When you almost became... "Another Statistic"
Hi all
Excellent thread this. Very GASIL-y. I have two for your perusal:
I destroyed a Shadow after taking off right at the end of VFR, into the vicinity of two CBs, failing to take note of the drift I was encountering and striking a tree at the threshold as I came in to land.The aircraft shed it's right wing and cartwheeled in, ending up with me lying in the remains of the pod with the rest of the aircraft in many,many small pieces.
Episode two was going up in an open-cockpit single seater and almost being strangled by a badly-secured helmet/ intercom lead set-up. I avoided crashing by a hair's breadth, having had the stick jammed by the intercom cable in my frantic attempts to restrain the lid from departing.The helmet was being lifted up from my head by the visor, which flipped up in the airstream and the ear-defenders(a separate item from the helmet shell) had been blown off my head and the lead had wrapped itself around my neck. To say that I resembled a one-armed wallpaper hangar is to underestimate how busy I was trying to sort it out. I managed to get things secured enough to fly back to the 'field, but I was shaking so much I couldn't land for ten minutes.
To this day, I believe that whichever god looks after fools and idiots was working flat out on my behalf.
regards
TDD
Excellent thread this. Very GASIL-y. I have two for your perusal:
I destroyed a Shadow after taking off right at the end of VFR, into the vicinity of two CBs, failing to take note of the drift I was encountering and striking a tree at the threshold as I came in to land.The aircraft shed it's right wing and cartwheeled in, ending up with me lying in the remains of the pod with the rest of the aircraft in many,many small pieces.
Episode two was going up in an open-cockpit single seater and almost being strangled by a badly-secured helmet/ intercom lead set-up. I avoided crashing by a hair's breadth, having had the stick jammed by the intercom cable in my frantic attempts to restrain the lid from departing.The helmet was being lifted up from my head by the visor, which flipped up in the airstream and the ear-defenders(a separate item from the helmet shell) had been blown off my head and the lead had wrapped itself around my neck. To say that I resembled a one-armed wallpaper hangar is to underestimate how busy I was trying to sort it out. I managed to get things secured enough to fly back to the 'field, but I was shaking so much I couldn't land for ten minutes.
To this day, I believe that whichever god looks after fools and idiots was working flat out on my behalf.
regards
TDD
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Radio failure
Hey all, this is my first post to this forum, so i hope to make it an entertaining/educational one.
I did a cross country flight yesterday from Phoenix, AZ to Blythe, CA. I have my PPL and about 40-50 hours on top of it and am currently taking instruction for my commercial/instrument licenses. I did the typical run up for the PA28, everything was perfect, took off and headed on over to California. Right as I cross the border I noticed that the alternator charging gauge has completely stopped moving and is sitting on the far left side, indicating it's not working. Not being how sure the alternator has been out, I quickly turn off all of the electronics I can to preserve whatever amount of battery power I have left. I'm right next to my airport so I quickly call in to see if there's anyone there that can look at it, but to no avail it's Sunday. There was a kind soul on the taxi-ramp though that explained to me there wasn't a person there that could help me out, so I turned off my radio and turned around.
Normally this wouldn't have been TOO big of a deal except that the flight was supposed to be mainly reliant on VOR. My flight instructor is relatively new and has been pushing the whole "rule of thumb" technique as to when it comes to making flight plans. However, I've been reluctant to budge and it paid off on that flight. I quickly grabbed my flight plan and set off on new co-ordinates that weren't VOR related, but instead flew directly over a large hi-way that would take me all of the back home.
I come over a large lake that is well used when calling to my airport and tell them my position and situation with nearly no battery power, and they give me a straight in approach for runway 4L, and request I call out at 2 miles if possible. I acknowledge and again shut off all electronics until I reach my 2 mile barrier where I switch everything back on and call the airport. They again clear me to land so I land (smoothest ever for some reason), and then taxi off the runway. At tihs point my battery is completely gone so there's no functioning radio left ot use.
Now I remembered that you are supposed to roll your wings while in the air to signal to the airport that your radio communications is down, but now that I was on the ground this didn't seem to apply, so I just sit there on the taxiway and wiggle the controls as much as possible so the plane while gather their attention, elevator and aileron's flapping. After a few seconds I see an extremely bright green beam of light, indicating it's safe to taxi. I head back to the hangar, tie her down, and go inside and tell the mechanics what's happened with the plane.
Not exactly an extremely close call, but something that's made me contemplate the meaning of life for an hour or so afterwards as this could hav ebeen a lot messier.
I did a cross country flight yesterday from Phoenix, AZ to Blythe, CA. I have my PPL and about 40-50 hours on top of it and am currently taking instruction for my commercial/instrument licenses. I did the typical run up for the PA28, everything was perfect, took off and headed on over to California. Right as I cross the border I noticed that the alternator charging gauge has completely stopped moving and is sitting on the far left side, indicating it's not working. Not being how sure the alternator has been out, I quickly turn off all of the electronics I can to preserve whatever amount of battery power I have left. I'm right next to my airport so I quickly call in to see if there's anyone there that can look at it, but to no avail it's Sunday. There was a kind soul on the taxi-ramp though that explained to me there wasn't a person there that could help me out, so I turned off my radio and turned around.
Normally this wouldn't have been TOO big of a deal except that the flight was supposed to be mainly reliant on VOR. My flight instructor is relatively new and has been pushing the whole "rule of thumb" technique as to when it comes to making flight plans. However, I've been reluctant to budge and it paid off on that flight. I quickly grabbed my flight plan and set off on new co-ordinates that weren't VOR related, but instead flew directly over a large hi-way that would take me all of the back home.
I come over a large lake that is well used when calling to my airport and tell them my position and situation with nearly no battery power, and they give me a straight in approach for runway 4L, and request I call out at 2 miles if possible. I acknowledge and again shut off all electronics until I reach my 2 mile barrier where I switch everything back on and call the airport. They again clear me to land so I land (smoothest ever for some reason), and then taxi off the runway. At tihs point my battery is completely gone so there's no functioning radio left ot use.
Now I remembered that you are supposed to roll your wings while in the air to signal to the airport that your radio communications is down, but now that I was on the ground this didn't seem to apply, so I just sit there on the taxiway and wiggle the controls as much as possible so the plane while gather their attention, elevator and aileron's flapping. After a few seconds I see an extremely bright green beam of light, indicating it's safe to taxi. I head back to the hangar, tie her down, and go inside and tell the mechanics what's happened with the plane.
Not exactly an extremely close call, but something that's made me contemplate the meaning of life for an hour or so afterwards as this could hav ebeen a lot messier.
PPruNaholic!
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Well done Mandenbar, sounds like you handled it very well. I always wonder whether I would have even noticed the ammeter as you did: mental note... I should include glancing at the ammeter when doing my FREDA checks! Certainly better than discovering it when nothing works!
Andy
Andy
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Are they not a mandatory fit in USA?
Andy
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I tested the "alt" warning light on the anunciatior panel during run up, and they all worked fine. However, no light went off during the flight or I would hvae noticed that the ammeter wasn't functioning earlier... kinda of a bad combination of things... but the plane was inspected and I was told that the belt to the alternator broke, which was the source of the problem apparently. No word on the anunciator panel..
On another note, I was doing a night flight last night (to be current for my Commercial/Instrument training), and during midflight the landing light stopped working... grrrr. It worked on takeoff, then sometime before landing it decided to quit... I'll say it's a little harder to do touch and goes with only runway lights going, but nonetheless it was good experience and my instructor was with me.
On another note, I was doing a night flight last night (to be current for my Commercial/Instrument training), and during midflight the landing light stopped working... grrrr. It worked on takeoff, then sometime before landing it decided to quit... I'll say it's a little harder to do touch and goes with only runway lights going, but nonetheless it was good experience and my instructor was with me.
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Yah, I don't think they'd really grab my attention either unless i happened to be looking at that exact area when they went off... plus if it's really bright inside the airplane (IE flying towards sunset/sunrise), it'll be impossible to see.
Not so N, but still FG
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I don't regard an alternator failure in day VMC as a significant emergency. It's an inconvenience, but doesn't affect the aircraft's ability to fly. Obviously a potential nasty in IMC or at night. The real point of mentioning this, however, is to praise the always splendid guys at London Distress & Diversion. Yesterday I was in a Bulldog stooging around near Chlemsford when the alternator failed and I lost the radio almost immediately. No big deal: I landed back at North Weald non-radio and flapless. I phoned Southend Radar to apologise for leaving their frequency without speaking, and found that D&D had picked up my 7600 squawk, and asked me to call them to put their minds at rest. It is good to know that people are looking out for you.
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As described by a IMC rated friend of mine:
Dateline: Not long ago
Venue : Northern France
Took off (why?) from said Northern French airfield into known cloudbase of 400ft in non IR equipped A/C.
Started to climb through cloud (why?) but decided it was too thick so stayed underneath. Flew up coast at various heights between 300-500ft.
Passed Bolougne at height sufficient to see detail of bolts in propellors of windfarm.
Saw blue sky through cloud at CGN and climbed to 2000ft.
Crossed channel.
Lived.
Dateline: Not long ago
Venue : Northern France
Took off (why?) from said Northern French airfield into known cloudbase of 400ft in non IR equipped A/C.
Started to climb through cloud (why?) but decided it was too thick so stayed underneath. Flew up coast at various heights between 300-500ft.
Passed Bolougne at height sufficient to see detail of bolts in propellors of windfarm.
Saw blue sky through cloud at CGN and climbed to 2000ft.
Crossed channel.
Lived.
PPruNaholic!
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... makes me shudder to think of it...! Especially as I have just been looking at the long-range forecast for my cross-channel trip this coming Saturday, only to see a forecast occluded front expected mid-Channel all day... but I won't be taking those sorts of chances..!
Oops pardon me
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Hi,,,,,,,,,dont wanna bore you with tales of PPL mayhem but just a quick recall. Attempting the second leg of my solo XC. I left Wolverhampton in what i considered a reasonable cloud base. In the left turn out and subsequent climb to the overhead I entered cloud at 700(unexpected) feet left wing low and in a climb attitude. The circuit was quite busy and all I could think of was dropping out the cloud might put in in some conflict with other traffic. Against all advice I decided up was good! I leveled the wings and adjusted the attitude to climb at what I considered the best climb attitude. Now in this strange world of cant see where you're going, the mind plays all the tricks in the book. A severe attack of panic can creep in if you dont get a grip of yourself and I remember thinking if you dont think about what you are doing here, you are going to end up as as statistic. Watch and beleive your instuments even if you are a low hour VFR student!!!
Attitude,speed,rate of climb. Everything else has to come second.
Eventually I popped out on top at 4500 feet to a beautiful blue sky with a carpet of solid cloud.
To cut a long story short,with the help of the nice man from RAF Shawbury radar, he guided me to a hole where I came down again to visual terra firma.
My advice if u ever encounter this is............
Fly the plane. Get to a safe altitude and calm yourself. Catch up on the rest of your checks, talk to someone and dont lie!
It's something I will always remember as I am sure will my instructor!
Coop & Bear
Attitude,speed,rate of climb. Everything else has to come second.
Eventually I popped out on top at 4500 feet to a beautiful blue sky with a carpet of solid cloud.
To cut a long story short,with the help of the nice man from RAF Shawbury radar, he guided me to a hole where I came down again to visual terra firma.
My advice if u ever encounter this is............
Fly the plane. Get to a safe altitude and calm yourself. Catch up on the rest of your checks, talk to someone and dont lie!
It's something I will always remember as I am sure will my instructor!
Coop & Bear
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There was I 2000ft in a shadow on a very sunny hot and humid august day over the patchwork eiderdown of north kent countryside. I was back from a 10 year break from flying, and doing a PPL(m) for a holiday, and was doing some practicing stalling. Stick forward and throttle gently opened to recover and shock horror, nothing except the same rough idle!
Being used to comparative brick-like glide rates on spamcans of my long previous flying experience I lapse into piper mode and start looking for anything long and flat and NEAR. No wind to worry about.
I select my field and I make my mayday call. I am very pleased with myself for this and register a mix of simultaneous terror & calm. The field is a bit narrow and there's a few shrubs at the end but the others were all postage stamp size and lined by borders of trees. In I come on left base and spot the telegraph wires handily marking the threshold. Ok, I'll keep the height on a bit then. What I feel should normally be a delightfully gentle whooshing breeze is rapidly becoming the eeriest sound I've ever heard. It's then I notice the appauling downslope of the field, and those bushes at the far end are nothing less than fully 60 ft trees! No question of hopping over them and into the next think I. About now I am beginning to think it's conceivable that this damn field is the last thing I will ever see, as the Shadow floats gracefully onwards, unwilling to return to earth! Flaps on the Shadow are pretty useless, but down they go. Nothing. On we fly. What else can I do but point the nose down, aim for a gap between 2 large trees and wince as the shadow makes contact with the ground about 20 feet before the end of the field, doing about 40kts.
The trees rip both the wings off, and I briefly black out for a couple of seconds. When I come to, I run a quick diagnostic and agree that I wouldn't be feeling such pain in my straps if were not still alive. Notice a smell of fuel though, and am appauled to realise I FORGOT TO TURN THE ENGNE OFF!
I get out, dazed and confused and stagger off to interrupt Lord XXXXX's Sunday family lunch and be fed tea and biscuits by his lovely wife. The rest is a story of broken fences and a very annoyed flying club owner, but I got the following out of it:
1. Be aware of the AC's glide characteristics. There was an actual grass strip I could have made had I know.
2. Size was good, shape was good. Slope and obstructions were awful, and on a return flight 2 days later I saw that I should have spotted these earlier.
3. Turn the engine off once I was commited. Even the tickover was giving me some thrust.
4. Maybe question the sanity of practicing stalling in a 2 stroke engine notoriously prone to carb icing on a hot wet day.
( I also gave up on 2-stroke engines after a crank went on my shared X-air 6m later, but that's a personal preference thing!)
Do I practice PFLs regularly now? No I don't. Not nearly enough, and writing this has made me determined to do so!
Being used to comparative brick-like glide rates on spamcans of my long previous flying experience I lapse into piper mode and start looking for anything long and flat and NEAR. No wind to worry about.
I select my field and I make my mayday call. I am very pleased with myself for this and register a mix of simultaneous terror & calm. The field is a bit narrow and there's a few shrubs at the end but the others were all postage stamp size and lined by borders of trees. In I come on left base and spot the telegraph wires handily marking the threshold. Ok, I'll keep the height on a bit then. What I feel should normally be a delightfully gentle whooshing breeze is rapidly becoming the eeriest sound I've ever heard. It's then I notice the appauling downslope of the field, and those bushes at the far end are nothing less than fully 60 ft trees! No question of hopping over them and into the next think I. About now I am beginning to think it's conceivable that this damn field is the last thing I will ever see, as the Shadow floats gracefully onwards, unwilling to return to earth! Flaps on the Shadow are pretty useless, but down they go. Nothing. On we fly. What else can I do but point the nose down, aim for a gap between 2 large trees and wince as the shadow makes contact with the ground about 20 feet before the end of the field, doing about 40kts.
The trees rip both the wings off, and I briefly black out for a couple of seconds. When I come to, I run a quick diagnostic and agree that I wouldn't be feeling such pain in my straps if were not still alive. Notice a smell of fuel though, and am appauled to realise I FORGOT TO TURN THE ENGNE OFF!
I get out, dazed and confused and stagger off to interrupt Lord XXXXX's Sunday family lunch and be fed tea and biscuits by his lovely wife. The rest is a story of broken fences and a very annoyed flying club owner, but I got the following out of it:
1. Be aware of the AC's glide characteristics. There was an actual grass strip I could have made had I know.
2. Size was good, shape was good. Slope and obstructions were awful, and on a return flight 2 days later I saw that I should have spotted these earlier.
3. Turn the engine off once I was commited. Even the tickover was giving me some thrust.
4. Maybe question the sanity of practicing stalling in a 2 stroke engine notoriously prone to carb icing on a hot wet day.
( I also gave up on 2-stroke engines after a crank went on my shared X-air 6m later, but that's a personal preference thing!)
Do I practice PFLs regularly now? No I don't. Not nearly enough, and writing this has made me determined to do so!
Thread Starter
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i didn't think people survived forced landings like that! especially when contact is made with trees!
good for you manThe other day i took a risk and got away with it. It was my first solo cross country (for my PPL) and when i did my runup, i noticed that my alternator charge was at zero. I tried turning on the pitot heat and the needle didn't even flinch. I thought of all the other times the guages in this ****ty aircraft have caused problems and decided to ignore it. Right choice, aparently the guage is broken.
Second mistake was when i was departing my destination airport to go back home, i forgot completly to do my runup
when i got back home i found the transponder on stdby god i don't know how i forgot that!
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It is still a popular thread looking at the views for it recently. Lots looking at it but not many replying. The top of the forum was getting a bit busy with stickies and as this one was popular getting lots of views I decided to let it go for a while hoping it would stay around on page one for a while. I will see how it goes over the next few days. I just needed to make a bit of room up there to keep the top of the page fresh for a while.
