Learn From my mistakes!
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Radio trouble? been there as well!
Leaving Lubbock, Texas, in a rented Cessna with a nervous passenger and an Instrument Rating, I felt relatively calm at the beginning of our return trip to St. Petersburg, Florida. As I would be flying IFR with flight following, all I had to do was to do what ATC told me to do!
Right. Except that after takeoff, and ascending into smooth IFR, everything went exceptionally quiet. Under Houston enroute control, usually they do communicate with other aircraft from time to time. After a silent five minutes or so, I got nervous, and made a call. "Houston, Cessna 43788". No reply. Tried again, still no joy. SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH THE RADIO!
This is a very stimulating experience for a fairly inexperienced Instrument Rated Pilot. All at once, you are exposed! All that training, what to do in case of radio failure, you are scrabbling around in your brain, trying to remember it. O yes. First of all, FLY THE PLAN! You filed a flight plan, now you are stuck with it and everyone else will have to get out of your way.....
That is, if you can remember what numbers to put in on the transponder.....don't want to do that wrong or they will think you have been hijacked....
Meanwhile, trying not to upset my nervous passenger, I am twiddling various knobs on the radio, without effect, and then I checked whether the headset was plugged in properly.....THAT WAS THE PROBLEM! It had come loose, no telling how far back, how many messages Houston had been trying to send me.
So I radioed Houston. "Houston, Cessna 43788". They came back loud, calm and clear. Pass your message. "Houston, Cessna 43788 was off radio for a while, did I miss anything?"
"No, ma'am, we never missed you at all. Maintain 7,000 feet and continue, have a nice day!"
Not the end of our adventures on that day, but how many ways of getting into trouble can be experienced on a single trip? Lots! Stay calm and fly your plan!
Right. Except that after takeoff, and ascending into smooth IFR, everything went exceptionally quiet. Under Houston enroute control, usually they do communicate with other aircraft from time to time. After a silent five minutes or so, I got nervous, and made a call. "Houston, Cessna 43788". No reply. Tried again, still no joy. SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH THE RADIO!
This is a very stimulating experience for a fairly inexperienced Instrument Rated Pilot. All at once, you are exposed! All that training, what to do in case of radio failure, you are scrabbling around in your brain, trying to remember it. O yes. First of all, FLY THE PLAN! You filed a flight plan, now you are stuck with it and everyone else will have to get out of your way.....
That is, if you can remember what numbers to put in on the transponder.....don't want to do that wrong or they will think you have been hijacked....
Meanwhile, trying not to upset my nervous passenger, I am twiddling various knobs on the radio, without effect, and then I checked whether the headset was plugged in properly.....THAT WAS THE PROBLEM! It had come loose, no telling how far back, how many messages Houston had been trying to send me.
So I radioed Houston. "Houston, Cessna 43788". They came back loud, calm and clear. Pass your message. "Houston, Cessna 43788 was off radio for a while, did I miss anything?"
"No, ma'am, we never missed you at all. Maintain 7,000 feet and continue, have a nice day!"
Not the end of our adventures on that day, but how many ways of getting into trouble can be experienced on a single trip? Lots! Stay calm and fly your plan!
Last edited by mary meagher; 25th Feb 2013 at 08:59.
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Hi, I had a flight to Derby in a Club Cessna 152 that I had not flown before.
On route it needed max throttle to achieve any sort of speed and throttled back it was down to 80 Knots, which I thought could be due to a worn out prop.
Anyway, the approach to landing at Derby was just about Ok, with 60Knots over the fence, then flared to within 3 feet and held off the numbers with no power, still Ok.
However by halfway down the runway with the plane wanting to climb rather than stall, I realised I was running out of runway so decided to let her fly on to the grass at 3/4 way down the runway, and then stepped quite hard on the brakes to slow before the end.
The rest of the days flying was uneventful, but when I asked the engineer if this was a particularly slow 152, that cruised at 75-80 knots, he inspected the ASI and found the tube from the Pitot to the ASI was split.
So my 'Slow Cruise' could have been 100+ knots with that throttle opening, and the landing at Derby was most likely at 80+ knots !
On route it needed max throttle to achieve any sort of speed and throttled back it was down to 80 Knots, which I thought could be due to a worn out prop.
Anyway, the approach to landing at Derby was just about Ok, with 60Knots over the fence, then flared to within 3 feet and held off the numbers with no power, still Ok.
However by halfway down the runway with the plane wanting to climb rather than stall, I realised I was running out of runway so decided to let her fly on to the grass at 3/4 way down the runway, and then stepped quite hard on the brakes to slow before the end.
The rest of the days flying was uneventful, but when I asked the engineer if this was a particularly slow 152, that cruised at 75-80 knots, he inspected the ASI and found the tube from the Pitot to the ASI was split.
So my 'Slow Cruise' could have been 100+ knots with that throttle opening, and the landing at Derby was most likely at 80+ knots !
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Not from me but from a good friend:
Took a friend up for a sight seeing flight in the super dimona, the friend wanted to take some pictures and had a rather large camera. Everything went smoothly until reaching VR, tried pulling back on the stick but it wouldn't budge and the aircraft wouldn't climb. Quickly aborted the takeoff (long runway) and realized the friend's camera was wedged behind the control stick, allowing only minimal deflection of the elevator.
Moral of the story: during the control checks check for COMPLETE freedom of the controls, all the way back, all the way forward, left and right!
A few things I've learnt:
- don't trust an aircraft to be in good shape even if a CFI/highly experienced mil/airline pilot hands it over to you, check the aircraft anyway
- don't waste runway or height
- ask if in doubt
Took a friend up for a sight seeing flight in the super dimona, the friend wanted to take some pictures and had a rather large camera. Everything went smoothly until reaching VR, tried pulling back on the stick but it wouldn't budge and the aircraft wouldn't climb. Quickly aborted the takeoff (long runway) and realized the friend's camera was wedged behind the control stick, allowing only minimal deflection of the elevator.
Moral of the story: during the control checks check for COMPLETE freedom of the controls, all the way back, all the way forward, left and right!
A few things I've learnt:
- don't trust an aircraft to be in good shape even if a CFI/highly experienced mil/airline pilot hands it over to you, check the aircraft anyway
- don't waste runway or height
- ask if in doubt
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In no particular order :
Not long after qualifying I took off on a local flight and was advised over the radio of an approaching snow shower. Completed my flight and ran into the snow on finals. I kept going thinking that I would run out of it. I did but I was scarily close to the ground when I regained visual. Started IMC training the following week.
Entered cloud when flying to South Uist. Made a gentle left turn to get me out. When I popped out of cloud I was at an alarmingly steep bank angle. Another few seconds and I would probably have lost control. Always trust your instruments.
Picked a Cessna 150 up from Perth after a 50 hour check. Did all the usual pre-flight checks and all OK. Full throttle down the runway and the thing would not lift off. Took a lot of back pressure to eventually stagger into the air. The trim was set to fully forward and I hadn’t realised. You can’t short cut the pre-flight – especially after it has been in the hangar.
Flew in a hired Cessna in the USA. Forgot to switch on the battery charger switch so had to get it hand cranked to restart. As soon as I landed I knew that there was a problem but I had flown for over an hour and not noticed the red light. Never ignore a red light.
Decided to fly to Glenforsa on Mull. Phoned and was told that the grass strip was in excellent condition and there had been no appreciable rain. We landed and almost lost it when we skidded through the mud. Should have asked when the last rainfall was.
Take off from Prestwick on the long runway with a crosswind. As soon as the nose gear left the ground the thing veered sharply to the left and almost left the runway. Managed to get it under control and taxied back rather sheepishly saying I thought that I had burst a tyre. Gusting cross winds and a light single don’t mix.
Left the aircraft parked for the week-end in Orkney and every nook and cranny was stuffed with grass from birds trying to build nests. Took the cowling off to clear round the engine and lost the two screws which hold it on. Managed to secure it by jamming two chinagraph pencils in the holes. Not very pleased about doing that but I had a commercial flight to catch from Glasgow so it was a desperate measure.
Another pilot had taxied the aircraft into a fence post and damaged the underside of the wing. We had some discussion and phoned the engineer at Glenrothes. He advised us to get the aircraft to him and he would have a look at it. I agreed to fly it there (30 minute flight). All OK until a couple of weeks later the CAA contacted me. The aircraft should have been inspected before the flight. I got into bother about that.
When I think about it, a scary number
Not long after qualifying I took off on a local flight and was advised over the radio of an approaching snow shower. Completed my flight and ran into the snow on finals. I kept going thinking that I would run out of it. I did but I was scarily close to the ground when I regained visual. Started IMC training the following week.
Entered cloud when flying to South Uist. Made a gentle left turn to get me out. When I popped out of cloud I was at an alarmingly steep bank angle. Another few seconds and I would probably have lost control. Always trust your instruments.
Picked a Cessna 150 up from Perth after a 50 hour check. Did all the usual pre-flight checks and all OK. Full throttle down the runway and the thing would not lift off. Took a lot of back pressure to eventually stagger into the air. The trim was set to fully forward and I hadn’t realised. You can’t short cut the pre-flight – especially after it has been in the hangar.
Flew in a hired Cessna in the USA. Forgot to switch on the battery charger switch so had to get it hand cranked to restart. As soon as I landed I knew that there was a problem but I had flown for over an hour and not noticed the red light. Never ignore a red light.
Decided to fly to Glenforsa on Mull. Phoned and was told that the grass strip was in excellent condition and there had been no appreciable rain. We landed and almost lost it when we skidded through the mud. Should have asked when the last rainfall was.
Take off from Prestwick on the long runway with a crosswind. As soon as the nose gear left the ground the thing veered sharply to the left and almost left the runway. Managed to get it under control and taxied back rather sheepishly saying I thought that I had burst a tyre. Gusting cross winds and a light single don’t mix.
Left the aircraft parked for the week-end in Orkney and every nook and cranny was stuffed with grass from birds trying to build nests. Took the cowling off to clear round the engine and lost the two screws which hold it on. Managed to secure it by jamming two chinagraph pencils in the holes. Not very pleased about doing that but I had a commercial flight to catch from Glasgow so it was a desperate measure.
Another pilot had taxied the aircraft into a fence post and damaged the underside of the wing. We had some discussion and phoned the engineer at Glenrothes. He advised us to get the aircraft to him and he would have a look at it. I agreed to fly it there (30 minute flight). All OK until a couple of weeks later the CAA contacted me. The aircraft should have been inspected before the flight. I got into bother about that.
When I think about it, a scary number
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Beagle
Will relate two ! I was right seating another pilot in a Senca twin! We were solid IMC trying to do a cloud brake me eyes down in a map looking for obstructions!
Felt a high G pull on my stomach and looked up to see the AH in the vertical!
Screamed at the pilot who tried to roll us inverted to level the aircraft on instruments. Hit his hands off the controls and rolled it back the correct way also then recovering from a dive all IMC!
Ferrying aircraft back from India a Citation this time and had permission to land at a military base mid Saudi Arabia!
Wind was 45 degrees off the runway 2000 metres in dust and 20kts !
Last fifty feet the palm trees doubled over winds increased to 50 kts!
Touched down and in seconds viz dropped to 100 metres in the roll out!
Sky bright orange and could see sand streaming through the engines.
We had to stop on the runway as vis too bad to taxi in a sandstorm and I did not want to ingest even more sand through the engines than in the roll out.
A guy clothed in white with his face covered came out of the gloom!
We got out of the aircraft to blinding stinging sand so dense you could hardly breath.
Pace
Will relate two ! I was right seating another pilot in a Senca twin! We were solid IMC trying to do a cloud brake me eyes down in a map looking for obstructions!
Felt a high G pull on my stomach and looked up to see the AH in the vertical!
Screamed at the pilot who tried to roll us inverted to level the aircraft on instruments. Hit his hands off the controls and rolled it back the correct way also then recovering from a dive all IMC!
Ferrying aircraft back from India a Citation this time and had permission to land at a military base mid Saudi Arabia!
Wind was 45 degrees off the runway 2000 metres in dust and 20kts !
Last fifty feet the palm trees doubled over winds increased to 50 kts!
Touched down and in seconds viz dropped to 100 metres in the roll out!
Sky bright orange and could see sand streaming through the engines.
We had to stop on the runway as vis too bad to taxi in a sandstorm and I did not want to ingest even more sand through the engines than in the roll out.
A guy clothed in white with his face covered came out of the gloom!
We got out of the aircraft to blinding stinging sand so dense you could hardly breath.
Pace
Last edited by Pace; 28th Feb 2013 at 08:10.
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Learn From my mistakes!
I have been watching "dangerous flights" on discovery or nat geo, cant remember but its brill.
Seems like a perfect job ferrying aircraft about, bet you have loads of tales to tell pace
Seems like a perfect job ferrying aircraft about, bet you have loads of tales to tell pace
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Pilot Lyons
I would by no means call myself a Ferry Pilot although I have done some jet and piston twin work.
I am too much of a coward to ferry singles over the north atlantic and admire those who struggle around low level over those vast expanses of icy cold water with no deice/anti ice.
It looks bad enough high up above all the weather in a jet so hats off to the guys and gals who do ferry light singles winter and summer.
Nevertheless of the Ferry work I have done you cannot beat it! a real adventure and flights long distance which will stay in your memory for a lifetime.
As for "awkward moments" I have had enough to write a book on but thankfully I am still here older and hopefully wiser
not sure on the wiser bit?
Pace
I would by no means call myself a Ferry Pilot although I have done some jet and piston twin work.
I am too much of a coward to ferry singles over the north atlantic and admire those who struggle around low level over those vast expanses of icy cold water with no deice/anti ice.
It looks bad enough high up above all the weather in a jet so hats off to the guys and gals who do ferry light singles winter and summer.
Nevertheless of the Ferry work I have done you cannot beat it! a real adventure and flights long distance which will stay in your memory for a lifetime.
As for "awkward moments" I have had enough to write a book on but thankfully I am still here older and hopefully wiser
not sure on the wiser bit?Pace
Last edited by Pace; 27th Feb 2013 at 19:47.
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Mary, I had one similar to you. I was in the Manchester LLR heading back to Barton when the intercom stopped working. I realised I had lost comms and decided a fuse must have blown. I kept a good lookout and started to squawk 7600. After a minute or two or messing with various knobs and switches I decided to check the connections on my headset...it had come loose. Back to 7366 and normal ops. Check the simple things first and don't convince yourself that the cause of the problem is definite!
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Learn From my mistakes!
It would definitely not be a job for the light hearted! Or a married man with young children so the latter puts me out.....
(I can dream while all three of my girls moan and argue in the background!)
I think you should write a book, i would buy it for sure, if not only for another place to go while the women battle it out
(I can dream while all three of my girls moan and argue in the background!)
I think you should write a book, i would buy it for sure, if not only for another place to go while the women battle it out
Last edited by Pilot.Lyons; 27th Feb 2013 at 20:23.
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Don't assume aircraft are quick to go
I've probably told you all this before but I was coming in to Breightons 29 solo and a Gyrocopter was lining up at this time, I was aware of this fact on radio. Thinking that he would be long gone by the time I would be on finals but not realising his type he was still sat on 29 spinning up his rotors and a go around was ensued.
Last edited by Helicopterdriverguy; 27th Feb 2013 at 23:56.
Entertaining story from Groovy Nut about floating chocolate bars. However, (and I'm really really just raising this for consideration, not as criticism) if there is a known loose article in the cockpit, then turning the aircraft upside down is perhaps not the best way to proceed? While you still have full control of the aircraft, a better plan might be to recover to land as gently as possibe.
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if there is a known loose article in the cockpit, then turning the aircraft upside down is perhaps not the best way to proceed?
Obviously this only applied to fighter types...
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What I learned: It surprised me how easy it was to allow the adrenalin of an “urgency” situation to distract me from the important things – even though I know “Aviate, Navigate, communicate” an tried to keep it in mind.
Setting: EC120 single turbine unstabalised helicopter on route back to EGKR after 4 hrs flying (with fuel a fuel stop an hour back), slightly tired with 12 miles to run, at 2400ft and 120knt. Heading towards Bough Beech and the Gatwick CTA so thinking about getting the ATIS for EGKR on box 2, and swapping from Farnborough East LARS to Redhill ATC, changing transponder code and getting down below 1500ft. In the middle of all that the Master Caution light / gong and notification of a GEN failure.
Initial reaction – that is important but not urgent as the battery is good for 20 min and EGKR is now 7min at this speed. Decision – ignore until established at 1400ft, north of the railway and talking to EGKR ATC for joining instructions. That done, begin problem solving the GEN warning but keep in mind the critical order of activity – Aviate (an unstabalised helicopter has to be flown constantly), navigate (busting Gatwick CAT is 30 sec away at most above / left of track), communicate. Toggle the GEN switch, no benefit. Press ELEC RESET, no benefit. Decide to leave this problem alone and simply run on battery for the 6 minutes remaining.
New Master Caution for Electrical Systems. Scroll through the FLI screens to BATTERY, and find voltage and amps have dropped (setting off the Caution). Scroll to GEN screen and find good voltage but no amps. Interpreting the data, I have lost the GEN but the BAT should have given me 20 min. As it is a NiCad, voltage tends to stay constant as the battery drains until close to exhaustion, when it drops rather quickly to zero. Given that I have a voltage and amps drop on the battery, it might be about to run down and I would have no electrical power. That removes my engine management screens, radio, transponder, AH, DI, etc but leaves NG, NF Airspeed, Alt, VSI and the old-fashioned compass. Time to communicate!
First, check height and location, then PAN call to EGKR; advise electrical problems, possible imminent loss of communication, request direct approach at 1400ft, autorotation profile from the airfield boundary and power recovery (engine permitting). Cleared No1, 1400ft approach and autorotation profile to any surface. Head back inside, 4 miles to run. I begin shutting down non-essential electronic systems (flymap, Box2, Box 3, Radio nav, AC, etc. Call at the VRP (3 miles), and repeat cleared No1 with 1 R22 in the circuit; wind 260/5. I announced intention to auto into area 1. Head back to battery screen, and then fly the aircraft.
2 miles…. 1 mile…. The R22 calls downwind and is told “no.2 to the EC120 declared PAN on final”. I was then completely distracted by his opinion that he could land 26H ahead of me; though he was told “that’s very interesting, and you are still No2 to the EC120 PAN.
Airfield boundary, 1400 ft. Collective down full and flare to 75knt, cyclic up to contain NR, aim right of the crash truck (who has rolled to area 1) and wait for the ground to get close enough to flare. Kill the decent to zero and hold until fwd speed drops below 30 knt then cyclic fwd and collective up…. Engine still working so we come to a hover; cleared airtaxi to hangar “if you are happy”. On landing, found I was quite stressed and sweating.
Looking back – an electrical problem that was (and should have been) a non-event that I could easily have turned into an accident or a CTA bust through being distracted. I was amazed how distracting a “minor” problem can be, botht he electrical failure and the R22 radio traffic. It was a useful lesson to me of the importance of “Aviate,Navigate, Communicate”.
Setting: EC120 single turbine unstabalised helicopter on route back to EGKR after 4 hrs flying (with fuel a fuel stop an hour back), slightly tired with 12 miles to run, at 2400ft and 120knt. Heading towards Bough Beech and the Gatwick CTA so thinking about getting the ATIS for EGKR on box 2, and swapping from Farnborough East LARS to Redhill ATC, changing transponder code and getting down below 1500ft. In the middle of all that the Master Caution light / gong and notification of a GEN failure.
Initial reaction – that is important but not urgent as the battery is good for 20 min and EGKR is now 7min at this speed. Decision – ignore until established at 1400ft, north of the railway and talking to EGKR ATC for joining instructions. That done, begin problem solving the GEN warning but keep in mind the critical order of activity – Aviate (an unstabalised helicopter has to be flown constantly), navigate (busting Gatwick CAT is 30 sec away at most above / left of track), communicate. Toggle the GEN switch, no benefit. Press ELEC RESET, no benefit. Decide to leave this problem alone and simply run on battery for the 6 minutes remaining.
New Master Caution for Electrical Systems. Scroll through the FLI screens to BATTERY, and find voltage and amps have dropped (setting off the Caution). Scroll to GEN screen and find good voltage but no amps. Interpreting the data, I have lost the GEN but the BAT should have given me 20 min. As it is a NiCad, voltage tends to stay constant as the battery drains until close to exhaustion, when it drops rather quickly to zero. Given that I have a voltage and amps drop on the battery, it might be about to run down and I would have no electrical power. That removes my engine management screens, radio, transponder, AH, DI, etc but leaves NG, NF Airspeed, Alt, VSI and the old-fashioned compass. Time to communicate!
First, check height and location, then PAN call to EGKR; advise electrical problems, possible imminent loss of communication, request direct approach at 1400ft, autorotation profile from the airfield boundary and power recovery (engine permitting). Cleared No1, 1400ft approach and autorotation profile to any surface. Head back inside, 4 miles to run. I begin shutting down non-essential electronic systems (flymap, Box2, Box 3, Radio nav, AC, etc. Call at the VRP (3 miles), and repeat cleared No1 with 1 R22 in the circuit; wind 260/5. I announced intention to auto into area 1. Head back to battery screen, and then fly the aircraft.
2 miles…. 1 mile…. The R22 calls downwind and is told “no.2 to the EC120 declared PAN on final”. I was then completely distracted by his opinion that he could land 26H ahead of me; though he was told “that’s very interesting, and you are still No2 to the EC120 PAN.
Airfield boundary, 1400 ft. Collective down full and flare to 75knt, cyclic up to contain NR, aim right of the crash truck (who has rolled to area 1) and wait for the ground to get close enough to flare. Kill the decent to zero and hold until fwd speed drops below 30 knt then cyclic fwd and collective up…. Engine still working so we come to a hover; cleared airtaxi to hangar “if you are happy”. On landing, found I was quite stressed and sweating.
Looking back – an electrical problem that was (and should have been) a non-event that I could easily have turned into an accident or a CTA bust through being distracted. I was amazed how distracting a “minor” problem can be, botht he electrical failure and the R22 radio traffic. It was a useful lesson to me of the importance of “Aviate,Navigate, Communicate”.
Last edited by John R81; 28th Feb 2013 at 13:26.
Mary, I had one similar to you. I was in the Manchester LLR heading back to Barton when the intercom stopped working. I realised I had lost comms and decided a fuse must have blown. I kept a good lookout and started to squawk 7600. After a minute or two or messing with various knobs and switches I decided to check the connections on my headset...it had come loose. Back to 7366 and normal ops. Check the simple things first and don't convince yourself that the cause of the problem is definite!
He made all the calls, we lined up and departed. The airspace was fairly quiet so the fact I never heard any other radio traffic didn't ring any alarm bells. It wasn't until a few minutes later when he tried to tune into the ATIS of our home airfield that we discovered the radios weren't working. We tried tuning in the second radio, checked the breakers and the battery but there was nothing untoward there. Our intercom was functioning perfectly. We were about to squawk 7600 when I realized that the previous pilot had physically turned the radios off. The club SOP in that aircraft was to leave the avionics either on or on standby and power everything down via the avionics master switch (before we get into a flame war over whether this is the right or wrong way to do things, I didn't make the rules up I just follow them). The guy who flew it previously was not a club member.
Two lessons here: Do a thorough preflight because you never know who messed around with the plane before you, and even if you are the greenest student pilot, you might spot something a more experienced pilot may have missed so bring it to their attention. We are only human after all.
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flyinkiwi - your post has reminded me of two similar problems, because the pilot who flew it last didn't follow the usual procedures in shutdown!
Usually flying the tug Supercub, you NEVER use the brakes, as with a heavy 180 hp engine it just loves to nose over! Early days at Booker, getting qualified as a glider tow pilot on the 180 cub, I forgot to make doubly sure that the parking brake, which is a silly little lever hidden down out of sight- and out of mind - beside the seat, had been released before takeoff. Well, one wheel was free, anyway.....and the big power to weight ratio took care of the takeoff, on the wet grass.....but landing was rather a handful as it had one wheel rolling and the other one frozen stiff.... Custom is that the parking brake is never set. This is actually a good idea when parking at the launchpoint, so the plane can swing nose into wind if it wants to. And parking the Cub in the glliding hangar, you don't ever set the parking brake because people who may not have the foggiest idea of where the handle is or what it looks like, need to push the plane out of the way.
The other incident (wasn't me!) was our CFI tried to fly the motor glider when the last person to use it had turned off the fuel..........................we never let him forget that one!
Usually flying the tug Supercub, you NEVER use the brakes, as with a heavy 180 hp engine it just loves to nose over! Early days at Booker, getting qualified as a glider tow pilot on the 180 cub, I forgot to make doubly sure that the parking brake, which is a silly little lever hidden down out of sight- and out of mind - beside the seat, had been released before takeoff. Well, one wheel was free, anyway.....and the big power to weight ratio took care of the takeoff, on the wet grass.....but landing was rather a handful as it had one wheel rolling and the other one frozen stiff.... Custom is that the parking brake is never set. This is actually a good idea when parking at the launchpoint, so the plane can swing nose into wind if it wants to. And parking the Cub in the glliding hangar, you don't ever set the parking brake because people who may not have the foggiest idea of where the handle is or what it looks like, need to push the plane out of the way.
The other incident (wasn't me!) was our CFI tried to fly the motor glider when the last person to use it had turned off the fuel..........................we never let him forget that one!
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Mary
It is amazing the crazy things pilots will do !
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tyne | Concrete block fell from aircraft
Pace
It is amazing the crazy things pilots will do !
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tyne | Concrete block fell from aircraft
Pace
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I find it almost unbelievable that the pilot did not sense that the aircraft felt funny taxiing with a block that size and weight dragged behind.
Weird that he did not hear a rumbling noise! Surely he must have noticed something wrong on takeoff with the acceleration, increased noise as the aircraft gained speed and odd handling on takeoff ?
Thank God that projectile did not hit anyone as it fell from the sky!
I hope they took the pilots licence off him for a year for such dangerous, inexcusable antics.
Pace
Weird that he did not hear a rumbling noise! Surely he must have noticed something wrong on takeoff with the acceleration, increased noise as the aircraft gained speed and odd handling on takeoff ?
Thank God that projectile did not hit anyone as it fell from the sky!
I hope they took the pilots licence off him for a year for such dangerous, inexcusable antics.
Pace
Last edited by Pace; 1st Mar 2013 at 11:15.