Dumbest thing you have done and lived to tell about it

Flew an hr on my first Xc solo with the generator field shut off (it was a separate switch)... Started going through checklists when radios and gps started dying. Ended up charging pretty well before the next restart.... Oh yeah, also forgot to lean at 8k, so the plugs got fouled.
 
New user - but posting as "unregistered" to protect myself and the already charged and fined parties involved.

After I got my PPSEL I started renting from the "other guys" This company was once the only aircraft rental in the area and had a long and varying views in the pilot community. The planes were cheap - and so was everything else about the operation. One of the APs/IAs was in the Civil Air Patrol Squadron with me - and he always impressed me with his do it right the first time attitude so I took a leap of faith and went to get checked out to fly their 172s. Both the 172's looked like they had been beaters - and flown as such. I remember being a kid of 10 12 years before that flying in them with other pilots. They didn't look like much had changed on them execpt the paint faded more and the interior had taken taken more use. Anyway I regress.

The instructor started off telling me we were going to up and do spins - and I said no we are not. He further pressed it and i said - I won't go flying if we are doing spins. I advised him I had spin training and did not require it further. So he agreed and we left - all normal after that. I got my checkout and my adventures with said business was about to begin.

Let's see there was the one time at the lake airport with short runway - that my seat became unlatched during takeoff and i traversed to the end of the rails and my dad in the right seat knew enough to control the airplane during takeoff while my (ex)wife in the rear seat pushed my seat foward.

There was the other time over the Lake that the oil temp went all the way over to the right in the red and I told my pax (dad and friend) we were cutting our lake tour short and heading back to the field because I was getting sick. In the end was just a bad gauge at least that's what the CAP buddy told me....

There was the other time while shooting touch and goes the flaps got stuck at 10 degrees. After a fullstop landing I got out and cursed the airplane and reset the circuit breaker. The flaps still didn't work. I took off and the flaps - after flying for about 10 minutes retracted on their own.

After all this a wise pilot friend told me - never fly there again. Did I listen..hell no the prices were to cheap after all nothing really bad has happened.

Then there was the time during preflight i noticed the transponder missing. I asked one of the owners what the deal was and he said - are you flying in class C? I said no - just a local flight. He said we needed the xpndr for the 210. Just fly without it. I said can I have the one from the 210 so I can at least look legal from a weight and balance perspective? (the discussion/arguement lasted longer) but he finally had one of his monkeys put a (non working) xpnder in the panel. And off I went.

The wise pilot again told me - you shouldn't be flying that junk. He is getting investigated - stay away!

Shortly after the conversation one of their renters crashed one of the 172's - he didn't have a valid license.

Then there was another friend telling me how he was getting checked out in their Mooney and the engine failed over the lake - they got it restarted but had to pump the gear down.

Then there was the time that the (ex)wife and I were waiting for the C-172 to get back from a flight. It arrived 10 minutes passed due and I heard a piece of the conversation from the crew that brought it back "ARe you going to tell them what happened? - no they aren't going to fix it anyway" - That flight was actually non eventful.

A new business opened up on the field - and they had a taildragger to rent. I started my tail dragger training and one day after we got back a lady stepped in the office - and the owner introduced me to her as being from the FAA and she was running the investigation on the junk rental airplane company business. She started to tell me about all their violations to date of their "air charter business" and told me after the FAA got done with them they would not be in business anymore - and suggested that if I was doing business with them I should stop. -Yikes!!!

Months later

I needed to get my three takeoffs and three landings in. The place was still in business. Some time before this their other C-172 crashed. So I had no idea what they had. I was short on money and i just needed to three landings and three takeoffs. What could possibly go wrong by just doing that i thought.

I drove out there and noticed a C-172 on the line that looked pretty good. I went in and they gave me the keys and I started my preflight. The interior looked pretty good too. I finished my preflight and started to strap in and noticed no shoulder strap. The right seat had a shoulder strap but not the left. D@#%!! I decided to fly anyway. It was local - I wasn't going to crash - I could play it off if i got ramped. On takeoff the airspeed indicator showed 0 knots indicated. The VSI didn't work either nor did the altimeter. I got the airplane back on the ground - and never recorded the entry in my logbook.

Lesson learned. Don't fly from a place that doesn't properly maintain their equipment. It's just not worth it.

I have become particular anal with the airplanes I rent and I have stopped renting from places that even suggest that it's too much trouble to keep landing lights replaced. Yeah I have landed at night without a landing light and I refuse to fly knowing I'll have to do it again!
 
Holy cow. I'm in love with my new rental place because of the IA / AP / Pilot who runs it.

Just the other day the beacon didn't work. I told him about it and he said "I bet your pitot heat is off too". He looked at the appropriate circuit breaker, which wasn't popped, felt it (warm), screwed it back in about 1/4 turn and presto everything worked.

Granted, he was standing right there and I could have troubleshot the item myself, but it was so nice to know the "expert" can just be there to help. We figured the 150 is so tiny someone's knees slightly loosened the circuit breaker knob.
 
This is illegal in Florida but I tend to be very clumsy and trip...


It's also illegal in California and the rest of the states as well. Look, I know pilots are cheap, but a Gatts jar is cheap as chips. I would NEVER consider dumping on the ramp in NorCal Bay area, you have Sierra Club members running around all the time taking pictures at airports and marinas looking for pollution violations. The fine for dumping gas on the ground IIRC goes up to $10,000 + the clean up cost which even getting a shovel of dirt picked up for Hazmat disposal will be over $1000 by the time it's done.

Spend $20, get a Gatts jar, pour the fuel back in the tank, burn it through the engine.
 
It's also illegal in California and the rest of the states as well. Look, I know pilots are cheap, but a Gatts jar is cheap as chips. I would NEVER consider dumping on the ramp in NorCal Bay area, you have Sierra Club members running around all the time taking pictures at airports and marinas looking for pollution violations. The fine for dumping gas on the ground IIRC goes up to $10,000 + the clean up cost which even getting a shovel of dirt picked up for Hazmat disposal will be over $1000 by the time it's done.

Spend $20, get a Gatts jar, pour the fuel back in the tank, burn it through the engine.

I do now. I didn't know anything about flying, and my CFI taught me to preflight, that was then and this is now. Back then, they had a tiny shot glass (not a jar kind). He would dump it, that is what he taught me. I did that in front of another CFI and he totally yelled at me. It was then I learned my primary CFI had been wrong.
 
It's also illegal in California and the rest of the states as well. Look, I know pilots are cheap, but a Gatts jar is cheap as chips. I would NEVER consider dumping on the ramp in NorCal Bay area, you have Sierra Club members running around all the time taking pictures at airports and marinas looking for pollution violations. The fine for dumping gas on the ground IIRC goes up to $10,000 + the clean up cost which even getting a shovel of dirt picked up for Hazmat disposal will be over $1000 by the time it's done.

Spend $20, get a Gatts jar, pour the fuel back in the tank, burn it through the engine.

I have yet to see someone dump the fuel back into the plane, but hey, I am in Texas. We pumped it out of the ground, whats wrong with putting it back into the ground (read sarcasm). Seriously, I never see anyone dump it back into the plane down here. Just out of curiosity, what do you do with the fuel if it has water in it? Don't some airports have drums to dump it in?
 
I have yet to see someone dump the fuel back into the plane, but hey, I am in Texas. We pumped it out of the ground, whats wrong with putting it back into the ground (read sarcasm). Seriously, I never see anyone dump it back into the plane down here. Just out of curiosity, what do you do with the fuel if it has water in it? Don't some airports have drums to dump it in?

The GATS separates the fuel and water. The water stays in the jar. Neat trick. Try it sometime.
 
The GATS separates the fuel and water. The water stays in the jar. Neat trick. Try it sometime.

Didn't realize there was any separation going on. So, now that you mention it I had to look it up. GATS- Gasoline Analysis Test Separator
 
Didn't realize there was any separation going on. So, now that you mention it I had to look it up. GATS- Gasoline Analysis Test Separator

Yep, fuel goes through the membrane, water doesn't. Pour the fuel in the tank, pop the lid and dump the water and any solids on the ground. That nobody in TX does this or is aware of decades old technology surprises me not in the slightest. 7 years of dealing with Texans and I ran.
 
Yep, fuel goes through the membrane, water doesn't. Pour the fuel in the tank, pop the lid and dump the water and any solids on the ground. That nobody in TX does this or is aware of decades old technology surprises me not in the slightest. 7 years of dealing with Texans and I ran.

Well Henning you know what they say. All men are created equal.Except Texans, we were created better than everyone else. :)
 
Yep, fuel goes through the membrane, water doesn't. Pour the fuel in the tank, pop the lid and dump the water and any solids on the ground. That nobody in TX does this or is aware of decades old technology surprises me not in the slightest. 7 years of dealing with Texans and I ran.

Plenty of people use the GATS. At least in the Dallas area.
 
New user - but posting as "unregistered" to protect myself and the already charged and fined parties involved.

After I got my PPSEL I started renting from the "other guys" This company was once the only aircraft rental in the area and had a long and varying views in the pilot community. The planes were cheap - and so was everything else about the operation. One of the APs/IAs was in the Civil Air Patrol Squadron with me - and he always impressed me with his do it right the first time attitude so I took a leap of faith and went to get checked out to fly their 172s. Both the 172's looked like they had been beaters - and flown as such. I remember being a kid of 10 12 years before that flying in them with other pilots. They didn't look like much had changed on them execpt the paint faded more and the interior had taken taken more use. Anyway I regress.

The instructor started off telling me we were going to up and do spins - and I said no we are not. He further pressed it and i said - I won't go flying if we are doing spins. I advised him I had spin training and did not require it further. So he agreed and we left - all normal after that. I got my checkout and my adventures with said business was about to begin.

Let's see there was the one time at the lake airport with short runway - that my seat became unlatched during takeoff and i traversed to the end of the rails and my dad in the right seat knew enough to control the airplane during takeoff while my (ex)wife in the rear seat pushed my seat foward.

There was the other time over the Lake that the oil temp went all the way over to the right in the red and I told my pax (dad and friend) we were cutting our lake tour short and heading back to the field because I was getting sick. In the end was just a bad gauge at least that's what the CAP buddy told me....

There was the other time while shooting touch and goes the flaps got stuck at 10 degrees. After a fullstop landing I got out and cursed the airplane and reset the circuit breaker. The flaps still didn't work. I took off and the flaps - after flying for about 10 minutes retracted on their own.

After all this a wise pilot friend told me - never fly there again. Did I listen..hell no the prices were to cheap after all nothing really bad has happened.

Then there was the time during preflight i noticed the transponder missing. I asked one of the owners what the deal was and he said - are you flying in class C? I said no - just a local flight. He said we needed the xpndr for the 210. Just fly without it. I said can I have the one from the 210 so I can at least look legal from a weight and balance perspective? (the discussion/arguement lasted longer) but he finally had one of his monkeys put a (non working) xpnder in the panel. And off I went.

The wise pilot again told me - you shouldn't be flying that junk. He is getting investigated - stay away!

Shortly after the conversation one of their renters crashed one of the 172's - he didn't have a valid license.

Then there was another friend telling me how he was getting checked out in their Mooney and the engine failed over the lake - they got it restarted but had to pump the gear down.

Then there was the time that the (ex)wife and I were waiting for the C-172 to get back from a flight. It arrived 10 minutes passed due and I heard a piece of the conversation from the crew that brought it back "ARe you going to tell them what happened? - no they aren't going to fix it anyway" - That flight was actually non eventful.

A new business opened up on the field - and they had a taildragger to rent. I started my tail dragger training and one day after we got back a lady stepped in the office - and the owner introduced me to her as being from the FAA and she was running the investigation on the junk rental airplane company business. She started to tell me about all their violations to date of their "air charter business" and told me after the FAA got done with them they would not be in business anymore - and suggested that if I was doing business with them I should stop. -Yikes!!!

Months later

I needed to get my three takeoffs and three landings in. The place was still in business. Some time before this their other C-172 crashed. So I had no idea what they had. I was short on money and i just needed to three landings and three takeoffs. What could possibly go wrong by just doing that i thought.

I drove out there and noticed a C-172 on the line that looked pretty good. I went in and they gave me the keys and I started my preflight. The interior looked pretty good too. I finished my preflight and started to strap in and noticed no shoulder strap. The right seat had a shoulder strap but not the left. D@#%!! I decided to fly anyway. It was local - I wasn't going to crash - I could play it off if i got ramped. On takeoff the airspeed indicator showed 0 knots indicated. The VSI didn't work either nor did the altimeter. I got the airplane back on the ground - and never recorded the entry in my logbook.

Lesson learned. Don't fly from a place that doesn't properly maintain their equipment. It's just not worth it.

I have become particular anal with the airplanes I rent and I have stopped renting from places that even suggest that it's too much trouble to keep landing lights replaced. Yeah I have landed at night without a landing light and I refuse to fly knowing I'll have to do it again!
:yikes:
 
New user - but posting as "unregistered" to protect myself and the already charged and fined parties involved.

...

Lesson learned. Don't fly from a place that doesn't properly maintain their equipment. It's just not worth it.

I have become particular anal with the airplanes I rent and I have stopped renting from places that even suggest that it's too much trouble to keep landing lights replaced. Yeah I have landed at night without a landing light and I refuse to fly knowing I'll have to do it again!
:yikes:

Oh. My. God.
 
Well Henning you know what they say. All men are created equal.Except Texans, we were created better than everyone else. :)

Never ask a man where he is from.

If he's from Texas, he will let you know soon enough.

If he's not, there is no need to embarrass him.
 
So what do you do if the drain from the fuel strainer dumps fuel directly onto the ground? The handle in my old plane is next to the oil dip stick, which causes the drain from the strainer to open, pouring fuel directly onto the ground. There is no way to reach under the plane and pull the handle at the same time.
 
So what do you do if the drain from the fuel strainer dumps fuel directly onto the ground? The handle in my old plane is next to the oil dip stick, which causes the drain from the strainer to open, pouring fuel directly onto the ground. There is no way to reach under the plane and pull the handle at the same time.


On my 310 they were disconnected and replaced with normal sump drains. Normally I can position the jar on the ground to catch it, but there is also the 'stick some tubing over the spigot that leads to the container on the ground. Pull and check then dump. I never liked the straight dump from day one as it doesn't allow for inspection of the fuel.
 
So what do you do if the drain from the fuel strainer dumps fuel directly onto the ground? The handle in my old plane is next to the oil dip stick, which causes the drain from the strainer to open, pouring fuel directly onto the ground. There is no way to reach under the plane and pull the handle at the same time.

I usually get my passenger to help (I hold the jar and show them where to pull the white handle).
 
Ok, I'm on an IFR flight with the Bride and I got two reroutes one after the other. Of course I mumbled I wish they make up their mind but with the wx I understood why they were moving flights.

08R advise ready to copy.......WithOUT pushing the PTT I said, 08Romeo ready to copy........My Bride says how about telling them that and hit that lil thingy on the wheel. :rolleyes: funny lady......
 
The dumbest thing I've done and lived to tell about it? Hmmm... That's a tough one. I did make a mistake once. I though I had made a mistake and I really hadn't.
 
During my training, I flew a 172 with the type of flaps that you have to hold down, rather than the type that is automatic. Anyway, during my first XC solo flight landing back in Newport News, after I put 40 degrees of flaps in, I accidentally flipped the flap lever into the up position rather than neutral. I didn't realize this until after I turned off the runway. As i'm starting to flare, my airspeed is going 65...70...75...80, I had no idea what was going on. By the time I touched down, I assume that I had no flaps at all. Needless to say, that was probably the worst I have ever "floated" on a landing.
 
Well, many years ago as an 18 yr old enlisted Marine, we built a pneumatic mortar and tried it in one of the back shops in the hangar, It worked really well. So well in fact, I wondered how we were so lucky to escape death or serious injury.

- - - -

Same setting we built our own bungee jumping rig and and were going to try hopping down from the beams in the ceiling in the hangar. No kidding, I'm standing on a ledge, my foot in the loop of bungee cord, ready to jump, when the skipper walked into the shop looking for assistance.

He just asked me please not to jump. He said that If I killed myself, he was sure my mother would accuse him of wrong doing.


There were other times. Young men around expensive and powerful equipment are going to conduct experiments. That's just how it is.
 
Requesting taxi clearance with the master switch off. My CFI noted they would probably hear me better if the radio was on.

Cheers
 
Being you did's say it had to be in a plane....

I was 18 years old, and on the back of a bike. We were doing over 100 on the roads in Dallas. We were racing our friends through town who were in a car. The car was so close to the back, I was pushing it away with my hand so the front left side would not hit the back right side of the bike. I tapped my buddy on the shoulder so he would turn around and see how close the car was to us.

He did, he adjusted the bike and at the same time, the car slammed on there breaks (us thinking it was because they realized how close they were to us). As we both look forward again, the light not far in front of us was red, at an extremely busy intersection. We slamed on the breaks, and flew across 6 lanes of busy traffic at about 60 miles an hour.

I have done some stupid things in my life. Nothing comes remotely close to that.
 
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So today I picked up my plane in SLC (Salt Lake City) from maintenance and flew it to OGD (Ogden). This is a short hop of 24nm but it is pretty action packed. You fly through SLC class B, 2 approach frequencies, Hill Air Force Base airspace and frequency and finally Ogden Class D airspace. Along the way you need to pick up Ogden ATIS. Also, the assigned route is typically to follow I15 with a tight altitude restriction and plenty of conflicting traffic. Because you are following I 15 and then the Salt Lake shoreline you really have to hand fly it.

The plane was in for an oil change but also to check CHTs, which have been running high ever since the annual a few weeks ago. I figured this was probably due to summer, but worth checking nonetheless. So anyway, I leave SLC during the morning push. I follow a tail dragger who stops in the middle of the taxiway before the hold short line thus blocking the run-up area. With 5 Delta jets waiting for the same runway on the other side, I figure it's going to be a while and I just do the run-up right there. Everything is normal. MY SOP is to lean for peak RPM during the run-up, then 3 clicks forward for takeoff. During the roll I richen until EGTs are below 1,200 (this keeps CHTs below 380 on the climb).

On takeoff, everything is normal except I can't get the EGTs below 1,400 even at full rich which I never need even at sea level. But the engine sounds great, everything is normal and I'm airborne with 7,000 feet of runway ahead of me. On my short flight to Ogden the CHTs are abnormally low (in the 320s) with number 2 at 350 which is really weird. Leaning or richening does nothing to really help this. While I'm paying attention to the engine, I tell myself it sounds normal, all parameters are in spec, I'm in really busy airspace and just fly the plane. Which I do.

After an uneventful landing I taxi to parking and do the SLIM shutdown. I get to ignition and realize when I go to turn the key to off, I just flew home on the right mag.

I have no idea how this happened. I can't pinpoint a distraction that interrupted the run-up although doing it on the taxiway at SLC International was non-stanard. I don't know if I hit the key accidentally. If this ever happens again, I now know what the engine page will look like so I can quickly correct it. Does anyone have a flow or checklist item pre takeoff that checks this? I have 700 hours in my plane and I have never done this before.
 
So today I picked up my plane in SLC (Salt Lake City) from maintenance and flew it to OGD (Ogden). This is a short hop of 24nm but it is pretty action packed. You fly through SLC class B, 2 approach frequencies, Hill Air Force Base airspace and frequency and finally Ogden Class D airspace. Along the way you need to pick up Ogden ATIS. Also, the assigned route is typically to follow I15 with a tight altitude restriction and plenty of conflicting traffic. Because you are following I 15 and then the Salt Lake shoreline you really have to hand fly it.

The plane was in for an oil change but also to check CHTs, which have been running high ever since the annual a few weeks ago. I figured this was probably due to summer, but worth checking nonetheless. So anyway, I leave SLC during the morning push. I follow a tail dragger who stops in the middle of the taxiway before the hold short line thus blocking the run-up area. With 5 Delta jets waiting for the same runway on the other side, I figure it's going to be a while and I just do the run-up right there. Everything is normal. MY SOP is to lean for peak RPM during the run-up, then 3 clicks forward for takeoff. During the roll I richen until EGTs are below 1,200 (this keeps CHTs below 380 on the climb).

On takeoff, everything is normal except I can't get the EGTs below 1,400 even at full rich which I never need even at sea level. But the engine sounds great, everything is normal and I'm airborne with 7,000 feet of runway ahead of me. On my short flight to Ogden the CHTs are abnormally low (in the 320s) with number 2 at 350 which is really weird. Leaning or richening does nothing to really help this. While I'm paying attention to the engine, I tell myself it sounds normal, all parameters are in spec, I'm in really busy airspace and just fly the plane. Which I do.

After an uneventful landing I taxi to parking and do the SLIM shutdown. I get to ignition and realize when I go to turn the key to off, I just flew home on the right mag.

I have no idea how this happened. I can't pinpoint a distraction that interrupted the run-up although doing it on the taxiway at SLC International was non-stanard. I don't know if I hit the key accidentally. If this ever happens again, I now know what the engine page will look like so I can quickly correct it. Does anyone have a flow or checklist item pre takeoff that checks this? I have 700 hours in my plane and I have never done this before.

Even if I just did a run-up, I have a pre-departure checklist that I always do from memory immediately before takeoff: mixture full-rich, selector valve both, shutoff valve on, mags both, master on, engine gauges green, trim set for take-off.

Takes about 5 seconds and is pretty much automatic. I pay extra attention to the mags because it seems so easy to not notice it's one or two notches to the left of Both.
 
I was driving in the winter on the dilapidated streets just west of Chicago's loop where they cross the wide set of train tracks coming out of the downtown stations.

I NEVER push my luck with trains.

So of course, just as I got the front wheels over the tracks the car starts to get hung up on the high tracks and the wheels started spinning in the snow and for the first time I look down the tracks and see the light on the big ol' diesel engine coming at me...

...I rocked it a little and got the car moving.

I High centered a combine trailer on a train track once. (with combine on it)
Saw headlight coming down the track, Finally rocked it enough to back off the track just in time to watch a RR MX vehicle trundling down the track.
 
Remembered another one where I was a Pax for a leg with two other pilots.

We were rotating positions of airplane driver and I was the dummy in back after flying the leg before which was uneventful. The pilot who was flying the next leg was a stickler for following the check list which called for fuel selector off after shut down.

The pilot next up was a recent returnee from Vietnam who had been flying light airplane missions "out of an undisclosed location" and typical procedures were jump in and GO ASAP. He fired up, taxied a short distance to the active at State college PA and was about to take the active and the engine died. You guessed it, the fuel selector was in off. After suitable cussing and swearing by all concerned, fired up again and an uneventful leg ensued. Noting the vast fields of really big trees we passed over on climb out, I "suggested" we use the check list consistently.

Lesson learned was after that, I did my own mental run thru of the check list no matter who had the stick. Caught a few "Oh Sh**" through the years.;)

Cheers
 
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Remembered another one where I was a Pax for a leg with two other pilots.

We were rotating positions of airplane driver and I was the dummy in back after flying the leg before which was uneventful. The pilot who was flying the next leg was a stickler for following the check list which called for fuel selector off after shut down.

The pilot next up was a recent returnee from Vietnam who had been flying light airplane missions "out of an undisclosed location" and typical procedures were jump in and GO ASAP. He fired up, taxied a short distance to the active at State college PA and was about to take the active and the engine died. You guessed it, the fuel selector was in off. After suitable cussing and swearing by all concerned, fired up again and an uneventful leg ensued. Noting the vast fields of really big tress we passed over on climb out, I "suggested" we use the check list consistently.

Lesson learned was after that, I did my own mental run thru of the check list no matter who had the stick. Caught a few "Oh Sh**" through the years.;)

Cheers

This reminds me of tonight's flight. I was so excited to put the owner of my flight school (and of several planes that I might one day fly) into the leaseback plane I needed to fly to do three landings at night. I am night current but don't want to run out of currency. Anyhow, I hoped he would see I was a safe pilot etc. and at the end I asked for a review. He said I should start adding more checklists (I forget stuff) including "GUMPS" which I never do, since I don't have the "G" or the "U" or the "P" in my 150. We were in the 172 which does have the "G". It was just luck that he was there and I invited him up. I asked if he'd ever been a pax in one of his rentals and he thought and said no. I was the first!
 
Article says they noticed it during post flight in Henderson, but they had SanDiego to notice, then....
 
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