TooDiabeticToFly
Filing Flight Plan
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2015
- Messages
- 5
- Display Name
Display name:
TooDiabeticToFlyButWish
It's been about 10 years since I last flew any kind of plane, but this story seems like telling after the flight I just took (And yes, the pilot skipped and I asked him how many landingings he was going to log. LOL)
When I was 14 I was flying a 172. At this point I already had more hours than most of the pilots at the place I was getting lessons from. My teacher was freelance so we were just renting space at Sawyer at PHX. We went from PHX to my most hated place on the planet Deer Valley. The thing has mountains, a valley, and a fricking canal at the end of 7R. As a student we were doing touch and go's at different ports as I learned to navigate.
Doing our first take off we hit the mother of all air pockets and plummeted like a meteor. When we hit the canal we must have hit a gust off the mountains mixed with a temp change from the canal and we sunk. Tower said we lost 1500 feet in seconds. I remember clearly the voice of the tower guy saying "17 are you still there?" We had fallen so fast that the radar didn't see us for a few seconds. We had to land and drive back. We fell so hard that it did damage to the doors on the plane. It was still flyable but the door locks and whatever else is in the stuff that keeps doors closed, was broken. Wings kinked up almost .5°
It was the most memorable thing I remember before I got my blood tested for my licence and they said I was too diabetic and underweight. My bloodwork was better than my helicopter pilot brother, but as a diabetic wanting to be a Blue Angel it wasn't even close to good enough to pass the private test.
When I was 14 I was flying a 172. At this point I already had more hours than most of the pilots at the place I was getting lessons from. My teacher was freelance so we were just renting space at Sawyer at PHX. We went from PHX to my most hated place on the planet Deer Valley. The thing has mountains, a valley, and a fricking canal at the end of 7R. As a student we were doing touch and go's at different ports as I learned to navigate.
Doing our first take off we hit the mother of all air pockets and plummeted like a meteor. When we hit the canal we must have hit a gust off the mountains mixed with a temp change from the canal and we sunk. Tower said we lost 1500 feet in seconds. I remember clearly the voice of the tower guy saying "17 are you still there?" We had fallen so fast that the radar didn't see us for a few seconds. We had to land and drive back. We fell so hard that it did damage to the doors on the plane. It was still flyable but the door locks and whatever else is in the stuff that keeps doors closed, was broken. Wings kinked up almost .5°
It was the most memorable thing I remember before I got my blood tested for my licence and they said I was too diabetic and underweight. My bloodwork was better than my helicopter pilot brother, but as a diabetic wanting to be a Blue Angel it wasn't even close to good enough to pass the private test.