When was your first scare?

FlySince9

FlySince9

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Jerry
Blindrages post made me wonder...

How many hours had you flown before your first? In 5 sentences or less, What was it, and most importantly, what did you learn from it... Kind of a ILAFFT...
 
Less of a scare, but a really good learning moment.

I had maybe 60-70 hours in a Cherokee 140, and was getting checked out in a 172. Power on stalls in a Cherokee 140 never really break, and you just kind of wallow along. As a result you don't pay much heed to properly coordinating the stall. Switch to a 172, and I am letting the ball swing way out, and to my CFI's credit he let me go there. Before you knew it I was staring at the ground as the left wing tucked under. I did a pretty good spin recovery, but I shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Rest of the lesson was a blast as we did spins both directions for a while :D
 
First solo cross country, hideous turbulence! Almost had to change shorts....
 
Blew a tire on takeoff roll at a practice field a few miles from my training base, the day before my checkride. Ended up in the dirt. FBO came over, fixed the tire, and got me airborne, then fixed the damaged wheel pant overnight.

Lesson learned: S**t happens. Be ready.
 
About 60 hours TT, I was doing some T&G's. I land a little long on one and decided to taxi back. I broke the flow I had going, and long story short, I took off with full flaps....in July....in Alabama....in the afternoon. I went over the top of the round bale of hay by 10' or so as I slowly eased the flaps up. It was close.
 
A badly porpoised multi-bounce landing, culminating in a Dukes of Hazzard slide where I nearly took out a runway light. The scariest part was thinking I might have a prop strike on a rental plane and have to pay for an engine tear-down!! Oh, and it was at John Wayne, so I'm sure the folks in the terminal had a good laugh at my expense. :D
 
first scare

70-90hrs or so.

Preflighted a semi new to me 172XP on straight floats, dipped the tanks with one of those universal straws, onboard fuel gauges sucked (standard issue cessna), went out for a flight, came back expecting a hour or so of fuel left, dipped it again, we were running of fumes!! Turns out the stick was mis calibrated or for another plane.
 
71 hours in was coming into an airport I had landed at dozens of times. The airport had a patch of trees to the left on the approach and when I get down close tree level I hit some wind shear or something the plane just got all mushy no control sinking and drifting off from over the runway gave it full throttle, got the nose down to keep airspeed, got passed the trees and hit good air. Scared the crap out of me. Decided today was not a good day to land there and went back to base. My passenger fortunately was a good sport.
 
First real cross wind landing in western Kansas at probably less than 100 hrs. after training where there are no real cross winds. Got it down on center line aligned with the runway but the plane was just drifting sideways about to leave the edge of the runway. Put it back in the air and continued to an airport with a runway more aligned with the wind. Did a lot of analysis regarding what I had done wrong and got much more skillful at CW landings
 
Maybe 30 hours in, practicing nontowered procedures, dual. During a go-around on a stupid-hot day, I found out why full-flap takeoffs are not authorized in a 172. I flew nearly the full length of the runway at KTCY (and I believe it was 5000 feet or so then -- it's been shortened since), not being able to climb. Then, I figured it out, retracted the flaps to 20, and climbed over the gravel pit. I'm sure the instructor would have jumped in if I'd gone much further, but as it was, she didn't say a word.
 
First scare was prolly my IFR checkride which was also my first gross weight departure and my first major rotate speed brain fart.
 
My one and only true scare was about 250 hours had an engine sputter at about 500' on climb out. Knew the impossible turn was not an option...but once I realized I still had partial power but rough and still could climb a bit I was able to make it back to the crosswind runway without incident. Fouled plugs that did not get caught on run up.

Now I do two engine run ups and mag checks!

Plenty of other "oh crap" moments but that has been the only one that ever got my heart racing.
 
I've got a few.

- Visual approach at night in a thunderstorm.
- Visual approach in 100' overcast (yes, legal

Lesson learned: Don't shoot visual approaches.
 
Around 60 hours. Practicing night touch and goes. Decided to turn the baseball game on the ADF. Wasn't paying attention and got blown off to the side of the runway. Go around. Instead of raising flaps one notch at a time I raised them all at once. Almost settled into the runway lights.
 
Flying home to Wilmington (KILG) from Salisbury (KSBY) less than an hour trip, clear night. just got night current. Log book has 160 hours showing. I'm flying over Dover air force base I see my strobes lighting up the cloud I am now in, strobes off. It was so dark...I flipped the strobes back on and no glare, I'm riding just through the tops. I spot Delaware city oil refinery and circle down below the thin haze. In ten minutes I'm on with ILG's tower and on the ground. I got home and looked up the flight school number for my instrument ticket. not sure it was a scare moment but there was a pucker factor for me.

Looking back it was the kick in the butt I needed to start the instrument ride. Now I get in and out of OXB, recently shooting the LPV and breaking out at 280 feet (DA 261) and still get a rush when the airport shows up where its supposed to be!
 
During my ppl training while doing pattern work in a c-150. During a go-around I didn't push hard enough and nearly had a departure stall. Airspeed got really low. Luckily I felt the stall coming and got the nose down. Lesson learned.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
160hr. logged, I was flying cross country at night in an Ercoupe with the non-certificated owner. No moon, middle of nowhere New Mexico so there were zero ground references and I didn't have an artificial horizon.

Flew into a cloud, decided to make a 180 to get out and the owner starts arguing with me. I tell him to be quiet, I execute a 180 and fly out of the cloud.

The next week I sat him down and told him to NEVER argue with me in a situation like that.
 
2nd Solo XC, less than 20 hours in. Weather forecast was blown - imagine that, even though ScottD will say it never happens - and I was arriving just ahead of a front. Everything was perfect right until I touched down when some VVVVVLLWS lifted the tail. All I could see was asphalt in the windscreen and kept waiting for the clang clang clang sound of the prop. And just as that was happening, the right brake decided to lock up and not release when I lifted off the pedal. Somehow, there was no clanging, and I stayed on the runway somehow.

Mx checked the brake, said it must have been me, and I didn't know what I was doing.
CFI and I went out a few days later and had the brake issue happen on takeoff roll with neither of us having our feet on the pedals.
 
vontresc said:
Less of a scare, but a really good learning moment.

I had maybe 60-70 hours in a Cherokee 140, and was getting checked out in a 172. Power on stalls in a Cherokee 140 never really break, and you just kind of wallow along. As a result you don't pay much heed to properly coordinating the stall. Switch to a 172, and I am letting the ball swing way out, and to my CFI's credit he let me go there. Before you knew it I was staring at the ground as the left wing tucked under. I did a pretty good spin recovery, but I shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Rest of the lesson was a blast as we did spins both directions for a while :D
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I used that tendency to good advantage on my PP check-ride 15 years ago. The DPE said to do a power on stall from a 20 degree bank. We'd never practiced that before, but knowing that the plane liked to drop the left wing in a stall if you didn't pay attention I banked right. At the stall the wing dropped, I caught it with the rudder and recovered from the stall. And my CFI (sitting in the back seat at the DPE's invitation) had to sit there and keep his mouth shut. Fortunately, that trick worked.

I think my biggest pucker factor was landing at KPUW a number of years ago in an Arrow. We were racing an incoming storm and the cross winds were nasty and squirrely. Friends on the ground in Pullman saw us on approach and said that it looked like we were getting bounced around a bit. No kidding. A no pressure landing. Crazy crosswinds, my wife in the right seat and two ATPs (Horizon was holding short waiting for us) grading the landing. Sure glad I had been practicing cross wind landings in that plane the weekend before. Oh, and I greased it on and took the first exit after the approach end of the runway. See, even a private pilot can land one of these things. Of course, the Arrow is easy to land. I never bounced a landing in that plane. Once the mains were on the ground it was finished flying. Can't make that claim about a 172 (as my CFII would attest this morning as we finished an IPC :D ).
 
Shawn said:
My one and only true scare was about 250 hours had an engine sputter at about 500' on climb out. Knew the impossible turn was not an option...but once I realized I still had partial power but rough and still could climb a bit I was able to make it back to the crosswind runway without incident. Fouled plugs that did not get caught on run up.

Now I do two engine run ups and mag checks!

Plenty of other "oh crap" moments but that has been the only one that ever got my heart racing.
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Right after my checkride, I had a long wait for takeoff, and built up some carb ice. The engine ingested it at 400 AGL. Engine stumbled, but worked fine after that. Scared the HELL out of me. I was fully prepared to land in the bay mud, but I noticed I was still climbing, so I continued a normal pattern and landed on the runway. Did a mag check on the ground 'cause that's what I thought happened (it was fine), and then parked it.
 
First solo out of the pattern when I realized I didn't fully understand the mixture knob.
I had my field picked out and everything. Totally having a WTF Why did I decide I wanted to fly? I hate myself for choosing to do this moment.

Got lower and lower and the engine was getting crankier. I tried carb heat but that made things worse.
Went through the pre-landing checklist for my crash landing.

Blah Blah Blah, Mixture Rich, problem solved. In hindsight, a non event but scared the hell out of me.
 
I almost died this week. I flew with another private pilot (non instrument rated) who was perfectly complacent with making 45° bank angle S-turns on final. I will never fly with him again. Ironically, he said he would never fly with me again because I had the guts to question his decision making. I reported him to the FSDO. Turns out I'm not the first guy he's done this to.
 
top 5
5. sucking a valve at night
4. smoke in the cockpit at night
3. landing in a 45 knot crosswind at night on an icy runway (noticing a pattern yet?)
2. Cylinder started separating from the case......at night
1. tail stall in severe icing in a caravan......at night (and one of the big reasons I don't fly in AK anymore)
 
Arbiter419 said:
I almost died this week. I flew with another private pilot (non instrument rated) who was perfectly complacent with making 45° bank angle S-turns on final. I will never fly with him again. Ironically, he said he would never fly with me again because I had the guts to question his decision making. I reported him to the FSDO. Turns out I'm not the first guy he's done this to.
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You're so brave. lol
 
DavidWhite said:
top 5
5. sucking a valve at night
4. smoke in the cockpit at night
3. landing in a 45 knot crosswind at night on an icy runway (noticing a pattern yet?)
2. Cylinder started separating from the case......at night
1. tail stall in severe icing in a caravan......at night (and one of the big reasons I don't fly in AK anymore)
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You will be back.....:yes:

I was gone for 9 years and go back for summers now.
 
Then there was this one...

http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.a...-1094-4a6e-87b4-f12bfcdc9ea0&pgno=1&pgsize=20

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At under 150 hours, engine ate a valve over the Ohio River in Cherokee 180 with daughter and pregnant wife aboard. Panel vibrated so bad I couldn't read anything until setting idle power. Made it to CVG, landed and limped to the FBO where I parked, gave them the keys, called my brother to come get us and bring a case of beer.

Cheers
 
DavidWhite said:
You're so brave. lol
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The pilot's pilot.

In all seriousness in 500 hours I haven't had to deal with anything too scary. Partial engine failure after takeoff in a super cub, gear not coming down when it's supposed to (hydraulic failure), almost mowed over some deer one time at night. Nothing too bad. I do have recurring nightmares about porpoising/submarining the seawind though...I've avoided it so far!
 
Around 30 hours total time. On left base at KDTO for 18 (before the tower was open). Nobody was in the pattern. I was looking left towards the runway to time my turn to final. I see a shadow. Of another plane. Vroooom. Across my nose probably 20 yards or so and a little higher than me. But not much. Guy did a straight in. Not on the radio. I was a tad annoyed.
 
Somewhere around 150 hours - I had only been introduced to a V-tail Bonanza about twenty minutes prior and I was now in the left seat getting ready to go from a rather short runway when the winds were gusting 25+. Long story short, I yanked the airplane off of the ground, stall horn blaring, and only feet from a line of trees on my left side.

I vowed to never let myself get into that type of situation again and to this point, I haven't.
 
While I've had a few things unnerved me, I have thankfully not had a true scare yet. As close as I came to one was when I took off on my long solo xc and lost my radio. That wasn't scary, but when I turned back to my airport, for just a few seconds or so, the engine started sounding strange and then started getting quiet - just long enough to make my stomach sink. The cool part was that I didn't freak out, I just had the quick thought, "OK, here we go... guess I'm putting this down (at my crazy busy Class D) with no radio and no engine... I got this." But by the time my thought was over, the engine went back to sounding normal, I got my light signal from the tower and made an otherwise boring landing.
 
We had an inflight engine fire that spread to the right wing and melted the wing fuel bladder. Oh yeah, we had three, 8" artillery rounds on board.
Click to expand...

I'm calling it. You win. I confess to...slight sphincter action, reading and seeing pics. :D
 
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