Confession time - Who has had a prang?!

[Grob Queen]

Hello Everyone,

Been thinking that, since my prang after 29 hours, there must be others out there who have had the misfortune to prang an aircraft; and wondered if anyone wanted to admit it.....:ouch:??

Ok, as a starter, heres mine. I had just completed my second solo trip of three circuits, all good and my full stop was a good 'un too. Until...my landing roll (if that is the correct terminology) was maybe a little fast. The aircraft started to yaw to the right and my brain went completely blank, I could not remember which rudder I needed. Logic told me that it was the right rudder, so I put on full right boot...errr, wrong!! Ended up curving round and off the runway onto the grass, narrowly avoiding hitting the runway lights, buckled the nosewheel and bent the oleo. the aircraft had to be towed back to the hangar by our Engineer member who was dragged in on his Good Friday off :O:O:O. The incident was also mentioned in teh Stn Execs meeting the next Tuesday...

But as I said to my fellow Club members, well, if you're going to make a reputation for yourself, you may as well do it spectacularly!

Anyone else want to admit an embarrassing incident, prang or other???

[UV]

Anyone else want to admit an embarrassing incident, prang or other???

Probably not, but they are always prepared to speculate on someone else's misfortune... within minutes!

[Unusual Attitude]

Level of experience doesnt really matter, it can happen to any of us if we're not paying attention, never actually bent one but had 2 near runway excursions myself this year:-

1. Tailwheel steering linkage (single metal rod) snapped on landing, very small rudder blanked by being in the 3 point attitude offered little in the way of directional control and only some rapid jabs of toe brake stopped me going off the edge of the runway at great speed...not pretty and a very close call.

2. Not flown the type in several weeks, been flying a much heavier / less responsive type that day and jumped in and headed off. Being a bit too keen, got the tail up a bit early, with a much more 'punchy' forward input than usual (brain not reset after flying less responsive type) with a strong crosswind from the left. End result, BIG swing which the rudder failed to control and again only just saved by a couple of jabs of toe brake. All mistakes I should know far better than to make but still did...

There was not much I could do about number 1 as it was a fatigue failure, a new redesigned rod has been fitted. As for number 2, it was the build-up of a few small errors which combined to cause a bigger problem.

I actually watched the pilot of a hot taildragger almost prang just last week. He came in as number 2 of a formation on a hot day on a 600m strip, floated quite far, bounced a few times and only just stopped before running off the end, from what I could see his tail was up as he stopped so must have thrown out the anchors to stop!
His number 1 landed pretty long and had to backtrack only just clearing as he was on very short finals so I would think this was somewhat distracting. He was probably about to go around but decided to land at a fairly late stage and found himself with a bit much speed....

"There but by the grace of god...." and all that....

[ak7274]

Not me, but i knew a feller once who................................;)

[StavDav]

I don't mind admitting, ripped a wing off a nice shiny Grob 109 glider, had to land with a massive tailwind component due to a loss of height after an airprox during a winch launch, came in with way to much speed, induced a ground-loop to avoid a rather solid building, and the wing came off. Not my proudest moment. I was new to gliding then, and many years on, I'm glad to say my only incident. (I'm hopng saying my only incident doesn't jinx me, as I'm about five hours away from completing my PPL :sad:)

[Lyman]

Never taxi from the transient ramp to the FBO in a C-182 with the tow bar still attached.

Try not to land on the Nosewheel.........

Captain Bill

[abgd]

Do hang gliders count?

[Lyman]

Too much wind, launched anyway, and flipped over the back, landed on the post, and hurt my Manta. Me, cuts and bruises.

[IrishJason]

Came in way to fast and low and created a few sparks while in a strong crosswind a few months ago. I didn't hear or see anything but the tower wear straight on the radio :suspect:

[Pace]

Ok mine was 25 years ago when I had just got my PPL.
I had come to flying from car racing so was a lunatic ( still am )
I had little money and all the club 150s were being used on a busy day.
I took a male friend for a flight in the only available club aircraft a PA28!
only being able to afford 30 to 40 mins I climbed the aircraft to 10 k into freezing air and decided to make a quick descent for hopefully a straight in.
Calling finals but still descending with a closed throttle much to fast I decided to fly down the runway, pull up and break into a downwind for landing.
In the process flying along the runway a bit nearer the admiring crowd around the control tower to impress the onlookers with my skills :E
Pulling up the aircraft started shaking badly and I could hardly get any power.
I was now heading away from the airfield and loosing height from my miserly 200feet.
I selected a field and made a perfect approach to a perfect touchdown point.
As I flared my passenger panicked threw open the door and tried to jump out.
The plane touched and thinking he would break his kneck I left the controls holding onto his jumper,
He and I were halfway out on the wing me gripping on hard.
The aircraft was merrily bouncing down the field with no one at the controls.
I could not hang on and he slipped from my grasp into the field.
I climbed back in back on the controls and tried to stop the aircraft but now too late! The aircraft demolished a hedge holding a tree stump.
That sliced through the wing.
He was fine I was fine the aircraft badly damaged.
Had I ignored him it would have been a perfect field landing.
But hey Ho my fault and lack of experience trying to show off.
It all hit the local press and I ended up with a red face, the club with no 4 Seater for some time.
But that was more than 25 years ago a new PPL still with a racing bug and not the experience to do what I was trying to do.
Since then and thousands of hours not a scratch.
Beat that :E or rather maybe not?

Pace

[Lyman]

That isn't a prang, that's Grand Theft.

[B2N2]

Cartwheeled a glider during an off-airport landing in '95
One day competition and just rounded the furthest check point about 100 miles from home.
Got too agressive, got too low and picked the largest field I could find and intended to land diagonally for the longest landing distance.
Never saw a 10 feet deep ditch that ran halfway, but that's ok I didn't hit that one.
The field had an upslope(or downslope) and the left wing clipped the three foot high grass on the low side.
Flying cartwheel was the result.
No damage done was the conclusion after a very thorough inspection by club tech's.
As I walked uphill to the farmer's house I nearly tripped and fell into the 10 foot ditch.
That would have surely killed me, it wasn't visible form the road and I would have croaked there in a couple of days.
I'm passed 10K hrs now.......knock on wood fingers crossed....

[maxred]

Landing the Chippy at a rather short grass field. Checked the wind sock, looked like it was blowing straight across, no probs thought I. Came in very close to the trees on short final, over the road, right bleed the power, down she goes..... I always remember thinking that the two ladies watching me from the golf club hedge, that ran along the perimiter at the end of the runway, were beginning to look large, and then I thought, christ the wheels have not touched down yet, checked back at the sock, which was now blowing beautifully downwind. I floated and floated, then contact, only problem now was I was 80% down the runway, and braking very hard.

The two women were now running away, in the opposite direction.

I slewed sideways to a stop, inches from the hedge/wall, thinking what a total plonker. Learnt from that, again...:\

[Genghis the Engineer]

Yes.

June 2001, PA28, shortish runway, variable wind, approach obstructions I didn't know about. Failed to show good airmanship and divert + relied on checkout approach speeds rather than POH (which I had not been given access to at that time), landed long with a bit of a tailwind, removed undercarriage, one wing, propeller, nosewheel.

Rather expensive, AAIB were more generous to me than I deserved, co-owners in syndicate were not, learned a great deal, have not repeated the experience, did substantially modify my attitude towards flying.

G

[mary meagher]

Pace and Genghis, you grizzled old Ppruners, how boldly you confess your early misadventures!

I can quite cheerfully tell all, now that I have handed in the Medical, and fly only with an instructor - quite a lot of fun, terrifying instructors, but that's another thread another day.

Very very lucky, in 3,000 hours, only 3 mishaps. In power. None in gliders (ground loops in field landings don't count).

Number 1, in a Minerva, farm strip, tall trees at one end, wires at the other. 5 knots of breeze. Getting checked out by a co-owner. I flew a circuit. That was fine, he said, try one the other direction. This had a slight draft up the derrier; I miscalculated, and decided to go around. The Franklin Engine resented my urgent call for action. It gave a huff and quit cold. We landed in what remained of the turf, which was ten feet too short. Nosed over in a field of turnips. People appeared out of the bushes to help; they always do in your most embarassing moments. After the turnips had been washed out of the farings, we could find no damage, nor could the engineer.

Number 2, at Booker Gliding Club, High Wycombe, hoping to be a tug pilot. The 180 horsepower Supercub needs careful handling, noses over at the slightest excuse. I had been told to fly solo round the countryside for practice.
No poblem. So the tugmaster deigned to strap in the back and check me out.
Lets see a landing, he says. So I landed. Lets see a half flap landing, he says.
So I did a half flap landing. Now lets see a landing with no flap, he says. So I approached terra firma, and as the Cub touched gently down, there was a "CRACK!" and just like a glider, at the end of the landing roll, the Cub put a wing down. One leg of the undercarriage broken. "That wasn't your fault, Mary" the tugmaster said immediately.
Nor was it. When the remains were examined, the entire airframe proved to be riddled with rust, I had simply been the lucky one at the helm - lucky because the tugmaster had been there, that's for sure......
Club manager said later "Why couldn't you have crashed it properly, Mary, so we could have collected the insurance?"

3. Now this was an international incident. Kerry International Airport, Fermoyle, Ireland. Flew over with another tug pilot, taking turns, in my own dearest G-OFER. We had stopped off at Hus Bos, Sutton Bank, Carlyle, and points of interest around the coast of Ireland, north and south.
Noticing rather a lot of turbulence, behind the Slieve Mish Mountain, (camera and lapboard became airbourne in the cabin) I called Kerry several times, enquiring about the wind strength and direction. Ah to be sure to be sure, its only ten knots from the North. Which was dead cross for our approach on 090, but that should be OK for a PAl8. "And Supercub Echo Romeo, you are number one for the approach, and Aer Lingus 727 from Dublin, you are number two behind the Supercub."

Well, that sort of puts you on your mettle, doesn't it? We skedaddlded down the glideslope, touched down, rolled out to walking pace - and got slammed by a 25 knot gust from the side. GOFER decided she wanted to depart the tarmac and rolled onto the greensward; only it wasn't a lawn, it was a swamp.
Shades of Alcock and Brown! Aer Lingus went around. And around and around, while the Irish Fire Brigade, quivvering with excitement, were persuaded not to squirt us with foam, but helped us upright, pushed onto the apron, and inspected the runway. Eventually the Guarda turned up to make the report. Said the officer, "Anyone injured at all at all?" No. "Any damage?" No. (the mud had been quite soft - we measured the prop next day and flew it home the following week.) Well, said the officer, I don't need to make a report then!

[thing]

Never had a prang yet, touch wood. The most I've had is an airbrake lever coming off in my hand in a K18 when I was coming in to land. The brakes defaulted to almost closed but not over the geometric lock so I did a full sideslip to just off the deck to get her down.

Powered the worryingist was recently when flying back to base and I was faced with heavy localised showers. The field was right in between two big black clumps of rain so I went for the gap. Or the 'sucker's gap' as one of the club members called it when I mentioned it. As it turned out I was OK but I really should have just orbited where I was. Don't know why I didn't actually, I had plenty of juice. I think if I didn't have the field in sight I would have done, but being as I'd seen it it kind of draws you in. Lesson learned etc.

[funfly]

I'm with Mary Meagher in that I would only fly with an instructor these days.
As far as 'prangs' are concerned I am a virgin, but I have to admit to three times when, flying on my own, I thought that I would be unable to land safely and learned that horrible sweaty, tingly feeling when you know it's all going wrong but you have to keep your nerve and try to stay calm. (I was lucky each time and it all came right).
Of course I assume that this has never happened to anyone else.

[abgd]

A few years back, first solo hang-gliding flight on a Skyhook Gypsy, I had done a few beats of the hill when the connector on my earpiece broke and I suddenly found myself in blissful silence. I was just beginning to enjoy myself when for no reason I could discern the glider turned 90 degrees directly towards the steep slope. I did full weight shift to the right, but nothing happened. I waited, but still nothing happened. I was flying at about 25mph with about a 20mph tailwind.

I could think of two things to do - either to turn to the left on the grounds that the glider obviously preferred this direction (but for which I knew I would be soundly berated) or to pull on more speed in the hope that the glider would become more responsive. I did the wrong thing and pulled on speed. All of a sudden the glider unstuck and I turned right, scraping the hillside.

Feeling very much alive and rather pleased with myself, I did another beat of the hill, then the wind dropped and it was time to land. As I got lower, my radio crackled back into life. My instructor, wrongly thinking I was high, told me to do some S-turns. As I was just a few metres above the ground, the wind suddenly stopped, my left wing stalled and hit the ground and a fraction of a second later I'd written off just about every piece of aluminium in the glider, bending the base bar across my chest. I think I was saved by a hefty parachute chest-mounted parachute, and cowpats.

My poor instructor paid for his shoddy soldering in that my radio had stopped working again, but I was so entangled in the wreckage that I couldn't get out. It took him about 5 minutes to get to the bottom of the hill and find out that I was essentially unhurt.

Aside from learning about wind-gradient, the most interesting thing about the episode was that my flying buddies had decided unanimously that I had become confused and turned left deliberately - one of the cardinal rules of slope-soaring is to turn away from the hill. Had I killed myself this is undoubtedly what my accident report would have said. In the end, we decided it was a thermal coming through under my right wing. And next time I'll try pulling speed and turning to the left.

A year or two later I landed on an unknown beach, or rather about 5-10 feet above one (in a good hang-gliding landing you aim to flare to a standstill like a bird landing on a twig). My stream of consciousness went something like
"Yes! Perfect landing!"
"Hmm... I was expecting to be standing on solid ground by now"
"Um, still falling"
"Falling faster"
"I thought that was a gravel beach. Maybe it's a pebble beach?"
"Or could it be boulders? What's all that about scale invariance and fractal landscapes?"
"Maybe I should pull the nose down and try flying again?"
"Ooph! Phew!"

Perhaps this shouldn't count as it was a heavy landing with no damage done. I have good eyesight, but my eyes were watery from the wind.

[Pace]

how boldly you confess your early misadventures!

Mary

I note you stressed the early bit :E dont know if I would be so forthcoming if the incident happened 6 months ago.
But 25 years ago? and the fact that it was a perfect landing into the field apart from my heroic attempts to save the cashmere jumper my friend wore?
Anyway they always say that any landing you walk away from is a good one
Even if no one is at the controls :)
Shame the club didnt agree with me!
A lot of water under the bridge since then wouldnt dream of doing the same nowadays!.


Pace

[patowalker]

At 1000' the inverted Rotax 447 in the Quicksilver goes silent. No prob, there is plenty of flat desert on the other side of the Panamerican Highway. Just remember to keep the nose down. Well, maybe not that far down, because you might not make it over the road. Flatten out a bit. That's more like it. Still too low, sh****t, you're not going to make it over the berm. Pull back just a tad. Oops! Too much, because you've cleared the berm, but stalled in and come to a sudden stop. Nosewheel is skewiff and some tubes have lost their original shape,so time to call for recovery. Instructor turns up with trailer, takes a good look around and decides it can be flown back to base, which he somehow does. Cost of spares less painful than damage to pride.

[Vino Collapso]

Nothing serious in three decades. Not flying currently due to financial constraints (household budget)

But two and half decades back I was taxying a Rallye Minerva across rough grass to park it at the end of the days flying following my mate who was leading the way on foot.

Yep, you guessed it, I found the pothole and the heavy old 220hp Franklin pitched me nose down into it. Lound zinging sound from the prop, my mate diving for cover and the rat tat tat of shot blasting the side of a nearby hangar with stones and clods of grass. :ugh:

[Katamarino]

No incidents so far in 620+ hours, thankfully. A few near misses...

1) Landing at Rotterdam in a C172 when a squall comes in from nowhere. Huge cross winds; first time in I'm flipped to about a 60 degree bank just above the runway, and elect to go around! Second attempt the wind has another go at knocking me over, but I hold on and roll out on nosewheel and one main...

2) Testing the brakes in a C172 prior to a night instrument training flight. The left brake works fine, the right one not so much. To our left, of course, is a long line of Cessnas and we're now heading straight at the last one in the row and unable to turn away or stop. Luckily there's a student preflighting it; he spots us coming and pushes the airplane backwards out of the way!

3) Same evening, in the flight school's other Cessna which we have taken instead. The engine swallows a valve, refuses to maintain altitude, and we have to carry out a landing at an unlit field in the middle of a swamp. I flew it down on instruments, using the GPS on full zoom to line up, and flaring when the altimeter told me to. We hit the centreline and rolled out just fine!

[foxmoth]

Level of experience doesnt really matter, it can happen to any of us if we're not paying attention

Disagree with this, with experience you know more when you need to pay attention!
Had 1 prang and that was in my early days, came over the hedge in a Pup150, rounded out too high and it had to be trailered home:uhoh:
Had another with the Pup where I got boxed in by the weather and ended up with a precautionary landing in a farmers field, picking up a stone with the prop flying it out - that was the metman getting it wrong though and I still look back on that as a correct decision and a prang avoided.

[Dop]

I had to give up the flying a while back due to lack of funds, but the most scary moment I had was the first time I flew solo to another airport.

I'd gone to Southend the week before with an instructor, so this time I'd been packed off to do it again on my own.

1. I was very bad at spotting airfields. So by the time I spotted Southend, i was a lot closer to it than I wanted to be.
2. The week before we'd entered the circuit on the downwind leg, and gone from there. this time they'd given me a straight in approach.

So when I DID spot the airfield, I was closer and higher than I wanted to be.
Whoops.

Good look round, carb heat on, throttle to idle, do a big S bend to get on track. Full flap, descend as quickly as I could keeping the speed in the white arc.
Once I'd got two reds, two whites, I was going way faster than I needed to be. A few weeks before my instructor had told me how to do a slip to make the little Grumman AA5A more draggy. So left hand down a bit, right foot on the rudder.

When I crossed the threshold, I was doing at least ten knots more than I wanted to be, perhaps a bit more.

BOUNCE!!!!

That rattled my teeth a bit. "Ow! [UNPRINTABLE]!", I said, and reached for the throttle lever. But the bounce had shaken me up so I came down for...

BOUNCE!!

That shook my hand off the throttle, so I had to push more to try and stop a third bounce. As I was doing that the wheels gently kissed the tarmac and I figured "OK, that's it, I'm down now and I'm staying down", pulled the throttle out and decided that was the landing.
On top of all that the cafe was shut and I couldn't get the cup of tea I really needed after all that.

In retrospect, I should have gone "Oh, I've stuffed it up" and declared a go-around before I got to the first bounce.
I was lucky that I managed to keep the nosewheel well and truly up, as if I'd hit the nosewheel I would have ended up sliding down the runway on the nose.

Not a prang, but nearly one, and certainly my most embarrassing moment.
You can teach monkeys to fly better than that!

[Pilot DAR]

I can say that with only pure luck, that I have never damaged an aircraft that I was flying. I have done some damage during ground operations though:

I had a 182 stuck in the mud, and tried to power it out. I damaged the prop blades to within an eigth of an inch of their lives, Lesson learned!

I was ferrying a 150 decades ago, which would not electric start at a stop over. It was a northern airport in a complete winter scene, with no provision whatever to tie or chalk it. I pushed it well away from everything else around, on the only dry pavement to be found, set the throttle to idle, had a fellow hold it by the tail, and hand propped it. Due to a previoulsy unknown loose throttle plate, the throttle was actually partly open, and the engine started with much more poweer than expected. My holding guy got scared, and let go, while I ran around in front of it (stupid!) and tried to reach in the now moving plane for the keys. I could not get it, so I (we) watched it taxi into an unused fuel pump cabinet, and snowbank. Bent plane, my mistake, I fixed the plane, and it went on to a long and happy carreer. Lesson learned there, check the full range of motion of the throttle before you start an engine (I would have felt that the throttle was out of position).

My only ever "damaging" event was while starting the Schweizer 300 helicopter, where a running, yet un-clutched engine can be very easily oversped. When the engine started, it headed for an overspeed, while trying to prevent that, I bumped the throttle, and made it worse. Engine limits were not exceeded, but transmission limits were. A mandatory inspection had to be carried out as a result. I spent all day helping to take the helicopter apart for the inspection.

Other than that, I've had four engine failures, which resulted in a forced landing, though I have always managed to land somewhere, from which I could take off safely later. Two were fuel icing (as opposed to carb icing) related, one loss of engine oil, and one was a mouse nest getting sucked through the alternate air induction system, and blocking the carb venturi.

I've had a one half gear up landing in a 182 amphibian, whose left side gear would not extend due to frozen grease on the slides. I landed very gently on a frozen lake, so no harm done.

I've had a broken floatplane bracing wire, which results in a precarious "drooping" of the plane on it's floats after the most gentle landing you can manage.

I have had three occasions where icing encounters resulted in the aircraft not being able to maintain safe flight. Each time a decesnt to lower altitudes, and warmer air fixed it. One of these aircraft was a brand new, fully icing approved twin.

The closest I came to bending aluminum "right now" was a Cessna 206 with a pitch trim mis-rigging, which resulted an a very unfliable aircraft, but not enough room to land back once detected. It was a very small and scary circuit, which I thought would end in a bent plane, though I did get it down safely.

I have helped to lift one very good,, and very dead friend out of the Cessna 150 he owned, which we both flew regularly, and he had crashed minutes earlier. He was flying dumb. He did not learn, but we did.....

[IO540]

Prop strike in a pothole with a £200k plane which was 1 hour old... made me quite wary of this risk, and the casual way most airfields, and many pilots, treat it, and I always ask for hard parking.

Flat spotted a tyre very badly, in an embarrassing incident with an engineer on board (post service check flight), when a crosswind changed to tailwind but I didn't go around when I should have done. They changed the runway direction straight after that :) Cost me 2 tyres plus fitting...

Taxied the plane (with a towbar) over a handbag (not mine ;) ) lying on the tarmac, squashing a £400 camera inside it :)

One serious ice encounter where I got ~ 30mm within 5-10 minutes, in some harmless looking NS, base 1500ft, tops 4000ft, -5C. Vs rose to about 100kt, no stall warning (tab frozen in ice) and level flight could not be maintained (at 3700ft) with max power and with a TKS de-iced prop. I let the ice progress to that stage because surface temp was +3C, so melting it off after a bit of a descent was easy enough, but it took some 30 mins to get it all off. One way to find out the absolute limit for the aircraft... and better doing this over Kent than over the Alps. I steer clear of frontal wx / enroute IMC on high altitude flights, except flying straight over the top of it.

[foxmoth]

had a fellow hold it by the tail

Why didn't you sit him in with instructions to close the throttle if this happened and turn of the switches if things went even worse?:confused:

[Pilot DAR]

Why didn't you sit him in

Well, I'd thought about that for a brief moment, but then thought better of it. He was not at all qualified to operate a plane. Were I have to put him in the plane, and what happened - happened, I would have put a complete non-pilot in control of an aircraft, then put that aircraft in an accident. That would have been big trouble for me! Had he been hurt - very much worse!

As it was, we both watched an accident from a safe distance, and no one was hurt. It was little tiny trouble for me.

In hind sight, it was not good, but not catastrophic either. I have learned that I now always check the throttle, and I would have kept looking, 'till I found something to tie the plane to. From what I witnessed, I believe that even had I chalked it, it might have jumped the chocks anyway, tying is the only way to be certain.

[Fuji Abound]

Nearly collided with another twin - that was one scary moment, I still wonder how close we were but it was really really close.

So very very nearly managed to write off the port wing (and probably the aircraft) at Earls Colne when the taxi way use to chink next to the large warning sign saying mind the hedge which I managed not to see. As it turned out I chinked right in the nick of time, heart still pounding 20 minutes later.

Nearly ended up in the trees or power lines I cant quite remember at Goodwood when the other pilot decided to go around just about too late, combined with a similiar incident at Badminton where the pilot went round fully laden and so very very nearly stalled. Still wonder sometimes how we staggered back into the air and grateful I gave the yoke a pretty firm push.

Very very early on in my flying decided I should attempt a landing with the wind behind (goodness knows why) ending up floating almost the length of the strip, touched the wheels down and thank goodness had the sense to go around and just staggered through the climb out. That was a really humbling lesson and about the most stupid party trick anyone could attempt - it taught me a big lesson which I have never needed to repeat - fortunately.

So as it turns out I have been very lucky and very stupid because combined with the odd engine failure and a few other incidents that come to mind which were outside of my control but had happy endings I havent yet managed to bend or break anything but come far too close for comfort.

[Warrior2]

@ Pilot DAR,

Is your middle name lucky?

:)

[Pilot DAR]

Is your middle name lucky?

Well, my wife does not think so, as four aircraft I have formally flight tested have crashed fatally sometime following my approval of modifications. Each crash was found to be pilot error, not the plane or the mod. In addition, three other pilots I have flight tested with, have died flying other aircraft. Two pilot error, one I'm very suspicious is an inadequate aircraft design.

It gives one lots to think about during a flight, in trying to ward off the effects of complacency, or pilot error - I simply have too much experience to have any excuse for an accident in a GA aircraft now! Then, add to that, some new thing stuck on, or dangling from, the plane which I'm test flying, and I'm being even more careful!

A saying on a wall mural in town reads: "Luck favours the prepared". Words I live by.....

[cumulusrider]

First gliding competition day 5 so I was already tired. Hot blue day,300km task. 15min after take off I discovered my water bottle had slipped out of reach. 4 1/2 hrs later i was 6 miles from home at 1500ft and and feeling woozy. I decided to fly over the local town hoping to find a final thermal - no luck. So i headed towards the airfield. A few minutes later I was over dense wood land losing height steadily. At 500ft fields full of crop.
Eventually i arrived in a crop field and hit a rut collapsing the undercariage, and puting a hole in the wing.
Lessons learned
1. Make sure you are well hydrated. The start of my problems was I wasnt thinking straight.
2. Watch out for press-on -itus in competitions.
3. Make decisions in plenty of time. dont just sit there fat dumb and ignorant until the accident happens.

A severe bollocking by the CFI and visit to buy a camelback ensued

[LH2]

Right on, so where is x-bose to show us how his dick is bigger than all of ours put together? :}


As for me, I don't think I've crashed one yet... not that I could tell from my usual landings anyway. :suspect:

[Dublin Fionn]

Hi Everyone,

long time lurker (years). before I start can I just say a huge thank you to the regular posters of this forum for their invaluable , life-saving advice. You are my daily heroes and there is a pint waiting if you ever make it to Weston (EIWT).

while reading some of the replies in this Prang thread I noticed that our dear Genghis suffered an incident while in a shared ownership aircraft, and that the group turned on him it seems.

Genghis, can you tell us all how a prang in a shared aircraft plays out ? as I hope to buy into a share once I pass my PPL. what did the group do to turn on you? please start a new thread if it's too off topic for here.

Currently I fly my clubs aircraft ,and I don't worry about anything but the safety of the occupants. the club has insurance and that's all I need to know, But I am curious as to what to expect in the future.

I'm glad everyone is okay though. Please be careful up there, else I'll have nothing to read.

now my story:
Grob-Queen , I did the exact same as you , came in too fast and put the nose wheel of our craft down too early,cue a few seconds of trying to keep her straight and then off the left side of the runway to a stop,just a lack of rudder authority on my part.
Through out the 20 seconds of the Runway excursion I never once thought of the plane , as they can be replaced.

As I like to say , any landing you can swim away from ......

Safe Skies,
Fionn

[Pace]

1. Make sure you are well hydrated. The start of my problems was I wasnt thinking straight.

Too true! I can remember flying a Seneca five UK to Malaga with a refuel at San Sebastian.
The trip was single pilot with only the non flying owner on Board.
Temeratures on the ground at S sebastian were 40degC
Last hour into S Sebastian I Felt really ill.
On landing I told the owner that I was not well enough to continue and he regognised it as dehydration.
A gallon of water later the transformation was amazing and we took off for the final leg to Malaga this time with bottles of water on board which caused another problem but I wont go there :E

Pace

[thing]

That's the problem though isn't it, how much water can you take with you and drink and then not be bursting at the seams during flight. If it's a flight of an hour or less I don't bother, anything more than that and I usually stick a litre of water in the seat back, but then when you drink it the flight doesn't last much longer...........

[IO540]

These (http://www.naturalbeverages.co.uk/images/orange_500ml.jpg) (empty ones I mean) are your friend ;)

I would never fly without pee bottles and I cannot understand pilots who limit their flying to 1hr or whatever because of that.

[thing]

These (http://www.naturalbeverages.co.uk/images/orange_500ml.jpg) (empty ones I mean) are your friend http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/wink2.gif
Has that one been used then?

[Redbird72]

These (empty ones I mean) are your friend


Well they are if you are equipped with suitable equipment for aiming :}

[maxred]

I showed my wife the Lady J attachment, as advertised in Transair Pilot Supplies, and suggested our trips between refuelling could be lengthened:cool:

Her response is what the rest of you would imagine........

I would possibly be wearing the Lady J attachment had I not run........:zzz:

[IO540]

My GF has no problem with the red Transair plastic bottle and the Lady Jane attachment, as a "solution" for long trips, but unsuprisingly she doesn't exactly like it. OTOH women tend to have huge bladders compared to men, especially older men :)

[Capot]

Sep 66 - in sole charge of C172 G-ARLU, pride of the Royal Artillery, landing at Lympne prior to crossing the Channel on route to Grimbergen. Instructed to use the tarmac runway which had a stonking x-wind, instead of the grass runway with the wind more or less straight down it, and decided not to argue; after all, with nearly 100 hours I could do anything.
Result, a very bent nosewheel and severe embarassment, to say nothing of the cost of paying someone to come from Redhill (I thinik it was) to fix it.

[18greens]

If you are looking for comfort that you are not the only one you are in good company. I've never pranged but I put that down to being very very lucky and possibly too cautious ( is that possible???).

Having said that of all the prangs I have seen you generally seem to have to be very very experienced to prang , either an instructor ( taxied a tailwheel into a 172) or a cfi (ground looped a piper cub) or a well known airline pilot (force landed after a dodgy weather decision).

Overall there are two kinds of pilots, those that have crashed and those that are about to......

[Grob Queen]

Thanks Dublin Ffion, Glad i'm not the only one who has rudder and speed issues on landing!

[Victorian]

Glad i'm not the only one who has rudder and speed issues on landing!

You are not alone. 30 years ago, Jodel D120, major international airport, about 50 hrs P1.

I'd learned on C150 from a grass strip and bought a share in the Jodel post PPL. Done about 30 Hrs in it all from and to grass strips. Very successful and way too confident. One day the idea of going to an airshow near a big airport came up. No problem I said to my passenger who'd never been in a light aircraft, we'll land there and get a cab.

I had never landed on a hard runway, either training or post PPL. How hard could it be?

I found out as the poor little Jodel swung viciously one way and then the other has I over corrected, and then the air was full of pieces of driftwood that had once been a propeller. In those days you could block the only runway at a major airport and walk away without paying compensation for all those CAT that have to go somewhere else.

Last month and 1500 Hrs later I landed my PA28 at a single runway International airport in a 20G30 90 deg crosswind and thought of the lesson I learnt in that poor little Jodel all those years ago. Think ahead! Anticipate! The PA28 really wanted to weathercock into wind during the rollout and one reason that it didn't (apart from luck) was what happened to that Jodel.

[FANS]

and possibly too cautious ( is that possible???).


No, that's perfect especially for those flying once a month. I've seen many gung-ho people create themselves issues by going in marginal wx, x-winds > club rules etc...


If you're a prof pilot it's a different story (although a few airline pilots seem very unsuited to GA), but for weekend pilots we should remind ourselves that it's inherently bloody dangerous, and it's done for enjoyment not because we're paid to take an aircraft with the latest whizz-bang technology from A to B.

That said, at least these prangs only hurt pride!

[mary meagher]

It costs so little, and it can mean so much. You are far more likely to have a heavy landing than a mid-air. And an impact cushion will save more than your butt; it could keep you from spending the rest of your career in a wheelchair.

I'm talking about that special impact foam as used in racing cars. It doesn't weigh a lot. If you own a plane, get one and a spare, if you rent, buy your own cushion and don't apologise for using it, from the start of your training and afterwards.

Crash protection is built into every car these days, not just racing cars. Most aircraft were designed long before this became the norm.

[abgd]

At risk of drawing the thread slightly off-topic, how common is it for private pilots to give up flying, not exactly through fear but rather through a gradual realisation that to fly is to tempt fate to a greater or lesser degree?

When I was into hang gliding, the majority of people gave up sooner or later. That went for both dabblers and people with real experience - instructors and the like. When asked, they would often be a bit cagey about what the reason was - my reading was that they looked back on their hang-gliding days fondly and so didn't like to discourage us youngsters, yet had come to a conclusion that they'd had their fill. I remember an ex-instructor who happened to be passing by, was offered a flight. He winched up a few hundred feet, flew a very small circuit, then landed. Wouldn't he like another go? A proper flight - we could get you up to 1000 feet... No, that was plenty for today, thank-you.

Quite a few professional aviators seem to have made the same decision:

After his licence was taken away, Burt Rutan said he felt a great sense of relief at the realisation that now he wouldn't be likely to die in a GA accident.

Alex Henshaw gave up flying a few years after WWII and never piloted an aircraft again.

Ernest K Gann wrote about giving up flying in 'Fate is the hunter' - though I understand that he never quite did so.

One ex-airline pilot I knew gave up GA partly for this reason, and partly because he found it very frustrating to fly so slowly.

I'd be interested to know whether a high proportion of private pilots give up for the same reason?

[Grob Queen]

mmmmm, if this thread has changed to the dark and maudling side, I think as one who has just started their flying after many years dreaming of doing so, loving every minute, full of enthusiasm for one of the best sports in the world...don't think i'll read it any more!:(

Please, on behalf of other students and for those who haven't had their fill of flying, if you are going to have this topic, please make it a new thread with a health warning..."those who still enjoy flying look away now" or something to that effect!!!

[PompeyPaul]

Have not yet had a prang but have come close to pragning the wings against another aircraft whilst taxi'ing back to parking.

One of (many) the oddities about the PPL. I still find parking the hardest part of the flight, wish it was part of the syllabus. Taxi & parking.

[Grob Queen]

EEEK! Don't let the CAA hear you say that Pompey...not until I have my licence at any rate! Ever tried to taxi and park a Grob...sure their undercarriage was modelled on a supermarket trolley!

Although taxiing is one thing I have got under control...

[The500man]

One of (many) the oddities about the PPL. I still find parking the hardest part of the flight, wish it was part of the syllabus. Taxi & parking.


Somehow it seems to be easier if you taxi really fast! Truth is it's far easier to park in the wrong place and then push the airplane into the right place but you won't look like a sky-god if anyone sees you doing this and it certainly won't impress the ladies... but then again there is a near zero chance of a lady being at a GA airfield! ;)

[Machinbird]

I was a new Private Pilot and had wandered by the FBO to see if they had anything free to rent. Their C-150 had just come out of maintenance and was available. Preflight and takeoff was normal and I flew to a nearby field to do some touch and go landings. Over the touchdown zone on the first landing, with full flaps and throttle closed, the wheel hit the aft stops as I was flaring for landing and the nose was still fairly well down. A quick burst of power got the nose up and I landed and full stopped to investigate.

I found that the elevator bellcrank was installed upside down so that I had much more nose down authority than I was supposed to and much less nose up authority. Knowing what the issue was, I flew the aircraft back to home base and made a no flap landing.

I credit having learned to fly in tail draggers for the power burst response that saved the first landing. I learned to make sure I had full control authority, not just movement in the proper direction on my preflights.
I have yet to prang a flying machine, and as a now old and bold pilot with almost 50 yrs experience, I might just finish with a perfect record. Of course, I might have scared myself a few times getting there.:}

[abgd]

mmmmm, if this thread has changed to the dark and maudling side, I think as one who has just started their flying after many years dreaming of doing so, loving every minute, full of enthusiasm for one of the best sports in the world...don't think i'll read it any more!http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/sowee.gif

Well, perhaps I should say 'sorry', but I'm not certain that I am. There are two ways of dealing with danger. One is to bury your head in the sand and say 'it won't happen to me'. The other is to accept that it might, and figure out what you can do to make it less likely. For some people that will involve not flying, and that's fine.

I found learning to hang-glide was a very formative experience. I learned that I could make decisions under pressure, and I loved the fact that after I'd launched I was responsible for every decision I made, all the way to the bottom. But most of all I learned to stand on the top of the hill and think about everything I had to lose, then decide to pick the glider up and run just the same.

Personally, I don't regret a minute of my hang gliding days. The reason I stopped was more to do with the amount of time it took to take to stay current. However, had I reached a stage where I was able to do long cross-country flights I think I may eventually have decided that I'd achieved everything I'd set out to.

The point about posting as a separate thread though, is a good one.

[Piper.Classique]

but then again there is a near zero chance of a lady being at a GA airfield!
We are are present but usually too busy to stand around being impressed by wanabees. You know, doing the useful stuff like instructing, putting fuel in the spamcans, doing the 50 hour checks. Fixing the aircraft that have been taxied a bit fast and hit the fence. That sort of thing

[500 above]

Guess he just crashed and burned! Top post Piper!

[Big Pistons Forever]

My first (and I hope last :\) accident was when I was instructing a low hours PPL student for the muti-rating on the schools Seneca. We had finished our upper airwork and were on final for the briefed full stop when I looked at my watch and saw we we still had a bit of time in our booking, so I told the student to do a touch and go instead of a full stop. The tower was quite busy so we were only re-cleared at the last moment but told us to expedite as there was crossing traffic. As soon as the wheels touched I said "lets go" and the student raised the gear instead of the flaps:uhoh::{

This accident was entirely my fault, first as I was the PIC, but more importantly because I failed to treat the operation of a complex aircraft with the respect and the discipline it deserved. The student was devastated, but fortunately continued on and is still flying.

There is an amusing side to this story. After shutting down and vacating the aircraft, hastened by the big pool of fuel spreading under the wings, I waited for the crash trucks (it happened at a medium size commercial airport). After about 5 minutes :confused: the trucks finally showed with a very red faced fire chief. It seems they were doing a major dog and pony show for the big wigs and could not come and rescue me until they had put out all the demonstration fires they had set :hmm:

[Jan Olieslagers]

I haven't yet, but came close once.

At my (then) homefield, not too long soloed on the type, I was training an engine out landing, misjudged, and had to make the last turn impossibly close. Instead of simply applying full power, getting the bird level, gain speed and go around, no, I absolutely HAD to complete the exercise. Thinking back on it, I still don't understand how she didn't slip, perhaps I did have the good sense to push the nose down to keep up the airspeed even though I was quite close to the ground. Luckily the Rans S6 is one sturdy and forgiving plane.

It is in all the textbooks and I lived it verbatim: the more things go wrong, the more focused we become on our first intention, and plans B and C are driven off our mind. Tunnel vision is what they call it, I think.