I've got lots of mistakes to share!
Quite a few years ago I rented a 172 out of KFXE to fly to Freeport, Bahamas (MYGF). The plane had just come out of maintenance. The flight was uneventful, but on landing at Freeport and getting out I saw that the whole of the underside of the plane was covered in oil....I checked the dipstick and saw that at least there was still some oil in the sump...I found an A&P who quickly determined that the oil return line from the oil cooler had not been tightened up and a fine mist of oil had been spraying out the whole way over 60nm of water....So a fire and/or seized engine possible. Lesson Learned: never take a single over hostile terrain or water straight after maintenance!
Other lessons include landing at the wrong airstrip in Western Australia (they all look the same: long strips of gravel with nothing else for miles!)... This was pre-GPS...
Also learned about density altitude in California (hot and high) and in Australia (just bloody hot!)....always lean to max power in the Runup....
In Stavanger, Norway I was taxying for the runway and holding at the instructed hold point for what seemed like an eternity....after about 10 minutes a vehicle approached and a guy got out and came over....to tell me to check my radio...had managed somehow to turn the volume down without noticing!
Last edited by awqward; 24th Feb 2013 at 23:44.