Very Dangerous things I've seen . . .

[Phil Perry]

I'd like to start with this one. ( Got to be worth an application for the Darwin Award this. . .)

 

I had just exited the runway at a summer fly-in, when I noticed one of the volunteer marshalls, resplendent in Hi-Viz jacket, saunter up to the left side of a PA28 / 200 cockpit window and was apparently speaking to the pilot thru that nice little opening side - window.

 

I stopped taxying at that point and pointed this out to my front seat pax as I couldn't believe how this guy could be so stupid. . . . He was leaning on the leading edge of the wing between that and a TURNING PROP, casually talking to the pilot thru the open window.

 

Now I don't know if this bloke was actually a flying person himself, and I didn't get to find out, as there were upwards of seventy aircraft parked there and by the time I'd shut down and booked in, there was no sign of the bloke. I didn't see any blood and guts on the grass so concluded that he must have gotten away with this incredibly daft act.

 

I don't know about you guys, but If anyone had done this at our airfield, he would have been escorted to the exit and awarded a lifetime ban.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Darwin Award Application number 2 . . . .

 

( I was able to interject here, to prevent a tragedy) . I was slouching about at the flying club on an unusually warm ( but damp )November afternoon when a guy strode out of the cafe and proceeded to try to start his aircraft, a PA 28/140 which was parked on the grass apron. After cranking it for a while, it was obvious that it was not going to fire, it didn't even cough. . . he eventually ran the battery down.

 

I didn't take a lot of notice notice at the time, as there was a non-radio SE5A replica in the pattern, and I was duty radio op with four trikes approaching the overhead.

 

Shortly after this he was seen trying a hand-prop job, with no chocks and nobody in the cockpit. One of my fellow members said, " Look at that twit, he's already slipped over on the wet grass and fallen thru the prop arc TWICE" When questioned about this the bloke said, "Don't worry, it sometimes does this, but it usually starts with a swing" ( Has anyone ever tried to hand swing a 140 Cherokee ?? - It's quite difficult, unless you have a Swartzeneggeresque physique )

 

Anyway, we talked him out of further Darwin Award attempts, and got our "Sooty" to drag out the long jump leads and get him going from the boost starter unit.

 

Hand - propping can be carried out safely on SOME aeroplanes. . . . but it requires careful training and commonsense, otherwise, you may well end up like the guy in the picture here, who lived incidentally and therefore did not qualify for the Darwin Award this time.

 

 

I wonder if there are any more scary stories you'd care to share for the eddification of us all ??

 

Phil

 

Image size reduced by request - Mod

 

 

[turboplanner]

Wonder what the pitch was.

 

 

[kaz3g]

Wonder what the pitch was.

Obviously coarse...

 

kaz

 

 

[Kenny]

I may be wrong but I think the Guy in the picture with the gashes in his back may have been run over by a boat , I have seen that same picture somewhere else on the net

 

Cheers

 

Ken

 

 

[kaz3g]

I may be wrong but I think the Guy in the picture with the gashes in his back may have been run over by a boat , I have seen that same picture somewhere else on the netCheers

 

Ken

Actually looks more like a boat strike, doesn't it?

 

kaz

 

 

[Ultralights]

I had just exited the runway at a summer fly-in, when I noticed one of the volunteer marshalls, resplendent in Hi-Viz jacket, saunter up to the left side of a PA28 / 200 cockpit window and was apparently speaking to the pilot thru that nice little opening side - window.

everyone knows Hi viz vests make everything safe. OH&S industry says so...

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I may be wrong but I think the Guy in the picture with the gashes in his back may have been run over by a boat , I have seen that same picture somewhere else on the netCheers

 

Ken

Hiya Ken, Could be, I actually saw that on an EAA forum post in te USA, entitled " Don't mess with Airplane Props" . . . . but I agree, it could well be a swimmer run over by an outbard boat engine. . . .

 

Phil

 

 

[ayavner]

Or a really bad fencing accident.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Or a really bad fencing accident.

Geeeez Ayavner. . . . . . Wot kind of FENCE have you got ?????????????????????????

 

I dunno. . . . .Maybe the guy was making mad passionate love to a She-Werewolf, and she got a bit carried away in the heat of the moment ??????

 

 

[Guernsey]

You're all wrong...it was a 'Flying Boat'.

 

Alan.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Aw, Gee, I'm glad someone finally sorted that one out, Hey. . . Thanks Al, you're a star *

 

 

[Guest ratchet]

I'd like to start with this one. ( Got to be worth an application for the Darwin Award this. . .)I had just exited the runway at a summer fly-in, when I noticed one of the volunteer marshalls, resplendent in Hi-Viz jacket, saunter up to the left side of a PA28 / 200 cockpit window and was apparently speaking to the pilot thru that nice little opening side - window.

 

I stopped taxying at that point and pointed this out to my front seat pax as I couldn't believe how this guy could be so stupid. . . . He was leaning on the leading edge of the wing between that and a TURNING PROP, casually talking to the pilot thru the open window.

 

Now I don't know if this bloke was actually a flying person himself, and I didn't get to find out, as there were upwards of seventy aircraft parked there and by the time I'd shut down and booked in, there was no sign of the bloke. I didn't see any blood and guts on the grass so concluded that he must have gotten away with this incredibly daft act.

 

I don't know about you guys, but If anyone had done this at our airfield, he would have been escorted to the exit and awarded a lifetime ban.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Darwin Award Application number 2 . . . .

 

( I was able to interject here, to prevent a tragedy) . I was slouching about at the flying club on an unusually warm ( but damp )November afternoon when a guy strode out of the cafe and proceeded to try to start his aircraft, a PA 28/140 which was parked on the grass apron. After cranking it for a while, it was obvious that it was not going to fire, it didn't even cough. . . he eventually ran the battery down.

 

I didn't take a lot of notice notice at the time, as there was a non-radio SE5A replica in the pattern, and I was duty radio op with four trikes approaching the overhead.

 

Shortly after this he was seen trying a hand-prop job, with no chocks and nobody in the cockpit. One of my fellow members said, " Look at that twit, he's already slipped over on the wet grass and fallen thru the prop arc TWICE" When questioned about this the bloke said, "Don't worry, it sometimes does this, but it usually starts with a swing" ( Has anyone ever tried to hand swing a 140 Cherokee ?? - It's quite difficult, unless you have a Swartzeneggeresque physique )

 

Anyway, we talked him out of further Darwin Award attempts, and got our "Sooty" to drag out the long jump leads and get him going from the boost starter unit.

 

Hand - propping can be carried out safely on SOME aeroplanes. . . . but it requires careful training and commonsense, otherwise, you may well end up like the guy in the picture here, who lived incidentally and therefore did not qualify for the Darwin Award this time.

 

[ATTACH]20271[/ATTACH]

 

I wonder if there are any more scary stories you'd care to share for the eddification of us all ??

 

Phil

 

Image size reduced by request - Mod

That aint nothin.

 

In 15 yrs i saw the following and some i forget:

 

1 dead passenger. 1 dead pilot (seperate incidents). 1 crashed trike -child passenger thrown clear, pilot

 

with spinals. written off thruster. written off yak. too many forced landings, gyro and cessna 310 converging

 

on final (no radio), gyro underneath popped canopies, glider dropped winch cable in front of C402 flaring, a few snapped axles and plenty of wiped out gear, drifter bent in half after stalling in from 100', drifter

 

flown after a crash and A frame snapped thru (i think that's called nonairworthy), jabiru flown with delaminated

 

upper wing surface and failed airspeed indicator, night flying, parachuting from thrusters, bloke flying drunk

 

and landing 10' in the air, hand smashed from hand propping, 1 death from toxic chemicals (it's good to read

 

the container), CFIs training in open cockpits in the rain and wrecking props etc etc.

 

Love flying. Love planes. It's people and systems that suck.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Allo Ratchet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

Well. . . . .When I started this thread, . . .I thought it might be interesting to see if any of the OZPILOTZ had seen similar things. . . . . . . . where did you see all this ? Afghanistan ? ( !!! )

 

Good list anyway mate, Since my first flight, at the tender age of seven, in a Gypsy Moth from a seafront road in the South of England in 1957, . . .I've seen quite a lot of things, but I thought it would be a little imprudent to make a gigantic list.

 

Anyway, I think you've seen enough in fifteen years to fill a book mate. Please expand, and give us all the benefit of your experience, that's why I started this thread anyway, not particularly looking for spectacular stories, just the sort of thing which either gets into, or just misses the accident reports by a hair's breadth, and you've certainly mentioned a few of those. . . .!!

 

How about the poor Lady parachutist who landed on top of a hovering helicopter over here in the UK, . . . . . . can't imagine what the poor woman was thinking in the last few seconds of her life,. . . . . bit that doesn't really count, . . . .as I Didn't actually see it ( thankfully )

 

I've seen drunk pilots as well, one of whom landed a Gemini Flash 2 Alpha ( Flexwing Trike ) with an open can of Tennents Special Brew lager ( 9.5 percent ABV ) between his knees, and I saw him sipping from the can as he taxied in to the apron. . . . . .

 

And another one who attended a Club barbie, his girlfriend remarked that he'd had six cans before he came to the event, and had consumed at least another six when we saw him cavorting in the overhead trying to perform aerobatics in another trike. . . . .

 

One of my captains ( cargo flying ) was addicted to Scotch whisky, and when he found that the destination was Moslem and therefore DRY. . . . diverted to another airfield across the border where he could get a drink, nearly running us out of fuel in the process. . . . . .

 

It goes on, but anyway, keep the stories coming mate, . . . very interesting.

 

Phil

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Allo Ratchet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Well. . . . .When I started this thread, . . .I thought it might be interesting to see if any of the OZPILOTZ had seen similar things. . . . . . . . where did you see all this ? Afghanistan ? ( !!! )

 

Good list anyway mate, Since my first flight, at the tender age of seven, in a Gypsy Moth from a seafront road in the South of England in 1957, . . .I've seen quite a lot of things, but I thought it would be a little imprudent to make a gigantic list.

 

Anyway, I think you've seen enough in fifteen years to fill a book mate. Please expand, and give us all the benefit of your experience, that's why I started this thread anyway, not particularly looking for spectacular stories, just the sort of thing which either gets into, or just misses the accident reports by a hair's breadth, and you've certainly mentioned a few of those. . . .!!

 

How about the poor Lady parachutist who landed on top of a hovering helicopter over here in the UK, . . . . . . can't imagine what the poor woman was thinking in the last few seconds of her life,. . . . . bit that doesn't really count, . . . .as I Didn't actually see it ( thankfully )

 

I've seen drunk pilots as well, one of whom landed a Gemini Flash 2 Alpha ( Flexwing Trike ) with an open can of Tennents Special Brew lager ( 9.5 percent ABV ) between his knees, and I saw him sipping from the can as he taxied in to the apron. . . . . .

 

And another one who attended a Club barbie, his girlfriend remarked that he'd had six cans before he came to the event, and had consumed at least another six when we saw him cavorting in the overhead trying to perform aerobatics in another trike. . . . .

 

One of my captains ( cargo flying ) was addicted to Scotch whisky, and when he found that the destination was Moslem and therefore DRY. . . . diverted to another airfield across the border where he could get a drink, nearly running us out of fuel in the process. . . . . .

 

It goes on, but anyway, keep the stories coming mate, . . . very interesting.

 

Phil

[M61A1]

everyone knows Hi viz vests make everything safe. OH&S industry says so...

Some years ago I was supplying asphalt for a job site, that was shut down immediately after a concrete cutter was killed.........strangled when his hi-vis vest became entangled in his machine.

Bad enought to be getting that close to a moving prop.......but wearing a flappy vest as well?

 

 

[M61A1]

An aquaintance of mine had the experience of having someone run into his tail rotor. A joyflight in a bell 206 went bad when, despite a briefing detailing the correct way to approach the aircraft, one of the passengers raced the other for a particular seat and tried to run through the tail rotor. He shut down as soon as he saw them run towards the back, but a 206 doesn't stop immediately. They didn't survive.

 

 

[Sapphire]

Like that late for his flight golfer who tried to get the attention of the pilot taxiing and ran into the prop. My scariest was hand proping my Varieze first time. It had been shipped over from the States, fuel from the main tank drained, and I had it pushed nose first against the hanger. I put the fuel selector to off, throttle to idle, mixture off, no throttle priming, but mags on and thought I would practice hand propping and maybe if I was lucky, get a pop out of it. Very very slowly turned the prop and the impulse magnito clicked. The engine roared into life for 3 or 4 seconds infront of my face-unbelievable. Didn't need a shave that day. It sat for more than a month in a shipping container and longer before and after. Even if your engine is completely disassembled, never trust the prop when turning it over.

 

 

[Guest ratchet]

yak stories:

 

A bloke took off and as his hand came forward to retract the gear, he hit some turb and hit the mag switches instead. Killed motor and he did a successful turnback.

 

I was doing some aero training in a yak52. At top of a loop. instructors pen fell out and landed on the floor of my

 

cockpit. started to roll toward the hole in floor where joystick joins the control links. Instructor wanted to keep going!

 

No way. Home we went. Read later of a UK crash with same cause.

 

Yak instruction on inverted spinning. Procedure involves throttle back, simultaneous rudder push both

 

pilots with hand assist on knee. One bloke forgot to back off the power. Discovered at last minute and they

 

just pulled out.

 

Mate flying into HK old airport. Missed the approach in total fog and stuffed the missed approach procedure.

 

Should have turned left like 30secs ago. No idea where they were. Expected buildings in the windscreen any

 

moment. Popped above cloud and wrote it up as a precautionary inspection/approach.

 

i thought it was just me but actually sh%t happens all the time.

 

What i object to is ignoring the foreseeable. An ASI is a really handy thing. I don't know why some

 

people fly without them.

 

 

[metalman]

Like that late for his flight golfer who tried to get the attention of the pilot taxiing and ran into the prop. My scariest was hand proping my Varieze first time. It had been shipped over from the States, fuel from the main tank drained, and I had it pushed nose first against the hanger. I put the fuel selector to off, throttle to idle, mixture off, no throttle priming, but mags on and thought I would practice hand propping and maybe if I was lucky, get a pop out of it. Very very slowly turned the prop and the impulse magnito clicked. The engine roared into life for 3 or 4 seconds infront of my face-unbelievable. It sat for more than a month in a shipping container and longer before and after. Even if your engine is completely disassembled, never trust the prop when turning it over.

Did the varieze start that easy when all was ready to fly it? I've been flying a Tigermoth lately and it's scary how little effort is actually required to start the old bird

Met

 

 

[Sapphire]

Did the varieze start that easy when all was ready to fly it? I've been flying a Tigermoth lately and it's scary how little effort is actually required to start the old birdMet

You had to do the priming exactly according to temp. If you flooded it you needed a long time to start. Biggest worry if the throttle cable snapped or disengaged and you had a high speed throttle setting but the lever was on idle.

 

ratchet said: started to roll toward the hole in floor where joystick joins the control links

 

Lost into plane coins, pens, hair pins, tools all move around during aeorbatics. Do them high and have a chute.

 

 

[M61A1]

You had to do the priming exactly according to temp. If you flooded it you needed a long time to start. Biggest worry if the throttle cable snapped or disengaged and you had a high speed throttle setting but the lever was on idle.

 

ratchet said: started to roll toward the hole in floor where joystick joins the control links

 

Lost into plane coins, pens, hair pins, tools all move around during aeorbatics. Do them high and have a chute.

I have known test pilots to do cockpit FOD checks by rolling inverted, give it a shake then pick up off the canopy what falls out.

 

 

[Guest ratchet]

I have known test pilots to do cockpit FOD checks by rolling inverted, give it a shake then pick up off the canopy what falls out.

I always believed the "test" part of test pilot meant testosterone...

 

 

[Guest ratchet]

You had to do the priming exactly according to temp. If you flooded it you needed a long time to start. Biggest worry if the throttle cable snapped or disengaged and you had a high speed throttle setting but the lever was on idle.

 

ratchet said: started to roll toward the hole in floor where joystick joins the control links

 

Lost into plane coins, pens, hair pins, tools all move around during aeorbatics. Do them high and have a chute.

Met a 402 driver who had the yoke lock in one direction due to a jammed screwdriver after maintenance. Turned

 

left only and had no X wind luckily in landing.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Back to hand-propping for a moment. . . . .

 

I was shown a so called "Safer" method of starting a Tiger Moth by standing on the left side of the engine cowl . . .( Harks back to my first post in this thread. . .) hanging onto a strut with the right hand and swinging the prop blade downward with the free left arm. . . . . it seemed to work, ( If it was primed properly. . .) but I was a little concerned about slipping on the grass whilst backing out gingerly along the leading edge. . . .

 

No Thanks. . . . I much preferred the "Place the chocks, stand in front, keep your centre of body mass biased over the back foot, . . . LOOK AND LISTEN. . for the pilot to shout . . ."Throttle set. . . Contact. . and then. . . . . be bloody careful" method.

 

On Foreign Objects. . . . . .

 

I once stalled a Tiger inverted whilst completely messing up an attempted loop. . . . . . in that few seconds ( seemed like ages ) before the nose dropped, quite a bit of cockpit detritus; half a pair of sunglasses, coins, bits of wood, bits of gravel and other unidentifiable debris fell upwards past the goggles . . . . as mentioned above, . . . . I guess it's ONE way of clearing the trash out. . . . !

 

 

[Guest ratchet]

Back to hand-propping for a moment. . . . .I was shown a so called "Safer" method of starting a Tiger Moth by standing on the left side of the engine cowl . . .( Harks back to my first post in this thread. . .) hanging onto a strut with the right hand and swinging the prop blade downward with the free left arm. . . . . it seemed to work, ( If it was primed properly. . .) but I was a little concerned about slipping on the grass whilst backing out gingerly along the leading edge. . . .

 

No Thanks. . . . I much preferred the "Place the chocks, stand in front, keep your centre of body mass biased over the back foot, . . . LOOK AND LISTEN. . for the pilot to shout . . ."Throttle set. . . Contact. . and then. . . . . be bloody careful" method.

 

On Foreign Objects. . . . . .

 

I once stalled a Tiger inverted whilst completely messing up an attempted loop. . . . . . in that few seconds ( seemed like ages ) before the nose dropped, quite a bit of cockpit detritus; half a pair of sunglasses, coins, bits of wood, bits of gravel and other unidentifiable debris fell upwards past the goggles . . . . as mentioned above, . . . . I guess it's ONE way of clearing the trash out. . . . !

Not so much a safety comment but someone once said to me the beaver has a single big nut holding on the prop

 

and that the torque specification was a several metre long spanner and 6 pairs of hands hanging from it.