Crashes

[bottle2throttle]

Has anyone got any bad experiences from flying light aicraft, maybe even a crash?

Could you share some so that we can all learn from your mistakes. Also I thought it would be an interesting thread. Some of the same questions being asked over, and over again do become quite tedious. Also there should be a spell checher on this site because I can't spell for *****.


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Jesus, this bogy's all over me...........

[paulo]

Doing circuits, me mid-downwind, having someone fly directly at (and over) me, them having been told to go-around by tower. Next time round somehow the eejit ended up inside abeam me on downwind. That called for immediate full stop and about forty cigarettes.

[TwoDeadDogs]

Hi,B2T
I destroyed a Shadow last year,by crashing into the top of an ash tree(about 40 feet)and then tumbling to terra firma inside same.I had put the arm on the owners to allow me to fly it,I took off into fading light,with CBs 5nm from the field,I had no radio...no brains,no common sense,lack of judgement,arrogance,impetuosity...and ended up,literally,within an inch of paralysis,as well as owing two men a replacement aeroplane.
Hanging is not the only thing that concentrates the mind.
regards
TDD

[Pielander]

Mine's pretty smallfry realy, and doesn't really count, but I once got myself lost by setting my DI in a particularly bumpy bit of air. It ended up 10 degrees out, and I ended op at the wrong side of a hill in poor viz. I found myself by tracing the problem back. Exciting stuff, eh!!! :rolleyes: (Hey, come on, it was my 2nd solo nav!)

For some much better stories than mine, I can recommend reading "I Learned About Flying From That" (In Transair). It kept me amused for ages.

[jhuxley]

Three airproxes so far and a couple of in-flight mechanical problems. I had a good one about 2 weeks ago: I was circling the airfield running in a new cylinder on my Mooney, got bored and left the area and noticed that the right fuel tank was reading nearly empty after 30 minutes (left with 4 hours fuel) and a strong smell of fuel. I changes tanks, did a quick 180, landed and when I checked the fuel tanks both were completely dry. The only fuel left was what was in the pipes. It turned out the mechanic had forgotton to tighten the fuel hose from the pump after fitting the new cylinder and it was spraying avgas all over the engine bay and hot exhaust pipes. The sort of thing that not even the most thorough pre-flight would have picked up.
I had a rough running engine at max weight, but that's no big deal (except that you can't do a go-around).

[A and C]

Most of the things that have been a danger to me have been avoided by keeping a good lookout because no matter how late you see the other aircraft you still have a chance to take avoiding action.

In most of the potental near misses i have been involved the other aircraft has continued on and has clearly not seen me .....what realy bothers me is how meny times have i been that "other aircraft" ?

[village flyer]

nothing much but...
In the circuit downwind. Hear on the radio a call from a twin that has engine trouble after take off and is requesting return to the field. I make the call announcing the turn onto base leg, approved by the tower. In the decent stage now doing 75kts with two stages of flap and get a call from the tower pasing traffic information on the aircraft, he asks are you visual? no, but traffic copied. Picture this he is a camoflaged AC below me over green fields, not a chance.

To cut a short story even shorter, we intersect with very little room and I had to to a 180 on the base leg and return to the orbiting point at the end of the downwind leg.
I caught up with the twin driver sometime later and asked him about the episode - his answer - was there another AC in the circuit?
this was my second solo......

[Puffin Killer]

Had a similar experience to paulo in the circuit.

I had completed my PPL and was carrying out a type familiarization on a PA28 and was doing a few touch & goes with an instructor. We were climbing out on the crosswind leg after a T&G and I put the nose down to check for traffic, as you do, when a C152 came across the front of us. It was so close that the instructor in the C152 recognized my instructor and when he had got back to the ops room stated to all & sundry that he had nearly killed so and so.

Both myself and my instructor queried ATC as we both had not heard them instructing the C152 to join on the downwind leg but they stated that they had.

Now I try to be 120% alert in the circuit and I keep a good look out at all times. I agree with A and C its not the ones you see that are going to get you, its those you don't!!!!!!

[ROTATION]

My incident was on about my fifth solo hour on finals for 06, the active runway with 3 in the circuit for that runway, and with the wind favouring that runway, at an uncontrolled airfield in Florida. The sort where everyone announces what they're doing and aircraft are expected to call ahead before arrival to ask about things like active runway and announce their joining intentions. My ears suddenly pricked up as I heard, unannounced until now, an aircraft on finals for 24. S*1t I thought. Surely I must have misheard, but sure enough there it was, a learjet about to touchdown at the other end of the runway I was about to touch down on. Went around and overflew the landing learjet at about 150 ft. Having landed and shut down I sought out this pilot who explained that the first thing they teach new pilots is a go-round so no problem really!!! W****R! Moral of the story is that you need to be bloody careful at these busy uncontrolled Florida airports.

[Nishko]

I got caught short last summer flying back from a picnic with my girlfriend, and decided to give the 'little john' a go (familiar to anyone who has pawed through the pages of a Transair book whilst on the loo). As it turned out, it still had the 'Lady J' adapter attached, and in my infinitely superior judgement I decided that it may be of some benefit to leave it there.

After some clever shuffling around, and whilst maintaining the required VFR look out, I was ready to place my faith in the hands of the gods - and 'relieve' myself.

My girlfriend quipped "...the look of ecstasy on your face combined with the image of what's going on down there, makes me feel as though you are being unfaithful to me..."

Almost immediately, the ensuing hysterical laughter on my part stole any control over what was going on 'downstairs' and as I felt the results soaking into my jeans...

...My advice is 'don't bother'. It's easier to pee out of the window of a 152 in flight than use one of those things. Oh yes, and if your girlfriend has been left alone in a secluded field with a Little John, remember to empty it *before* taking to the air. ;)

Nish

[This message has been edited by Nishko (edited 05 April 2001).]

[312928]

village flyer
You say that you heard the twin call that he/she had trouble after take-off and wanted a return to the airfield. Why didn't you just orbit out of the circuit or just extend downwind? Would that not have been the decent thing to do?
I know that if I was in trouble I wouldn't want anyone getting in my way, and I have extended/orbited a few times to allow for gear unsafes etc to land.
Just because the tower says it's ok to do something doesn't mean it is. Who has the last say?
Stay safe people.

[village flyer]

312..
Can't argue with common sense can I....
as you say I would have ben better off extending the downwind leg, however in my defence I was on my second solo and trying to get most things right and the call was made by the tower to bring me in prior to the twin.
As it happened the other guy had made and early turn into his unexpected downwind and that is why he was inside of me.
I believe it was dodgy readings that gave rise to his concern.
VF

[ickle black box]

ROTATION, Just being nosey, which Airfield was it in Florida? I've flown into loads of these uncontrolled ones, thankfully I've not had a serious problem yet. (UK ATC would describe 1/2 the thing's I've seen as serious)
I was about to scream into the mike once, someone was landing on 08, while a twin was about to start his takeoff on 17, but delayed. This happened as we were changing runways.

ickle

[dougyboy]

It was a typical day in Oregon. Low ceilings, with drizzle and about enough visibility to see the radiator ornament as I drove toward our airport.

I had just soloed the day previously, and wasn't about to let the weather deter me from another exciting experience at the controls of an airplane. I admit that I was pretty proud of my accomplishment and had invited my next door neighbor to ride along with me. I planned to fly to a neighboring town about 200 miles away where I heard there was a good restaurant.

On the way to the airport, my neighbor John Williams, expressed some worry about the trip. "Don't worry about a thing," I reassured him, "I understand the hamburgers are excellent."

When we arrived at the field, the drizzle had turned into a hard steady rain. We checked with the local operator and found that my regular airplane, a Cessna 120, was down for repairs. The operator was a good hearted fellow though, and when he saw my disappointment he assigned me another one, N 3341P, which turned out to be a Piper Apache.

"It's practically the same as a 120," he told me when I discovered there was an extra engine. "Just remember you have to pull the gear up."

After a pre-flight check of the airplane - (I noticed the tail wheel was missing but didn't say anything to the operator for fear he would cancel the trip) - we climbed aboard and I began looking for the starter. Just then the operator came running out to tell me that there were severe thunderstorms at my destination, and warned me to be careful. I assured him that I was not afraid of thunderstorms.

The takeoff was uneventful, but we did use what seemed to be a lot of runway for an airplane with two engines. (I learned later that we had taken off downwind with the parking brake on.)

We climbed into a solid overcast at about 400 feet. This was a bad disappointment as I know John would have been interested in the scenery. The air was pretty smooth though, and except for the ice that kept forming over the windshield there was very little to see.

For a pilot with only six hours I thought I handled the controls pretty smoothly, although, for some strange reason, things would occasionally fly out of my pockets up to the roof. John didn't seem to notice. In fact, he kept staring straight ahead with a sort of glassy expression. I guess he was afraid of the height as some non-pilots are.

After about an hour I began to be concerned over the fact I could not see anything. It was going to be difficult to spot other traffic around the airport at our destination. I hoped the other pilots would use a little good sense and keep a sharp eye in such bad weather.

It was obvious that I was going to have to get down lower if I wanted to see anything. It was too bad that the altimeter was so unreliable. It kept winding and unwinding rapidly and I guessed that it hadn't been kept in good repair.

Anyway, following this plan, I began to come down. Just then the left engine quit. No warning, nothing. It just quit. John made a sort of gurgling noise then and it was about the first thing he had said since we left. I explained that there was nothing to worry about as we had another engine that we hadn't even used yet. So I started the right engine and John felt better after that. He went to sleep.

Well, pretty soon we did get down far enough so that I could see the ground. It was pretty dark under the clouds and if it wasn't for the lightning flashes, it would have been hard to find any good landmarks. Then I spotted a highway and remembered there was a highway near the airport that we were headed toward, so I followed it. It was difficult to read the road signs in all that rain, and I had to stay pretty low. Several cars ran off the road when we passed them, and I could see it was true about flying being a lot safer than driving.

After a while we did find the airport, but I had to fly around the tower a few times to make sure it was the right one. I didn't want to make a mistake and have everyone know that I was just a student pilot. They were very hospitable at the airport and flashed all sorts of colored lights as a welcome.

So I landed and slid up to the parking area. (The operator should have mentioned that you had to put the gear down again.) Everybody there was pretty excited. It was easy to see they had never seen a Piper Apache before. John was still sleeping soundly, and I had to have help to carry him into the restaurant.

Well, I certainly learned about flying from that, and I want to pass on some good advice to other pilots: Don't believe everything you hear - - the food was terrible!

[rockaria]

bwahahahahaha :) :) :) :)

in a sense worrying though cos i bet some people actually do those things............ presuming you were only joking........... ? you were werent you? please tell me you are only joking!!

:)

[Teenyweeny ATC Cdt Cpl]

Airprox with an inflated Winnie-the-Pooh balloon climbing out on first solo...
-tacc

[Capt Wannabee]

Thumbs up to rockaria for a classy story. Just brightened up my boring day at work, cheers!

[312928]

village flyer
i guess so.
i don't think i would have known what to do on my second solo. it all seemed to happen so fast. nowadays if i hear anyone in trouble i just shut up and move out the way or just tell 'em i'll let em in where ever they want to go.