There are many embarrassing mistakes to make when flying that can take a pilot back to the days when a landing in Flight Sim involved slamming the aircraft into the ground nose-wheel first.I consider myself to be a decently skilled pilot in Flight Sim, I know my way around the cockpit and can fly properly, undergoing the proper procedures, etc, but I have my days sometimes. With me, these usually occur when I invite a friend over to my house to show off some Flight Sim stuff. It's always at the worst moments. For example, I was showing someone how I knew the PMDG 737 'inside out', when I was making an approach and forgot to turn auto-throttle off, wondering why I couldn't slow down. Once I diagnosed the problem, I had to do a go-around, in total shame with my friend laughing at me!!!I was just wondering what you would consider to be the funniest, most embarrassing 'newbie mistakes'.Here's some to get you going.- Forgetting to Retract/Extend Flaps, and wondering why the aircraft won't slow down/speed up.- Forgetting about the Landing Gear. Belly Landings and crashes couldn't be more embarrassing when this happens.- Landing on the wrong runway. "He said 6L not 6R!"I'll let you guys carry this on, if you can. Have a laugh and share some stories too if you can!

There are many embarrassing mistakes to make when flying that can take a pilot back to the days when a landing in Flight Sim involved slamming the aircraft into the ground nose-wheel first.I consider myself to be a decently skilled pilot in Flight Sim, I know my way around the cockpit and can fly properly, undergoing the proper procedures, etc, but I have my days sometimes. With me, these usually occur when I invite a friend over to my house to show off some Flight Sim stuff. It's always at the worst moments. For example, I was showing someone how I knew the PMDG 737 'inside out', when I was making an approach and forgot to turn auto-throttle off, wondering why I couldn't slow down. Once I diagnosed the problem, I had to do a go-around, in total shame with my friend laughing at me!!!I was just wondering what you would consider to be the funniest, most embarrassing 'newbie mistakes'.Here's some to get you going.- Forgetting to Retract/Extend Flaps, and wondering why the aircraft won't slow down/speed up.- Forgetting about the Landing Gear. Belly Landings and crashes couldn't be more embarrassing when this happens.- Landing on the wrong runway. "He said 6L not 6R!"I'll let you guys carry this on, if you can. Have a laugh and share some stories too if you can!

Interesting thread ...My biggest early mistakes mostly had to do with getting low and slow on approach, resulting in a high crash rate.

Forgetting to retract the landing gear or occasionally forgetting to lower it. I don't fly the heavies in flight sim; but, rather fly the aircraft that I have actually flown or would fly when I hit the Lotto. :( Roger

Well, this isn't sim related, but from my real world training back in 1992:I was training in a Piper Tomahawk and was getting ready to go for a solo flight. Once in the cockpit and the checks done, I fired up the engine and was getting ready to taxi to the runup area. Just then, another student came running out and frantically gave me the "cut engine" signal. Confused, I shut it down and exited the plan. The student pointed to the nose wheel....I still had the tow bar connected after I pulled the plane to its engine start area. Whoops! :(

:( :( Great thread!I once took off with the stairs deployed in my PMDG NG!

If like a lot of posts as the guys and gals join on they veer off with anecdotes that leave the main topic slightly. I have flown many tailwheel types and I've done this and I have seen this happen to other pilots as well. You untie the wing ropes, get the engine started and start to taxi. Nothing. More power. Nothing. Well, this is embarrassing like the aircraft attached to the towbar. In my case, the tailwheel was still tied down. :( :( Roger

A few from flight school days (real life):- I once left the oil-cap on the hood of the 172. Didn't notice it till i got to the run-up area...opps. Had to shut everything down, get out, and screw it back on. - Filed a flight plan, but left 30mins late and forgot to tell anyone. While still airborne, one of the ATC Centers told me that ATC at the arrival airport was looking for me....another opps.- At KSMO, you can taxi off the active right after you land, since there are no grass or anything between the active and the taxi ways. Anyways, i thought i'd completely cleared the active and was in the process of turning off strobes, raising the flaps, turning off the transponder, etc. when ATC came on yelling "YOUR TAIL IS STILL STICKING OUT ON THE ACTIVE! GET OUT NOW!! THERE'S A TRAFFIC ON FINAL!" And at KSMO, all the ATC stuff is broadcast live via speakers to the "spotter" area right next to the taxi way.....man...so embarrasing....LoL-feng

There are many embarrassing mistakes to make when flying that can take a pilot back to the days when a landing in Flight Sim involved slamming the aircraft into the ground nose-wheel first.I consider myself to be a decently skilled pilot in Flight Sim, I know my way around the cockpit and can fly properly, undergoing the proper procedures, etc, but I have my days sometimes. With me, these usually occur when I invite a friend over to my house to show off some Flight Sim stuff. It's always at the worst moments. For example, I was showing someone how I knew the PMDG 737 'inside out', when I was making an approach and forgot to turn auto-throttle off, wondering why I couldn't slow down. Once I diagnosed the problem, I had to do a go-around, in total shame with my friend laughing at me!!!I was just wondering what you would consider to be the funniest, most embarrassing 'newbie mistakes'.Here's some to get you going.- Forgetting to Retract/Extend Flaps, and wondering why the aircraft won't slow down/speed up.- Forgetting about the Landing Gear. Belly Landings and crashes couldn't be more embarrassing when this happens.- Landing on the wrong runway. "He said 6L not 6R!"I'll let you guys carry this on, if you can. Have a laugh and share some stories too if you can!

Real world war stories can be very interesting. I have 5-6 regarding my own mistakes that I could post if I wanted to, as well as another 5-6 relating to other pilots that I knew. However, I'm very interested in the original topic. So ...jonthedoors,Would you mind starting a new thread on the original topic? With a link back to this one so people will see the first few posts already made?

I was flying my RFP747 from Chicago - Tokyo simulating a trip the wife was on. I read the fuel consumption as though it was for 4 engines. It was per engine. Needless to say that airport in Alaska probably never seen a 747 land before.Jim CYWG

I've lost count of the amount of times I've forgot to put the strobes on when entering the runway in an airliner in FS; usually discovering it eventually when I turn off the landing lights at 10,000 feet. I've actually started religiously using the idiot board on the control yoke now after take off, so it doesn't happen that often these days.In the real world, my most embarrassing 'noob' mistake could have been quite scary one had I not had an instructor point it out to me: I was launching from Camphill in the UK in an SZD-50 sailplane for some aerobatics training (it was a winch launch), and I got a sympathetic vibration up the launch cable - they are fairly rare and I'd never had one before at that time, so it was new to me: It started making a noise like the panel was coming apart, with a clattering buzzing sound being transmitted through it. I was so distracted by it that I let the airspeed drop off to about 45 knots in a climb on the winch, at which point the instructor said: 'are you just going to keep messing with that panel until we stall and spin?' Needless to say he would have pushed the stick forward and prevented it if we dropped any slower, but I immediately got the stick forward and dropped the nose to get the speed back to a much safer 70 knots. I've never been so disappointed by crappy bad piloting by myself in my life, and it was a valuable lesson I learned that day, which has always stayed with me ever since: 'forget the distractions - fly the goddam airplane!'Al

This is not so embarrassing as it's funny, to me that is. Sometimes I'll start my Beaver in wheels configuration at a seaplane airport. The poor thing sitting in the water reminds me of an old man soaking in a hot bath of Epson salts. Concentrate!! :( Roger

Once I tried to takeoff with the spoilers out. I crashed. :(

Those FS sailplanes are so much fun to fly! Who can be bothered with studying all the blah, blah, blah about them first? "Hop in and go" was my theory: "you'll figure it all out once you're airborn."So I skew the saliplane up several thousand feet and, just to be on the safe side, figure I'll land at Edwards Air Force Base. Nothing like a good 3 miles of runway to make things easy.So I come over the fence at about 50 feet. And a quarter-mile or so later I'm all the way down to about, say, 45 feet. And with about the first mile of runway gone I'm around, say, 35 feet. Pointing the nose up gives me a superb climb; point the nose down bounces me off the runway higher than ever. I notice the second mile of runway is now history, and I'm still about 25 feet above it by now.Yes, of course I KNEW there were things like spoilers and speed brakes and stuff. . .Funny how hard it is to find out how to work that stuff while you're actually over the runway. Funny how dumb you feel watching the third and final mile of one of the world's longest runways slide silently past, 20 feet beneath you, as you eye the sagebrush ahead looking for a clear spot....

Well I had a moment in the new Lotus L-39 last night.On my first ever takeoff immediately at liftoff an annunciator light lit. I glanced at it... "Dangerous attitude". I thought it must mean my angle of attack was critical so I reduced pitch. The light still didn't go off and I chose not to reduce pitch further since I had confirmed a positive VSI and increasing airspeed. Within ten seconds the light went off.It happened again on my first landing, and I got even more nervous while attempting to reduce angle of attack. I still made a good landing, but was wondering if this thing had a bug... Far from it!!!On my second takeoff as the light lit, I was more relaxed and looked a bit more carefully. "Dangerous Altitude"... It was a function of the radar altimeter LOL...I had given the manual a once-over which could have been more thorough, but because I chose to "Keep flying the **** airplane" I survived.Robert

Oh my god first there is the unexpected belly landing. Forgetting the flaps, Landing without landing lights at night, forgetting the autopilot is on, and then starting to freak out because my plane "won't accept my inputs". There are too many to list :(