When you almost became... "Another Statistic"
 

I thought i would share with everyone the times when i had a close call, I also invite anyone else who has a story to pipe up.:ok:

It was last August (2003), the second time i had ever solo'd outside the airport vacinity to the practice area 12 miles west. I was returning and flying in the direction of the airport, but five minutes over due and i was desperatly searching for it. Then, i saw it, out of nowhere it had appeared just off the right wing tip. The problem was, i had contacted the tower 10 minutes ago, and he had told me to report right downwind. Well, i was nowhere near that, i was about 5 miles to far out, and was almost set up to turn a long base. I freaked out, wrenching the yoke hard to the left, i made a split second 180 degree turn using about 65 degrees of bank, my heart pounding out of my chest, ive never been so scared in my life. In the mean time the tower thought i was going to report a right downwind, which i was overdue for by about 5 minutes already. At the moment i rolled out 180 degrees later, the tower contacted me and asked for my present location. I panicked and told them i was about five miles out still inbound. So now I was parallel to the runway going the wrong way in plain sight of the tower, not to mention i was ignoring my alititude indicator, drastically falling below TPA. At that point i applied full power, and cranked the yoke foward to hold fairly level flight. When i reached the wrong end of the runway, still going the wrong way a few minutes later, i then executed the same type of rash 180 turn to the left to finally set up for the correct right downwind. I landed uneventfully shortly thereafter, quite shookin up though. :uhoh:

The fifth or so time i had solo'ed in the traffic pattern, I was flying a right downwind to runway 32 (which is 7000 ft long). The tower requested that i alter my approach to land on runway 30 (which is 4500 ft and right beside 32). I accepted the tower's request, and landed long for the touch and go. Next, (I don't know what i was thinking,) but I rashly applied full power in hope of getting it off the ground before the end of the runway. I was successful, but barly cleared the trees at the end, (i actually shut my eyes for about 3 second really hard because i thought it was over). I don't really remmember talking to my flight instructor prior to that about landing on runways besides 32, but after the flight, i briefly asked him, and he said to stick to the longer runway untill we talk about runway legnths, takeoff distances, etc.

I never told him about either of these incidents, actually i have never told anyone. I just hope i'm not the only one with a story like this:uhoh:

I hope nobody is conceiving me as an unsafe pilot, or unfit, as i have been working on my license for almost three years off and on. I am learning to be patient, and to think before acting, and especially, to look before turning!:\

Thanks

T13x

Thief13x,

Thanks for being brave enough to post this. I don't think you're an unsafe pilot, just an inexperienced one. And honest, which is rare. And learning, which we all are.

Do the rest of us have stories like that? I certainly do. On my first flight after getting my PPL(A), I flew over the Welsh mountains from Welshpool to Caernarfon. When I set out to return, the cloud over the mountains had increased. I flew myself into what I thought was a tiny little cloud, which turned out to be a nasty big bumpy cloud. The story I've always told is that I quickly did a 180 and got out again. It's true, but I've omitted to mention the bumps, steep rate of descent, fear verging on panic, realisation that it's easy to talk about doing a 180 in cloud, but hard to do it. Eventually I got out, orbited over the coast to calm down, and flew back round the coastline, a much older and wiser pilot.

A friend who'd got his PPL around the same time, flew across those same hills, ran into cloud on the way back, and climbed above it. He ended up over an overcast, with no idea whether or not he was beyond the hills. He should have talked to someone on the radio and explained his predicament, but didn't; he decended when he thought it was safe...and luckily got away with it. He told me, but forbade me to tell anyone else!

I'm sure other pilots have similar stories to tell; whether they'll tell them or not is another matter. But we should all be able to be open, and learn from such experiences, our own and others. And one thing that your story and my friend's show is that you should never be afraid to talk on the radio. If you screw up, tell someone. You won't be the first. Being lost, in the wrong place, or not where you said you were, are not hanging offences. If you tell someone, they can help you.

Some years later, flying to Paris in a helicopter, we got lost on the Paris heli-routes. There we were, in the centre of Paris, approaching the Arc de Triomphe at 1500 ft, with no idea where we were. My radio call went like this:
"Molyneux, I'm sorry, but we're not where I just told you we were. In fact, I've no idea where we are".
"You can't say that on the radio", said my aghast co-pilot.
"I just did", I replied. "What else could I do?"

ATC gave us a sqwawk, found us, and directed us to the heliport. No problem. It happens. It's called being human.

I think its really good to write about these things as it helps you analyse the situations and prevent them from happening in future.

I was taken by surprise flying at high density altitude during my hour building in California. I was taking off from South Lake Tahoe (about 6500'AMSL) and it was about 27 Degrees c. the runway length is about 2500m which would seem like ample length for a little PA28. I decided to fill the tanks rather than refuel enroute (to Los Angeles). There were 3 of us on board with little baggage. I was quite confident that runway length would not be an issue and due to rising ground to the South, I decided to depart to the North, over the lake. Unfortunately assumption is the mother of all ***k ups as was later discovered. I did not really consider the terrible climb rate that we would experience at about 9000' density altitude and seemed to have been lured into a false sense of security by the length of the runway. This was made even worse by accepting a slight tail wind (about 4-5 kts) so that I could use the northerly runway.

The result was a take off run that seemed to take forever and a very wobbly lift off. The plane was very reluctant to climb above about 400fpm, and I had to concentrate on keeping the nose down to prevent stalling. We did clear the trees (obviously) but it was far too close for comfort and there was very little room for error. Had I flown into a downdraft or had engine trouble I probably wouldn't be here today, and neither would my passengers.

In retrospect there are a few things I didnt do which i feel i should have:
(1) Check the performance handbook. it only takes a couple of minutes. The fact that the runway was quite long resulted in my assumption that the rest of the takeoff would be ok.
(2) Keep the take off mass down. i could easily have chosen a field enroute for refuelling, and it would have also been a nice addition to my log book.
(3) I still think that using the northerly runway was the correct idea due to the rising ground to the South. I did underestimate the effect of the tailwind though even though it was only light.

These sorts of issues dont normally apply in the UK due to the low elevations but I think that my previous lack of exposure to density altitude increased my vulnerability and complacency.

The thing that scares me is a mid-air. Yea, I know the chances are very low, but I have come close several times in these bloody "practice areas". Several times remain vivid im my mind...

First time that made me realise how dangerous they are was after departure, our route took us into one of these areas before heading off en-route. We were two PPLs onboard, scanning the skies, called up for a radar service and got an immediate "traffic alert, traffic less than quater of a mile same altitude". Of course it was hidden by the wing in a Cessna (horrible things, high wings), we saw it, coming straight for us from the left. Theoretically it was our right of way, but as the other party hadn't seen us, our avoiding action was to dive. I'm not exagerating how dangerous these areas can be, two instructors from the same school, with two students onboard collided a couple of year earlier, killing all 4 of them.

Second time, we were IFR, though the weather had become Vmc as we neared our destination. We were issued a descent clearance (this time in a low wing), and started descending. Soon after, pop-up traffic appeared on the controllers screen and he issued a traffic alert. Apparently an aircraft was climbing below us (turned out to be a Cessna), and we were descending on top of him. He had been below the controllers coverage until we got fairly close, but sods law we were about to occupy the same area of sky.

And finally, on a different note, early in my ME days I almost crashed a Seneca at Sedona. The landing was so bad that I felt like I had lost it, I was literally out of control, and waiting for the UC to collapse, or us to cartwheel or something. Still, I got away with it and it was evening so there weren't many people around to see :D

EA

20ft from a mid air. My fault, student pilot, head down in the cockpit on XC leg. Looked up to see a 172 go over my head on a direct 90 degree path coming in from the channel. I learnt to look out after that. :eek:

Pulled lean cut rather than carb heat when switching from Warrior to Robin. Don't know who got a bigger shock - me or the instructor. :p

Inadvertant spiral dive, solo student. I learnt to do them deliberately after that. :E

I thought I was the only one. My most dangerous cock-ups to date were all in the first few hours of solo consolidation. Here's a few:

Dead-cut instead of throttle back at top of a climb.:ooh:

12 o'clock meeting with a tornado, having misunderstood "a not above 1500'" MATZ clearance.:eek:

A very scary recovery from a PFL onto a field that looked attractively uphill. Might have been great for an actual landing, but seemed to be almost impossibly steep to climb away from.:uhoh:

A perfect rejoin downwind for 27 LH. It was only when I was about to call downwind that I realised my mental picture was in fact reversed and I was downwind for 09 RH. Fortunately there was no other traffic in the circuit at the time.:oh:

Hmm, this seems to be a recurring theme. I've done that too...:D

The mixture-heat check? Yeah, me too. Only once though :)

Me too. On first XC during TOC check - even made a PAN call.

I pulled the mixture instead of carb heat to hear buttock-clenching sputtering. Thing is, I still didn't realise what I had done wrong as was convinced I had carb ice and needed to let it clear. So I pulled the mixture until the donkey was on its last cough. Only then did the euro drop and I realised the error of my ways.

Never done that again :O

I suspect that is a large part of the problem. Keep 'em coming folks; this has the makings of an extrmely useful thread. :ok:

Interesting to read of the Mixture / Carb Heat confusion among students. Before I started flying someone did this at Barton leading to a forced landing (must have been early '70s). At that time in C150s both controls were similar except in colour - they 'felt' the same.

Then Cessna changed the mixture control so that you needed to press in the knob on the end before the control would pull out, to prevent this very scenario. On the occasions where folk have done this, was it with the 'new' type of mixture control or the old?

Me? I was going to Welshpool years ago in the Chippy, back when Welshpool was a strip. Viz was bad, so we followed the railway from Crewe to Shrewesbury, then from Shrewsbury towards Welshpool. But Welshpool didn't come up on cue (the bloke in the back was supposed to be navigating, but I was P1). Eventually we found ourselves overhead a large town. I checked the map and identified Hereford! If you are going to follow a railway line, make sure it's the right one ;)

SSD

Mine was in a PA28; the controls are both levers, but feel quite different. It would be hard to mix them up... but I still did :{

Main reason I did it because I hit overload on my dual-QXC (thanks to a part-time instructor who flew for BA and thought it made him walk on water. Visiting Wycombe sent his ego into overdrive and he criticized everything I did the whole way round - "Stupid Boy!"). After a while I just about lost the ability to fly... nearly killing the engine made him shut up and me snap out of it a bit, so I guess there was some use to it :)

Haze
 

On my second trip with a passenger, we were heading back home when I turned to head directly west. In the low winter afternoon sun, and with some unexpected haze, the visibility seemed next to zero. I was only ten miles from home, and could have got there using the local VOR, but not being IMC rated or even Night Rated decided that the right thing was to divert. I diverted to the nearest airport to the east, feeling very disorientated and had to leave the aircraft there overnight. :O My passenger said that he didn't know anything was wrong and enjoyed the diversion! :rolleyes:

The worst part was getting up at dawn to get a train and taxi to the airport the next morning in order to get the aircraft back home in time for the start of the busy Saturday flying. Beware haze!

AppleMacster

Never done that ... however I now sometimes fly an aircraft with a carb heat control, and sometimes fly one without. Sooner or later I'm expecting to pull the "carb heat" whilst downwind in the wrong aircraft, get the throttle instead, and wonder why the engine has dropped back to idle ... but as I'm expecting to do this one day I hope I'll recognise it when it happens and sort it out...

Theif, This happens to everyone (or will happen to everyone). The only difference is you were big enough to admit it.

I've had a few, including going head to head with someone on down wind. Immediately I thought I had misread the pattern so I kept quiet but he/she was just in the wrong place or unaware they were over an airfield. Any way , I avoided and the other one carried on. Lesson learned, just because you are in the pattern does not mean everyone else is.

As Viper put it 'A good pilot will evaluate what has happenned so he can apply what he has learned' (and pass it onto others).

Again, as a low hours solo consolidation student I had completed some t+gs and landed when I was requested to expedite vacating for a twin coming in behind me.

So I kept the speed up to the end of the runway and tried to brake. Nothing. :eek:

I'd got my feet OVER the toe brakes! :O

I vacated on 2 wheels! :uhoh:

Lucky to get away with it, but I learned 2 things - not to get hassled in to making mistakes and to be certain that I know where and how the controls operate BEFORE I need them!

SD

Oh dear oh dear...
 

How much time do you have..all night?

#solo xc for ppl, decided to decend to 1000' to get a better view of the scenery, nearly flew into a 1240'AGL radio tower...
#time building for CPL, got lost 5 times in one 5hr flight..talk about preflight planning:O
#time building for CPL approach to a non tower airport, made all the calls for 18 and was looking for a Cessna twin departing 18,
looked up and saw him coming straight at me I was final 36!
#got caught stretching daylight and ended up flying 30min in the dark without having any night experience...
#at night on final for one airport and talking to the twr of the next one 5 miles north:O
#pushing things weather wise and ending up diverting in stuff that the briefer called..IFR not recommended:{

Anyway so far for the embarrasing :mad: ups

The real scary stuff:

3 vacuum pump failures
2 attitude indicator failures
5 partial engine failures (one at night:eek: and one 300' after T/O)
6 near misses of which two were in the hands of higher powers 'cause there was nothing I could do to avoid, literally split second flashes of something going by..
Witness to two crashes..one fatal..

The scary stuff all happened in 3.5 years of flightinstruction, I'm still alive and kicking and a lot more careful than I used to be.
With instrument students I always get radar service and as soon as reasonable I file a Instr. flight plan to be sure of additional help in traffic avoidance.
Does not always help, a couple of weeks ago I was flying an airway at 6000' above a broken layer and almost ran into this clown doing aerobatics with his transponder turned to mode A only so Radar didn't bother giving me a traffic call :mad:
Anyway keep it coming...maybe we can make this thread a sticky..
no sense in making a mistake that lotsa people already made for you..

:ok:

Thanks for the support people, i honestly thought i was the only one.

I also would be grateful if the moderators would turn this into a sticky thread, as i will defenatly be checking back for more stories. Probably the biggest fear of mine is all the small variables that could go wrong during a flight, and have the possibility of resulting so tragically, and how many of these variables we (at least I) take for granted, and never give much thought.

Of the little time i actually spend flying every week, i am starting to realize how dangerous it is compared to even driving a car. How on earth is there such a thing as "vetern pilots"!?:ugh: So much can go wrong during even the simplest of flights (as seen in previous posts) and i think it is imparative that like b2n2 said, we learn from others mistakes.:ok: One magazine i might recommend to my fellow pilots is entitled "Aviation Safety", and its a monthly collection of severe accidents, and accident related articals. I constantly find myself pouring over these in search for ways to survive flying. One thing that i think has increased my accident awareness, is actually being at a crash site. In my profile, i mention that i am in the Civil Air Patrol, and we routinly go out tracking elt signals.

Plus, some of this stuff is pretty exciting:cool:, but isn't learning always exciting? at least when we're learning about somthing we're actually intrested in:ok:

Yes! please keep them flowing people! i could read these all night!

:ok: :D :ok:

T13x

On the subject of accidentally pulling the mixture to ICO, it's worth thinking about this on the ground and deciding what you would do to recover the situation.

In theory, it should be a non-event. Even if you've pulled it back all the way and really "killed" the engine, your prop will still be turning, and therefore the magnetos are still sparking. You're still getting air into the engine, so the only thing that's missing is the fuel. If you restore the fuel mixture, the engine absolutely MUST burst back into life - in theory at least ;)

So just gently and smoothly pushing the mixture control all the way back to fully rich without touching any other control should do the trick.

I guess there may be engines where this might not work (I can't quite decide about injected engines, for example) - but I bet it would work in all bog-standard trainers.

Thief13x,

Whoa there!

Don't go too much to the other extreme. From what I remember of the CAA figures, there's one fatality per 100,000 flying hours. That's really not a lot.

As for driving, although I don't know the figures, the carnage on our roads is such that even fatal accidents never make it beyond a quick report in a local paper. Flying is dangerous, but living is dangerous. Many of us are too complacent in the beginning, but that doesn't mean we should get too scared to fly.

It means we should be careful, that's all. Learn, practice, learn more. Push yourself, but only a little bit at a time. My rule of thumb is to only have one new thing per flight, not set off in marginal weather to an unfamiliar airfield on a longer flight than I've done before in a type I haven't flown much. :eek: Check and re-check, and do your checks out loud the military way; you're less likely to forget them if you do that. Never be afraid to tell someone you're in trouble, or that you screwed up; that's what radios are for. If you find yourself panicking, orbit if possible until you can calm down and make a sensible decision. Don't let passengers or get-home-itis or ATC or anyone/anything else push you into doing something you aren't comfortable with. I'm sure there's more....

And having said all that - yes, flying is dangerous. All we can do is minimise the risks.

I had some fun and games last summer while on a solo XC.
I was transiting through some Class D airspace enroute to a smallish airfield on the other side of the zone. My workload was quite low, I knew the route well and I pretty much had the destination in sight. So I was happily flying along through the zone, continuing a lookout, monitoring the instruments, the usual things, when I start to hear a buzzing noise. Initially I thought that a door or seal had come loose, or I had gained a wasp in the cockpit. I looked down to the floor to find the source, in doing so I also partially looked down out of my side window. When I looked down I found the source of the buzz, an aircraft was just about to climb into me from directly underneath. I promptly pulled and rolled over, making a climbing turn 90 degrees off track. I also quickly blurted out, "xx Radar Gxx taking avoiding action for traffic". Air Traffic were quite good with it actually, they cleared me to a higher altitude so as to avoid the traffic by a safe margin and informed me that he wasn't actually talking to them either.
I regained my original track and headed off to my destination. Had a quick bite to eat then pushed off home...where I collected my AS level results in the afternoon....a real fun day!

ASI

1 engine failure due to carb icing, in an RF4 with no carb heat control.... That came just a few minutes after a near head-on collision as I was descending at low power (and making ice), and a flexwing microlight was climbing steeply towards me. I saw him at the very last moment, and I'm sure he never saw me at all.

Had another very near miss once with a black PA28. :uhoh:

Was a passenger in a Jodel that crashed on landing. I've been a big fan of 4 point harnesses ever since!

In the "totally stupid mistakes that I can't possibly blame on anyone else" category, I too have done the "mixture heat" mistake - fortunately on the ground while being checked out on a Beagle Pup. And the one that could have been nasty was very soon after getting my PPL. I'd been following a written checklist, and must have got distracted 'cos I didn't check the canopy was closed. Fortunately I noticed just as I was lining up to take-off. I was in a Slingsby with a single piece rear-hinged canopy, and a happy outcome would have been most unlikely. I use memory checks now instead of relying on a written checklist, where it's too easy to miss a line by mistake.

There was a really dumb thing about my Lean Cut incident. Earlier in the day, getting in to the Robin for the first time after doing all my PPL stuff in a Warrior where the controls are very distinct, I said to the instructor...

"That's an interesting place to put the lean cut, right next to the carb heat." :rolleyes: :\

UNTIDY MAP .
 

Two tales to tell, both while PPL training:

First off, crosswind landings. I was coming into land in C152 with my instructor. The usual drill, flare ..... rudder, only I pushed the rudder the wrong way! It was the roughest landing ever and had we not been in a 152 with its forgiving spring leaf suspension, it would have been worse. Four years on, everytime I land in a crosswind, I push the rudder with about a mile to go, just to check.

Second, on from what 18greens said about being in the traffic pattern, I had a real airprox downwind. It was only my second solo flight and was flying downwind doing my checks at 1000´minding my own business. Over the radio, I heard a pilot wanting to overfly the field at 2000´and was cleared to do so. About a minute later a C152 passed about 50m infront of me in a very steep climbing turn ...... it was the pilot cleared to overfly. I was on the left so maybe I should have given way but I never saw him until he was right infront of me. I checked my altimeter and I was at 1000´which was the circuit height.

When I got back on the ground, one of the guys from the school saw it all and I was seriously shaken by it. I never reported it to ATC at the time - I was too shocked. It was at a busy commercial field too and with hindsight, I should have made a call immediately.

AF

These are great stories, I hope that you guys take the time to tell them at some of your local flight schools so that those new prospective pilots, can learn from your mistakes. As a controller I try to share experiences with new pilots so that, First they don't fear controllers, and secondly can learn that if it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't right so say something.

Education is the key to KNOWLEDGE, so share your experiences, so that others don't try to repeat them.

Mike
NATCA FWA

Thief,

Yes, it really does happen to all of us. Can I take the thread on a slight tangent, though, and ask why you didn't talk to your instructor about these? Since I'm a student instructor at the moment, I'm particularly interested in the way students and instructors interact, and what I can do, as a future instructor, to get my future students to be as open with me about their flying as possible.

For example, has your instructor ever been chatting to you in the bar and talked about any f*$)-up's that he's made? Would you have been more likely to talk to him about your own mistakes if you'd known that he'd made the same mistakes once upon time?

As for me, I don't really know where to start.

- Mis-identifying ground features and thus busting controlled airspace (twice).

- Forgetting to raise flaps after take-off and flying a whole navigation leg, near enough, with flaps down (hence over-speeding the flaps) - twice. And, even worse, not reporting it so that the flaps could be checked by an engineer.

- Taking off in poor visibility for a cross-country. The forecast was for the weather to improve to the north, but a simple phone-call to my destination would have told me that the forecast was wrong, and saved me having to divert. It was, I think, three days before the weather improved and I could bring the aircraft home.

- Flying when far too tired. Result was running off the runway and bending the undercarriage.

- The common one (on this thread, at least) of pulling the mixture instead of the throttle.

- Getting back into an aircraft with a carb-heat control, after many hours of flying aircraft without one, and completely forgetting to use it.

- Flying the wrong way in the circuit. Or flying the circuit on the wrong side of the airfield.

Probably quite a few more that have slipped my mind for the moment. I think that the frequency with which I make these mistakes is reducing as I gain experience, but I'm a very long way off not making mistakes. In fact, I doubt anyone ever gets to that point. The important thing, though, is to learn from them - which I why the ones I am most embarassed about are the ones that I've done more than once. And which is also why I think it's important, especially for students, that we talk about our mistakes with an instructor or another pilot.

FFF
---------------

A couple from my recent memory

Flying back home after a day trip oop north, the timing was already tight to get back before SS+30. So I rushed the checks, did a half-hearted run up and took off. I noticed in the cruise that I wasn't making my normal speeds but couldn't see the problem. It was only after I landed that I noticed I'd flown the whole way on 1 magneto. So I was late back, had to use an unapproved NDB approach (which I didn't have a plate for) to find the field, the airfield was shut and had no lights but I landed anyway. Won't do that again in a hurry.

Scud-running. I got caught between rising ground and cloud in a valley once and had a tight turn to get out - I did find another valley to get me back to where I wanted to be but, as a result was rather closer to some houses than the 500ft rule would require.

Each time, a lesson was learned and that's what counts. And not getting caught, of course.:)

Here’s a story for you.
I had to go to Exeter for a meeting with a certain airline. Naturally (well you do don't you?), I think to myself the forecast is good I’ll fly save either having to stay over or get up way early in order to drive (you all know the rationale).
So I book an a/c and as I’ll be setting off quite early, ask that the tanks be topped off (the fuel pumps won’t be open at that time).

Next morning bright and early. The weather is as advertised, "splendid" thinks I "this’ll be better than being in the office". I arrive to be told that the "tanks are not quite full" but the aircraft had only been used “for a 30 minute trial lesson last night..and they were pretty much full before that. You’ll be fine for Exeter and back”.
Even after I check the tanks and they don’t look anywhere near that full – I think “well xxxxx is an examiner after all, he knows what he’s talking about. I’ll carry on”. Mistake number one.. taking somebody else’s word for it when that word disagrees with evidence of your own eyes. No matter how experienced or qualified that person is we are all human and capable of mistakes. Dumb.

Anyhow I set off into a glorious summer’s morning and head west. Here come’s dumb idea number two… blatting along at FL40 I notice that there is an increasing undercast and the bits of ground I can see are getting smaller and smaller – but thinks I if “I just dog leg over to the sea I’ll re-establish surface contact – as it happens I was right, but still not the best idea in the world ( the sea not being the best means of visual navigation - one wave looking much like another) I manage to find Exeter thanks to a combination of good guess work and a timely vector from Exeter twr – It just so happened that I had set the ILS at EXE on Nav 1 – but of course I was VFR the whole time…honest. Stupid

Do the work thing and getting ready to head back to ranch I’m accosted by two colleagues who want a lift back… “no problem” says I, “you won’t have a headsets so it’ll be a bit loud but you’re welcome”.
Mistake 3 coming up…I do the visual fuel check pre-flight thing and the tanks look more than a bit low but with the comments from earlier in the day still in mind (“it’s an only a half hour off full you’ll have plenty to get to Exeter and back”) I make the next error.. I don’t add any fuel…Dumb and Dumber.

Load up pax and set off into what is now a very pleasant afternoon – it’s really the kind of weather we all dream about. Anyhow, blatting along all is well, one of the pax has even stopped sightseeing and fallen asleep. I’m about Bournemouth when I start to get concerned with the look of the fuel gauges (and we all know how accurate they are) and start thinking about a tech stop for a bit more motion lotion.
Here it is... mistake four (and the one that could really screw the pooch). Even though I’m practically overhead Bournemouth I decide not to land there (put off by the rather erm…pricy landing fees) and instead elect to continue to Goodwood. dumb and dumberer

I get to the Goodwood overhead just starting the deadside turn when…cough cough…ooh err missus… a quick call to request priority landing (rough running engine I said) and an even quicker change of tank to the Up hill one (I’m in the turn deadside remember) and power appears restored to the mill. Fly tighter than tight circuit and come over the fence a bit on the hot side. Mange to wash off the excess speed and get the thing planted and stopped. Breathe big sigh of relief taxi to pumps and shut down. Asleep pax wakes up and says “Is this Shoreham? That looks like Goodwood racecourse up there... and did you know there's a fire engine following us”.

Filling the tanks to tabs reveals a chilling fact: I had about a gallon of usable fuel left – that’s about 6 and a bit minutes at leaned cruise settings…in other words WAAAAAAYYYY to close to the wire.
As I’m sure you might imagine that caused me to stop and consider the meaning of life for a while…OK quite probably given the line of route I’d have been able to execute Forced landing there are plenty of good spots in the area that I’d have been in when it would have gone quiet…but do I really want to find out?

OK lessons learnt :
1. Don’t ever take anybody’s opinion no matter who they are check for yourself and if you don’t agree... act accordingly.

2. The only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire. Never ever ever pass up the chance to add fuel (or go the the lavatory also good advice)

3. Never ever let financial considerations take precedence over safety – Once I decided to land and re-fuel I should have immediately and s-d the landing fee. (it was only seven quid more not alot when you think about it).

4. Do PFLs more often …practice makes perfect – I used practically every metre of what is quite a long runway (relitively) getting down and stopped – because of a mismanaged approach. I suspect I mismanaged the approach because of a combination of a) having not done a PFL for a while and b) the concern that I’d lose the donk any time – either way I’m sure if I’d done PFLs more recently then I’d have been more comfortable with both the aircraft’s performance and my own.

5. (linked to cock up two) don’t allow yourself to get suckered into continuing into weather that you are less than happy with…OK I was confident that I’d re-establish surface contact over the sea (and I did) and the ATIS was indicating acceptable conditions at the destination (which got better) but even so, positioning for base I needed to scud run over terrain that rises 800 odd feet ASL…not clever

Oh and one more thing…when you read AAIB reports and you think to yourself “blimey I would have done that or allowed myself to get into that situation”. Beware... you can, and if like me on this particular summers day you don’t look for the warning signs, you will. The only thing that kept this tale a hangar flying story rather than an AAIB report was luck...

Some other stuff
Had one time when a bloke got confused about which side was deadside and was really close as I bimbled along on downwind...that was a pitter pat moment

Then there was a time in an Arrer when a main gear was initally reluctant to come down - that concentrated the mind...

Been there, done that.

Is my memory failing or were the two exactly the same shape and colour on a Rallye 100?

I quite liked Rallye's otherwise, even if they do look like something Noddy would fly.

Thiel13X,

I have two experiences of the feeling of panic when you realise that you are in the wrong place in the circuit. The first one was many years ago when a was stressed by sharing the circuit with a BAC 111 which was doing all kinds of things like simulated elevator failure and pitot calibration. The viz was pretty poor and all this resulted in me landing on the wrong runway.

More recently I was landing at Lands End and, after a perfect overhead join and downwind leg, I turned onto the wrong runway. For those who don't know it, Lands End has four grass runways and two of them are 12/30 and 03/21. To add to the confusion, the numbers were not easy to see until you were in line. Although I had set the DI bug to runway heading I still managed to turn onto 35 instead of 30.

When advised by ATC of my error I started a go around and then had to fight moments of shear panic before I worked out what to do. There was another aircraft in the circuit which also helped to start the panic.

However, I did manage to sort it out and then make a reasonable landing. Judging from the banter as I paid the landing fee I gathered that I am far from being the first one to make this mistake at Lands End. They told me that they were considering buying an old aircraft carrier and mooring it offshore so that it would always be pointing into wind. They obviously don't know anything about tides. I suggested that all they needed to do was to increase the font size for the runway numbers.

Phew, that's a lot of people mixing up carb heat and mixture control. :eek: In the R22, there's a guard for the mixture to prevent you doing that. Sounds like f/w aircraft could do with the same thing.

I bet the powers that be don't know how often this happens. When I had a governor-related incident in the R22 - probably turned it off with my sleeve, though I was never sure - a very experienced instructor and Air Accident Investigator asked me if I would be willing to CHIRP it and also send in a MOR. The reason - he'd been saying for ages that the position of the governor switch in the R22 was causing problems. Everyone who flew it knew - I'd turned it off with my sleeve three times, and I only had 100 hours at the time - but the CAA said they had no record of any governor related incidents!!!

What's the betting this carb heat/mixture confusion isn't known about either. Seriously, folks, maybe we should be reporting some of these. It could help pilots of the future, and maybe get things changed that need changing.

pulse1 - maybe Lands End should use Arial font instead of Times New Roman....

My worst moment to date also involved using the wrong runway. Before leaving for an unlicensed airfield I tried calling for PPR and to check weather, runway in use etc. but I couldn't get an answer. My flight-guide suggested that the A/G service was often unmanned so getting no answer was no great surprise.

Approaching the airfield I made the usual radio calls for traffic and joining info. This call was unanswered so again I assumed the A/G service was unmanned. I could see no other traffic in the circuit and so flew overhead to check the windsock. It appeared to favour a certain runway but there was relatively little wind.

Messing up the approach completely I opted to go around, only to find another aircraft rapidly breaking off his base leg for the conflicting runway, having seen me climb out after the go-around.

As I passed 500ft I heard a radio call to "the aircraft that has just departed easterly - you're on the old frequency. Please change to....."

Turned out that my flight guide had the old frequency, even though it was fairly new, and because I couldn't get through on the 'phone I had no opportunity to check that I had the correct one. This particular airfield has a preferred runway, to be used unless it results in a tailwind of quite a few knots. So consequently I turned up unannounced, on the wrong frequency and using the wrong runway!

After a cup of strong coffee and many apologies, I made my way home like a dog with its tail between its legs, vowing to do better pre-flight planning in the future. I beat myself up over that one for quite a while, but now just put it down to experience. To err is human, they say...

Oh, and I've also pulled the mixture to ICO in the circuit, but thankfully realised within half a second as the revs began to drop. The instructor didn't bat an eyelid, so either I was so quick he didn't notice, or more likely he thought "what a plonker" and has seen it all before....

I think my biggest screwup to date was my first solo land-away at Southend.
I'd not done a straight in approach before, and had I done a circuit before I would have saved myself embarrassment.

I had something of a blind spot when it came to spotting airfields. In some cases I'd practically be on top of them before I noticed them!

I was flying along when I suddenly found the airport was a lot closer and to the left than I'd been expecting. So I pulled on the carb heat (that carb heat/mixture mistake is one I've not made (yet)) and went into a glide descent doing an S curve to get on track for the runway.
I'd lost height, but I had too much speed, I did a bit of a sideslip to try and slow down, and once I got the airspeed needle back in the white arc, I put on full flap to try and slow myself down, but when I got to the runway I was still a good five knots too fast.

I realise now I SHOULD have gone around. Instead, I bounced it. Bounced it again. I was putting on the power by now, but didn't stop the wheels touching down again. This time however the extra power had slowed the descent so I didn't bounce. So I decided to stay down....

I was a bit shaken, and shameful.

I should have gone around once I realised i was going too fast.
I could have said I was unfamiliar with a straight in approach and could I do a circuit instead?

But at least I was able to identify what I'd done wrong, and had a chat with my instructor about it when I got back to base.

Another scary thing was on my last solo (building up my solo hours) when after a solo nav. down to Beachy Head I was coming back to Biggin when the cloudbase started getting lower and I had to keep ducking under it.
I was really contemplating having to turn around and head for Shoreham - but how would I have known when to?

This is nearly the best thread I've seen in a long time. It really helps to hear about mistakes others have had so that one can prevent the same mistake happening to them. I got my PPL nearly two years ago and I can thankfully say I've not made any major mistakes yet (I emphasis major).
A fear that I do have is making a mistake and getting into big trouble for it (a fear that comes after safety). For what kind of mistakes are you likely to get into big trouble for, i.e.:

- getting lost;
- airspace infringements;
- wrong circuit;
- causing a near miss;
- running out of fuel;
- etc.

To put it another way, is the IAA or CAA likely to take away your license for making a mistake?:{

This is Penguinetta, speaking for Penguina...

Oh boy am I glad about this thread appearing! Here we go. I'm going to feel better for this:

· 1st solo navigation exercise – all was spot on until I reached the circuit area, followed the wrong motorway and narrowly missed busting airspace, thanks to someone seeing me.

· 2nd solo landaway – landed on the wrong parallel runway at Stapleford, despite lots of easy giveaways like people lining up for the other one!!! Seriously bad: a lack of preparation by both me and instructor and end result of getting into a big stress about things in the air and 'needing' to get down.

· Qualifier – wasn’t used to o/h joins (don’t do them at home field) and did everything perfectly except for joining the wrong side! Happened simply because every circuit that day I'd joined had been the other way. Was fine when I was actually downwind, just slotted in, but still brings me out in a cold sweat when I think about the descending ‘dead side’!!! :0

· Completely busted class A airspace when flying abroad. This was due to SO MANY rubbish bits of judgement:

a) I probably wasn’t fit to fly in the first place;

b) I should have insisted on getting accurate weather information instead of trusting the (incorrect) estimated wind given to me by my incredibly experienced co-flyer;

c) I knew deep down I was lost but went into denial about it, even managing to ignore the VOR creeping slowly but surely off the line because I was so convinced the wrong feature I was following was right;

d) (The most important one.) I thought that the other pilot wouldn’t let me get into trouble and was sitting like a lemon waiting for him to tell me what to do, when _I_ was flying…

Luckily ATC were nice about it, but I learnt loads from that one!

· Took on too many new things in one go, too soon after qualifying, on one flight (as per Whirlybird’s previous comments) and took my parents to visit my grandparents (serious pressure or what?!) at a strange airfield in an area I’d never been to in a 172, which I’d only just converted onto. Reverted to type – thought I was in the 152 that I’ve done most of my flying in – didn’t flare enough, landed flat and bounced it. The slight tailwind on the runway in use didn’t help either. Then I couldn’t climb away on the go around because I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to correct any sink resulting from lifting the drag flap because of my lack of confidence with the heavier ‘plane. Walking the tightrope between stalling and not clearing obstacles for a few horrible seconds, I saw my mum and dad in an AAIB report, before taking control of the situation.

There we go, my five ‘Oh God’ moments.

Have not yet pulled the mixture control in flight. Matter of time………

I feel strangely unburdened!

Perhaps we should have a corresponding thread about good calls we've made while in difficulty, just to make us feel better. Like the time I got stuck in suddenly terrible vis and called D&D before the situation got any worse. I was a bit unsure of my position, but who cares, because it didn't stay that way?

Thought I posted this but I can't see it. If it is duplicate, my apologies.

Turning finals in my amphibian I realised the wheels were up. Panic stricken pulling of gear unlock lever and switching for electric motor. Used both hands. Luckily she has a real sweet spot for trim and stability right about 60knots, 20 flaps 3,300 revs (geared prop)

Thought about it a lot afterwards. Should have overshot, "Fly the Plane first." Get back in the circuit to lower the gear.

Yes, you could. That's one I actually got right - on my QXC I was approaching the second airfield, had the circuit all planned out, then got told "we're not busy, you can join right base if you like". Decided I didn't want to cope with trying to work out what right base was or how to get there, replied "'s OK thanks, I stick with the overhead join".

Mistakes
 

Was on my first solo night flight as part of the night rating in FL. Did a few circuits in the dark then decided to go further afield. Found my destination field landed and turned around to come back. Taxiway had no lights and I totaly couldn't find the runway and it was an uncontrolled field. Eventually, sweating, I found the runway took off and followed the wrong freeway back to my home field. Eventually realised I was lost and followed the freeway back to the away field and found the correct freeway back to home field and landed safely. Very sweaty but relieved.

Pulled off the runway and decided to do a few more circuits. Lined up, made my calls and started rolling. Normal take off was 55kts, I was at 40kts with the trees at the end of the runway looking very close. Looked down, had forgot my after landing checks and had full flap and carb heat hot. There was no power and no lift, put carb heat on and retracted flaps quick style and pulled yolk back. I don't know how close I was to the trees but you could smell the fear. I was totally drenched with sweat by this time but decided to do a couple of full stop landings after that and make sure I did my after landers.

Have pulled the ICO instead of carb also, but fortunately only during the run up.

Also have lined up with the taxi way on a straight in at Gillespie Field in San Diego, should have been lined up on that tiny runway if anyone has been there but lined up with the taxi-way, realised my mistake about half a mile out.

Not me but a mate of mine took off with a concrete tie down block still attatched to his left wing. Flew and landed at an away field. Radio at away field told him he had something attatched to left wing. He couldn't believe it when he saw it was a huge lump of concrete. Said it was a bit sluggish to get rolling and was flying a bit left wing down. Also said there was no damage so dumped it in the back and flew home. Said he got distracted during his walk round. The poor lad has never flown since.

@ Flyingforfun

Thats a very good question (why didn't i report these two incidents to my flight instructor) and i'm not sure i have a straight foward anwser to that. I guess its probably a combination of things, the biggest one being that my flight instructor is a vetern, and very proffesional, and it would be quite embarrasing to tell him about such unproffesional mistakes. Secondly, as i said, ive been working off and on on my PPL for about 3 years now, and because of this i have made some pretty stupid minor mistakes in front of him (such as misreading the heading indicator as 003 when its actually 030) and (forgetting the bank angles on the attitude indicator during my second year of flying). Mistakes like these make him say 'Cmon Dave!' and honestly, i don't want him to think i'm any more stupid than i probably already appear.:ugh:

On the contrary, he has on a few occasions, mentioned some mistakes he's made (none like these though, usually more the airplanes fault than the pilot's with him). I would defenatly recommend however, to flight instructors that you share even your most embarrasing mistakes with students, not to put yourself down, but to bring them up. I look at my flight instructor, and i honestly don't think he's ever made a stupid mistake in his life! he's so proffesional about everything, and he always seems to be at least one step ahead of me :( .

I guess the biggest tip i can give to instructors, is to be able to relate to your students like a friend, maybe try to think of yourselfs more as a co-pilot helping to solve problems, than a flight instructor. Even talking to your student about stuff besides flying might be a good idea, it would really help us to open up and ask questions on things we might be not so sure about. I'm not trying to talk bad about my instructor, i just think he maybe used to teaching on a higher level than the PPL, and therefore has trouble viewing 'dumbed down questions' as somthing other than 'uneducated'.

Hope that all made sense to you flight instructors out there:ok: :cool:

Fly Safe

T13x