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I Learned About Flying From That


Guest Stratus_Fractus

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Posted

It was recommended that I move this thread to Hanger Chat...I realize this is a flight SIM sight, but is anyone interested in a thread about real-world misadventures? I'm thinking something on the order of a I Learned About Flying From That type of story. I'd be happy to start if there is an interest....

Posted

Cessna 172, departed San Jose at close to gross (with three heavy guys on board) to Lake Tahoe. On very short final to 36 I suddenly drift off to the side -- unexpected windshear. I guess that's what you get when the crosswind suddenly quits as you go below the tree line. Don't catch it quickly enough and find myself 30-50 feet to the right of centerline. With a heavy bird and in thin air (density altitude way above 7000') I don't feel like trying to "reintercept" the runway, so I decide to make a go-around. Full throttle, but we just keep descending. I'm getting close to the dirt, so I pull the nose up ever so little, assuming that the power is going to catch on soon enough. Stall warning horn sounds! "Oh #####!" I hold the attitude, as there wasn't any place to drop the nose to without hitting the runway signs. The plane still doesn't climb, but I do gain a bit of airspeed. At least the stall warning is off again. I got close, but no stall. So far so good. I'm still not climbing, though. There's still some time to go before I reach the trees on the other side of the airport, but the adrenaline is flowing. Then I realize that the carb heat is still pulled. I quickly push it in and immediately gain a couple hundred RPM, picking up more airspeed that I quickly convert into altitude. On the next round I anticipated the windshear and made a smooth landing. The effect of carb heat is intensified by altitude. I learned about flying from that.-FDj

Guest Stratus_Fractus
Posted

One of the CFIs at our school had something like that happen to him. He had a few very big ladies in the PA28, giving tours at the airshow. Took off and used around 3000ft of runway, climbing at around 100fpm, turning crosswind at around 10 miles from the airport! Swears he'll never do that kind of thing again. ;-)

Posted

I was enjoying the ride in the right seat as a non rated passenger but simulator savvy enthusiast to St. Catherines, ON during a fine fall Saturday afternoon. Since my pilot was newly rated and low time, we decided that I should should ride in the right seat as I had more of an idea as to what would be going on than our other two friends, who had little aviation experience, either simulated or otherwise. We also only had two headsets and since I did have a radio operators certificate and understood the lingo, it was also in my favour of the coveted right seat. After being cleared to enter the zone the field slowly came into view and the tower contacted us with our landing instructions. "CF-???, make left downwind rwy 06, watch for glider traffic using the grass to the south side of 06. You are number one for landing, wind 080 @ 7, clear to land rwy 06, contact tower when clear of active."As a non rated passenger, kept my mouth shut through the busier phases of flight in order not to distract my newly rated pilot friend. But as we started towards what looked to be a right downwind, I hesitated in saying anything figuring he knew what he was doing. Surely enough we we starting to enter the right downwind when I spoke up. "Isn't this a right downwind?", I said. And just immediately afterwards, the tower kicked in."CF-???, you are going to be entering a right downwind for 06, I cleared you for a left downwind approach. Turn right heading 330 and head over to the pier and gimme a call when you get there."Of course our alert tower controller was on to us and our possible fate with an air cadet glider, but it just goes to show that even a non rated passenger can provide valuable information to a rated pilot. I also learned that despite the fact that I'm a non rated pilot, and my basic knowldege of proecedure is quite limited compared to a rated pilot, what I know can still be of value.I learned about flying from that.CF-AOAThere are no such things as stupid questions, only stupid mistakes.

Posted

Earlier this year I was visiting family in Georgia (US) and decided that I'd take advantage of the cheap rental rates you guys enjoy in the USA. I booked an hour with an instructor at a local airport in their Piper Cub - I thought a little bit of 'proper' stick and rudder flying might be quite nice. On arrival at the airfield I was told that there was too much of a crosswind for the cub, would I prefer a C172. Sure, why not? The instructor was pretty young - but I guessed he was probably hour building towards ATP or something. The walk round was fairly cursory, as was the safety brief but I was unconcerned and confident.At this point I should mention that I'm merely a wannabe PPL - I've logged a few hours but I haven't started proper training yet for all sorts of reasons.Anyway, we took off and at around 100 feet AGL, I heard, 'You have the airplane.''What!' Usually for these sort of trial flights you only take control once well established in the cruise, or at least having climbed to a decent altitude. Well, that has been my experience so far anyway. Naturally I did take control - at that stage there wasn't much else I could do! I have to say that all that time spent in the FS 172 paid off - you can relax and enjoy the flight much more when you're reasonably familiar with how the thing works and where everything is. I had a great time checking out the scenery, practising turns of different kinds, climbing and descending, and tried a stall. All too soon it was time to head back. After a while I noticed that my hour had passed and, er, well we were still flying. A few more minutes passed before the instructor said, 'Can you see the airport?'Ah! I thought. It's a little test - a valuable lesson demonstrating some of the difficulties in recognising landmarks and, indeed, airfields from the air. I had to admit that I had paid no attention whatsoever to what the airport had looked like. I had placed my faith in the instructor entirely. Plus the unexpected handover of control early in the flight had been a little distracting. A few more minutes passed until I started becoming a little suspicious - we surely couldn't actually be lost. Could we? I became more suspicious when my instructor pulled out a chart and started anxiously studying it and then looking outside for familiar landmarks. I allowed myself a little glance at the fuel gauges. On 3/4 both tanks. Well that's something. But we didn't check the fuel on the ground. The gauges might have always read 3/4 for all I knew. I concentrated on flying the headings suggested by my instructor - oh well it's all loggable. The final confirmation came from ATC: 'November blah blah, report your position.' An awkward silence followed - well, I certainly wasn't going to speak to them!'Er, looking for the airport.' replied the instructor after what seemed like several minutes. Yes, without doubt, we were 'temporarily unsure of our position.' There followed an embarrassing period of being given directions back to the airport by reference to other traffic entering the pattern. We had actually arrived in the vicinity of the airport, but hadn't even seen it!Back on the ground, I suspect that my instructor was on the receiving end of a few harsh words. He disappeared for a while then returned looking a little sheepish. As I was settling my bill (bargain - 2 hours for the price of one!), the receptionist confided that I was in fact one of the first paying students that my instructor had taken up.What did I learn? Don't blindly trust your instructor. Airfields are hard to see - especially when you're unfamiliar with the area. Getting lost can be stressful - you can't practice navigation techniques enough! It's quite difficult to see aircraft that are below you. Oh, and I love flying!

Posted

Great stuff you guys!Here's one that I posted at the RC forum a few days ago:The NDB-A into KKLS requires you to drop like a rock at the NDB where you make a left 20^ turn, descend 700' and try to find the runway. On 7/15/91 as I made that turn the entire throttle assembly fell onto the floor. I was SOLID IMC and had to descend below minimums to make a (gliding) straight-in to rwy 11. As it turns out, once on the ground I was able to control power using two hands (the cable didn't break, the entire vernier assembly came out of its mounting bracket), but I really didn't have the opportunity to play shadetree mechanic at 1000' AGL in the soup - it's pretty much a power-off approach anyway so that was my best bet rather than screwing around on the floor and flying into the "cumulo-grannite" clouds on the hill to my left. The only thing that would have made me feel more alone would have been if it were at night (it was at about 10 AM). How long would it have taken the search crews to find the smoking hole?

Guest Stratus_Fractus
Posted

Scary stuff Dennis, glad you made it.

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