aircraft back above cloud and turned south towards Gurney, the only airfield with VMC conditions for MILES, I started to trouble shoot...nothing made sense so in pure frustration I cycled the master and both alternator switches off then on...bingo everything starts working and the annunciator shows a red 'RH ALT'.

The electrical demand is so high in Aerostars that if you lose an alternator an auto load shed should turf the aircon (elect compressor)...it didn't and the system just **** itself.

Then there was the maintenance test flight where a wildly fluctuating fuel flow with attendant power fluctuations led to an early return....there was about two cupfulls of raw fuel still lieing in the engine cowl after I shut down:uhoh: :{ Why didn't the twin turbos 6 inches away set it on fire? The only reason I can come up with is that SO MUCH fuel was pissing out into the cowl that the mixture in the cowl was too rich to burn.

Or the time departing Port Moresby with a full load for Rabaul and at about 100' the left hand fire warning light and bell came on and the power reduced to a fraction of full. Now the Deathstar has fire warning but no fire suppresant...those tightly cowled engines leave no room...bottom line? if you are really on fire you are just scared for longer before the wing burns off...2-4 minutes later!!

Eyes riveted to the left cowl while climbing away on 1.2 engines...no blistering paint or other signs of fire...race around the circuit at about 500' and land again...the fire warning stopped on downwind... I had shut it down at about 300' + increased airflow through cowling I suppose.

Was I on fire?

No...one exhaust manifold came off exposing the fire sensor to raw exhaust and causing the attendant power reduction.:ok:

But when everything worked what a spectacular little aeroplane...6 bums and 265Kts TAS at FL250 in an aeroplane with 2 inches more wingspan than a Piper Tomahawk trainer.

Less than 2000kg MTOW but all the vital speeds, red line, blue line etc within 2 kts of a Banderante- 21 seat, 5700 kg MTOW twin turboprop.

[18-Wheeler]

*nods to Chuck*

Fellow survivor of the Deathstar.
You know Sandy is off to SingCargo now?

[Chimbu chuckles]

No I didn't...bloody good on him. Bunch of our guys have gone there too with a bunch more being interviewed...seems a good package.

[captain_cranky]

In my career, I have been tested four times and defied the grim reaper.

Oh Mainframe!

Where are you?

[7gcbc]

Great posts on the "deathstar" Chimbu and 18-Wheeler :uhoh:

Piper/star squeeze amazing performance from that ship, with interesting design/handling history ( I did a google )

QSK's right about the background tho', I had to copy the lot and paste into notepad/word to stop the fits.

[30/30 Green Light]

Chuck,was P2-ASI RT's Aerostar ? Cheers 30/30

[Chimbu chuckles]

Yup...flew for RT for a little while after Talair closed it's doors and before going to Rabaul to fly for Airlink.

[Frickman]

Whilst flying along in IMC, had a fuel pressure gauge rupture on me spraying several litres of raw avgas all over me and the cockpit. Covered in Avgas I had to turn around and fly half an hour back home blinded and with my balls on fire.

[Continental-520]

OUCH!!!!

That's gotta ruin your day. :ouch:

520.

[Ultralights]

Lucky it was only RAW avgas!

[Continental-520]

Yeah, that was lucky. Doubt the balls would've been altogether raw after being on fire for half an hour all the way home!

520.