AggieMike88
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2010
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- 20,805
- Location
- Denton, TX
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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
.... I took Br-y-an Turner on a flight to the Texas Panhandle for leg 1 of a PnP flight for a huge St. Bernard and 3 other dogs. He honored me with this treasured story of our flight....
Bryan Turner, January 13, 2014
Thought I would take a moment to brag on Michael Farlow, aka “Aggie Mike.”
I had the privilege of flying with him yesterday. It turned out to be a very interesting flight and I learned quite a bit. I will do my best not to exaggerate so Mike, let me know if this all seems accurate.
So there we were in Full IMC. We had just lost the left wing. I screamed "We're gonna die!" Mike rolled his eyes and said "I've got this!" He punched his fist through the window and held his left arm straight out. It took a couple seconds of playing with the angle of incidence but he got his hand angled just right and the plane started to level off. I couldn't believe it. I just looked at him in amazement and said "You know that window opens right?"
He just asked if I was going to keep being a little girl. I stopped crying and said, "Ok, I trust you lets finish the flight" He stared ahead and said "Flight? This is nothing. I don't even log a flight unless I take a lightning strike."
The winds were out of the north at 120 kts and out of the south at 80 kts. we were flying sideways with the nose pointed straight up between the battling winds. Then it happened. "THUNK!" Bird strike on the right wing. It knocked part of the flap loose and we started pulling to the right. The right flap was partially deployed and causing a lot of drag.
I asked Mike "Is this a problem?" He responded "Let me show you a little trick I learned at the culinary academy."
He pitched down toward the flock of birds (rare breed that only flies south through freakish storms)
"What are you doing?" I screamed. He said "we have two choices. One is a tail-slide into the flock of birds hoping for a strike on the back side of the right wing which will reverse the damage. Or we can do this."
We dove into the flock with his left wing er... um arm targeting the flock of birds. I closed my eyes. THUNK!
I opened my eyes and saw he had grabbed one of the birds (a large duck) out of the flock. He said this would create an equal amount of drag on the left side so we can press on. We had a couple hours left to fly and doing this would make the trip more fuel efficient.
It was quiet for awhile. Mike was flying, I was scared. The duck was pi$$ed. I was taking it all in and I just said "You are like the Chuck Norris of flying."
Mike said: "Who?"
"Nevermind."
We had flight following and mike spent most of the flight letting the tower know about traffic advisories. We had the airport in sight and Mike asked for frequency change and the tower kept asking mike to stay on with them. Mike told the tower he couldn't and had the tower squawk VFR.
We lined up for the only runway available, 39 and the wind was directly across the runway but it was mountain wave so for most pilots certain death. He lined up, and the plane started to tip right as we slowed down. I said "what is happening?" He said not to worry, that his arm has a lower stall speed then the wing. He added left aileron to create more drag on the right wing. Just then, the left wheel departed the aircraft. He was too focused to care.
He talked me through the landing.
"Okay, I am over the numbers"
"Rounding out"
"Just before we touch down, I will release the duck to increase drag on the right wing will allow us to land on the one good gear on the right."
We flared, He let go of the duck. It flew off quacking loudly and sadly was immediately struck by lightening and killed.
Rolling down the runway holding level with his hand and aileron deflection, slowing down, he kicked the door open and put his left foot down to prevent damage to the belly if the aircraft. I could smell the rubber burning off his shoe as it dragged along the pavement. Then I could hear his foot cutting a ridge in the runway after all of his shoe had burned off.
The plane stopped and we taxied to parking. We grabbed lunch and headed back to the airport. The flight back was pretty uneventful. I think we both slept through most of it.
At any rate, I thought I would share.
Ok, all B.S Aside, I did see the most intense crosswind landing yesterday. I think it was 22 gusting to close to 35 (feel free to correct those numbers mike). Mike will tell you I was pretty contorted, looking for things in the plane to hang onto while he was slipping it in. I was stressing out but he worked hard and did an amazing job of landing that plane without so much as a bump.
Very good flight. Great learning experience.
Thanks Mike.
Bryan Turner, January 13, 2014
Thought I would take a moment to brag on Michael Farlow, aka “Aggie Mike.”
I had the privilege of flying with him yesterday. It turned out to be a very interesting flight and I learned quite a bit. I will do my best not to exaggerate so Mike, let me know if this all seems accurate.
So there we were in Full IMC. We had just lost the left wing. I screamed "We're gonna die!" Mike rolled his eyes and said "I've got this!" He punched his fist through the window and held his left arm straight out. It took a couple seconds of playing with the angle of incidence but he got his hand angled just right and the plane started to level off. I couldn't believe it. I just looked at him in amazement and said "You know that window opens right?"
He just asked if I was going to keep being a little girl. I stopped crying and said, "Ok, I trust you lets finish the flight" He stared ahead and said "Flight? This is nothing. I don't even log a flight unless I take a lightning strike."
The winds were out of the north at 120 kts and out of the south at 80 kts. we were flying sideways with the nose pointed straight up between the battling winds. Then it happened. "THUNK!" Bird strike on the right wing. It knocked part of the flap loose and we started pulling to the right. The right flap was partially deployed and causing a lot of drag.
I asked Mike "Is this a problem?" He responded "Let me show you a little trick I learned at the culinary academy."
He pitched down toward the flock of birds (rare breed that only flies south through freakish storms)
"What are you doing?" I screamed. He said "we have two choices. One is a tail-slide into the flock of birds hoping for a strike on the back side of the right wing which will reverse the damage. Or we can do this."
We dove into the flock with his left wing er... um arm targeting the flock of birds. I closed my eyes. THUNK!
I opened my eyes and saw he had grabbed one of the birds (a large duck) out of the flock. He said this would create an equal amount of drag on the left side so we can press on. We had a couple hours left to fly and doing this would make the trip more fuel efficient.

It was quiet for awhile. Mike was flying, I was scared. The duck was pi$$ed. I was taking it all in and I just said "You are like the Chuck Norris of flying."
Mike said: "Who?"
"Nevermind."
We had flight following and mike spent most of the flight letting the tower know about traffic advisories. We had the airport in sight and Mike asked for frequency change and the tower kept asking mike to stay on with them. Mike told the tower he couldn't and had the tower squawk VFR.
We lined up for the only runway available, 39 and the wind was directly across the runway but it was mountain wave so for most pilots certain death. He lined up, and the plane started to tip right as we slowed down. I said "what is happening?" He said not to worry, that his arm has a lower stall speed then the wing. He added left aileron to create more drag on the right wing. Just then, the left wheel departed the aircraft. He was too focused to care.
He talked me through the landing.
"Okay, I am over the numbers"
"Rounding out"
"Just before we touch down, I will release the duck to increase drag on the right wing will allow us to land on the one good gear on the right."
We flared, He let go of the duck. It flew off quacking loudly and sadly was immediately struck by lightening and killed.
Rolling down the runway holding level with his hand and aileron deflection, slowing down, he kicked the door open and put his left foot down to prevent damage to the belly if the aircraft. I could smell the rubber burning off his shoe as it dragged along the pavement. Then I could hear his foot cutting a ridge in the runway after all of his shoe had burned off.
The plane stopped and we taxied to parking. We grabbed lunch and headed back to the airport. The flight back was pretty uneventful. I think we both slept through most of it.
At any rate, I thought I would share.
Ok, all B.S Aside, I did see the most intense crosswind landing yesterday. I think it was 22 gusting to close to 35 (feel free to correct those numbers mike). Mike will tell you I was pretty contorted, looking for things in the plane to hang onto while he was slipping it in. I was stressing out but he worked hard and did an amazing job of landing that plane without so much as a bump.
Very good flight. Great learning experience.
Thanks Mike.
