Dumbest thing you have done and lived to tell about it

kimberlyanne546 said:
Grant, if you read my first post, you'll see this was by special request.

In other words, this whole thing wasn't my idea (including the title)!
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kimberlyanne546 said:
Jaybird180 said:
Kim- I read your posting about dropping the dipstick and think you may have been onto something but it just didn't catch on.

How about you start a thread asking people to post "Dumbest thing you have done and lived to tell about it" thead?

I'd post.
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I tried that in the beginning of my post but no one listened.

OK I will start a thread just for you.

Hang on . . .

Kimberly
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After further discussion, we thought we'd let the cat out out of the bag.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
But what he left out is this was really a continuation of that I dropped my dipstick and shook the wings with my upper body thread. LOL.
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Oh, I guess I don't have the full conversation afterall.
I hope we didn't kill the thread by telling :dunno:
 
I landed in new bern, nc saturday for fuel. It was pretty windy and gusty with a crosswind. A regional jet airliner was holding short as I made a nice landing.. one wheel gently first, nice and slow, right on centerline, you know. The airline pilot keys up and says "good job, I wish I could land a cessna like that" I thanked him and taxied up, blushing and my girlfriend was laughing at me.

Well after that marvelous demonstration of airmanship I quickly canceled it out and knocked my ego back down to where it should be. I got back into my plane, fired it up, got clearance from the tower to taxi, gave it a touch of throttle... CRAP. "Coastal carolina ground, i'll get back to you in a minute. Forgot to remove the chocks".
 
dell30rb said:
I landed in new bern, nc saturday for fuel. It was pretty windy and gusty with a crosswind. A regional jet airliner was holding short as I made a nice landing.. one wheel gently first, nice and slow, right on centerline, you know. The airline pilot keys up and says "good job, I wish I could land a cessna like that" I thanked him and taxied up, blushing and my girlfriend was laughing at me.

Well after that marvelous demonstration of airmanship I quickly canceled it out and knocked my ego back down to where it should be. I got back into my plane, fired it up, got clearance from the tower to taxi, gave it a touch of throttle... CRAP. "Coastal carolina ground, i'll get back to you in a minute. Forgot to remove the chocks".
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LOL that is a great story.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I take it you did not read that thread. How could I take a photo of myself when I was pre-flight'ing for a solo flight and then dropped my dipstick? I was all by myself.
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Well, you could do it again on purpose for the drama of posting on PoA.:wink2:
 
Hmmm...

I was on a flight the other day (sitting in back, not PIC), and the pilot started the engine, did the preflight, and started to taxi out. Plane didn't move, so we all asked the obvious question, "did anyone remove the chocks?" Everyone denied doing it, so the pilot shut down, another pilot got out and removed the chocks from the nosewheel, and got back in. Again, fire up, add power, and the plane doesn't go anywhere. Voice says "did they only chock the nosewheel?"

Dang! Bet we had an eager line guy who chocked at least TWO wheels! Pilot was about to shut down, and I piped up, asking if we could check hot. We agreed to do that, and the pilot sitting right seat got out, after I provided a reminder to approach the wheels from BEHIND the wing.

So, on one departure, we had TWO forgotten chocks!
 
Heh...

4b94241c-aabc-fb81.jpg
 
Only have 20 hours...so here are a few..
Left the fuel tester on the engine cowling..didn't realize it until I started the engine and saw it go flying around the windshield and then back. The instructor took the airplane and I went out to look for it...with the airplane running...man that prop wash was intense.
On my second landing on my soloI flared to late and bounced...did a really good job realizing this and putting in full power to go around (it was a pretty high bounce)..that was the good part...the bad part was instead of incrementally raising the flaps as I climbed out, I pulled them out all at once about 50 feet off the runway :yikes: talk about a pucker moment...I didn't settle all the way back to the runway, but it felt like I was gonna...good thing it was a long runway so i didn't have any serious obsticles in my way

Once while taxiing, I was about to make a 90 degree turn into the runup area, I went to apply some extra power and the engine started sputtering...I immediately starting looking around to see what was wrong...the instructor calmly reached over and pushed the mixture in (I had leaned it out to far) problem was, I had taken my attention away form the window...the engine roared to life and by the time I looked back out the window...we were headed off road...I salvaged it before the tires hit the grass...but it scared the daylights out of me.
 
Set in the back seat of a V-Tailed Bonanza, on a hot bumpy day.
Luckily they had bags in the back.
Never again.:vomit:
 
Monday after returning home, I refuel. I actually attached the grounding strap this time - it wasn't broken this time.

After all done, I get back in the airplane stap in, start up engne the check left to see - grounding strap on left tie down.

shut down engine, get out, remove grounding clip.

start up begin roll. check wingtip clearance left. wingtip clearance right, moving forward. CRUNCH.

Shut down. Get out

I completely killed the ladder I left in front of the right wing. And worst of all, I forgot to take pictures.

Had to have 2 guys come help detangle ladder from main gear. Mechanic said, no damage done except cosmetic scratches on wheel pant and raped ladder.

My wife spared me any further embarrassment on the subject. She's a good wife.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Monday after returning home, I refuel. I actually attached the grounding strap this time - it wasn't broken this time.

After all done, I get back in the airplane stap in, start up engne the check left to see - grounding strap on left tie down.

shut down engine, get out, remove grounding clip.

start up begin roll. check wingtip clearance left. wingtip clearance right, moving forward. CRUNCH.

Shut down. Get out

I completely killed the ladder I left in front of the right wing. And worst of all, I forgot to take pictures.

Had to have 2 guys come help detangle ladder from main gear. Mechanic said, no damage done except cosmetic scratches on wheel pant and raped ladder.

My wife spared me any further embarrassment on the subject. She's a good wife.
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Bet you won't do that again... best to completely walk around aircraft after fueling to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. Grounding strap or ladder into the prop would have been an expensive ordeal.
 
jesse said:
Bet you won't do that again... best to completely walk around aircraft after fueling to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. Grounding strap or ladder into the prop would have been an expensive ordeal.
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If you sump the tanks like you're supposed to after refueling, that generally takes care of the "Oh yeah, forgot to put that away" factor.
 
airguy said:
If you sump the tanks like you're supposed to after refueling, that generally takes care of the "Oh yeah, forgot to put that away" factor.
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Funny, my instructor was with me for every refuel (we have self serve). I always did the fuel with him, until later when he would let me do it alone. He NEVER mentioned sumping the fuel. I will have to start doing this. Though at my new flight school they fuel the plane for me.
 
airguy said:
If you sump the tanks like you're supposed to after refueling, that generally takes care of the "Oh yeah, forgot to put that away" factor.
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kimberlyanne546 said:
Funny, my instructor was with me for every refuel (we have self serve). I always did the fuel with him, until later when he would let me do it alone. He NEVER mentioned sumping the fuel. I will have to start doing this. Though at my new flight school they fuel the plane for me.
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Sumping in the 1/2 hour after fueling will only be effective if you pumped high percentages of water, otherwise it takes a while to amalgamate and settle to the sump.
 
Henning said:
Sumping in the 1/2 hour after fueling will only be effective if you pumped high percentages of water, otherwise it takes a while to amalgamate and settle to the sump.
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Or if someone else fueled you, with Jet A... Hopefully no one has done that to themselves... But I'm sure someone, somewhere, has.
 
airguy said:
If you sump the tanks like you're supposed to after refueling, that generally takes care of the "Oh yeah, forgot to put that away" factor.
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Yep, I came up with that yesterday while thinking about this. I don't have the habit of sumping before I put the airplane away, but I suppose it could cause engine damage if it were to hydrolock.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Yep, I came up with that yesterday while thinking about this. I don't have the habit of sumping before I put the airplane away, but I suppose it could cause engine damage if it were to hydrolock.
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I don't think it would be possible to get enough water into the engine to hydraulically lock it, if that were possible we would be seeing it happen with fuel also (yes Henning, I know the old radials would puddle oil and you've probably flown every one of them - different seepage mechanism, different discussion). Whether it's fuel or water getting into the cylinders it still has to go through the carb or injectors to get there.

Most of my fueling is done from a private ag operator close to my strip, and I do worry about "slugs" of water in the line somewhere, though I've never found any to date and I've been fueling there for 2 years. If the fuel delivery pump is picking up a little water off the bottom of the storage tank it will be finely divided and dispersed in the fuel, and will indeed take some time (maybe 1/2 hour? Who knows?) to settle out - in which case immediate flight after fueling won't be an issue because the engine will happily burn that small percentage of water in the fuel stream. I'm more worried about picking up several ounces of water in a slug that may (or may not) be sitting in the delivery hose from recent rainfall. That much water in a slug will rapidly settle to the bottom of the tank and cause severe/complete power loss on the next takeoff. Since I hangar 3 minutes flight time away from where I fuel, I always take off right after fueling - I'm worried about the slugs that could kill me on that next takeoff, that's why I sump immediately after fueling.

A good preflight (first of the day) should always include a sumping to check for finely-dispersed water that has settled overnight, or rainfall leaking through the fuel caps.
 
Every time I'm preflighting, I keep my eyes up to watch out for the flaps on the 172. Every. Time. Except this one. I went to go greet the fuel guy and slammed my head right into the bottom of the flap. The sharp, trailing edge part. At a perpendicular angle. Hurt like hell. I looked like an idiot, too.

This is why I like low wing aircraft!
 
Ouch! And do you now have the little diamond shape scar on the forehead look?
 
Got back from a solo cross country and realized I never once switched the fuel tank. I flew 1.8 hours on a 2 hour tank. From then on I decided checklists were there for a reason.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Monday after returning home, I refuel. I actually attached the grounding strap this time - it wasn't broken this time.

After all done, I get back in the airplane stap in, start up engne the check left to see - grounding strap on left tie down.

shut down engine, get out, remove grounding clip.

start up begin roll. check wingtip clearance left. wingtip clearance right, moving forward. CRUNCH.

Shut down. Get out

I completely killed the ladder I left in front of the right wing. And worst of all, I forgot to take pictures.

Had to have 2 guys come help detangle ladder from main gear. Mechanic said, no damage done except cosmetic scratches on wheel pant and raped ladder.

My wife spared me any further embarrassment on the subject. She's a good wife.
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This similar story will make you feel better.

The former principal cellist of the LA Philharmonic was getting ready to go on a trip. He was taking his cello, too--a fine Stradivarius which would have been worth at least $10 million (yes, MILLION) today. He left it behind his station wagon, and backed the car out over it.

Completely destroyed, and literally irreplaceable.
 
I drove over a $2000 tape backup unit once after a week of 18 hour days, with my pickup truck. Not quite an irreplaceable musical instrument, but certainly embarrassing. Boss knew what kind of week it was, he just said "ok"
and ordered another one. Good lesson in fatigue and accidents.
 
spiderweb said:
This similar story will make you feel better.

The former principal cellist of the LA Philharmonic was getting ready to go on a trip. He was taking his cello, too--a fine Stradivarius which would have been worth at least $10 million (yes, MILLION) today. He left it behind his station wagon, and backed the car out over it.

Completely destroyed, and literally irreplaceable.
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~~~~~ that almost makes me cry
 
spiderweb said:
This similar story will make you feel better.

The former principal cellist of the LA Philharmonic was getting ready to go on a trip. He was taking his cello, too--a fine Stradivarius which would have been worth at least $10 million (yes, MILLION) today. He left it behind his station wagon, and backed the car out over it.

Completely destroyed, and literally irreplaceable.
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OMG NOT SIMILAR!
 
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