Getting a multi engine rating.

The worst fright I've had while flying was trusting somebody else to do the lookout! I had my back to the winch launchpoint, sitting in the tow plane; an instructor holding the wingtip of the glider ready for an airtow signaled to take up slack, so I did. This was before we used to bother with radio for the tug.

At the same time over on the winch launchpoint, some prat also signaled to take up slack and proceeded with the winch launch. This I didn't notice. Everyone on the ground sure did, in considerable anxiety. Because usually, to gain height, the tow plane would move to the right, same airspace currently occupied by a K13 glider and 900 feet of braided steel wire cable.

Because it was only a small light glider, I didn't bother to move to the right side on this occasion. Became aware of a cable and red cable parachute descending about ten feet from my right wingtip.....

Glider just hung on. Both gliders just hung on. I was just bloody lucky, and after towing the little glider to 2,000 I seriously considered leaving the country altogether and going someplace else, rather than having to face the people on the ground who had to watch the whole thing and couldn't do anything to help.

We did improve our safety measures after that one.

I'm not sure this quite qualifies (as I'm a very lowly pre-solo PPL, on a forum with a lot of seriously experienced people, and I suspect I do something stupid pretty much every lesson) but - identifying somewhat with coldair's experience - having for once done a really fairly creditable soft & short field landing in a PA28 with the nose where it should be (i.e. not much visible out front) I heard the stall warner as I decelerated quite nicely and then decided the right action was to push the nose down hard. My instructor was suprisingly polite - I felt like a d!ck :ouch: !

More seriously, as a very lowly pre-solo PPL, on a forum with a lot of seriously experienced people, I don't think I'm making the same mistake twice (FWIW, I tell those who mean most to me that this is probably the most realistic standard for fallible humans to live up to !)

Regards to fellow avaiators

IHF

Once, in NI we landed for a briefing for an "op". The refueller for some reason decided to refuel the aircraft while were were away and filled the ferry tank first. Unfortunately it was still switched on so he unwittingly proceeded to refuel the entire aircraft through it; it must have seemed like the biggest ferry tank in the world.

He then took off the #2 filler cap to begin refuelling the main tanks - which of course were already bulging.... he got a very nasty surprise due to 100 gallons of jet fuel under pressure waiting to get out! !

When we got back he was like the Dutch boy with this finger in the leaking dyke - he couldn't get the filler cap secured so was having to lean on it with all his weight. He was drenched in fuel.

Lessons were learned all round. :ooh:

Still red faced about this one.
First solo
Very very nervous
Did my circuit . landed with minimal incident.
Took wrong turn in taxi back to apron
Had to be marshalled through very tight gap.

:mad:

First solo, greaser of a landing, taxied in to be greeted by instructor:


"I'm going to fine you 2/6d, do you know why?"


Me. "Because I was late with the gear on the downwind leg?"


Instructor. " Oh! I didn't see that so that'll be another half-crown! How often have I told you to make your landings positive?"


The last point being hammered home with a boney digit in the chest!! :eek:


Lesson: "Better to say nothing and be thought a fool rather than speak and remove all possible doubt" apologies to Mr. Johnson

Newly minted PPL turning up at a new club for a checkout, the instructor was unavailable because during the day he had an engine failure in a twin and diverted 50nm away.
I was to fly the owner up to Cardiff in a 172 to fetch the instructor and carry out my check on the way back.
Left in a hurry, taxied in and shut down at Cardiff,

Marshaller: Hey mate, you know theres oil pissing out of the engine dont you?

I'd left the oil dipstick on the tarmac in Haverfordwest. We had to wait for another guy to fly it up to us. Three aeroplanes in a row 50 miles from base, and a film of oil over the Welsh countryside.
Very embarrassing.

Have you ever done something stupid?
 

Yes of course, who hasn't? With all due respect but I find the question on the less clever side.
We all do stupid things in everything we do. Mostly, we come out on the lucky side, and those who don't won't tell.

[edit] PS I fully subscribe the comments by Stampe and Onetrack.

Good morning to you, Jan. Thank you for contributing to this thread and I regret that you find the original post (mine) less than clever.

I freely confess that I mispelt the Minerva name, confusing that sturdy French aircraft with a bicycle.

However, looking up your details, I see that (1) you fly a microlite
and (2). You live in Belgium.

I rest my case.

So, I'll add up to the nasty stupid things.

About half way through the PPL, I was entering home base CTR northbound from a x-country solo student round trip, got clearance "expect 09L". Tower vectored me onto common base for both runways and gave me "cleared to land 09L", when I was in perfect position for 09R, saw the airliner exactly in front of me on ILS 09L and decided in a second of stupidity, that landing was meant to be on 09R, took the turn and got down on 09R, asking for confirmation and apologizing when I was already on my way to taxi off. Tower was quite relaxed and said they saw the action, but did not disturb me, because in that minute there was no danger in doing the wrong runway. I insisted to come to the tower and we had a long discussion on how to prevent things like this. We figured out that the tower should have given me the "you are number two after airliner" to help my brain focus on the correct runway. They also said my radio communication was so well, they did not expect a student. So, in the end we learned that the tower should not take shortcuts and I should not radio like a pro. Everything ;-) has been fine since (don't believe this from a pilot).

Regarding the Minerva I only have to confess one thing I do not treat as a stupid thing - I crashed one on taxiing ...

Morning Mary,
I'd just like to say I think its a bloody good idea for a thread. Its a great way to discuss the things we have done that might otherwise have ended in a 'That Worst Day' article.

We really don't seem to discuss this kind of thing outside of discussing what went wrong when a fatal accident occurs, and even then half of every thread is devoted to daft argument that we should not speculate on the causes, as if somehow educating each other through debate is mawkish.

Anyway, come on people, own up! Highlighting where you went wrong might just save someone else's pride or even their life.

On my PPL checkride last Saturday... the examiner and I were on board, the engine was started, we were putting on the headsets when the mic of the examiner didn't work. Bad headset. I shut down the engine etc, and waiting until he was back with a new headset. I then tried to start the engine to continue the checklists from where we left off... but it wouldn't start. Applied some primer, it seemed to want to start but then stopped again.

Then the examiner pointed me to the mixture still being in idle cut off. Great way to start your checkride! :ugh: Luckily we both had a laugh and I passed the exam (yay! :ok:), but I really felt stupid :) Next time I'll restart with the checklist from the top, instead of trying to continue where I left off.

A few posts in here warrant a chuckle... I can relate to Cold air's mid air braking attempts, faced a similar scenario last year on my way to Blackpool via the Low level VFR corridor (Manchester TMA fly not above 1300ft). Saw a massive flock of seagulls in my 12 O'clock opposite direction North to South headed straight for my ship over Warrington. Hit the brakes..no cigar:O

Rapidly begged Manchester on the RT for a heading & height deviation ASAP, got the greenlight & banked 30 degrees left (towards Liverpool) going from 1100 to 1500 with the seagulls passing just below our port wingtip making their way leisurely with blatant disregard for their inconvenience :mad:

Stupidest thing I have ever done came in my early PPL'er phase, in fact I made a point to document it in detail - you can read all about it here:

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...-intended.html

Lesson thoroughly learned & valuable MET insight gained firsthand :ok:

Doing something stupid
 

I own a Cessna 210. Take offs are usually accomplished with 10 degrees of flaps. I once flew for 1.5 hours wondering why my ground speeds were a little slow. When I arrived at my destination, I went to set flaps to 10 degrees on downwind. The flaps were still at 10 degrees because I never retracted them on takeoff...is that stupid enough?

I don't understand why aircraft with an electrical stall warner don't have a "touch the stall warner vane as you go away" check. I now have it.
PS I forgot to do that check, leaving in a hurry - and found the battery flat - this month.:{

It is easy to see you left the master switch on if you always leave the Strobes on. ( Or the red beacon / Nav lights. )

As a newly qualified pilot, I rented a machine with a mate (from same pilot course) in Florida. After our 15 minute check-out (and credit card details), we were given the green light and off we went.

We spent the first three days frequently having to fly around large blocks of unidentified (and no height limit) airspace....

...until we realised they were compass roses for VORs :hmm:

No strobes. No beacon. No Nav lights. Wood & fabric taildragger with O200.
Master has to be switched on to fill rear tank, so fuel guages show.

You have an electric fuel gauge? Wow ;)

If I tell you all the stupid mistakes I've made over the years you'll know how inept I really am as a pilot! .... So I won't ;)

SS