Dumbest thing you have done and lived to tell about it

[Ghery]

I don't think I have any good ones aviation related... Thanks to a really great intercom in my RV-12, I listen to music all the time while I fly, but it auto-tunes it out so it isn't a big deal.

Foolish flying things:
1- I pulled the mixture instead of the throttle on short final in a C-150, I landed dead-stick :/
2- I've forgotten to pull flaps up during a go-around (on my first solo!), which made the trees uncomfortably close
I've only been flying for about 2 years, thats all I've got so far!

Foolish other things:
1- I've spun cars at ridiculous speeds and walked away, including 150 mph at Portland International Raceway. I ended up being able to keep it on the track and didn't damage anything but my ego.
2- I've damaged many (Ungodly!) expensive/one of a kind pieces of computer hardware at work

That's what we pay you to do. Back in the days before autoranging power supplies there were two types of people in the EMC lab. Those who had blown up a power supply by plugging it into 220 VAC 50 Hz when configured for 120 VAC and those who were going to do it. In my case the switching transistors saved the fuse by blowing first. Took the silicon right out of the plastic packaging. We salvaged the fan and tossed the rest.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Seeing what I thought was airport A on the horizon - didn't realize until I was on downwind for one of the runways that I was at airport Y (and talking to the wrong tower - who kept saying that they couldn't see me).

Forgetting to switch tanks until it got real quiet.

Flying into weather that I shouldn't-a-oughtta flew into.

Stuff like doors, and the like, yea. More than once.

NTSB - not yet.

And when sumping my tanks, the gas goes in my car.

 

[Clark1961]

The dumbest thing I've ever done and lived to tell about it is either of two events, one at work and one on a motorcycle. Both could have easily ended other than they did (one scared silly, the other in emergency room and off work for six weeks).

In the airplane? Left the oil filler cap off once. Other than a mess, no big deal. Done lots of dumb stuff but the oil filler cap has to be the dumbest since it's so simple...some folks might say that forcing my way to 6Y9 last year was dumb but other than the duck incident it wasn't so bad.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

The dumbest thing I've ever done and lived to tell about it is either of two events, one at work and one on a motorcycle. Both could have easily ended other than they did (one scared silly, the other in emergency room and off work for six weeks).

Oh, we are talking about non airplane stuff too?

I don't think I have enough time to get into that tonight...

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

1. Maintain airspeed, shiny side up, heading, and altitude. In that order. After that, diagnose the problem.

Good ones. Do you think 'ball' belongs in the list?

 

[Ted]

Good ones. Do you think 'ball' belongs in the list?

Yes, good addition. I'd probably add it to the end of those. If you have sufficient airspeed, the ball being in a bad location won't really make a difference. That will more help you diagnose what happened (if you lost an engine in a twin).

 

[Henning]

I did a dumb one today. Added oil to my plane and one engine I used the line guys funnel, set it up and let the can drain while I put oil in the other engine. Normally I put the oil cap on when I pull the funnel I put the capon. Well, this time the line guy pulled the funnel and I missed the cap. Had to land at Tri City and wash my engine. Didn't even lose a perceptible amount on the dipstick, but it sure made a mess.

 

[Tom-D]

Way back when Barb and I had the 170, we traveled to Tx in it, we over nighted in Richfield Ut. and left there at 04:30 just as the gray dawn was getting light enough to see the hills to the east.
we climbed out getting high enough to cross the Wasatch mountain range to the east and got a loc on the Hanksville VOR, tracked that till we were overhead and took the out bound radial to 4 corners regional, after getting a loc on the 4 corners VOR we continued to track that inbound, after a couple hours Barb says " ain't that the airport"?

When I realized the VOR is way past the airport, I saw I was flying up the down wind. so I hung a left and got outta there and rentered as I should.

bottom line,,,,, Know where you are going.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I am way too embarrassed to contribute to this thread. Let me have another glass, then maybe!

 

[Wingsofglass]

1) As a student pilot, lining up for a straight in approach to the enormous and easy to spot runway at Hill Air Force Base located about 5 miles south of my intended destination. Fortunately the tower guys at Ogden, who are very nice, suggested I might want to rethink the plan before any fighters were scrambled.

2) Same student pilot status and same nice tower guys asking whether or not I was planning a great circle approach for my base to 16 as a not-so-subtle hint I was about to land on 34.

3) Newly minted pilot flying solo into a busy class c airport in gusty crosswinds. Very excited to have made it safely which probably showed in my voice when I called tower. Response: "no one is happier you made it safely than me since I won the pool, but it doesn't count until you cross those painted lines in front of you"

4) Flying through a thick and very cold stratus layer on one of my first post IFR ticket actual approaches. It was like someone just threw buckets of ice at the plane. Pure ignorance and stupidity on my part but at least I managed to keep speed up and land without flaps.

 

[Clark1961]

4) Flying through a thick and very cold stratus layer on one of my first post IFR ticket actual approaches. It was like someone just threw buckets of ice at the plane. Pure ignorance and stupidity on my part but at least I managed to keep speed up and land without flaps.

Ya, did that on my first real IMC departure flight. CFII was saying he had the leans and I was chanting: wings level, airspeed, heading. Got into the ice 20 minutes later with an excitable controller. I really don't care to do that again. In the end though it was no big deal, just fly the "out" and get'er done.

 

[Aztec Driver]

On a "liver" charter flight one night, I was making my way through the only little "keyhole" opening to AGC, surrounded on all sides by thunderstorms covering the entire western part of the state. I had the nexrad dialed up on the weather gear on my PDA, and doing very well. Shot the approach in front of an approaching storm, dropped off the package, and was off before the props slowed down. I attempted to snake out through the closing keyhole and neglected to scale the PDA down to see the route better and inadvertently ran smack into cell. The pouring rain was deafening, the lightning and thunder was scary as all get out, and the turbulence was a real treat. Sent everything flying around the cabin that wasn't tied down. After I lost 500 feet and came out the other side and returned to my assigned altitude, the controller asks if I am still with him, to which I answered "yes, but I don't ever want to do anything like that again."

Another charter, I was pilot flying, but SIC, so I was just following commands. I had flown up to rescue the other pilot and passenger after the original plane developed engine trouble. We were trying to beat an approaching ice storm, but didn't quite make it. We diverted to another airport and descended through freezing rain and iced the plane up real fast. Landed iced up except for the boots, props, and a small square on the windscreen. Tops of the wings and all. That last approach seemed to take an eternity.

Darn, I have way too many of these stories to account for my short career.

 

[Jeanie]

Maybe the problem is that the essentials of flight are so easy/automatic/provided for us that we actually forget them during a crisis?

~~~~~~~~~ I saw a presentation at Oshkosh in 2008 on Panic in emergencies and the physical/mental response that occurs. That is, the kind of lockdown of responding that can happen - real PANIC as opposed to just feaking out.
So I think that part of dealing w/ a crisis is training in immediate checklist type responses - like the list Ted posted and also in perhaps practicing maintaining controlled thinking and even breathing during duress... maybe imagining it in your recliner and working thru responses, training our minds in safe circumstances as a kind of prep for when the s*** hits the fan.

 

[earl72]

i made the mistake of asking a young woman how much she weighed (for w/b) in a busy fbo after 5 min. of a very loud toung lashing she stormed out and left me to explain what just happened to everyone (about 10 people)

 

[kimberlyanne546]

i made the mistake of asking a young woman how much she weighed (for w/b) in a busy fbo after 5 min. of a very loud toung lashing she stormed out and left me to explain what just happened to everyone (about 10 people)

Was her name Kimberly?

 

[earl72]

i dont think so i tryed really hard to forget that day ever happened

 

[Sac Arrow]

I may have posted this before, but I leave my home field and head out, set a direct course for my destination and lock in the autopilot. "Whoosh", I can barely hear anything. I forgot to lock the damn door.

For those of you that haven't flown Cherokees, it is VERY DIFFICULT to shut the door in flight if you've failed to lock the top latch. One of the recommended procedures is to make sure the internal vents are shut, and put the plane in a slip to allow aerodynamic forces to put side pressure on the door. I've tried that before and it didn't work. I tried it again, no dice. But now, I have a new problem....

In the course of yanking the yoke around while slipping the plane, the damn AILERONS locked up! It was like something worked it's way loose and wedged itself in the ailerons. I could force the yoke to keep the plane almost level but that was about it. I had rudder only steering at that point.

So, I did a very wide, sweeping turn back to my home field, and asked the tower to give me the most direct route back to the field for a precautionary landing. They cleared me for the non active runway which I just happened to be lined up for, and I landed with no incident. The landing wasn't pretty but nothing got bent.

I taxied back to my tie down, shut everthing down, and BAM the ailerons were now loose again!

I forgot to turn off the autopilot. As soon as I turned off course it tried to go back on course, and I had to fight it to go where I wanted to go. It didn't disingage until I turned the power off. Theoretically, I should have been able to overpower the slipper clutches, but they were very strong and I was worried I'd break something and be in even bigger trouble.

 

[kimberlyanne546]

The dumbest thing I've ever done and lived to tell about it is either of two events, one at work and one on a motorcycle. Both could have easily ended other than they did (one scared silly, the other in emergency room and off work for six weeks).

In the airplane? Left the oil filler cap off once. Other than a mess, no big deal. Done lots of dumb stuff but the oil filler cap has to be the dumbest since it's so simple...some folks might say that forcing my way to 6Y9 last year was dumb but other than the duck incident it wasn't so bad.

What was the duck incident? I need to know my 6Y9 history before I go this year.

 

[Fearless Tower]

Yeah, doors popping open on takeoff are definitely eye-opening. I had one in the Duchess - door latches suck on the BE76 and this one popped open right after I lifted off. I had enough training and read enough about door opening 'gotchas' so I wasn't worried about it - just more of an annoyance and I kept flying the plane, and withouth really thinking about it, my immediate reaction was 'okay, no big deal, just keep flying the plane and tell tower you want to return to land and secure the door on the ground"

Only trouble was I never realized how friggin' loud it would be - especially in the twin with the door right next to the engine. I couldn't hear a thing in my headset. Fortunately, I was able to open the storm window, reach through and slam the door shut. If that had been the right side door, I think I would have been looking for light signals!

As far as open doors not being an emergency, in general that is correct, however there are some aircraft, where I would indeed consider an open door an emergency. We had a guy and his family crash here about a year ago after taking off from MYF in a Velocity XLRG5. It is a homebuilt with gull wing doors and a pusher prop. Door popped open on takeoff and he told tower that he needed to return and land. Problem is that while he was returning to the field, the gull wing door detached from the airframe and went THROUGH the prop - resulted in a forced landing with fatalies.

 

[Clark1961]

What was the duck incident? I need to know my 6Y9 history before I go this year.

Well, there I was at 5,500' cruising along fat, dumb, and happy. Next thing ya know I was almost inadvertant IMC. Hmmm, maybe I should drop down a little so I'm sure that I have legal clearance from those white puffy things? So I did that, and did that, and did that. Pretty soon I'm below 1,000' but vis is good and nothing too exciting is showing on my terrain/obstruction plot (RMS Vista on the tablet computer). About this time I start flying through showers and drop lower to avoid more white puffy things that are really grey. About this time I noticed a duck a little above me and on the right with a crossing course. I flew directly under the duck...I'm really glad he didn't split-s like gulls tend to do. Anyway, I press on around and through showers to directly enter the downwind to land 28 at 6Y9. (I didn't fly lower than the duck to find the field as one of my many detractors claims). But I did fly lower than a duck to make it to the fly-in last year...

 

[Jaybird180]

Yeah, doors popping open on takeoff are definitely eye-opening. I had one in the Duchess - door latches suck on the BE76 and this one popped open right after I lifted off. I had enough training and read enough about door opening 'gotchas' so I wasn't worried about it - just more of an annoyance and I kept flying the plane, and withouth really thinking about it, my immediate reaction was 'okay, no big deal, just keep flying the plane and tell tower you want to return to land and secure the door on the ground"

Only trouble was I never realized how friggin' loud it would be - especially in the twin with the door right next to the engine. I couldn't hear a thing in my headset. Fortunately, I was able to open the storm window, reach through and slam the door shut. If that had been the right side door, I think I would have been looking for light signals!

As far as open doors not being an emergency, in general that is correct, however there are some aircraft, where I would indeed consider an open door an emergency. We had a guy and his family crash here about a year ago after taking off from MYF in a Velocity XLRG5. It is a homebuilt with gull wing doors and a pusher prop. Door popped open on takeoff and he told tower that he needed to return and land. Problem is that while he was returning to the field, the gull wing door detached from the airframe and went THROUGH the prop - resulted in a forced landing with fatalies.

Ouch! That sounds like it would be a story from the movie Final Destination

 

[gismo]

Are you smart in aviation, and dumb in general?

I don't think there are ever any restrictions, but thanks for asking permission, threads creep all the time.

Aviation wise the two I can remember would be departing with a fuel cap off at a fuel stop (distracted) and starting a takeoff (aborted) with one cowl door mostly unlatched (distracted again). Neither was particularly life threatening though.

But I had a couple of close encounters with the grim reaper long before becoming a pilot. One involve attempting to pull a 16ft outboard boat upstream across a weir (underwater dam) in a river that was flowing at close to 25 mph during a flood. I was pulling it along the side and when the current got hold of the boat I hung on to the line long enough to get pulled in and over the dam I went. I surfaced a long way downstream with sufficient time underwater (visibility < 1ft) to wonder how my drowning would get written up in the local paper. On another occasion while working at the marine dealer where I bought the boat involved in the first incident I managed to burn away a significant portion of a big screwdriver I was using to push a bunch of live wires into a metal conduit box after replacing a light switch in the showroom. I was working on live circuits because the fuse panel had been exposed to enough water from a leaky roof to short out the fuses so there was no way to depower the circuit I was working on. The same shorted fuses meant that when my screwdriver cut through the deteriorated insulation on the wires the available current (and associated huge shower of sparks) was virtually unlimited. But aside from some minor burns on my hand and the melted insulation on the wires feeding the building from the power grid there was little permanent evidence of my slipup.

 

[Everskyward]

Aviation wise the two I can remember would be departing with a fuel cap off at a fuel stop (distracted) and starting a takeoff (aborted) with one cowl door mostly unlatched (distracted again).

I was going to say that almost all of the dumb things I've done happened when I was distracted, rushed or tired, but then I realized I have done other dumb things that don't fit this description. I can't even come up with the "dumbest" thing. It's a wonder I'm here at all...

 

[PilotAlan]

I was going to say that almost all of the dumb things I've done happened when I was distracted, rushed or tired, but then I realized I have done other dumb things that don't fit this description. I can't even come up with the "dumbest" thing. It's a wonder I'm here at all...

And since we have new folks reading this thread, I'll share my personal rule:
When completing a checklist (like preflight, or pre-takeoff, or runup, or whatever), if interrupted I will back up two steps in the checklist tommake sure I didn't miss anything.
If interrupted twice, I'll start that checklist over.

If I find an error when doing a checklist, I back up two items. If I find two errors, then start over.

 

[dmccormack]

One dumb mistake I likely won't make again is taking off with carb heat still ON in my 65 HP Chief.

I was doing stop and goes at KMGW and the climb out was very shallow -- she just wouldn't climb!!!

About 200' AGL I looked and saw the semi-hidden (behind my knee) carb heat control in the ON position.

The satisfying roar and climb that followed restored my faith in flying, machines, Lycoming, and the good people of Morgantown, West Virginia (some of whom I was sure to have a very rude introduction).

The next pattern was a stop and roll and go -- even in a super simple airplane touch and go can get you rushed -- when you don't need to be.

 

[jasc15]

Took off and climbed to 4500 feet when I realized the carb heat was on.

 

[Unregistered]

And since we have new folks reading this thread, I'll share my personal rule:
When completing a checklist (like preflight, or pre-takeoff, or runup, or whatever), if interrupted I will back up two steps in the checklist tommake sure I didn't miss anything.
If interrupted twice, I'll start that checklist over.

If I find an error when doing a checklist, I back up two items. If I find two errors, then start over.

That's a good policy. I'll go further:

An interruption is most likely to come during pre-flight inspection. In that case, I'll rest my hand on the place when interrupted. If I have to remove my hand, I back up two items.

If the interruption comes while in the cockpit ready for engine start, I hold my finger on the item. If I have to deboard. I start entire checklist over. And it better be a darn good reason why I had to leave my seat.

Still, the worst was leaving my wallet on the wing walk. Upon reaching my planned fuel stop I realized my error. I flew back and requested several slow taxis on my taxi route and departure runway. Then I hopped in the aprt mx truck but he drove so fast I Superman couldn't have spotted a wallet lyinng in the weeds. Aprt Mgr said the lawn mower guy would find it...which BTW, there he goes now

I hope in my plane, twr clears me to the run-up pad and a shut down for a quick walk about. Yep, there it is, open and papers strewn about. I got everything except a couple receipts. I beat the evil lawn mower by minutes.

 

[dmccormack]

Took off and climbed to 4500 feet when I realized the carb heat was on.

I'll won't reach 4500 before dark with carb heat on....

 

[Jaybird180]

And since we have new folks reading this thread, I'll share my personal rule:
When completing a checklist (like preflight, or pre-takeoff, or runup, or whatever), if interrupted I will back up two steps in the checklist tommake sure I didn't miss anything.
If interrupted twice, I'll start that checklist over.

If I find an error when doing a checklist, I back up two items. If I find two errors, then start over.

Do you mean errors as in items that you didn't complete or squawks?

I have a 3 strikes rule.

 

[PilotAlan]

Do you mean errors as in items that you didn't complete or squawks?

Good question.
When I do my items, I use my flows and then verify with checklists. If the checklist finds an item that I missed, then I back up two items and double check them.
If I find two items not done (like a fuel cap off, or strobes not on, transponder off, or whatever). then I redo the entire checklist, item by item, with the checklist in hand.
It's rare, but it has happened when there was an interruption or diversion of some kind.

 

[Doggtyred]

I didn't even have a working landing light for my night cross country and night landings! We did a pre-flight, I saw it wasn't working, he said we could go anyways. (No he does not work for the school).

This is actually something I did in training- no landing light landings.

 

[dell30rb]

I did a few in training without any landing or cockpit lights (no instruments). That said i would be hesitant about going on an xc without a landing light, just for the reason that it makes you very visible to other traffic

 

[dmccormack]

This is actually something I did in training- no landing light landings.

I did no airport lighting landings during night training -- boy that landing light gave out a tiny, tiny beam!!

 

[Ddayle]

I have left a Gatorade bottle 0n the elevator and a jacket. the bottle fell off in taxi, the jacket a pilot saw & flagged me down, I like to think I would have seen it during my control check since it was on the side I look at. (I am going to look at BOTH sides from now on). and most embarrassing, the seat-belt out the door while taxiing to the pumps. Odd since i fasten the seat-belt in my car before I stick the key in(often before I shut the door). Yesterday I put my coffee on the wing then spilled it as I pulled the Cherokee out of the hangar, I think the rule is going to be for me to NOT use the aircraft as a table. In the plane but never ON the plane. Dave

 

[thomascannon]

Transitioning from night IMC to visual at Ukiah airport I lined up with a shopping mall parking lot, seeing the nice spaced out rectangular lighted shape and thinking it was a runway.

Luckily the guy in the right seat gave me a, "WTF you going, bro? Runway's 10 degrees right. You weren't planning on doing some shopping now are ya? Everything's closed at this hour."

 

[kimberlyanne546]

Transitioning from night IMC to visual at Ukiah airport I lined up with a shopping mall parking lot, seeing the nice spaced out rectangular lighted shape and thinking it was a runway.

Luckily the guy in the right seat gave me a, "WTF you going, bro? Runway's 10 degrees right. You weren't planning on doing some shopping now are ya? Everything's closed at this hour."

Where do you fly? Ukiah is where I did my first solo cross country.

 

[dmccormack]

I might have landed at an airport with INOP PCL.

Aim for the dark part and hope the landing light shows centerline....

 

[Teller1900]

I might have landed at an airport with INOP PCL.

Aim for the dark part and hope the landing light shows centerline....

And if you don't like what the landing light illuminates, just shut it off!

 

[sferguson524]

Let's see here.

left the oil dipstick on top of the cowling and started the engine. Shut down quickly, but testing the pitot heat on an IMC day gave me a dead battery after the start (my CFII still gives me grief for this one)

tried to steer the yoke with my knee while under the hood looking for an approach plate

Made a perfect callup to approach on center's frequency, was rewarded with cessna 8rj, wonderful checkin, but you're on the wrong freq

called montgomery ground tower (etc)

I'm sure i'm forgetting some, but we all do dumb things

 

[Jack Spectre]

Up here in Minnesota, it gets a little cold sometimes. So at the FBO I used to rent from, they would park the reserved planes in the front row next to the FBO building and run extension cords to the engine heaters on the planes.

I was always pretty good about unplugging the cords during my preflight but one day I didn't. I put the key in, turned it to the first click, second click, pressure on the key to engage the starter...and stopped myself. At the very last millisecond I saw the cord. It would have been bad, too...the cord was hanging over the top of the cowling and through the prop arc.

It was a dumb thing that almost became much, much worse.