Scariest moment in your career...

[timmcat]

Nope, I'm not a journo.

Have you ever genuinely been really scared by anything that's happened in flight during your career? (resist the in flight meal / demonic hostie quips if you can!).

[SkyCruiser]

Yeah,

Flying with a few captains in a certain Airline in the UK(remain nameless). Man it was bad.:mad:

[Genghis the Engineer]

More than once...

- An aircraft in flight test which was showing a strong disinclination to recover from a spin.

- Rolling inverted at FL250 in a Tucano, looking up at the ground 5 miles above my head, as something gave way in my harness and I suddenly dropped about half an inch before stopping.

- Having a pillock in a PA28 come up in my 6 O'clock on short finals in a microlight and shooting past me half a wingspan away (I started a thread about this at the time, and believe it will be in the next batch of CHIRP reports).

- Being rolled inverted in wake turbulence when I was a pre-solo Bulldog student on a UAS.

- Sat in the back seat of a Jaguar landing with a u/s nosegear light and a full 1200 litre centreline droptank - and not sure whether it was the undercarriage light at fault, or we really didn't have a locked down nosewheel.

- And routinely whenever flying as a 19 year old Cadet with a Flt.Lt. D**** T*****, the most unnerving QFI ever employed by the RAF (now long retired, and possibly dead, but his ex-students still mention him and shudder).

- Plus several other incidents which were largely due to my own stupidity and I shall keep to myself.

G

[Yarpy]

I once went through an extremely noisy hail storm whilst going to Madrid. The hail set off the GPWS terrain alert. We responded to it and climbed 1000 feet in the TMA.

The noise and the alert certainly surprised me. Nigel, (landing at the same time) had the same.

Being struck by lightning is also a surprise.

Finding our destination was below CAT I actual when unforecast and with no CAT III. Diverting to our primary alternate and finding the same due to unforeacast sea fog. We got in (somewhere) but my knees were knocking.

Being on blocks 2 hours 57 minutes into discretion at the end of a truly awful day when everything went against us . . .

Paris Charles De Gaulle on a good day!

[gingernut]

Flying/ being dragged towards an outcrop of rocks in a foot launched paraglider. Wondering which bone (s) would break- luckily only my finger and kneecap.

Fixating on a cow in landing field, in same paraglider. Hit it on the ar*e. I'm not sure who was more frightened.

Cow was ok, have now sold paraglider......doesn't suit fat people !

[cortilla]

My initial IR, Thunderstorms were forecast, and told the examiner that we were to treat as a public transport flight, so could not fly without a wx radar. Examiner told me not to worry, he would be the wx radar for me (as he could see out the window whilst i couldn't. I thought ok he's an examiner, he wouldn't try to mess me around. So we went, and the route involved flying north up to a vor in the midlands, and the turn round over the VOR to head south to a reporting point.

Went up to FL80, and about 5 miles south of the vor started hearing lots of little bangs on the a/c (hailstones) all the while heard commercial a/c all around asking for 10-20 degrees left or right to avoid cb's. I asked my examiner what i should do (i really didn't know and would rather fail the exam than come back in a cheap ply-wood box) He told me to carry on. Then the turbulence started, and got a bit hairy with my stuff being knocked off my knees etc.Then the wings started to ice up. The first time i've ever had to use de-ice for real in an a/c. Then we got out of it after about 1 min. oof that was lucky. Then i remembered had to turn south over the vor and go through the whole bloody thing again. b@$t@rd.

Anyways, obviously we survived, and it wasn't as bad as i thought it was. Had a chat with the examiner (very nice bloke and i liked him alot when he eventually signed my ticket) after the flight about it. He said he could see it wasn't gonna be that bad and it wouldn't last that long. I thought well yes a weather radar would tell me that INFLIGHT why didn't you then. Needless to say got v. pi$$ed that night and now chuckle about it silently whenever i get a bit of turbulence, and my passengers start yelping.

[Hostie from Hell]

Did I hear my name being taken in vain ?

Mr HFH had this one .. and now he can come here and type it..

Just got qualified as an AFI and was checking out an experienced QFI with shed loads of hours on Cessnas who needed conversion onto the Pa38 Tomahawk... and I think you know what is coming ? we almost died because of a reverse cockpit gradient CRM problem

Showed him a spin.. his turn ... in we went, counted three turns.. felt the rudder hit the stop... four .. five..." It's not coming out !!!!".... Shouted "I have control" realised he had been holding the column all the way back throughout.... and the spin had gone into secondary mode .... and I pushed everything very hard to where it should have been, was aware of the ridgeline of the hills rising above us... and was thinking ...oh.. this is it:mad:
when out it popped still pointing straight down at a field that looked far to close..... saw airspeed was ok... and pulled to the buffet till the nose was pointed at the sky.
Tomahawks make a lot of noise when pulled to the buffet zone at high speed....... but all I could hear was my pulse.:yuk: :yuk:

[Muppet Leader]

Ethiopian famine relief, mid 80s.
C130 laden with ops equipment.
Out from Cyprus, and just south of Cairo.
Explosive decompression, as three of the ramp bolt sheared.
Anything that wasn’t fastened down flew towards the ramp at very high speed.
Driver got us down to a nice relaxing seven thousand feet, we chained and strapped the ADS arms, and continued on to Addis over the African midday heat at this altitude.

Nice and smooth, NOT.:ok:

[Nozzles]

Every night deck landing I ever did.

[alexban]

As a cadet,when doing the mandatory paraschute dive,jumping out of the plane and remaining stuck on the outside of the fuselage.After no more than 1 min I've managed to get rid of the sticky plane,but it seemed like a longhaul flight to me.:\

[HOMER SIMPSONS LOVECHILD]

Once got the veggie sausage with my brekkie,,still gives me a shiver!

[5150]

Rapidly building thunderstorm in Johannesburg. Double diversion, airspeed increasing / decreasing by large amounts, upper surface of wing warping in the turbulence, getting pushed down towards high ground, almost decided to stick it down on a highway.

Finally managed to crawl away from the storm and get to airport near Pretoria. Landed, went to the toilet and was coughing blood where I had been grinding my teeth against my cheek!

Closest I've ever come to buying the farm.......

[EGLD]

great story 5150

what aircraft were you in?

[5150]

Just a PA28.....but you're not too bothered about that at the time!

[EGLD]

i'm sure you dont !!

wind shear on takeoff on my trial lesson in a PA28 was enough for me.....

[J-Heller]

Gingernut

Bonus hero points for your post! It was the cow scene that did it for me, and then the postscript that you sold the apparatus on!!! great stuff :)


JH

[The_Saint]

Had mine when I was flying the SD360 as FO. It was pouring and we were at 500 ft on MDA. Just before reaching MAP, the Capt., old and retirable, saw the runway on his left. He went for it with a slip and a descent of 1500 fpm. I started screaming the speed and sink rate. I saw the runway getting bigger and told him to pull. He said "not yet". I said it again but he didn't move. I yanked at the yoke and the gears hit the pavement. Capt. asked what happened? I could only grin at him with my knees clacking. I must have been terrified at the thought of what could have happened and my grabbing the yoke from him. My first and last I hope.

TS

[FougaMagister]

Flying out of Fort Pierce/St. Lucie to the practice area in a PA-28 just solo in may 2001, and seeing weather closing in from the ocean before I could firewall my way back to the airfield... ending up in marginal VMC, then proper IMC and trying to see recognisable ground features/reporting points on the ground 1,000' below. Having never flown in IMC before, starting selective radial scan probably prevented me becoming a statistic that day! The TAF said CAVOK...

Utmost respect for ATC since then (they remembered they had a student pilot out there).

Also, backseating a CM170 jet trainer in the French Air Force in 1993 and being told "you have control" at 500' agl and 240 KIAS, looking through the periscope with the front guy whistling to himself... hard work!

Cheers

[aviate1138]

Hostie from Hell said....
'Tomahawks make a lot of noise when pulled to the buffet zone at high speed......'

Aviate1138 says..
Thank God you didn't look over your shoulder at your tailplane wobbling on top of the fin... My first and only spin recovery [Gnoss Field, Northern California 1978] in a Tomahawk was my last[ and last Tomahawk flight for me] as I looked behind to see such flexing of fin and tailplane, that I could not believe they would stay attached! Shortly afterwards someone lost their tailplane and 2 died. Then another spinning Tomahawk crashed. IMHO not one of Pipers best efforts.

Aviate 1138

[Rhodie]

Way back in the dark ages, whenst still a sprog - I would watch the great aviators climb out of the aeri and lean nonchalantly (had to look that up) against the side / wing / prop.....

Now I know why.....

My first Mayday, some years back, Charlie 182, over mountains and losing 200 fpm with surging fan...

Pulled EVERY knob, lever, button and even some I didn't know were there, all other TX traffic went very quiet...

Made it over the ridge and there in front was a nice little local town strip, with the Sunday lunchers on the veranda in front of the clubhouse.

My landing was followed by a dead stick coast to the apron (very short distance) and quiet reflection for a few minutes..

Why do the pilots lean against the aeri..? Because their legs DONT WORK...!!!

:\

[Tubbs]

I was also in the air on that stormy day in South Africa when 5150 had his diversion to Wonderboom for Pizza (see posting on p1).

I managed to get back to the aerodrome slightly before him...into the circuit behind a c172 as the black stuff roared in from the South. 172 at the end of downwind starts to sucked heavenwards an alarming rate and I strap myself in extra tight. The cockpit shook so hard that my head banged off the roof and my various pens/pencils/charts/fags/polo mints scattered themselves around the room. This was followed by a go-around and then a 180 for the change of runway as the storm arrived. Finals on to runway 17 was horrific with the yoke all the way round in both directions to keep the wings vaguely horizontal.

Got it on the ground and taxied off to a quiet area to weep gently for five minutes while I contemplated an alternative career.

[Hostie from Hell]

Mr Hell writes :

In what is now over 1500 hours on the Pa38, I have heard all the wobbling tail stories and chosen NOT to look over my shoulder at the aluminium in action..

I do however disagree with the notion that the Tomahawk is a bad effort from Piper, it takes care to fly accurately and teachs respect at low airspeed. Shame they caved in to the marketing people and stuck the tail where they did.

The cause of my scare was not the aircraft's fault.. more that I thought the guy in the other seat had done his homework and knew what he was doing, and what was proved ? assuming that hours in somebody elses logbook mean they know more than you is potentially fatal .. just look at the S360 story !

[Jetdriver]

As the thread is clearly evolving into private flying and light aircraft accounts, I am moving the topic to private flying.

[jarjam]

Whilst on an instructional flight above 8/8ths cover the engine started to cough and bang.
All the usual checks failed to resolve the problem so we pointed straight back to the airport.
"whats that red light on for"
"thats the low volts light" I replyed
Reduced the non essential load and tryed to restore power but alternator kept tripping off-line(now my arse is starting to grip the seat quite firmly).
Requested radar vectors to the ILS but was informed by ATC that it was out of service for maintainence but "I can offer you an NDB/DME approach" which I excepted.
Gave the student a dumbed down version of our status
(no point both of us C****ing ourselves) and gave her the task of flicking the alternator switch off and on when the low volts light came on.

Down we went into the soup and ATC called to question my heading not surprising as it was 60 degrees out as the DI had failed a few moments earlier.

Engine started to complain again as we entered the wettest and bumpiest bit of the cloud, managed to get the aeroplane onto the inbound QDM and fly a half descent approach considering I was refering to the compass for heading reference.
We broke out at just above MDA and an uneventfull landing followed. So thats my formula on how to get sweaty butt cheaks.

Taught an inexperienced AFI a very valuable lesson:ok:

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Many years ago I'm P1 in an L4 Cub returning to Manchester Barton from the east coast area. ‘Field X’ was then a closed but extant airfield, but was shortly to be built on. In the front seat is my passenger - an experienced spamcan instructor with no tailwheel time but very many hours (me not many at all back then). We decide to ‘bag’ ‘Field X’ for the logbook while it’s still there.

“Mind if I do the landing”, says the front seater. I concur. He flys us into the overhead – no traffic, just a glider being towed by a car along a taxyway, so he flys a LH circuit for the into-wind runway. Nicely positioned on short final, speed OK, power right back, flare - looking good. He puts us down in a bit of a clunky 3-point, but not bad for a spamcan pilot. I relax as we begin to slow on the runway. The Cub starts to yaw right - and he doesn’t correct. Then he overcorrects with course left rudder. She swerves left and the left main rises. He stamps hard right rudder. The left wheel bangs down again and she swerves right. The right main comes off the ground – the left wing going down and about to hit the runway. All this happens with a second or two. We are going to write off this lovely little aeroplane.

I shout “I have it” while simultaneously centering the rudder, banging in full right aileron, full power, and raising the tail. Miraculously, the left wingtip doesn’t hit the ground, and we are wings-level, tail-up, and accelerating. But we are about 60 degrees off the runway heading to the right. We leave the tarmac and bounce across the grass. Out of the corner of my eye I see the glider’s wing-tip handler and car driver (the towing car has stopped) staring open-mouthed in disbelief at this amazing sight. We lift off climb out, turning gently back onto runway heading before we cross the fence. The aeroplane was unscathed, and I learned a lesson I’ll never forget.




Last year there was the partial engine failure on take from Barton’s 09 in the Chippy. Nowhere to put the aeroplane, but we just managed to maintain about 300 feet and turn gently back to the field amid much banging and farting from the front end - and maybe from me and from Poetpilot (who was in the back seat). I’ll never forget the surreal sight of three snow-white swans serenely winging their way through our 9-o’clock as I frantically scanned for somewhere to put the aeroplane down.




And last month, going to Caernarfon in the Chippy in the lee of the Welsh hills, the worst turbulence I’ve ever encountered in 25 years of flying despite the Caernarfon surface wind being only about 5 knots (I wouldn’t have been there if I’d known what the wind over the hills was!). Phenomenal vertical displacement, vicious sudden rolls to nearly the vertical, with violent yawing and wisps of cloud forming and dispersing around, above, and below us in the rotor currents. I really feared for either losing control or the aeroplane breaking. Thank heavens for good ailerons and a 4-point harness. It makes you realise how insignificant a small aeroplane is when it is in grip of such uncaring and mighty forces as this. And my grip on the stick had gone from my usual ‘light finger and thumb pressure’ to a death-grip. I had to force myself to relax, go with it as much as was feasible, not fight it more than I needed to to stay upright, and fly out of the area as soon as possible.

There have been others, including a few aeros that have gone very pear shaped (but at a safe height). But right now, these are the three that stand out.

SSD

[walkabout]

A commercial heli flight which had been hovering over the numbers, departed as I turned final. I decided to continue the approach but be prepared for a GA if I experienced any rotary vortex.......................well I did, but only on very short finals, and was instantly banked steeply to the left, nose down with the ground rapidly filling my view. I think pure survival instinct meant that I pushed and pulled the right things to perform a GA before contact but the left wing could only have missed the ground by feet. I'd never experienced a total body sweat attack before but now know how it feels - not to be repeated if possible.....

W

[Timothy]

Does this count? (http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2003/10/25/newsstory5284925t0.asp)

:O

W

[reverserunlocked]

From a pax point of view (everytime I leave the ground as PF is scary, too many to mention..) I was a bit unverved a few years back on a KLM 767 climbing out of AMS bound for BEY.

The Captain had just released the cabin crew, the flaps were up and the ride was lovely and smooth. Suddenly we hit some clear air turbulence. I'd never experienced it before and even to someone who'd spent time in light aircraft I have to admit it was a bit scary.

It was as though a giant had just swotted us with his fist, we just momentarily seemed to fall out of the sky. The whole episode lasted only a few seconds but as my stomach shoved it's way up to my chin I thought 'uh-oh, this is it..' and then that was it.

Captain immediately came on the PA and said 'cabin crew take your seats' but the rest of the flight was as smooth as silk.

Funny how there was a strange hush after that for a good ten or fifteen minutes - a woman sitting in front of me looked a bit green when we were taxying out, after the CAT she was sobbing for hours!

Odd thing the weather, innit?

[strake]

Burning smells do it for me.

1.For some reason, if I take off in my TB9 with the hot air slider high it gives out the most awful oily burning smell. It does not sound too bad written like this but at 500ft....!! Needless to say, nothing is actually on fire and I've only done it twice....

2. Flying up the coast east of Calais to Oostend, there is some sort of refinery which vomits out a nice burning smell. Sounds pitiful now but again, at the time.......!!

[sanket_patel]

The most scariest part of my career? Hmmm... it would getting a carrier!
Will start looking for a flying job after i get my degree in a couple of months, I know the industry bottomed out and is recovering but I still am worried :uhoh:

[VFE]

Taking off at night on my own in a SEP not long after becoming qualified and the engine dropping about 1000RPM at 800ft AGL for a few seconds. It's moments like that you wish you'd never had the stupid idea of becoming a pilot . . . . if only for a few seconds. :D

Another time on very low hours I got delayed getting back into the home feild in an aircraft with no panel lighting or nosewheel landing light which had failed during the flight. Had to land on a runway with no centre line lights, in the dark and with no visual reference to decide the flareout other than the feeble runway edge lights which gave off very confusing visual deceptions of height. Manged to pull it off but had sweaty armpits as a result!

Then there was the time the radio failed whilst being radar vectored onto the ILS at a very busy Charleston International one night, with cloud base at 400ft in a crap 172, getting thrown around the sky. Glad I wasn't flying but the 2000+ hours mate who was flying went veeeery quiet at the time which indictated to me that all was not funky dory! Made me laugh when he suggested on landing we go straight to the bar to get wrecked! :D

VFE.

[Cusco]

My scariest moment, which still raises the hairs on the back of my neck when I think about it, happened at 15.00Z on 4th August 2000.

I was having a bimble and making my way back to base and was flying vfr talking to no-one in particular but listening out to london information.

Altitude 2,400ft, about 300ft below cloudbase,heading northish, over Woodbridge in Suffolk, when less that half a mile in front of me, on a reciprocal heading, a f*^%ing great Canberra from RAF Marham dropped out of the cloudbase ahead of me.

With the laziest of banks to his left, he passed down my right side, same level about 100yds away. I could hear his engines.

I just carried on, too late for any course correction and changed my trousers when I landed.

Now, at that time No 1 son was in the RAF and gave me the name and direct phone no. of ops of the photographic Canberra unit at Marham,

So I rang them up for a chat: they were very nice about it ' were you the white single near Woodbridge' they offered.

'Yes I was' quoth I. 'Well we saw you: no harm done eh old chap!.' they said.


Never reported it: perhaps I should've :probably I was thinking about No. 1 son and his career in RAF.

Jeeze, you should see the sweat running down by back as I type.


Safe (and well separated ) flying

Cusco.

[WorkingHard]

Low level go around, down wind, passenger points to THREE c130 hercules UNDER us in the ATZ. Very focused for a while.

[BoeingBoy]

767/757 Capt. 19000 hours.

One of the Stewardesses told me she was late one month..........Now that was bloody scary!

[Kingy]

Nonchalantly approaching my homebuilt into my home strip in a full sideslip at idle. It's a very draggy plane anyway, but I was very high and too lazy to fly a proper circuit. At about 150ft agl the nose drops violently and speed heads for VNE with the stick on the backstop. Before I know what’s happening I'm through the vertical. I wanged the throttle full and pushed the stick forward - Instantly airflow is restored over the tail plane and I have control again. I just managed to recover below my landing strip (it's a hilltop site) and turn away from the hill. I gingerly fly a circuit and land.

What happened? Well, I think it was aerodynamic blanking of the tail from the thick wing in a full slip with no power and it absolutely terrified me - I really, really thought I was going in. I didn't fly for two weeks and promptly made a will.

To this day I don't know what made me add power and push when all my senses and training told me that was the wrong thing to do. I would be dead otherwise, and probably just another stall/spin statistic.

On homebuilt aircraft every flight is a test flight - remember that folks!

Kingy

[Algirdas]

Kingy,
that is truly spooky - what sort of plane is it?
Sideslipping is one area of aerodynamics that seems to me to be 'on the edge' - the upper (i.e. shielded) elevator surface must become pretty ineffective in an acute slip, and there must be circumstances that would tip the remaining effective surface into overload mode (e.g. gusts) - is there any other experience of similar out there?
:oh:

[Flyboater]

Cowling of Pa28 opening at 200 feet after takeoff. Student (quite experienced) had done the pre-flight and not secured the fasteners properly.
I now always check them personally before I get in, no matter who has done the pre-flight.

[Kingy]

Algirdas,

The plane's a FRED. I've now prohibited full slips from 'my' POH! The bloody thing tried to hurt me again after this event see this (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=99630) thread. It's being repaired at the moment. They say things come in threes - mmm... not looking forward to that!

In it's favour not many planes will do this (http://groups.msn.com/LatinFlyersAirportBar/pprunegallery.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=602) though :D

Kingy

[Snakecharmer]

Hostie - cross cockpit authority gradient often the one!

Mine was mid way through AFI course... many years ago...

The day after the partial engine failure... (!)

FIC instructor demonstrates base leg (join). S61 on opposite base leg. Interesting, me thinks (childhood upbringing involved much exposure to RAF 'beware downwash' posters).

FIC Instructor patters final turn. S61 ahead. S61 cleared to land. FIC Instructor continues patter. S61 pilot radios: "what about the aeroplane behind?". We are instructed to go-around, an instruction the FIC instructor acknowledges. FIC Instructor continues approach patter. You can guess the rest....

Full story told much better after an evening imbibing much ale!

[Saab Dastard]

Missing another PA28 at 2300 feet over southern UK by about 50 feet / 2 secs (according to the CHIRP report submitted by the instructor I was flying with).

It seemed a lot closer at the time! :ooh:

I won't ever forget the weird sensation of every loose article in the cockpit flying over my head as we took emergency avoiding action.

It's true what they say about constant relative bearing.

SD

[Algirdas]

Kingy,
I give up!
What's a FRED ????
:confused:

[Circuit Basher]

Kingy will probably regale you with a proper piccie of his beast, but hopefully this link (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/387680/M/) will give you an idea of what it looks like.

[Kingy]

Here she is...Wadda ya mean Heath Robinson (http://groups.msn.com/LatinFlyersAirportBar/pprunegallery.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1138)

It's unusual for a FRED in that it has the original all moving rudder. It's very powerful and has no 'feel' whatsoever. This aircraft will fly hands and feet off for about oh... 2 seconds!

Kingy

[Dop]

Oh, that's nice.
When is it going to be finished?

(ducks and runs)

[GrantT]

It was as though a giant had just swotted us with his fist, we just momentarily seemed to fall out of the sky. The whole episode lasted only a few seconds but as my stomach shoved it's way up to my chin I thought 'uh-oh, this is it..' and then that was it.

Exactly the same thing happened while i was flying on an Airtours DC-10, scared the hell out of me and still havn't fully recovered :p

[RichyRich]

Cowling of Pa28 opening at 200 feet after takeoff. Student (quite experienced) had done the pre-flight and not secured the fasteners properly.

Jeez: sounds like me, but my cowling opened when rotating. The fastner had actually fallen off, and was found on the runway. Very exciting, thank goodness for a long runway! I now religously check each fastener twice.