for me one of the most worrying times is getting the "leans" when single pilot IFR without autopilot when you know that you have no choice but to get over it because you have a good amount of time before being VMC again. The biggest fear has to be a fire onboard that means getting on the ground asap!

In flight fire would be the worst thing. However it is most likely to be electrical and very likely to go out if you pull the main CB.

That's why I carry a battery powered GPS (two actually; the 2nd one would fetch zilch on Ebay and might be handy in the life raft...) and an Icom radio. I bought the Icom radio the day after I got a radio failure during a pre-PPL solo flight. I know one can fly non-radio but some things in life have a really trivial solution so why make life hard?

I'm with the 'Flying Chicken' the bank balence.

I don't like flying gliders that have just been rigged, even if I've checked the connectors a half dozen times. I don't know why particularly, it's just one of those things with me, I'd much rather someone else flew them first in case any important parts fall off..........

I also don't like those sunny hazy summer days that look great from the ground but are like flying in a goldfish bowl once you're airborne. I like to see where I'm going.

Edit: I also feel distinctly uneasy in helicopters. They should have sticking out wings as well that don't move like proper aeroplanes IMO.

The scariest thing about flying is how quickly things can go from fully under control to disaster if you make the wrong decisions.

Swiss cheese
 

Yes, Skyhawk, I think that can sum it up. Several apparently minor issues can very quickly add up to a full scale disaster. A perfectly routine flight, can all of a sudden end up difficult when something 'unexpected' happens. We ''train'' for it all to happen, and go flying when hopefully we have assessed everything, and the flight goes to plan.

The issues start, when of course, things screw up. The decision process begins. I once did a really stupid thing. I was flying from Bournmouth into Halfpenny Green, when about 35 miles to run,following the good old magenta, my GPS quit. Guess what, my map was in the back, and I could not reach it. I had not been to that airfield before. Weather was deteriorating, and the wind had picked up.

I then began calculating my drift, calculating everything to try and guide me to the destination. I remember not having the slightest clue where I actually was, and if my track would get me there. Oh, I was also tight on fuel.

I remembered that flight and vowed never to do that again..

The scariest things that have happened to me which were frightening at the time but worse later during the night when I woke up in a cold sweat at what might have happened was having a couple of near miss midair collisions.

First was climbing out at an airfield during type conversion familiarisation training and at 100ft hearing then seeing an RAF Phantom go underneath me, just above the tree tops. I immmediatley spun my head around to look for his wingman, who went just overhead me. After landing we rang Newcastle Radar to report it . They said they thought there had been a collision as they saw the dots coincide on the radar. We carried on flying for the rest of the day without really thinking much about it. When we got back in the evening the airfield operator told us the RAF pilots had rung up to apologise, they had been doing low level chasing and had drifted off course by 5 miles and cut through our circuit. I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of that night.

The other time was on final approach to an airfield in a Twin Comanche when my wife yelled lookout and I saw the wheels of a Piper Arrow appear in my windscreen. I dived and banked away and went around for another go.
I was coming in on the normal approach slope and he had gone around the circuit and came in over the top of me without seeing me as I was below his line of sight. He was above me so I didn't see him either.
It didn't help that there were three training aircraft also in the circuit which was only air ground and when I called 2 ahead final to land, he though he was the second and I was behind him.
Didn't sleep much that night either.

Funnily enough when I had in flight problems I didn't have time to worry, just got on with the drills and they became non events.
Wheels stuck half down in the Twin Com on approach to Newcastle.
Complete Loss of Electrics in the Twin Com climbing out of Oxford through Brize.
Complete Loss of Electrics in a Robinson R44 just outside Gloucester.

Scariest thing....

Knowing that one day I'll eventually lose my medical. Hope to be 134 when it happens though...:E

From Wikipedia, which I think copied it verbatim from the Daily Telegraph Obituary for Neville Duke

So, he technically never lost his medical since I don't think he was in hospital enough even for automatic suspension! I think that they were flying a Cherokee 140.

G

I think it's been twice now that I flew an aerobatics sortie on an aircraft, which coincidentally happened to be the last sortie of that aircraft before it went in for a routine check. During those two checks they subsequently found beginning hairline fractures or corrosion in things like engine mounts and rudder hinge brackets. Enough to cause the aircraft to be grounded for weeks while stuff was being re-welded or replaced.

Always makes me wonder what other defects have not yet been found, or are currently developing, while I pull another 4G.

I also had a near miss on climbout. This was one of my first solo flights (might've been my QXC even), in controlled airspace (class D) where a PA28 strayed across the upwind leg, fortunately some 20 feet above my flight path. I sometimes still see the whites of their eyes in my dreams. Then, I was simply too stunned even to file an airprox report. Come to think about it, I don't think I even discussed it with my instructor afterwards.

Yeah reading about the airmisses brings to mind a few. Closest I had was coming off the top of the wire head on with another glider, we both banked right and missed each each other by literally feet. I had another in cct, rule was in RH cct you took the runway, LH you took the grass, I was LH for the grass as I turned base at the same time as another glider who I had in full view. Expecting him to take the runway I flogged on down base for my turn onto the grass thinking 'He's a bit late turning into the runway' when of course he hadn't seen me and was going for my grass.
Rather full deflection of rudder and stick followed.

The duty instructor had to hold me back when I landed...

My old man always taught me when I was learning to drive to treat every road user as a complete idiot, I always apply that to flying now.


Edit: Of course I forgot about the two Tucanos that nearly wiped me out above Newark, but hey, RAF, probably on some urgent mission.

I've had a few near collisions. The most alarming occured while I was flying a night search over our local lake, in my capacity as a firefighter. I had called the Armed Forces to assist, and they had dispatched a C 130, and Cormorant rescue helicopter. I had informed the C-130 pilot of my presence there, and altitude, and he had acknoledged.

While I orbited over our fireboat at 500 feet up, to allow the armed forces aircraft to use their more advanced search equipment, The helicopter flew directly under me, (I had lights on, he did not - later citing the need for darkness to use his night vision!) All I saw were his heat signatures agaist the reflected moonlight on the lake. I have no idea how close he came to me, but I never saw him.

He reported not having seen me, when I called to complain the next day. I reminded him that we were both in uncontrolled airspace, and he is required to display lights for night flying. This was apparently not their normal procedure! They also reported that they were not TCAS equipped - I found that very alarming too!

A pal of mine is a senior captain for BA. As he says, the way we avoid collisions is to shove everybody into a ten mile wide corridor............

A bit of a tangent but would not an admission to hospital with chest pains amount to an immediate grounding?

You forgot the 2nd part: they then spend £££££looooads on an ATC system to keep them separated :)

I've had a few close shaves with traffic; maybe 50m. For me, the general idea is to get away from the circuit with maximum haste, spend the minimum time in it, and if it is busy with half a dozen "in the circuit" I come back 15 mins later.

Enroute, OCAS, I fly at "funny" altitutes like 3300ft, 3700ft, 4300ft, 4700ft, etc, never below 2000ft, always VMC on top if CAS permits (almost never seen any GA up there). There is a massive increase in traffic density below about 1500ft AGL and this is reflected in the UK midair stats.

I also rarely fly at night - something governed by my base's closing time which is too early for most of the year to log night time.

Which is why it's a good idea to include the type and possibly even color of your a/c when approaching a non-towered field. Doesn't necessarily mean the stude in the circuit knows what a Twin Comanche looks like, but he may understand that it's probably not the PA28 in front.

Wise words IO. When I had my single seater homebuilt I had exactly the same philosophy about the circuit, especially coming back in - the view out past the cowling was pretty restricted and the landing could be "exciting." Had to fly a consistent circuit with a curved approach starting from 500ft downwind with the aileron hinge line on the runway to have any hope of success - if the circuit had more than two aircraft in it I went away and came back later.

Nearest miss was tootling along in a PA28 with the LHS pilot on instruments. I saw her flinch and we heard the roar. An F15E passed directly over the top of us with about 100ft separation on exactly the same heading. We were in his blind spot and he was in ours. We never saw a wingman. :\ Just as well we were slightly low. (Her IF is much better now - she's a 50 seat turboprop Captain)

I've had some close calls in the air. In fact, it's happened so many times I think I'm either cursed or blind!

Last time was just coming back towards Lydd via the coast. I decided to do a gentle left turning descent towards Spilsted Farm strip to see if the YAK was there. Suddenly I see a 152 right in front of me and my left turn is cutting his path. It's too late to do any right avoiding maneuver. So I just pushed the yoke forward and dived out from under his path. It was in G and in LARS blind spot - Farnborough drops you east of Beachy Head and Manston don't pick up until you're into Kent - so no way of knowing who it was. I blame myself for that one, though. My scan was too relaxed and I should have spotted him.

Before that it was above Fullerton airport in California at night, which is smack in the middle of the Los Angeles basin. Just cleared the high TV mast there and turned towards LAX (you have to be on your toes here with the varying Bravo airspace so you don't bust) when what looked like a Mooney gave us a haircut just about 50ft above. I don't think he ever saw us. Even though the D airspace resorts to E when the tower is closed, he should have announced on the freq.

On a trip up to Elstree early this summer with great weather, I'm just out of the funnel around Dartford and Stapleford with traffic everywhere. I catch the last glimpses of what looks like a Zodiac just below me. Uncomfortably close. Then as I turn left to join Estree, I manage to not see yet another 152 and I cut right in front of him. My bad. I bet he called me names.

VFR can be hairy at times.:ouch:

I'm scared right now..
I've just come back from the hanger where I was pulling apart my recently aquired LAA type. Out of curiosity I decided to lift a false floor and discovered that the rudder cable was hooked over a bolt, and evidently had been ever since the plane was built. The remarkable thing is that it was the bolt that was worn and not the cable (although I'll be fitting a new one anyway!):\

I thought an F15 would have radar.

The number of people who have never seen an aircraft flight manual.......let alone opend the pages of one!