Loss Of Nerve ?
"Glad to be Alive" parties.....wonderful to attend but terrible to get over!
I have attended a few of those myself....but never scared myself bad enough to drink a bottle of Gin...much less two!
Had an engine failure in a Hughes 500D one time....just before dark...coming off Mt. Neuhaeuser near Tok, Alaska. About 9,800 feet up....nothing but forest for miles and miles. Got it down without a mark on the bird....other than the ragged bits of seat cushion I chewed off on the way down. After my knees started working again....walked nine miles to the nearest road....got retrieved by friends out looking for us by truck.
Celebrated with bottle rockets, whisky, beer, and concerned female geologists. Camp fire, Northern Lights....what a night. Awoke early the next day....about 3PM...sobered up the following day.
I have attended a few of those myself....but never scared myself bad enough to drink a bottle of Gin...much less two!
Had an engine failure in a Hughes 500D one time....just before dark...coming off Mt. Neuhaeuser near Tok, Alaska. About 9,800 feet up....nothing but forest for miles and miles. Got it down without a mark on the bird....other than the ragged bits of seat cushion I chewed off on the way down. After my knees started working again....walked nine miles to the nearest road....got retrieved by friends out looking for us by truck.
Celebrated with bottle rockets, whisky, beer, and concerned female geologists. Camp fire, Northern Lights....what a night. Awoke early the next day....about 3PM...sobered up the following day.
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Quite a couple of years ago I had a fuel injector line come apart on a 269C. 500ft AGL, Engine Revs came down to appr 2000 (should be a bit over 3000) I remember that my first look at the RRPM dial showed rotor revs already under yellow. A single flare solved that. After landing between the cows, send the pax away...... they were wondering why we landed away from the scheduled spot (I didn't even have time on my way down to keep them informed....full of stress and everything). After a couple of hours sorting everything out, fitting a new line solved the problem on the spot. Started up, and flew back to base on my own, I remember on my way home avoiding every single tree, house etc, let alone forests and villages. Every 0.5 seconds a glimps on the panel and intently listening to all the noises to see if there was something unusual
You could say that I was just a little nervous on that RTB flight
However, it was one of the most valuable experiences in my career so far.
You could say that I was just a little nervous on that RTB flight
However, it was one of the most valuable experiences in my career so far.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
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The Lucky Hat
Saw an interestin' item in a recent NatGeo mag. It was stats on ways to leave this life presented as circles of probability. The biggies were heart attacks & cancer, expiring in an aircraft prang was tiny by comparison. The scary one was the biggest circle of all, chances of a fatality at the end of your life....100%. I still reckon choppers are safer than automobiles. I'll go for a jolly in a helo just for the pleasure of it but I'll save up errands to do them all in one car trip rather than risk multiple excursions on the roads.
Was at a mates weekender last Saturday when the power went off. A few minutes later a friend, who was flying over in an R44 to join us for breakfast, landed out front. When he got out old LiveWire (his new nickname) looked a bit rattled and when the blades stopped turning it was obvious why, he'd taken out the high voltage feeders strung over the gorge at the rear of the property & USd the MRBs in the process. He threw his new cap on the ground cursing it. The rest of us decided it was his lucky hat.
Most fliers I've talked with admit to occasional feelings of disquiet. Sometimes I reckon its harder for us recreational pilots because we're not actually obliged to be up there for work, so its difficult to justify turning up again after a near miss. I've encouraged LiveWire to get back in the saddle soon. Another pilot acquaintance reckons helicopters are killing machines and that, for some pilots, its only a matter of time. Once you've convinced yourself you're not one of those pilots its easy to climb aboard again!
Was at a mates weekender last Saturday when the power went off. A few minutes later a friend, who was flying over in an R44 to join us for breakfast, landed out front. When he got out old LiveWire (his new nickname) looked a bit rattled and when the blades stopped turning it was obvious why, he'd taken out the high voltage feeders strung over the gorge at the rear of the property & USd the MRBs in the process. He threw his new cap on the ground cursing it. The rest of us decided it was his lucky hat.
Most fliers I've talked with admit to occasional feelings of disquiet. Sometimes I reckon its harder for us recreational pilots because we're not actually obliged to be up there for work, so its difficult to justify turning up again after a near miss. I've encouraged LiveWire to get back in the saddle soon. Another pilot acquaintance reckons helicopters are killing machines and that, for some pilots, its only a matter of time. Once you've convinced yourself you're not one of those pilots its easy to climb aboard again!
Getting too high gives me the heebie-jeebies. I fly helos infrequently now, but I'm flying and towing gliders. When I get a request for a 4000' AGL tow, I feel like I'm balanced on the head of a pin up there. The funny part is that as soon as the glider cuts off, and I can get upsidedownish and split-S away, I feel better.
When I was working on my PPL in an enstrom, I did a night X-C with my instructor to Great Barrington, Mass. It's in the middle of nowhere, pretty dark, and a good little hill south of the airport. I decided I wanted plenty of altitude over the hill. So, I climbed up to 4000'. My instructor, a 4000 hour pilot & former CW2 with half of his helo time in combat, Vietnam, shines the flashlight on the altimiter and says "Holy Crap, where are you going? I've never been this high." He may have been pulling my leg, but I got the feeling he wasn't too keen on being up there.
-- IFMU
When I was working on my PPL in an enstrom, I did a night X-C with my instructor to Great Barrington, Mass. It's in the middle of nowhere, pretty dark, and a good little hill south of the airport. I decided I wanted plenty of altitude over the hill. So, I climbed up to 4000'. My instructor, a 4000 hour pilot & former CW2 with half of his helo time in combat, Vietnam, shines the flashlight on the altimiter and says "Holy Crap, where are you going? I've never been this high." He may have been pulling my leg, but I got the feeling he wasn't too keen on being up there.
-- IFMU
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Los Angeles, USA
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Almost crashed with oncoming aircraft on rwy.
I was well into my helicopter training on H300's and had 'lost' interest in fixed-wing, even though I had a fixed PPL. Was totally in love with rotor and could think of nothing else. But a good friend convinced me it would be cool to step up from our small C-172's and PA-28's to a retractable, constant speed fast single, so we agreed to get a new rating for the PA-32 Lancer II.
We flew from Stockholm, Sweden to a smaller airport in Västerås to do some patterns and get a thorough check by the intsructor. After having satisfied him, my best friend took off solo and flew a couple of patterns. No problems. Finally it was my turn. I jump in, line up and take off.
I remember feeling severly behind the machine during climb - everything happened so fast. Gear up, manifold pressure, climb rate, turn - all of a sudden I was screaming into a long downwind at 150kts while my brain was still on the ground.
All of a sudden another plane calls up on the intercom (no tower) and announces it's on a long final to the opposite runway I used for take-off. In effect landing downwind. I inform the other aircaft that it's just me in the pattern and that the runway in use is NOT the one he's on long final to, but the opposite and that he should divert and join the downwind leg. All the while trying to get a glimpse of him in my dead spot behind the aircraft (a kingdom for a Cessna with rear windows, I remember thinking). No response, but I do hear a click on the radio. Just to make sure, I transmit the same info again, still with no answer - just that click.
I'm so behind the aircraft now, trying to read the check list as I turn base and figuring out if I can drop any flaps at this speed and whatnot. Gear out - almost forgot - hectic, nervous, stress and agony. Before I know it I find myself having to turn into a much to short final at too high a speed. There are high hills on the left side of the rwy, which makes it hard to see any traffic on it until you're actually lined up. So when I finally come straight from my much to steep bank to line up and land, all of a sudden I see a C-172 coming straight at me on the rwy! He's doing a touch-and-go, so he's already in a slight climb. I slam the throttle and start a frantic climb to the left. Luckily he goes left, too. Maybe it wasn't as close as it felt, but in my mind I could count the rivets on his belly.
I shouted abuse over the radio to the offender, but this time not even a click. He just disappeared. I managed to land on shaky legs next time around and got a thrashing by the instructor for lining up so late and at such angle. He hadn't seen the offending C-172 (he was hid behind the hills and couldn't see the rwy), but when I explained what had happened, he said I'd done the right thing.
But actually, I hadn't. A click is not an affirmative response. Without a correct acknowledgement or readback, I should never have completed the pattern for landing. His radio was most certainly malfunctioning.
We flew from Stockholm, Sweden to a smaller airport in Västerås to do some patterns and get a thorough check by the intsructor. After having satisfied him, my best friend took off solo and flew a couple of patterns. No problems. Finally it was my turn. I jump in, line up and take off.
I remember feeling severly behind the machine during climb - everything happened so fast. Gear up, manifold pressure, climb rate, turn - all of a sudden I was screaming into a long downwind at 150kts while my brain was still on the ground.
All of a sudden another plane calls up on the intercom (no tower) and announces it's on a long final to the opposite runway I used for take-off. In effect landing downwind. I inform the other aircaft that it's just me in the pattern and that the runway in use is NOT the one he's on long final to, but the opposite and that he should divert and join the downwind leg. All the while trying to get a glimpse of him in my dead spot behind the aircraft (a kingdom for a Cessna with rear windows, I remember thinking). No response, but I do hear a click on the radio. Just to make sure, I transmit the same info again, still with no answer - just that click.
I'm so behind the aircraft now, trying to read the check list as I turn base and figuring out if I can drop any flaps at this speed and whatnot. Gear out - almost forgot - hectic, nervous, stress and agony. Before I know it I find myself having to turn into a much to short final at too high a speed. There are high hills on the left side of the rwy, which makes it hard to see any traffic on it until you're actually lined up. So when I finally come straight from my much to steep bank to line up and land, all of a sudden I see a C-172 coming straight at me on the rwy! He's doing a touch-and-go, so he's already in a slight climb. I slam the throttle and start a frantic climb to the left. Luckily he goes left, too. Maybe it wasn't as close as it felt, but in my mind I could count the rivets on his belly.
I shouted abuse over the radio to the offender, but this time not even a click. He just disappeared. I managed to land on shaky legs next time around and got a thrashing by the instructor for lining up so late and at such angle. He hadn't seen the offending C-172 (he was hid behind the hills and couldn't see the rwy), but when I explained what had happened, he said I'd done the right thing.
But actually, I hadn't. A click is not an affirmative response. Without a correct acknowledgement or readback, I should never have completed the pattern for landing. His radio was most certainly malfunctioning.
