When you almost became... "Another Statistic"

[Ace Rimmer]

Here’s a story for you.
I had to go to Exeter for a meeting with a certain airline. Naturally (well you do don't you?), I think to myself the forecast is good I’ll fly save either having to stay over or get up way early in order to drive (you all know the rationale).
So I book an a/c and as I’ll be setting off quite early, ask that the tanks be topped off (the fuel pumps won’t be open at that time).

Next morning bright and early. The weather is as advertised, "splendid" thinks I "this’ll be better than being in the office". I arrive to be told that the "tanks are not quite full" but the aircraft had only been used “for a 30 minute trial lesson last night..and they were pretty much full before that. You’ll be fine for Exeter and back”.
Even after I check the tanks and they don’t look anywhere near that full – I think “well xxxxx is an examiner after all, he knows what he’s talking about. I’ll carry on”. Mistake number one.. taking somebody else’s word for it when that word disagrees with evidence of your own eyes. No matter how experienced or qualified that person is we are all human and capable of mistakes. Dumb.

Anyhow I set off into a glorious summer’s morning and head west. Here come’s dumb idea number two… blatting along at FL40 I notice that there is an increasing undercast and the bits of ground I can see are getting smaller and smaller – but thinks I if “I just dog leg over to the sea I’ll re-establish surface contact – as it happens I was right, but still not the best idea in the world ( the sea not being the best means of visual navigation - one wave looking much like another) I manage to find Exeter thanks to a combination of good guess work and a timely vector from Exeter twr – It just so happened that I had set the ILS at EXE on Nav 1 – but of course I was VFR the whole time…honest. Stupid

Do the work thing and getting ready to head back to ranch I’m accosted by two colleagues who want a lift back… “no problem” says I, “you won’t have a headsets so it’ll be a bit loud but you’re welcome”.
Mistake 3 coming up…I do the visual fuel check pre-flight thing and the tanks look more than a bit low but with the comments from earlier in the day still in mind (“it’s an only a half hour off full you’ll have plenty to get to Exeter and back”) I make the next error.. I don’t add any fuel…Dumb and Dumber.

Load up pax and set off into what is now a very pleasant afternoon – it’s really the kind of weather we all dream about. Anyhow, blatting along all is well, one of the pax has even stopped sightseeing and fallen asleep. I’m about Bournemouth when I start to get concerned with the look of the fuel gauges (and we all know how accurate they are) and start thinking about a tech stop for a bit more motion lotion.
Here it is... mistake four (and the one that could really screw the pooch). Even though I’m practically overhead Bournemouth I decide not to land there (put off by the rather erm…pricy landing fees) and instead elect to continue to Goodwood. dumb and dumberer

I get to the Goodwood overhead just starting the deadside turn when…cough cough…ooh err missus… a quick call to request priority landing (rough running engine I said) and an even quicker change of tank to the Up hill one (I’m in the turn deadside remember) and power appears restored to the mill. Fly tighter than tight circuit and come over the fence a bit on the hot side. Mange to wash off the excess speed and get the thing planted and stopped. Breathe big sigh of relief taxi to pumps and shut down. Asleep pax wakes up and says “Is this Shoreham? That looks like Goodwood racecourse up there... and did you know there's a fire engine following us”.

Filling the tanks to tabs reveals a chilling fact: I had about a gallon of usable fuel left – that’s about 6 and a bit minutes at leaned cruise settings…in other words WAAAAAAYYYY to close to the wire.
As I’m sure you might imagine that caused me to stop and consider the meaning of life for a while…OK quite probably given the line of route I’d have been able to execute Forced landing there are plenty of good spots in the area that I’d have been in when it would have gone quiet…but do I really want to find out?

OK lessons learnt :
1. Don’t ever take anybody’s opinion no matter who they are check for yourself and if you don’t agree... act accordingly.

2. The only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire. Never ever ever pass up the chance to add fuel (or go the the lavatory also good advice)

3. Never ever let financial considerations take precedence over safety – Once I decided to land and re-fuel I should have immediately and s-d the landing fee. (it was only seven quid more not alot when you think about it).

4. Do PFLs more often …practice makes perfect – I used practically every metre of what is quite a long runway (relitively) getting down and stopped – because of a mismanaged approach. I suspect I mismanaged the approach because of a combination of a) having not done a PFL for a while and b) the concern that I’d lose the donk any time – either way I’m sure if I’d done PFLs more recently then I’d have been more comfortable with both the aircraft’s performance and my own.

5. (linked to cock up two) don’t allow yourself to get suckered into continuing into weather that you are less than happy with…OK I was confident that I’d re-establish surface contact over the sea (and I did) and the ATIS was indicating acceptable conditions at the destination (which got better) but even so, positioning for base I needed to scud run over terrain that rises 800 odd feet ASL…not clever

Oh and one more thing…when you read AAIB reports and you think to yourself “blimey I would have done that or allowed myself to get into that situation”. Beware... you can, and if like me on this particular summers day you don’t look for the warning signs, you will. The only thing that kept this tale a hangar flying story rather than an AAIB report was luck...

Some other stuff
Had one time when a bloke got confused about which side was deadside and was really close as I bimbled along on downwind...that was a pitter pat moment

Then there was a time in an Arrer when a main gear was initally reluctant to come down - that concentrated the mind...