Dumbest thing you have done and lived to tell about it

Jack Spectre said:
Up here in Minnesota, it gets a little cold sometimes. So at the FBO I used to rent from, they would park the reserved planes in the front row next to the FBO building and run extension cords to the engine heaters on the planes.

I was always pretty good about unplugging the cords during my preflight but one day I didn't. I put the key in, turned it to the first click, second click, pressure on the key to engage the starter...and stopped myself. At the very last millisecond I saw the cord. It would have been bad, too...the cord was hanging over the top of the cowling and through the prop arc.

It was a dumb thing that almost became much, much worse.
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No problem. Instead of yelling CLEAR, just yell CONTACT.
 
As a brand new PP, I called RIC for permission to transit their airspace. I told the controller where I was going. All was well for ten minutes, until the controller called me back to verify my destination, to which he replied I was flying the wrong direction. I forgot to adjust my heading indicator, and I was way off course.

As a student, I also dropped a dipstick into a tank.
 
In regards to all the dropped dipsticks:

Now i know why my club puts a 3 foot long cord on the dipsticks
 
In spite of the fact that my Garmin GPS90 (remember those? The TRS-80 of handheld GPS?) told me it was still 4.x NM to KEVV, I almost landed a Tobago in the Maytag Factory parking lot one evening. My ASRS report put some of the blame on the sea of blue lights in the lot that looked JUST like taxiway lights.
 
TMetzinger said:
In spite of the fact that my Garmin GPS90 (remember those? The TRS-80 of handheld GPS?) told me it was still 4.x NM to KEVV, I almost landed a Tobago in the Maytag Factory parking lot one evening. My ASRS report put some of the blame on the sea of blue lights in the lot that looked JUST like taxiway lights.
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still have my GPS90 in the closet... right next to the Motorola Startac phone, and Palm Pilot, II, III et al ...
 
Jaybird180 said:
Either your DG precesses really fast or you weren't really at RIC???
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Well apparently both the heading indicator and the compass needed to be replaced in that airplane, which I was told upon my return. Yeah, not a great rental.
 
Rolled a Jeep Cherokee on a dirt road after being awake for well over 24 hours. Lucky that the worst injuries I got were when I realized you have to release that seat belt and fall across the vehicle, which was on its right side. Bruised myself a bit, even prepared to do it.

As far as airplanes go, got microbursted into the ground at KEIK with an instructor and his kids on board. Luckily the runway arrived before we needed it. 1000 FPM down with full power in a Skyhawk... got to see why they call it "spring" steel landing gear.

And for the finale', flew to Vegas with a "great pilot" ATP-rated idiot who owned more airplanes than his wallet would allow, therefore... maintenance on his Cessna 337's landing gear was "deferred" even though it wouldn't come down properly in Vegas. Then proceeded (really really really stupid) to climb in that same airplane for the trip home in the BACK seat -- four people on board, only two rated pilots, and one couldn't reach the controls). Dude proceeded to continue the flight eastbound from North Las Vegas to KBJC over Grand Junction when both Comm radios became mysteriously in-op, missed a crossing B-2 bomber by about 1000' near KGJT, pressed on into lowering ceilings and snowstorms over the Rockies, crossed Corona Pass in heavy snow with no Comms and lighting doing strange things, and when we arrived overhead KBJC... you guessed it... the gear wouldn't come down. Distract-o-boy proceeds to screw around with breakers and things trying to get the gear to come down, meanwhile the airplane is pointed westbound over Stanley Lake south of the airport and rolling itself into a death spiral... my repeated "Wings level!" calls from the backseat when we'd get past 30 degrees of bank and no sign of idiot-ATP noticing at all, probably kept us alive long enough to set up for a one-engine landing with the forward engine shut down to "bump" the prop with the starter and try to avoid a prop-strike. Fire trucks rolled (first time for that one too) and about 25' in the air, the green light comes on for the nose gear. Then... to top it off, the light is going on and off over every tiny bump in the pavement all the way to his hangar, instead of shutting it down and towing it.

I got out of that airplane knowing I had gotten awfully lucky not to be a statistic that NIGHT. Yep... all of the above, done in the dark. Twilight was fading as we crossed Corona Pass.

Pulled them both aside, and told the two business associate friends of the pilot who'd asked me along, that I'd never get in an aircraft with him again, and I'd highly advise them not to either. They agreed wholeheartedly after I explained the long line of poor decision-making I witnessed. I told them, "Hey I'm just a 100 hour Private Pilot so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but it's your call. I won't be flying with him anymore." Got in my car, and left.
 
Oh I forgot one. I had an inadvertent VFR into IMC once long long ago flying from KDWH to KFTG.

I was quite well-practiced on the gauges since I was already working on my "never-ending" Instrument ticket back then, and had a ton of simulator time and even 0.7 of actual with a CFII. So it was somewhat of a "non-event" other than I got a darn good lesson in not continuing when things aren't looking as forecast, and ceilings are slowly getting lower in front of you.

That and all the thoughts that go through your head the first time you do anything that dumb that requires utter and immediate focus. My wife remembers me saying, "Don't say anything for a couple of minutes."

It's interesting what goes through your head while you're doing that one-half of a two-minute turn, knowing you've put a loved-one in danger and it's not over yet. Popped back out, hit the "Nearest" button on that particular rental aircraft's GPS, and landed at a strange little strip in North-Central Texas that was obviously there for the crop-dusters, was listed as public, and had a single hangar and a pay phone that was utterly deserted. Nestled in a runway sized cut-out of trees at the far back of a very ritzy golf course/country club which was way up on a hill to the East, and a long ways away.

Drank some water, called Flight Service to cancel the VFR flight plan and check up on why the weather hadn't done what was expected, read a magazine for an hour under the wing, and continued on north-bound when the predicted lifting of the overcast came right on time, from the second forecast given on the phone that didn't match that morning's forecast.
 
gkainz said:
still have my GPS90 in the closet... right next to the Motorola Startac phone, and Palm Pilot, II, III et al ...
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Jaybird180 said:
OMG:rofl::rofl::rofl:
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Yep. Mine is next to this:
newton.gif

And this. It's a Pilot, not a Palm Pilot. And even geekier, I bought a Pilot 1000 and upgraded the RAM to make it a 5000.
pilot1000.jpg

And this,
cell-phone-old-big-4.jpg
 
You still have that stuff, Alan? I tossed most of mine years ago. There's an original Blackberry (not a phone... just text) upstairs in the bedroom in my nightstand drawer though still, I think. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
You still have that stuff, Alan? I tossed most of mine years ago. There's an original Blackberry (not a phone... just text) upstairs in the bedroom in my nightstand drawer though still, I think. ;)
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I don't still have the bagphone, but I do still have the Newton, Pilot, and a couple of StarTacs (which were *awesome* phones, by the way, and had the best belt holsters ever designed).
 
Agreed on the StarTac... back when a phone could actually place and receive calls, too!

(Although I just "fixed" that problem somewhat for myself last night when AT&T ****ed me off for the last time... two new VZ iPhones later, one for me and one for the Mrs., and one very happy sales guy, and I am no longer an AT&T customer.

Also bought one of their Verizon Home Connect boxes to try out, just out of geekiness... seems to work well. Cellular to land-line converter box. Have made a few calls... stuck it near a basement window, full signal here, seems to work as advertised.

It is NOT a range extender or microcell, it's the opposite... takes cellular service and converts it to POTS. Kind of gadget you'd like I think, Alan!

I decided to port my Vonage number off of Vonage to it and stick the $19.95 unlimited service on it. Vonage mainly served as a way to dial into multi-hour repair/blow-up conference calls and big maintenance window conferences for hours on end, so this thing will probably work just as well for that, and not suffer from packet loss when I'm moving big files around during maintenance...
 
Ooo, stupid pilot tricks always make a fun thread!

Let's see, in no particular order:

1. Night Flight in Winter
As a new pilot, I flew to a job interview in the dead of winter, in Illinois (from WI). The interview went long, and it was well after dark when I got back to the plane. The airport was so poorly lit, I could not find my rental Cherokee 140.

When I finally found it, I unlocked the door by feel, started up, taxied out and took off into an absolute black hole. No lights, nothing - I was in complete IMC until I climbed high enough to have a horizon of farmstead's lights, which were few and far between.

Then, in that pre-GPS era, I was following roads back to my itty-bitty airport (C89, Sylvania Field) -- and couldn't find it. Luckily, it was right next to I-94, so I was eventually able to spot it, but the jelly-jar runway lights were about half burnt out, and those that were lit were buried in 18" of poorly plowed snow.

Like an idiot, and with the confidence only a newly minted pilot can have, I thought I'd give the landing a shot. I flared and literally landed in the lightest visible white spot to the LEFT of three widely-spaced jelly-jar (really!) runway lights, my wing tips skimming over the piles of plowed snow on either side of the runway.

Today, all these years later, I shudder at the thought. I would NEVER attempt that landing today. But I lived.

2. Soft/Short Field Departure in an Ercoupe
A few years ago we were scouting breakfast places for an upcoming fly-out, and decided to land at Keosauqua, Iowa. I had been told that this little town had a grass strip and some really good restaurants within walking distance.

The airport was right along the river, which made it very picturesque. Mary and I flew our little 85 HP Ercoupe, as it was a gorgeous Iowa summer day. Flying that plane with the top down was more fun than anyone rightfully deserved, but I digress.

From the air, the airport looked fine. On landing, however, I noticed we stopped very quickly, the grass was very long, and the ground soft and rutted with gopher trails. A little voice in the back of my head registered an "Uh oh", but we went off, found a great place for lunch, and had a generally wonderful day.

Upon our return, I fired Sweetie up, and we taxied out. The soil alongside the river was very loamy, and the gophers had done a great job of digging it up into little 8" piles that were irregularly spaced down the length of the runway. Now, anyone who has flown an Ercoupe knows that it is unstallable. You simply cannot stall the aircraft, because the designer made the elevator travel insufficient to stall the wing.

The DOWNSIDE of this arrangement is that you have insufficient elevator to lift the nose during a soft-field take-off. As I trundled down the long-grass runway, powered by that tired old 85 HP Continental, we kept hitting those 8" piles of loam with the nosegear. When this happened, we would instantly lose the precious airspeed we had pain-stakingly acquired, and those wires at the end of the runway were getting pretty big...

For the first (and, so far, only) time in my life, I aborted a take-off "for real". The plane was just not able to accelerate in those conditions.

Taxiing back, I weighed my options. They were all bad. We were many miles from home, our daughter was expecting to be picked up in an hour, and the airplane was unable to fly. What to do?

I decided to taxi back and forth, to "tamp down" the gopher piles, essentially grooving the runway so that the little plane could take off. I then decided to utilize the "Sylvania Swing" we had used at C89 on hot days -- face AWAY from your direction of intended flight, go to full power, and kick the plane into a 180 degree turn as it was going as fast as possible without catching a wingtip. This is always a semi-risky maneuver, but was made all the more stupid by the tall grass.

But, off we went, with the little Continental screaming, in the wrong direction. I turned the yoke hard over (remember: no rudder pedals in an Ercoupe!), spun around, seemed to lose all momentum, and then trundled down my tamped-down runway. This technique probably saved our lives.

That plane took FOREVER to break ground -- and here came the wires! Mary and I lifted Sweetie those last few feet by clenching our butt muscles, and we made it out alive. Needless to say, we never brought the group back for a fly out.

3. Cessna 172 Departure Error
As a 70-hour pilot, I had transitioned to the 172 the day before (all of my previous flying had been in Cherokees), and was eager to take Mary and the kids up in this new (to me) bird. The view straight down was new and cool, and it was just ridiculously easy to fly and land. Heck, I could actually SEE the tires as I flared, instead of trying to feel for the ground, as we did in low-wing planes. How cool was that?

It was hot, and we were fairly heavy, for a 150 HP, clapped out rental bird. Once again, we were at tiny little C89, with it's 2300' long, 30' wide runway.

With my young family aboard, I decided to do a touch & go before departing the pattern. After a satisfying "chirp-chirp" landing, I poured on the coals, configured for a nice climb out over I-94, toward Lake Michigan, and retracted the flaps.

Unfortunately, I was used to the Johnson Bar flaps on the Cherokee. For whatever reason -- sheer stupidity, I think -- I flipped the little lever all the way up, instead of one notch at a time.

It's hot, we're heavy, and slow, and climbing, and my flaps are slowly retracting, robbing me of whatever lift they may have provided. Suddenly my climb is leveling off at about semi-truck level, and that sinking feeling isn't just in the pit of my stomach. Crap, here comes the freeway!

Once again, whether it was by sheer force of will, or a sudden helpful gust of wind, or just enough time to gather airspeed, they Skyhawk recovered and climbed *just* enough to clear traffic on the interstate.

Once again, I lived, and learned.

There are others. Crossing Lake Michigan in a crappy old Mooney (with a CFI, who was PIC) at 3000', with my little boy strapped in a car seat in the back seat, comes to mind as a particularly bad idea that worked out okay strictly by luck. And there's that time flying back from Michigan directly into the setting sun in so-called VFR conditions that were actual IFR... And I don't even want to talk about my landing in Rockford one time... :rolleyes:

Gosh, my recent flying has been downright boring -- which is just the way we like it, thenkyewbeddymuch -- thanks to my making so many of the dumb decisions and mistakes early on in my flying days! They say that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and it's especially true in aviation -- IF you learn your lessons from your mistakes.
 
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My stupidity:

1. Flying VFR into what I think I can admit now was below VMC conditions, in the mountains around Las Vegas, NM. http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4231

2. As a brand new pilot, going out into what I assumed was the practice area for 0E0, off to the north of the airport, and doing stalls for a while. Then, during one of my stalls, seeing, to my horror, the Otto VOR directly below me. I had probably stalled through a few thousand feet directly over OTO, which lies on V12, one of the busiest victor airways in New Mexico.

3. Failing to keep track of my time in the air, assuming I had only been up for about 3 and a half hours or so, and dry tanking one tank in an Archer, diverting to what turned out to be a pretty major airport (I had no idea that RDU was a commercial airport at the time), praying to God that I had enough fuel in the other tank to make it. To top it off, I bought the most expensive fuel of my life as punishment

4. The numerous times I have done my approach to the wrong runway because my brain got the runway numbers reversed (i.e. calling for landing on runway 36, only to see 18 in my windscreen on final).
 
SkyHog said:
My stupidity:

1. Flying VFR into what I think I can admit now was below VMC conditions, in the mountains around Las Vegas, NM. http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4231

2. As a brand new pilot, going out into what I assumed was the practice area for 0E0, off to the north of the airport, and doing stalls for a while. Then, during one of my stalls, seeing, to my horror, the Otto VOR directly below me. I had probably stalled through a few thousand feet directly over OTO, which lies on V12, one of the busiest victor airways in New Mexico.

3. Failing to keep track of my time in the air, assuming I had only been up for about 3 and a half hours or so, and dry tanking one tank in an Archer, diverting to what turned out to be a pretty major airport (I had no idea that RDU was a commercial airport at the time), praying to God that I had enough fuel in the other tank to make it. To top it off, I bought the most expensive fuel of my life as punishment

4. The numerous times I have done my approach to the wrong runway because my brain got the runway numbers reversed (i.e. calling for landing on runway 36, only to see 18 in my windscreen on final).
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I have landed on the wrong runway at least twice. Though once it was the "right" runway according to other posters on here since I announced it and no one was in the pattern at the untowered airport on my solo cross country and the tailwind was barely there. The other one I announced at a towered airport at night after hours when it became a nontowered airport only later to have my instructor point out that I landed on the opposite runway of what I'd been announcing.

D'oh!
 
Anthony said:
Damn Jay. Live and learn, huh?
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That is the goal, no? :lol:

I've done some foolish things in my day, but they are nothing compared to what some people have attempted and survived. I've got a few friends whose flying stories make the hair on the back of my neck stand up...
 
The dumbest thing I did [that I will admit to] in a plane was to go and pick up my daughter and her boyfriend at a little strip in northern Saskatchewan. The airstrip wasn't listed but I thought that was no big deal as half of them are not anyway.

I had good directions as to where it was in town and it was easy to find as it ran right beside the graveyard. I did a low pass to check it out and saw them smiling and waving. I could not spot the wind sock and made another pass to chase some cattle off the "runway" and set up for a landing. Once I touched down I thought the strip was a bit rough and there was manure flying up off the wheels ect. and I had to dodge the odd bush.

Finaly I saw the wind sock, or what was left of it. A few shreds of rotten fabric still clung to the ring. I would have been better off landing on the gravel road.

A couple of months later I was told that I was the first plane they saw land there in 20 years.:)
 
Jay is right. I should be dead by now, but somehow survived my stupid foolishness. These days, I'm pretty conservative in my flying and don't have any more serious "incidents".

I got my license in 1997 when I was 18 years old and going to OSU in Stillwater, OK. I had just received my PPL and had about 40 hours total under my belt. So, I wanted to take my girlfriend (now my wife), flying. She had never been in an airplane in her life, so who better than me? However, she was in Oklahoma City. About a 45 minute flight, tops. I decided to go pick her up and bring her back to Stillwater for the weekend in a 172.

I got out of class and had a few things to do and didn't get out to the airport until almost 8pm. It was a dark, Oklahoma winter night. Overcast at about 10,000 feet or so. Other than that, the weather was great. Smooth air and calm winds which is very unusual for Oklahoma. I was running behind already and had told her that I'd be at the now closed Downtown Airpark in downtown Oklahoma City at 8:30. I got off the ground about 8pm and turned towards OKC. I could see the lights from OKC right away. Piece of cake.

As I approached OKC, I realized that in my rush, I had left my charts and all the frequencies and info I'd need for flying into OKC, in the back of the plane. I couldn't remember the frequencies for OKC approach either. I was ****ed at myself and thought about diverting into Guthrie to get the stuff out of the cargo compartment. I don't know why I didn't just put it in the back seat where I could reach it either. However, I figured that going into Guthrie would add another 20 or 30 minutes onto my trip. So, in a colossal decision making failure, I decided that I could just get the plane nice and stable, jump over the seats, grab my stuff and get right back to my seat.

I was only a few minutes away from where I'd need to contact approach. So, I got the plane trimmed up nice and neat, unbuckled myself, folded the passenger seat down, and jumped into the back. I climbed over the back seat and was reaching for my bag which had slid to the back of the back of the baggage compartment. I was only back there for a few seconds, but I could hear the engine losing RPM's as I grabbed my bag. I looked around and noticed that I was pitching up from the CG change. I was already at about 20 degrees up and it was getting worse! I jumped up and over the front seats and in a panic, pushed the yoke forward way too hard. So hard in fact, that I flew up and hit the ceiling in the aircraft. However, I managed to hang onto the yoke with one hand and managed to yank myself into a bank well over 100 degrees. I let go and managed to get partially into the front seat as the airplane was slicing hard through the air and downwards. I finally got situated and was so disoriented and remembered to just watch my instruments and used them to get myself righted again. I flew circles for about 10 minutes before flying into OKC just so that I could calm down and compose myself before talking on the radios. I'm just glad that I didn't get into a spin and get pinned in the back of the airplane or something.

That was the closest I've ever been to killing myself in an airplane. I've made a few other dumb mistakes, but none as dumb as that.
 
KC10Chief said:
Jay is right. I should be dead by now, but somehow survived my stupid foolishness. These days, I'm pretty conservative in my flying and don't have any more serious "incidents".

I got my license in 1997 when I was 18 years old and going to OSU in Stillwater, OK. I had just received my PPL and had about 40 hours total under my belt. So, I wanted to take my girlfriend (now my wife), flying. She had never been in an airplane in her life, so who better than me? However, she was in Oklahoma City. About a 45 minute flight, tops. I decided to go pick her up and bring her back to Stillwater for the weekend in a 172.

I got out of class and had a few things to do and didn't get out to the airport until almost 8pm. It was a dark, Oklahoma winter night. Overcast at about 10,000 feet or so. Other than that, the weather was great. Smooth air and calm winds which is very unusual for Oklahoma. I was running behind already and had told her that I'd be at the now closed Downtown Airpark in downtown Oklahoma City at 8:30. I got off the ground about 8pm and turned towards OKC. I could see the lights from OKC right away. Piece of cake.

As I approached OKC, I realized that in my rush, I had left my charts and all the frequencies and info I'd need for flying into OKC, in the back of the plane. I couldn't remember the frequencies for OKC approach either. I was ****ed at myself and thought about diverting into Guthrie to get the stuff out of the cargo compartment. I don't know why I didn't just put it in the back seat where I could reach it either. However, I figured that going into Guthrie would add another 20 or 30 minutes onto my trip. So, in a colossal decision making failure, I decided that I could just get the plane nice and stable, jump over the seats, grab my stuff and get right back to my seat.

I was only a few minutes away from where I'd need to contact approach. So, I got the plane trimmed up nice and neat, unbuckled myself, folded the passenger seat down, and jumped into the back. I climbed over the back seat and was reaching for my bag which had slid to the back of the back of the baggage compartment. I was only back there for a few seconds, but I could hear the engine losing RPM's as I grabbed my bag. I looked around and noticed that I was pitching up from the CG change. I was already at about 20 degrees up and it was getting worse! I jumped up and over the front seats and in a panic, pushed the yoke forward way too hard. So hard in fact, that I flew up and hit the ceiling in the aircraft. However, I managed to hang onto the yoke with one hand and managed to yank myself into a bank well over 100 degrees. I let go and managed to get partially into the front seat as the airplane was slicing hard through the air and downwards. I finally got situated and was so disoriented and remembered to just watch my instruments and used them to get myself righted again. I flew circles for about 10 minutes before flying into OKC just so that I could calm down and compose myself before talking on the radios. I'm just glad that I didn't get into a spin and get pinned in the back of the airplane or something.

That was the closest I've ever been to killing myself in an airplane. I've made a few other dumb mistakes, but none as dumb as that.
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Wow, what a story. I wonder if anyone else has trimmed and climbed into the back to get something?
 
Not with a whimper, but a bang.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I've read that NTSB report before, someone here pointed me to it. Very infamous I guess?
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There is a better one somewhere in the NTSB database - happened back in the 80s I believe somewhere near Vegas. I remember reading it in the NTSB reporter newspaper long ago.

I believe the report mentioned that the pilot and passenger had been bar hopping and decided to go for a night flight. Toxicology reports confirmed the involvement of alcohol.

The part that caught my teenage mind at the time was this:
"Due to injuries sustained by the pilot, it is believed that the pilot and his passenger were engaged in an act of oral sex at the time of impact"

Hell of a way to go.....
 
This would have been 1965. I was a member of the Rota Navy Flying Club at Rota Spain but was stationed 60+ miles away. I made planes to take one of the Aeronca Champs X-country across the Straits Of Gibraltar to Tangier Morocco. I was assured that a pair of life vests would be awaiting me and a flight plan would make my arrival at Tangier smooth.

My now Ex wife and I arrived at the club at the crack of dawn. No one was around and there was no sign of a life vest.:( No way was I going to cancel the trip over a couple of life vests. I pre flighted the Champ and off we went.

The only radio in the plane was a battery operated single channel radio used to contact the Navy tower. They assured me that my flight plan was filed.

I was climbing the entire time I was over Spain so by the time we reached the water I could reach land no matter where I was if the engine quit.

When we arrived at the Tangier airport I made several passes looking for a green light. I had to land since I didn't have enough fuel to return to Rota. I landed with the wind sock straight out 90 degrees to the runway and managed to keep it on the pavement and didn't break anything.:hairraise:

Still no light I taxied to the terminal and we deplaned. No they never got our flight plan. We cleared custome and I had the plane fueled up. A day was spent sight seeing, camel riding and buying souvenirs and taking pictures.

Wow it was now HOT. Now with both of us a full load of fuel and the tiny luggage compartment behind the rear seat full to the brim. We HAD to go I only had the plane for the day and was expected to show up for duty the next day.

We waddled down the very long commercial runway and finally staggered into the air. Out over the water the rate of climb was almost non existent. If I raised the nose the oil temp headed for the red.

I headed from ship to ship hoping that if the poor 65 hp engine gave up the ghost, that perhaps a lookout would see us ditch and come to our aid. I really missed the nonexistant life vests.:mad:

The Ex in back yelled something about why we were so low and why I was flying close to the ships. I honest don't know what I told her.

I finally was able to get enough altitude that we were able to proceed over the water and over the land back to Rota.

Incidentally I purchased Champ 2426E from the club and moved it to Tablada Air Base at Sevilla where I was a member of El Real Aero Club de Espana and spent the next two years exploring southern Spain in my own Champ.

My divorce didn't come for many years down the road and had nothing to do with our low level flight over the Straits.

Cheers:
Paul
N1431A
2AZ1
 
Well....
First, there was the inadvertent VFR into IMC at night. We were on flight following, and Otto was flying the plane. We saw evidence of clouds below us ahead, so started our (too) leisurely descent. Started seeing reflections of the strobes in the cockpit. Turned off the strobes, didn't touch the autopilot, and descended out the bottom. Less than five minutes, but, had we not been on autopilot, that's well beyond the average time of survival of an inadvertent VFR into IMC. OTOH, had we not been on autopilot, we may have been more insistent on getting down quickly, rather than a leisurely 500fpm, or would have done a 360 to lose altitude.

Then, there was switching over to COM2 to listen to the ATIS at a towered airport. Of course, there was so much chatter on COM1 that I turned down the volume on COM1. Once I got the ATIS, I switched back over to COM1 to announce that we were ready to depart. I was ready to wait for a break in the transmissions to make my announcement, but I didn't need to wait. But no response! Oh, I realize that my volume was low on COM1, and I turn it up. Now I hear talking! :yes: Okay, wait for a break and announce again, feeling (justifiably) stupid. Alright, cleared for takeoff on 28, runway heading. 747 Heavy will hold short at Mike for the departing Skylane. :hairraise: Take off, and hear tower question my squawk. Apparently, they'd given me a squawk (and maybe other instructions?) after my first callup that I couldn't hear! Oh, did I mention that this was at O'Hare?:redface:

And, of course, there was the time that I taxied a plane for fuel, wondering as I did so why it was taking so much power, only to discover that the parking break wasn't fully disengaged!
 
KC10Chief said:
Jay is right. I should be dead by now, but somehow survived my stupid foolishness. These days, I'm pretty conservative in my flying and don't have any more serious "incidents".

I got my license in 1997 when I was 18 years old and going to OSU in Stillwater, OK. I had just received my PPL and had about 40 hours total under my belt. So, I wanted to take my girlfriend (now my wife), flying. She had never been in an airplane in her life, so who better than me? However, she was in Oklahoma City. About a 45 minute flight, tops. I decided to go pick her up and bring her back to Stillwater for the weekend in a 172.

I got out of class and had a few things to do and didn't get out to the airport until almost 8pm. It was a dark, Oklahoma winter night. Overcast at about 10,000 feet or so. Other than that, the weather was great. Smooth air and calm winds which is very unusual for Oklahoma. I was running behind already and had told her that I'd be at the now closed Downtown Airpark in downtown Oklahoma City at 8:30. I got off the ground about 8pm and turned towards OKC. I could see the lights from OKC right away. Piece of cake.

As I approached OKC, I realized that in my rush, I had left my charts and all the frequencies and info I'd need for flying into OKC, in the back of the plane. I couldn't remember the frequencies for OKC approach either. I was ****ed at myself and thought about diverting into Guthrie to get the stuff out of the cargo compartment. I don't know why I didn't just put it in the back seat where I could reach it either. However, I figured that going into Guthrie would add another 20 or 30 minutes onto my trip. So, in a colossal decision making failure, I decided that I could just get the plane nice and stable, jump over the seats, grab my stuff and get right back to my seat.

I was only a few minutes away from where I'd need to contact approach. So, I got the plane trimmed up nice and neat, unbuckled myself, folded the passenger seat down, and jumped into the back. I climbed over the back seat and was reaching for my bag which had slid to the back of the back of the baggage compartment. I was only back there for a few seconds, but I could hear the engine losing RPM's as I grabbed my bag. I looked around and noticed that I was pitching up from the CG change. I was already at about 20 degrees up and it was getting worse! I jumped up and over the front seats and in a panic, pushed the yoke forward way too hard. So hard in fact, that I flew up and hit the ceiling in the aircraft. However, I managed to hang onto the yoke with one hand and managed to yank myself into a bank well over 100 degrees. I let go and managed to get partially into the front seat as the airplane was slicing hard through the air and downwards. I finally got situated and was so disoriented and remembered to just watch my instruments and used them to get myself righted again. I flew circles for about 10 minutes before flying into OKC just so that I could calm down and compose myself before talking on the radios. I'm just glad that I didn't get into a spin and get pinned in the back of the airplane or something.

That was the closest I've ever been to killing myself in an airplane. I've made a few other dumb mistakes, but none as dumb as that.
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Yikes, so faced with the same scenario today, what would you do?
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Wow, what a story. I wonder if anyone else has trimmed and climbed into the back to get something?
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I was coming back in to Baltimore IFR and needed to shoot an approach to get in. I made my request for a no-text approach and after getting a brief lecture about how I'm supposed to have the plate in front of me in the plane from the controller, I told him I had it but that the air conditioning had blown it clear to the back of the plane when I pulled it out. After they stopped laughing at me, they gave me the info I needed to shoot the approach.

If I'm being honest, I'd have to say that I considered for a few seconds climbing back there to get it. The autopilot was on and I would have been off the freq for maybe 15 - 20 seconds while I climbed around in the four place plane. Then I started imagining all the things that could go wrong with that and just fessed up and dealt with it - no harm, no foul.
 
Henning said:
Yikes, so faced with the same scenario today, what would you do?
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These days, if I'm in a 4 seat plane by myself, I always strap my stuff that I need, into the back seat. :D However, if I found myself in the same situation today, I'd suck it up and go land somewhere and get it. I'm not quite as stupid as I used to be.
 
KC10Chief said:
These days, if I'm in a 4 seat plane by myself, I always strap my stuff that I need, into the back seat. :D However, if I found myself in the same situation today, I'd suck it up and go land somewhere and get it. I'm not quite as stupid as I used to be.
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I'd try flight watch, guard or start rolling through CTAFs asking others if they have the frequency.
 
KC10Chief said:
These days, if I'm in a 4 seat plane by myself, I always strap my stuff that I need, into the back seat. :D However, if I found myself in the same situation today, I'd suck it up and go land somewhere and get it. I'm not quite as stupid as I used to be.
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Why not ask for a frequency on Guard or from Flightwatch? A quick call on 121.5 with your position, "1234AB 20 West CLIT need a frequency for ATC" will get you what you need.
 
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