Whats your worst mistake..?

[motzartmerv]

Haha..yea, youve been busy hanging around on ropes underneath thrusters and getting some bondage and dicipline from a cop/ ex politician..hehe

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

OK this is possibly my best stuff up involving an ultralight. i don't do this type of thing very often but when i do it is a beauty. this is the first time that i have spoken of this incident.

 

Working late in the Kirrawee Thruster factory by myself trying to get the 3 Thrusters ready for Mangalore air show. 83 or 84 i think. Anyway i had the last one tied down to the post doing a thrust test. The engine had been run in the day before on the test stand so i just needed to make sure everything was ok before loading up and driving for about 10 hrs. So it is screaming away inside the factory and i went back to check the scales to see what it was reading. i turned to go back and shut it down but i stuck my foot in the loop and gave it a tug. the knot released and the bloody thing roared off down the near empty factory in a dead straight line. with me hot on it's tail, about 40ft later the prop faceplate punched a hole in the besser block and i shut it down. the catto prop was all over the place and boy was it quiet in that smokey factory. I just stood there and took it all in. there was no spare engine so i replaced the prop, faceplate and bolts. there seemed to be no other visible damage runout seemed fine. so loaded up and left a couple hours later than i intended. On the drive down all i could think of was the possible failures. so just have to be carefull. I arrived, set it up had it fuelled and just about to take it for a fly when DB drives in with the other thruster in tow hops out of the car walks over and commandeers the ready to go Thruster. But but,, i says. DB just roars off oh well he'll find out if it does decide to uncork, so best to keep mouth shut. It ran fine never had a problem with it over the 4 days. I managed to cover my tracks pretty well.

 

Fixed the hole in the wall, burnt the remains of the prop. DB kept looking for the "missing prop and bolts" suspected something but never worked it out. I did not set out to decieve but he would not listen as usual. so i managed to save face but gee i had trouble looking at the patched part of the wall.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Thats a duzzey Ozzie.. What i want to know is how the thruster tracked in a straight line .... I could never get it to do that and i was IN the thing...lol..

 

Anyway, great story.. It reminds of of a few things ive done, but not with aeroplanes but other machinery...but i wont go into it here..

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Thrusters track straight with a hunk of rope around the spring and wheel.

 

Skycraft Scouts track straight with rope and fence post around tail wheel.

 

 

[Methusala]

Damn you people! Ready? I was based on a strip that ran down hill into the prevailing wind. I had only 25 or so hrs in the VP2 at this stage and was not fully current. My best mate and I took off early into a gentle headwind, downslope. we flew for about 1 hour and returned to land. On the approach into wind there was a tall tree and the approach called for a close overflight and power reduction to idle over the top. I decided to land upslope, downwind! I should have realised early that the wind had strengthened considerably over the hour by the ground speed on late final. We flared but did not touch until we had covered almost half the strip. Power on and I could not take my eyes off the rapidly approaching horizon to check airspeed. Just fly the plane! We turned 10 degrees right to aim for a slight saddle, one wheel bounced off a stack of old tyres but remained airbourne. Clearing the fence on the horizon and probably in ground effect we were horrified to see powerlines stretched unavoidably across our track. Not possible to go under we endured the next split second in agony. Well folks, we survived to continue the flight onto the correct approach and see our mature age. I'm not proud of this tale but recount it as a warning to grit your teeth and always make the courageous decision. Don.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

OMG..did you hit the powerlines?? s:censored:t a brick...Probably would have been a dodgy landing downslope anyway hey??..wow, great story;)

 

 

[Methusala]

Mozartmerv. No, we missed the powerlines and the landing downslope, into wind was uneventful and perfect. I hate to recollect this event and only shared it in the spirit of your thread. Regards, Don.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Well i thank you all the more...Part of the conditions of hire of the plane i fly is that it only lands at ALA's, so these bush strips that some of you have to contend with are not an issue with me... Always landing on nice long wide bitumen strips would have to make you a bit sketchy on the bush strips..Awell, i guess i have to buy meself a jab hey..;)

 

thanx again

 

 

[johnm]

ozzie chasing plane in aircraft factory - very funny

 

Me 20 years bacl - kiwi - was in NZ and I did a quick flight before a flight exam test - Cessna 152 (or thereabouts). Flew for about 20 minutes and when landed noticed huge amounts of oil down, along and under the fueslage

 

Up till that point I had not even thought the that oil filler cap would have been loose or not in correct position

 

Into the hanger it was to hide from the visitng testing officer of the 'air' - all cleaned up and then pushed out ready for flight exam test - not a word was said to anyone - which in hindsight was pretty bad (there must have been some oil still on the stick so the decision was ........ get it ready !)

 

Past the flight test as well - I imagine the preflight was better the 2nd time round !

 

 

[Methusala]

Mozart mate, long wide black bitumen strips are great but the question does arise, "What about an engine failure or precautionary landing under stress of weather?". Our CFI at Holbrook was trained on piston and then jet fighter aircraft. He confessed to a revolution of thought when another bloke suggested that 1 pass at twice tree height and then another at tree height was a much better way of evaluating a paddock than the more common 500ft height. I still feel hopelessly sick when I recall "the incedent". What do others think about precautionaries? Don.

 

 

[blueshed]

Which particular Incedent?

 

Guy

 

 

[Guest Decca]

Guy: Post #33 above I suspect. Decca.

 

 

[Guest ROM]

Started on Tigers in 1959 and gliders in 1963 so which of the four "Not my time Yet!" do you want?

 

1 / Young, newly licensed, a passenger that wanted to fly and a winter morning with fog.

 

I don't want to go there again but we survived, how I don't know, and we spent an hour above a solid sheet of 700 foot deep fog until it started to break up and I could see a good paddock that I knew.

 

2 / Gliders; On approach in an old english design Slingsby T31 glider with a pupil.

 

Quite a strong wind right down the strip and approach speed was the regulation 47 kts.

 

At about 200 feet, the ASI simply stopped working and the needle just dropped to zero.

 

The T31 did likewise. It simply stopped flying! Pupil and self just sat there while we dropped out of the sky. Quite literally, there was simply nothing we could do!

 

Then with no warning about 20 feet above the ground, in a second or so the ASI slammed from zero to above the VNE of about 70 knots.

 

We cruised across the fence a hundred yards ahead and and touched down and pulled up without a scatch but with some very sticky underpants.

 

My first experience but not my last of the old trap; The roll off of a dense line of trees nearly a mile upwind.

 

We simply got caught in the downdraft of the roll as it broke away from in the lee of the trees and rolled downwind and then we just , as in "just" caught the rear up draught of the roll as we punched through it which gave us our airspeed back and probably saved our lives.

 

3 / Glider towing with a Tiger in an increasing cross wind which I figured I could handle.

 

I couldn't and I didn't with the inevitable result that I eventually finished looking down at the fuel tank from the cockpit and worried by the thought of fire, which was a bit silly as the engine was now uppermost and the fuel tank was on the ground, I pulled the harness release and fell out on my head.

 

My pride was the only thing really hurt but the the tiger didn't look too good.

 

The sequel was that a couple of little old ladies saw the "crash" and went and told everybody in town that they saw this aeroplane crash and "Oh Dear, we could hear the pilot and he can really swear!"

 

4 / Roll off of trees AGAIN!

 

Visiting a gliding winch club who invited me to ride with their star pupil as I was a fully rated and had considerable experience as a gliding instructor by then.

 

Also the glider was a K7, a type that I had not flown before and there was a strong smooth wind blowing directly down the strip

 

Pupil was pretty good until our approach over power lines to the strip.

 

He was using the dive brakes to regulate his descent on the approach which to that point had been as per book when I suddenly realised that our sink rate had smoothly and drastically increased until we were falling out the sky right over top of the power lines.

 

I slammed the dive brakes closed, ripping the lever out of the pupil's hand in doing so and hauled back on the stick as I tried to make it over the power lines and partially arrest the extremely high sink rate as we hit.

 

We made it over the power lines, just! The impact broke the rear fuselage of the glider which being steel tube was fairly easy to repair.

 

Both myself and the pupil walked away unhurt.

 

Again, a dense row of pine trees a mile directly upwind of the landing strip and a strong smooth stratified wind flow had created a typical, down wind roll situation which was too blame for our almost disastrous arrival on the strip.

 

So that was twice that a roll off of a line of trees had nearly killed me.

 

If the upwind tree line has gaps through it the wind will break up any forming rolls and you will only get some very rough turbulence but if the tree line or other upwind obstruction is continuous and the wind is a smooth strong wind without any gusts or thermals to break it's stratified flow up then these days I get extremely wary about roll and the potential catastrophic effects when on approach or take off.

 

Generally only bush strips will have the possibility of this problem.

 

All of the above happened before I had a dozen years of flying under my belt and I am still here and still flying so draw your own conclusions!

 

 

[Flyer]

Poor x-wind technique in a 172RG Cutlass on runway 12 Alice Springs airport. Did about a hundred meters on the nose and right main gear thinking I was about to go over before I had enough foresight to give the aircraft a major boot of right rudder which settled the whole lot on the ground nicely.

 

regards

 

Phil

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Don't know if its my worst mistake, but i made a booboo at camden agian...grrrlll...after all the trouble ive had joining the cct there...

 

Was just the other day, joining from the outside of the cct on a 45 after a trip to matland and back...There was as usual a few acft in the cct, i joined a bit early i think, sort of near the crosswind downwind intersection area...a cranky voice came on the radio, "jabiru 4785 do you see the acft on crosswind...?" "yes i do i replied, and as i kept watching it was getting closer and closer, climbing a hell of a lot better then i thought it would... "i might get out of his way" i said, the reply was quite loud and blunt " that would be a bloody good idea..Ur better off overflying and joining midfield then joining like that>>.rah rah rah..."... i orbited to the right and joined a little further downwind..

 

I learned that joining downwind on a 45 should be done midfield..not early dw...and...some people still overfly and join midfield crosswind..i just can't win..

 

 

[slartibartfast]

I've made some rippers, but this one is fresh so I'll relate it.

 

I was leaving Port MacQuarie yesterday. Called taxi to holding point 21, heard an RPT inbound call but couldn't make it out completely. Heard runway 03 and I thought 30 miles, so I thought it must be somewhere else, or at least plenty of time. I called entering, then thought "wait - 03 is the other end of 21". So before I moved from holding point, I called and asked inbound RPT to clarify distance. Sure enough, he was on 5 mile final for the same runway. He curtly said "but it doesn't matter now, you're on the runway". To which I was relieved to be able to reply that I wasn't and would hold for him. So he continued his approach and everyone lived.

 

That could have been a very embarrassing mistake.:black_eye:

 

The lesson - listen carefully and if you're not sure - ask!

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Good one Slarti What were you doing up there mate? You would have cost the Virgin Blue E170 a little bit extra in juice if you had started rolling:laugh: Might have been the QF Dash 8 who knows? Anyway, when we were there last week I could swear I saw Matt and Kaz' plane there. If not, it was its twin. Anyway

 

 

[Mazda]

One that springs to mind was flying down towards Canberra over a bit of cloud. Not that much cloud, there was plenty of land visible below. Goulburn came up as expected and I saw the highway, so I adjusted my track and flew near the road. Then I saw the train. Train?? There's no train line on the road to Canberra. I realised I'd assumed the highway I saw was the one to Canberra, but it was actually the one to Yass. I was so annoyed with myself for not relying on heading and watch, and not cross-checking my "visual fix." I saw what I wanted to see, not what was really there!

 

 

[Whack777]

What a great thread!

 

One that comes to my mind (there are few) is taking off from Bankstown in a C172 and the seat slipped backwards as I took off. I could only just touch the controls with my finger tips and push forward. Very scary for a few seconds... from then on always been pedantic in checking that any seat is "properly locked" into position.

 

Always find the seats in the Jab to be pretty good in this regard.

 

More stories please guys and girls!

 

 

[chrsq]

Would just like to say this is a great thread and am taking in as much of this as possible.

 

I am just about to sit my GFPT, so not much experience but maybe because of this site and the honesty of its members it could oneday prevent an accident or even save a life:hug:.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

 

 

[Guest brentc]

motzartmerv - question for you. When you joined at the intersection of crosswind and downwind (completely legal) were you to the 'right' of the aircraft on crosswind? Was it a left hand circuit? If so from your description then you probably have right of way because he must give way to his right.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Not so much a major foobah but i had a similar experience to Wayne in regards to a moving seat. This was in the Otter. Unlike the Cessna, the seats in the Twin Otters adjust up and down and not fore/aft as in more the norm. the rudder pedals are adjustable instead. The procedure for a two pilot operation that the aircraft be rotated using both hands and the non flying pilot guards the power levers. So as i approached Vr i had set power and started to rotate with both hands. Just as the nose wheel lifted the seat dropped to it's lowest setting and all i could see was the instruments. So i kept on them until 500ft called for flap up then handed over. i sorted the seat out and then resumed control. I felt pretty good when the Cpt said i handled it in an appropriate manner. If it had been a single pilot operation it could have had a different outcome as if it happened with my hand on the power levers i could have pulled the power full off. i checked later and found that with the seat fully down i could not push them fully forward. The levers are overhead in this aircraft.

 

If it happens to me in a cessna or similar i would not hesitate to shove the pole forward using my feet.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[bushpilot]

Ok, Ok, so I've been holding back then; mainly because it went unreported at the time..

 

Several years ago I configured my own nano-trike: Put a lightweight trike base under a high performance (high apect ratio) 'topless' carbon-fibre hangglider. Checked with a few other nano pilots and feedback said it should fly well - with the soaring capability I was seeking. (By then I'd logged well over 600 hours in hanggliders, without power assist). There were no 2-seater nanos, so bit hard to get checked out; but I did have a CFI on hand to observe and assist by radio.

 

I took off with a bit of cross wind, which at about 100 feet AGL shifted suddenly to 90o cross.. This lifted the wing and initiated a turn down-wind; I kept the nose too high and entered a spin. At 50 ft AGL I finally pulled the nose down to about 70o down and got the stalled wing flying again, and had commenced a rotation when the nose speared in, at about 10o down attitude.

 

The machine skidded for no more than 10 feet, so the energy dissipation caused interesting affects: the pusher engine pushed the seat back flat onto the seat base; problem was I was still in the seat; undercarriage collapsed (all 3 wheels) wing leading edges both broke; I broke - collar bone, right leg and thumb. (Could have been much worse...)

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Bushpilot..Holy snappers mate, ya weren't kidding when ya said it could have been worse..Lucky to still have you around by the sounds of that..

 

Brentc, yes, it was a left hand cct, and i was on his right hand side..To be honest, i purposfully joined in that area so i could get a good look at the crosswind leg to check where the traffic was, and the plane in front of him called turning crosswind to let me know where he was, but nothing from the other guy untill he wanted to abuse me.. So giving way to your right is the go even for climbing acft isn't it, its only on final or upwind that the give way rule changes to all acft give way to acft on those legs??...

 

anyway, keep em comin lads, exellent stuff...I can pretty much be sure that i won't be making any of the mistakes we have all shared, or at the very least, be forwarned of the some of the possible problems that can occur..The idea is i spose that as a situation develops a little voice in the back of our minds may remind us of something we read from our fellow members....:thumb_up::thumb_up:...good job boys (and girls)..

 

 

[Methusala]

Dear Mozart et al, I don't think that one can store all of these anecdotes and instantly recall them as the need comes. I once read "Fate is the Hunter", by Earnest Gann(***** that's 5 star reccomended), and the premis was that there are amillion pilots and am illion ways to get tripped up. Sooo... I think the real lesson of this post is to show that we all leave our brains in the locker sometimes. Be cautious and check yourself at every opportunity, MY 2 cents worth, regards, Don:thumb_up: