Distraction in flight

[mary meagher]

Yesterday, invited a friend to climb in the back seat of my Supercub for a jolly. It was a hot windless day in mid September, so as a treat I decided to make the flight with the side door open; this is OK in a Supercub, and you get an unsurpassed view of the landscape when making steep right turns.

Change of plan after climbing to 500 feet and realising how very poor was the visibility, so just flew along our ridge to the corner and back, turned over the local windmill, and increased power to climb high enough to see the airfield...
Evidently the brown legal size paper envelope containing the Flight Manual chose that moment to blow apart. A blizzard of white pages rose up from the rear and tried to escape out the open door. My passenger, with splendid sang froid, managed to gather all except two of the 120 pages.... we found one later folded around one of the wires on the horizontal stabiliser...the other alas must have found its way to the windmill.

I concentrated on flying. Of course, it was pretty funny.

A more serious distraction a few years back took place in a gliding championship in the Alps; the pilot concerned called on the radio to report a snake in the glider.

What interesting distractions have you experienced, I wonder? And how did you cope?

[S-Works]

Just had a partial engine failure on take off on in a Dornier today if that counts? RH engine spooled up as normal, LH engine stopped at 25% torque. Not enough runway left to retard and beta so had to take the problem into the air. Made for an interesting moment!!

[poss]

A rather beautiful female in the right hand seat wearing a low cut top :E

[IFMU]

A good one is if you have part of the seatbelt out the door. On takeoff it starts beating the side of the airplane silly and sounds a lot worse than it is. First time my buddy had done it, he figured it out and pulled it in. Second time it was my fault, taking my kid for a ride and got the same thing. Fortunately I figured out what it was and just gave a good tug on the loose end.

-- IFMU

[Bla Bla Bla]

I once did repeated trips with very hot models on board all SEP so very distracting. In the same year I also flew a young lady who was wearing a very tight white mini dress, extremely low cut and very very short she sat in the middle row of the 206 and put one of her feet up on the seat. I hat to keep checking the weather/traffic in my six o/c through out the hour long flight, fantastic.
:ok:

[Captain Stable]

bose-x, interested in your incident.

One or two questions...
At what point did you notice the #1 engine wasn't up to full power?
Which Dornier is this? What engines?
Is normal procedure on your aircraft not to advance power levers to a mid-position, pause to allow to stabilise and then advance fully?
Is this single or two-crew?
Any autofeather facility on the aircraft?
Any hint from a hangar as to the reason for the lack of spool-up?

[S-Works]

One or two questions...
At what point did you notice the #1 engine wasn't up to full power?
Which Dornier is this? What engines?
DO28 with G-92 D2 Engines. I noticed as soon as the RH spooled up normally and the swing started, about 3 seconds I guess. By which time I was tail up and ready to fly.
Is normal procedure on your aircraft not to advance power levers to a mid-position, pause to allow to stabilise and then advance fully?
No, mid position, spools the engines up to around 25% torque then as we accelerate the engines continue to spool up and at take off we are about 50% torque and then advance the torque as we climb to 68%. We never advance fully on the ground as it will exceed both torque and ITT limits, not to mention the controllability issues of putting that much torque out. It is quite normal to get a 'split' as we spool these engines and so we get used to leading with the slower engine. Unfortunately no two in the fleet 'split' the same way. It is not helped by the fact that it is very hot out here.
Is this single or two-crew?
Single Crew
Any autofeather facility on the aircraft?
Yes. Auto-feather would not kick in at the torque output.
Any hint from a hangar as to the reason for the lack of spool-up?
Fault with the fuel controller unit by the look of it.

[Katamarino]

As it happens, I was just reading the test standards for the FAA IR. It mentions that during the test, the examiner will cause a 'distraction' to assess your ability to concentrate on flying, and multi-task. I'm very curious as to what kind of things they might get up to - anyone have any examples?

There was also a case in the US some time ago about a snake that crawled out of a guy's instrument panel. A classic story; the pilot grabbed the snake and flew to destination with "one hand full of snake, and the other full of airplane". Upon landing "The pilot posed for photos with the snake before releasing it". Now that's one cool character!

[Captain Stable]

Thanks for that, bose. Those engines sound weird. Don't have any personal experience of them myself. From what you say, it sounds as if you also had a short TORA as well.... ;)

[BackPacker]

Passenger whose stomach decided it had enough and emptied itself... on short final.

[wsmempson]

My 1st a/c (a 13,000hr pa28 140) caused me one or two interesting moments.

Once, on climb-out from Caen, the door sprang open and my passport, flightplan, plog and chart were sucked straight out of the aircraft into the English channel. Since then, I have become neurotic about checking that the door is positively latched.

The second incident was a regular, loud, drumming sound that developed halfway down the VFR recommended route between SAM and MP, and persisted until touchdown at Cherbourg. Upon exiting the aircraft, after the longest 20 minutes of my life, I discovered that the noise had been caused by a narrow ribbon of mastic - that had been used some years previously to seal one of the side windows - which had come loose, and was slapping on the side of the fuselage. A happily prosaic cause, to a sweaty moment.

The 3rd incident was not the fault of the aircraft at all, as what I had initially thought of as an in-flight radio failure (the display of my KX155 suddenly went blank) proved to have been caused by my donning a pair of smart looking polarising sunglasses....
;)

[Gainesy]

the examiner will cause a 'distraction' to assess your ability to concentrate on flying, and multi-task.

I've got this vision of the guy suddenly whipping out a trumpet...:)

[Katamarino]

I'd rather he 'whip out' that than anything else :}

[KeesM]

Just after getting my license "Intercom off" was one of my downwind checks for a while. Just to prevent distractions.:E

[Mark1234]

Seem to have had a few(!)

As a neophyte glider pilot, nobody really discussed the practicalities of long cross country flights, other than to explain that plastic bags were the answer.... (trying not to be graphic here!) Suffice to say my first attempt was conducted at a goodly height. Just as well - mid stream I realised it was all getting quiet - nose high, asi dropping, heaps of yaw; not a good moment for an impromptu spin.. (yes, I avoided one)

As a ppl student taking of for my first ever navex, the door on the 150 popped open as the nosewheel left the ground. Handled calmly, told the instructor I would be ignoring the door until a safe height. Unfortunately the entire plan/plog/chart etc. had been between my left knee and the door.

On another occasion a passenger started screaming at the point the aircraft left the ground - and continued to about 500ft! She did calm down and thoroughly enjoyed the flight, but I've paid a bit more attention to where the intercom off switch is since then :)

[mad_jock]

3 recently finished thier exams female Law students on a road trip taking a trial flight in a C172

Tain range @3000ft doing bunts with the 2 girls in the back with thier tops hauled up with the one in the front taking photos of thier boobs/hair floating.

Does this count?

[BabyBear]

Tain range @3000ft doing bunts with the 2 girls in the back with thier tops hauled up with the one in the front taking photos of thier boobs/hair floating.

Does this count?

Difficult to say if it counts, need to see the photographs for conclusive answer!

[mary meagher]

I think it was quite nasty of your examiner to set up all those unnecessary hurdles for you to jump over! None of them were real, and all could be sensibly disabled, with a few choice phrases I have found invaluable when talking to controllers: to wit,

Stand by! (that shuts them up for a while)

Say again slowly!

Unable! (to enter cloud, for example, or if in a glider, when asked to maintain your altitude!)

Could you vector me to Alfred Whittle, please! (after having been sent hither and yon by Tampa, and becoming seriously unsure of my location)

[Gertrude the Wombat]

A good one is if you have part of the seatbelt out the door. On takeoff it starts beating the side of the airplane silly and sounds a lot worse than it is.
Yup, had that in a 152.

To be fair, this is documented in the Cessna training manual somewhere.

[IFMU]

I have had a couple good instructor generated distractions along the way. I was getting a checkout in a Taylorcraft BC12D in Indiantown, FL. I was doing some nice landings. On short final, instructor pulls out a sectional, unfolds it, reaches across the cockpit for something, a bunch of crazy stuff and I blew the landing. Then I recovered. Distraction stopped, he says "That's what I wanted to see, a recovery." Signed me off good to go. He was an Englishman, I always wondered if that was standard fare on the other side of the pond. Bit of an oddball, very good pilot.

Back when I was towing, but had not earned my private pilot glider license yet, I was doing my pre-season checkout with Rudi Opitz. Most club instructors treated me like I already knew what I was doing, since they knew me as a tow pilot, even though I knew this wasn't the case. Not Rudi. We get off tow, he has me doing a bunch of stall series. Seems reasonable for a spring checkout activity. After the third or fourth he asks me where the field is. I turn toward it, knowing right were it was. Uh-oh. We look a bit low. As we flew back and did a nonstandard pattern due to altitude, he explained the importance of always knowing where you were with respect to the field and glide distance, even if an instructor was asking you to do things like stalls. That lesson hit home for me.

-- IFMU

[shortstripper]

As I pulled out of a loop in a Robin 2112 with a friend, there was a loud BANG! Frightened the bejesus out of me! We flew home very sedately wondering what might have broken. When I walked around after the flight I touched the rudder strake which "popped" back (the metal had panted) The bang may not have been more than a pop in reality, but it sure sounded like a BANG at the time! :eek:

SS

[charliegolf]

the pilot concerned called on the radio to report a snake in the glider.


Then:

Break out hand held mongoose;
Point mongoose at base of snake;
Discharge mongoose at snake.
Repeat radio call for loose mongoose in cabin!

CG

[Katamarino]

Break out hand held mongoose;
Point mongoose at base of snake;
Discharge mongoose at snake.
Repeat radio call for loose mongoose in cabin!

:D :ok:

Every cockpit should have one.

[Heliplane]

Desperately desperately needing the lavatory, fortunately in excellent VMC.

[Captain Stable]

Desperately desperately needing the lavatoryBeen there, done that...

Picture the scene - RUC surveillance aircraft, on station watching bad guys for 5 hours. Fortunately aircraft is fitted with a relief tube. With, of course, RUC officers on board, Unionists to a man, the rule is that the relief tube is only to be used when over Nationalist areas... :\

[david viewing]

A good one is if you have part of the seatbelt out the door. On takeoff it starts beating the side of the airplane silly and sounds a lot worse than it is.

Funny you should mention that. Years ago, when the plane was on rental, a renter wrote in the tech log in Big Capitals "LOUD BANGING NOISE IN FLIGHT". Unfortunately we were not quite cute enough to make him pay for a full respray, though he did pay to have the dinks made by the seatbelt clasp in the outside skin repaired. We still have to put up with the slightly different shade of paint behind the door!

[dont overfil]

Returning to Kirknewton from Cambeltown as a passenger in a DA20 there was a loud bang. I thought we had a bird strike as there was blood on the side of the canopy and I had also felt a thump. The radio stopped working also so I supposed the bird had taken the aerial off.
Then I realised the blood was mine! One of the canopy support springs had broken and taken a lump out of my elbow. I must have a slow reaction time as it took a few minutes to start to hurt The intermittant radio was just one of a catalogue of faults the aircraft had.
DO.

[mary meagher]

Queasy passengers are always a problem in gliders! We are ready for them with 3 tried and tested remedies:

1) Sick bag on board where you can throw it to them before they throw up -
when they go quiet up front (tandem seating, instructor in back) ask if they would like to go down now.....if the answer is yes, immediate descent. Usually don't need the sick bag if you are quick enough.

2) If you forgot to make sure there was a sick bag handy, a really considerate instructor will offer his hat -

3) And of course, that good old remedy, tell the pax that he/she will feel much better if he pulls his T-shirt up over his nose and breathes that way until the feeling (or something else) passes - - - -

[Deeday]

One of the canopy support springs had broken and taken a lump out of my elbow.

That's quite scary! I regularly fly on a DA20 and the possibility of such a failure never crossed my mind. Do you know if there have been many other such instances, or were you just unlucky?

[mad_jock]

And then there is

http://www.garden-spiders.com/spider-fotos/garden-spiders-home-graphic.gif

learned very early on to have a quick sweep first thing in the morning before the first flight.

[IFMU]

On a recent IFR lesson the tower radio had some sort of failure. When nobody was talking, there was a loud alarm sounding on the frequency. When I talked on the radio, or the tower answered, it went away. This happened while shooting an ILS. Communication with the instructor was impossible. I was glad when we went missed and were handed to departure, the noise stopped. Took them about 10 minutes to sort out whatever it was.

-- IFMU

[Pace]

Mad Jock

What are you doing with a picture of my ex wife ? :eek:

Pace

[hatzflyer]

Apart from the usual straps etc......

10 mins into flight with heater on, cockpit suddenly fills up with hornets.

Flying over large built up area in a 150 at 80 degree bank, door pops and foot pump dissapears from behind the seat, just managed to grab the hose part as the main body went out of the door .

Flying 3 axis microlight, instructor unstrapped,put his back against the door and both feet on the stick jamming it in the corner " to see if I panicked".

Passenger in weightshift microlight froze pulling the bar right back and over as he was a 3 axis pilot, holding us in a spiral descent. I had to loosen my strap and lunge backwards with my head ( helmet) into his face to make him let go.

But the all time greatest was my mate who secured two smoke cannisters to the axle of his microlight with masking tape and then taxied through the long wet grass. He had two bits of string tied to the cannister pins to fire them. 15 mins after take off, flying over his house he pulled the string, the cannister came off the axle and dangled on the end of the string. Before he could wind it in ,the pin came out and the cannister burst into life as it sped downwards, straight through his neighbours roof and into the loft, where it made a good firestarter!
The house was severly damaged. ( this was in the local papers at the time).

[dont overfil]

Hi Deeday,
I don't know if the canopy spring is a known fault but my 6 hours experience with that Diamond DA20 demonstrator left me with no wish to fly one again.
DO.

[Pace]

My most unusual, freaky, one in a million event was flying a Seneca V up to Inverness in winter.

There was a cold front lying west to East above Glasgow forcing me to eyeball the front and CBs and to head East for a gap in the line where I could get through and into Inverness.

I was in icing at FL100 and climbed as I wanted to get out of the icing and to be able to eyeball the front ahead.

At FL130 the aircraft struggled back on top but had picked up a fair amount of ice in the process.

There was an out of balance shudder. I later found out that the prop deice had failed on the left engine with all three electric cables having sheared.

All of a sudden a large piece of ice flew from the left prop across the nose and hit the right prop bending the tip.

With 160 kts airflow over the aircraft the chances of that must have been one in a million and the ice block must have projected forward at one heck of an angle.

That wasnt the end. The Seneca has reciprical engines which allowed this to happen in the first place.
Having hit and bent the prop the prop threw the ice block into the side of the fusealage/nose and punctured a hole before projecting from there into the screen with one heck of a bang.

On that impact it fractured into a snow storm of a million pieces thankfully not breaking the screen.

The complete incident was a fluke and the aircraft still bares the scar from the repair on the fusealage nose.

Unbelievable but true

Pace

[Final 3 Greens]

Taking off from a 700m grass runway, am just easing back on the yoke at 55 knots, when there is a sharp crack and a strong smell of burning.

Quick decision to reject and we slithered to a stop.

A fuse had blown, total non event, but it didn't feel like it when I decided to reject.

This is the only time I have had to make a split second decision in an aeroplane. I've had other things go wrong, but always had thinking time to work it out.

[Julian]

As it happens, I was just reading the test standards for the FAA IR. It mentions that during the test, the examiner will cause a 'distraction' to assess your ability to concentrate on flying, and multi-task. I'm very curious as to what kind of things they might get up to - anyone have any examples?

Mine did this, several times! Starting asking my thoughts on the War in Iraq, Women,etc. Ended up telling him I was busy at the mo, which turned out to be the response he was looking for!

[iburnthings]

Biggest annoying distraction I've had in-flight... My mother!

[mad_jock]

Pace I think that situation describes perfectly a situation where the use of the C word is allowed

[bjornhall]

Pace I think that situation describes perfectly a situation where the use of the C word is allowed

Oh Crap! ? :)

[shortstripper]

I found an Auster door in a wood once ... bet that distracted who ever was flying it when it fell off! :p

SS

[ChampChump]

Trying to land while a rather shaggy English sheepdog was licking the back of my neck.

[IFMU]

Here is my reverse distraction story: I was a student pilot flying an enstrom. We were doing touchdown autos. At the end I kept drifting left of the centerline and could not put it down on the spot regardless of how much I was pressed to do so. On one entry the instructor changed tactics. He says "Hey, tell me about the girl with the (some ananomical detail) that you (censored) back in college." My list of such experiences were painfully short but I played along anyway and said "which one?" So we continue to violate the sterile cockpit rule, bantering back and forth, and I nailed the auto. It was perfect and the centerline was split exactly between the skids. Proof that there is at least some zen-like quality to flying. Reach too hard for something and it eludes your grasp.

-- IFMU

[Mark1234]

The auster door reminded me of this: Watching someone practicing low level aeros (decathlon); he enters a fairly low level bunt/outside loop - then hesitates an inverted 45deg down angle before bailing out positive. Everyone holds their breath, he misses the floor, makes a quick comment about the door over the radio.

Comes in quite gently, when he shuts down it takes a couple of people to pull the door out of the cabin where it's bashed his head into the opposite side door, complete with blood splatter and blocked the stick from going forward properly - the front top hinge failed, best as we could figure it had gone out to the strut, then smashed back in through the hole with some force. I'm still amazed he kept it together.

[S-Works]

I found an Auster door in a wood once ... bet that distracted who ever was flying it when it fell off!

SS

Do you still have it? I lost the window from Auster recently. Not before it bounced along the wing making holes in the fabric an vanishing never to be seen. If anyone ask's the holes are from an afghan rocket launcher...... :p:p:p

[CISTRS]

Aerotow launch from Ringmer. On becoming airborne, realise that the ASI is not working. Stay with the launch to 2,000 ft. On clearing the tug, carry out gentle check stall to calibrate my ears with the slipstream noise. Carried out the rest of the flight using Mk. 1 lugholes as ASI.

On landing back at Ringmer, verified that the reason was due to disconnected pitot plastic plumbing. Never told anyone about this before - put it down to experience, but always included a more thorough check in my pre-flight inspections and on rigging the beast.

[Ian.Ellis]

When my No 1 daughter was sick I found it perfectly simple to put her out of my mind and fly & land normally. However, when No 2 grandson was sick I was completely distracted and, when Tower told me to land on 18 instead of 21 lined up on 36. Fortunately the controller spotted the error. Something about a greater sense of responsibility for a child than an adult perhaps.

[Captain-Random]

QXC has a door come open while attempting to join downwind for runway 09 at East Midlands

Forgot the most basic of rules "fly the plane" and attempted to close it and flew straight over the 27 numbers.

Lucky nothing was taking off and i got a good bollocking from atc when i landed and they refused to sign the form so i had to do it again the following week

[dany4kin]

On my second ever set of solo circuits out of Biggin I narrowly (very narrowly) missed 2 partridges straddling the 21 centerline on my first takeoff of the day.

Managed to clear them after making the split second decision to continue rather than stop. Came off runway heading a bit but kept a beady eye on the ASI. Couldn't relax for the rest of the session though.

I'd already had to wait for them to move off the taxiway as I was heading for the hold.

The fact it didn't register in my mind that these two daft ground dwelling birds were heading for the runway I was about to use still bugs me to this day...