Incidents. How did you cope?

[squitter]

Its always interesting to hear about any moments you would rather have not had, such as engine failures, bad weather etc. and how you coped and what you learnt. So lets hear them and we can all learn a bit more about flight safety.

[jayemm]

OK, here's mine, and a difficult confession.

Last year, with about 70 hours PIC I was lucky enough to be in San Diego, so hired a 172 for a day's flying. Got checked out and the bi-annual at the same time, then took off to the East across the mountains and Palm Springs into the desert. Flew to some very remote but beautiful places and had a fantastic day. On the return as soon as I crossed the highest mountains (about 10,000') I saw the whole San Diego bay area right up to the mountain ranges in a mist. Visibility was about 1km and reducing.

I should have turned back, but only had that day in San Diego, and just didn't know how I'd sort things out from the desert side. I called on my IMC (recently obtained) and used instruments to guide me down between the lower mountains that pepper the countryside to the east of San Diego.

It was towards the end of the day and the sun was low in the sky, but high-enough to create a blinding glare when mixed with the mist. The problem was that the nearer and lower I got to the airfield (Montgomery field) the less I could see.

ATC was very busy and asked me to orbit which enabled me to check my real position and altitude and prepare for the approach. As soon as I completed the orbit I realised that I just couldn't see the arifield. Up to this point I had deliberately kept calm for the sake of my passenger, but I now chucked the board and chart at him so as to really concentrate on finding the way. Eventually, I just said to ATC that I couldn't see anything whilst I focused on height and keeping level....ATC was really calm and guided me down to the runway (it turned out I was approaching the downwind leg in the wrong direction) where I landed safely. I thanked ATC effusively and they said it was no problem "it happens quite a lot here because of the sun and mist in the evening!". I wish I had known that before.

I confess to being more scared once I was down and thought about what had happened. I learnt the following:

1. Don't press on...losing it is worse than making it inconvenient

2. Don't wait so long before asking for help...I should have called ATC sooner and explained the position (I visited 121.5 at West Drayton 2 years ago, and they said the same thing...they wished Pilots would call them sooner if in doubt)

3. In foreign climes, try to find out any idiosyncracies about the weather.

4. When in difficulty it is critical to keep calm, and focus on flying the plane..probably the only thing I did well that day.

As for the rest, I feel really stupid just writing this. There probably is a God after all.

[kanga]

today i flew solo in conditions so bad at one point i couldn't see the wing tips. an international airport was completely invisible on BASE LEG! and a >10 Kt X-wind on finals.
an amazing learning experience not to be repeated. i'm a PPL holder with less than 60 hours. Don't try this at home.

[M.Mouse]

jayemm

You shouldn't feel stupid writing your post. It is admirable that you are prepared to publish your experience. I would say that the most impressive thing you did was to remember to fly the aeroplane> Not so easy when feeling frightened, confused and worried.

I also had a moment or three when a lowish houred PPL unfortunately an experience like yours is what ultimately makes you safer because you learn a great deal from it.

Never be afraid to talk about it because there is not a pilot alive that hasn't had an experience that he would rather he hadn't!

[SteveR]

Some may already have read this, it's the second bit of a trip to France I made at the end of 2000, with 100hrs under my belt.

"We were, of course, as usual, time pressured. Customs were not present on
the field, the restaurant was closed, but we needed fuel and we needed to
hurry. Prunay is self-service fuel, with a card and a PIN you get from
reception. I sprinted across to push the 172 into position, filled both
tanks to the top, sprinted back, waited and fumed while the receptionist's
computer crashed and failed to issue an invoice, then shooed the family
across the apron to get them loaded.
Calm, calm, calm. I collected my thoughts while I went down the checklist
and almost got to engine start when I realised that the wing would clout
the fuel hut if I let it move. So down I got, pushed shoved and grunted
until it was clear, remounted and hurried down the checklist again. Got
taxi clearance, got to the hold, and during the taxi something, somewhere
was rattling. It occurred at specific engine revs, and seemed to be
directly above me. I couldn't believe I hadn't secured the fuel cap
properly, but the moment it occurred to me that I hadn't - well, I just had
to shut down and check.
Nothing visible, all looked and felt good, so I re-re-mounted and belted
through some sort of checklist to startup, power check, vital actions, and
call ready for departure in hardly any time. We took off at 15:00, we had
90 minutes ahead of us, and official night was 16:25 (I have 3 hours of a
night rating under my belt, which is useless in France anyway).
I hardly need point out that is not good aviation practice.
During the climb out I assessed the vis. (not bad), and the lowness of the
sun (not good). To go Southeast from Prunay you really need to start off
Southwest towards Chalons Epernay to avoid a particularly unpleasant
restricted zone. Thus I was climbing into a low sun and keeping a pretty
close eye on Reims behind me to be sure where I was. My route called for
me to turn Easterly to overfly Chalons, then head 150 degrees straight down
the Marne Valley with an enormous reservoir and a couple of distinctive
towns as the waypoints.
I called up Reims Info, gave them my destination, and was left to get on
with it. At 15:30 or so I was called:
"Please confirm that you have a plan de vol de nuit filed for Vesoul"
"Negative, please confirm that official night is 16:24"
Thinks. Reads map. Thinks. Calls Reims.
"A cause de cette head wind, j'ai changer mon avis and maintainant je vais
a Langres".
The book has the frequency as an 'auto-info'. When I tuned in, about 25
miles out and about 15:50, I could hear numerous calls to do with circuits,
but didn't notice any overall voice in control. I now realise that they
were self announcing, so my repeated and increasingly desperate calls for
joining and landing information were ignored.
By 16:05 it was gloomy. I had the panel lights on, the navs and the
strobes and I was about 5 miles short of the town, with no aerodrome in
sight. No torch, I could barely see the chart properly, but I was sure I
should be on top of the field. I had received a couple of garbled messages
from the ground: "have you spotted the field?", "what are your
intentions?", "which runway?".
Then I saw it, on top, at the edge, of a South facing escarpment, with a
forest behind it to the North. One hut, one hanger, 4 cars, and a wind
sock. (which I spotted on my second orbit). The grass runway had no edge
markers, but I knew it runs due N-S. The runway is marked with a single
arrow at each end (no numbers). The view from the South was nice, but I had
been getting a few more messages from the ground about using 18 so I set up
for slow, safe flight with 10 degrees of flap, and orbited to get a view
from the North. I didn't like this view at all, the trees were tall, the
field looked shorter.
Heading South on my second orbit, I saw 2 things: the windsock, indicating
a gentle wind at ninety degrees, and (to my horror) a whole load of car
headlights seemingly leaving the aerodrome. I have 20 years' experience of
the French, and a fairly low impression of some of them - the Gallic shrug
of indifference is not an English invention. Now I thought I was being left
to get on with it because these people had their soup waiting for them athome.
Then things started to get better. I resolved that the orbiting had to
stop, and that I would go for a landing in a Southerly direction, despite
the trees. A voice came on the radio and this time stayed there - we
agreed that as I was now flying North I was on a downwind leg for 18, 2
cars sped up the runway and turned around into 'wind', pointing their
headlights down the runway. I confirmed that the runway was in-between
these two cars, and then lost sight of them under the wing as I turned
base, grabbed 20 degrees flap, and turned final.
I could see their tail lights and used the DI to line up with the runway,
aiming between the cars, and down we came to a greaser of a landing.
Through all these orbits and the approach I had only paid serious attention
to three instruments - the t's and p's and the ASI. Just about all my
altitude and throttle judgements had been made by eye and ear, and the carb
heat was on more than it was off. The speed did drop away a couple of
times and I'm pleased that no matter how low I'd seemed, I'd dropped the
nose to fix the speed then raised the throttle to fix the height
As we taxied along in the dark, the two cars roared passed us on the
runway, and I was told to follow them, which I did, along a gravel taxiway
to a hanger. I shut down, practically fell out, and there were 6 of the
nicest men I've ever met, all wanting to say hello and, (he blushes)
complement me on the landing."

I wonder how many have read this so far!!(the whole story is at:
http://millen.test.uk.concentric.com/pilots/diary/

Steve R



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PPL(A) EGTO
View my logbook, back up your own:
http://www.e-logbooks.co.uk

[Flybywyre]

The worst incident I have ever experienced Happened about 6 years ago.
I arrived at Guernsey on a Sunday for a night stop and found that The pubs do not open on a Sunday!!.
I have never quite recovered from this ordeal.
Cheers http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/guin.gif
FBW

[This message has been edited by Flybywyre (edited 17 June 2001).]

[Aussie Andy]

This is great stuff! KLeep 'em coming, then someone should publish the collection in a book to sell to low-hrs mugs like me in the (probably vein) hope that we will be able to avoid the pitfalls by simply reading of others hard luck!

Andy :)

[G SXTY]

My first solo was particularly memorable. Once I'd recovered from the shock of my instructor jumping out, I composed myself enough to run through the power checks and call ready departure.

I then managed a lovely neat take off & circuit, altitude heading & airspeed right on the numbers. Downwind call was fine, as was the pre-landing checklist & turn onto base. Turn final, call finals & select full flap - it's going like a dream. 60kts over the numbers, it was too good to be true. It was.

Boiiinng! http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif Huge bounce (incidentally the 1st time I'd ever experienced one). Optimistically sit there hoping it'll sort itself out. It doesn't - the 2nd one is bigger, and I'm starting to feel like a passenger. Instant visions of another C152 collapsed nosewheel accident report, and I remember that I'm supposed to be flying the aircraft - full power & call going around.

Stagger into the air with slightly dented pride, but never mind - it's a lovely day, a good command decision, and I get to double my P1 time. Second time around, equally neat circuit, equally awful landing. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif I take no chances and go around again.

Third approach, and this time I'm really really trying. The flare is smoother, but boiiinng!! http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif We're up in the air again, and frayed nerves command yet another go-around.

Now I'm starting to sweat. No-one else is going to land it for me, just try & relax, work out what I'm suddenly doing wrong after an hour of lovely smooth (dual) landings and - above all - fly the aircraft.

Turn finals for the fourth time, and the control column is soaking wet in my hands - mental note to get some gloves for next time. Call finals and my instructor is on the frequency; "Just make sure you've got all the power off, and fly it along the runway."

At last. Main wheels touch down & stay down, a no doubt very relieved nosewheel follows suit. Crawl off the active, complete the shutdown checks & stumble back to the clubhouse. Never, ever, have I felt so drained.

Once I'd calmed down and analysed it all (about a week later) the clause was clear. More used to Stapleford's 22L, which is uphill and tarmac, I could get away my naughty habit of leaving power on. 04L (downhill and grass) was a different proposition, and it was bound to catch me out at some stage.

The lesson, which I'm glad I learnt early on and painlessly, is to always always fly the aircraft. Don't ever be afraid to go-around / go somewhere else / turn around & go home - it'll still be there next time, and you'll be a wiser and safer pilot for the experience.




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Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit pruning.

[Rattus]

No so much an incident, as a "might have been". It was our first cross channel venture, a seafood gourmet weekend in Brittany, four of us in two aeroplanes. At dinner on the second night, one of our number ordered Fruits de Mer, and there arrived a colossal stack of crustaceans, with a whole langouste perched on the top. Naturally, we had to help him out.
Only au petit dejeuner the next morning did it dawn on us that all three pilots and the navigator had shared the same shellfish. How did we cope? We sat around all morning drinking coffee and watching the world go by (which is after all what France is for) and when nobody fell over and died, we flew home. :)

[This message has been edited by Rattus (edited 18 June 2001).]

[arrow2]

Heres mine!

2 years ago on the longest day of the year 3 friends and I (all but 1 of us PPLs) were returning in my Arrow from Les Sables D'Olonne back to the UK. After an uneventful stop for lunch in Deauville I head out on my usual crossing (which I had done many times before) from Le Havre to Worthing - I think it is about 70 miles.

Climb to 3000' and settle in the cruise. Just half way across (we could not really have been in a worse position) the RHS says to me "do you think the oil pressure is a little low?". It seemed to be so we agreed to keep an eye on it. Less than 5 minutes later strange noises start, later ascertained to be the propellor going to fine pitch as the oil in the constant speed unit changed pressure. My 1st reaction waqs "this can't be happening to me" Anyway, rapid assessment between me and RHS of what to do and within 60 seconds we had turned back to France to take advantage of Northerly wind. GPS then used to give us a direct track to the nearest piece of coast. Then we agreed to start a gradual climb and reached 5000', without changing the engine settings, except to put mixture to fully rich, fuel pump on and change tanks (all of which had little effect).

Then Mayday call to London Info who got the ball rolling with the French authorities. Little then to do for us but to watch the miles count down and hope for the best. Back seat PPL in the meantime looked in the manual to check if there was anything to cover the situation and also to verify best glide etc.

It seemed to take ages to get back but I guess within 15 minutes were in gliding distance of Le Havre airfield, where we had decided to go and, once sure we could make the field, reduced power carefully and landed (nearly getting far to high on finals due to my reluctance to give up height until the last minute).

After landing got out and collapsed on the grass - adrenalin was pumping. Then a friendly Monsieur le gendarme came to take my details and buy me a much needed beer.

An experience I would not care to repeat, however being blessed with good VMC and 2 other pilots on board I think we handled the situation as best as we could in the circumstances. Never did really find out what the cause of the problem was - the oil level had reduced significantly (2 of us had checked it as normal before leaving Deauville) and I can only surmise that there was an air lock in the sump or something. Went back the following weekend to Le Havre to change the oil and give it a good run up before flying back using the short crossing from Calais.

A2

[Evo7]

G-SXTY

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">
Crawl off the active, complete the shutdown checks & stumble back to the clubhouse. Never, ever, have I felt so drained.
</font>

Just imagine how your instructor felt.... :) :)

[Rallye Driver]

Here's my offering.

Last summer I flew the Rallye down to Goodwood for a long weekend. On the Friday I decided to have a trip round the Isle of Wight then across to Compton Abbas. The outbound trip went fine, and although there was a very strong wind blowing down the runway at Compton Abbas, the landing was OK. So far, so good.

I topped up with fuel. On the Rallye, the fuel tank is accessed via a rubber bung which is held in place by a detachable cover with lugs that slide under the wing skin and is locked in place with a spring loaded screw T-bar. I checked that everything was firmly in place, did my power checks and took off.

On my way back to Goodwood I wanted to fly over the farm where I was brought up, which was about 10 miles to the north east of Compton Abbas, just outside the western stub of the Boscombe Down MATZ. I had done a couple of orbits and was heading off towards Romsey when I happened to look across at the port wing. Something was streaming back across the wing. 100LL!!

The spring catch had come undone on the fuel cap cover. Fortunately the cover was still in place holding the bung in, but the lower pressure over the top of the wing was sucking fuel out at a rapid rate. I decided that the best option was to return to Compton Abbas, which was only a few minutes away, and by flying with the starboard wing low the fuel loss dwindled to a trickle and then stopped. This was just as well, because the Rallye has a cross feed between the tanks.

I had visions of the cover and bung departing company with the aircraft and landing somewhere in deepest Dorset and leaving me with a u/s aircraft, but thankfully they stayed in place. I called up Compton Abbas and told them I had a problem and was returning, rejoined the circuit and landed without further ado.

They had just received a fuel delivery, so I had time to recover from my ordeal before I refuelled again. The nett fuel loss was about 19 litres, getting on for half a tank full (which included about 20 minutes flying time). This time I cadged some gaffer tape from the engineers in the hangar, and taped up both covers to stop a repeat performance. The second attempt to return to Goodwood went off without further incident, although I was visually checking the covers every couple of minutes.

I can only think that I hit a bump the first time I took off, which was enough to spring the T-bar open. From then on, the covers were thoroughly checked for security before each flight and we never had the problem recur. Just once was enough. Fortunately it hadn't happened somewhere like mid channel. An incident like that certainly focusses the mind.

At the end of the year the Rallye went off to a new life in Ireland. We've got an AA5 now.

[G SXTY]

You're not wrong Evo7.

Imagine proudly watching from the clubhouse as one of your fledglings went around, and around, and around. It'd put me off instructing for life. :)

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Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit pruning.

[DOC.400]

A few years ago, on a ferry flight to collect another plane, the engine on the Cub I was flying P2 decided to drop a valve into a piston, 5 miles from our destination. On a delightful October afternoon my pal, having just finished his instructor training, did a pefect dead stick landing into a field of recently sown winter wheat, after we both automatically checked fuel and carb heat. We discovered that the Cub's track exactly matched the tractor tracks so we could mitgate any damage. After a hooligan ride in a Police VR6 to the airfield, we returned to hide the Cub and inspect the damage. The valve was visible across the spark plug hole!!
We collected the plane I was due to fly back, 300' up, smoke was seen creeping out of the cowling, a quick U turn and clearance to an opposite direction runway saw us being chased along the taxiway by an extremely large fire engine. Engine runs were done, but no problem could be repeated. Now getting towards dark, we decided to get the train back to base. Have you ever been on an HST when they really hit the brakes for a station? -you get a heavy smell of burning......Other passengers looked on as two grown men collapsed into hysterics....