Stupid things we have seen pilots do

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Feb 23, 2005
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Tom-D
I'll start :
leaving a towbar on a nose wheel then starting the engine.
powering up while blowing on a open hangar.
allowing the aircraft to get away while hand propping.

I know you've got plenty more.
 
Fly into a thunderstorm and fly into known icing conditions without a FIKI aircraft.
 
Saw the CAP launch a set of cowl plugs about 50' into the air. Wee!

Also, a based aircraft on the field complained that his Cherokee Six was running rough and shut off him on short final at another airport, inspect and advise...it stays tied down outside and I just had a hunch before I went out and tried to start it. I drained two or three full GATs jars worth of water out of each inboard and outboard tank before I started getting fuel. He saw that there was no separation of fluid so assumed it was good to go. I bet she was running rough!
 
Preflighting my Skyhawk at n51 in New Jersey.... I hear this "WOP WOP" sound as, what I think was a Pan AM Shuttle Westland 30 lands in the grass between the taxiway and the runway... One of the crew, with his white shirt and epaulet's clamors out and runs up to me... "You got any Duct-tape?" "No, sorry." Clamors back in, and off they went!
 
Was right seat in a Comanchee 400 that the owner was test flying after getting it re-rigged. It was a little bumpy and he goes zooming over the runway about 8 knots over Vne. Those bumps felt like we were running over cinder blocks in a Ferrari. Not flying with him again.
 
Watched a charter pilot with pax aboard fail to start both engines on a 421. He deplaned, told me the problem. You know the rest of the story. Engines run better when the fuel selectors are turned on.
 
Flying with the cowl plugs inserted,trying to taxi without all the tie down ropes removed.
 
Saw an Otter on floats push up on the beach nose first, de-planded the pax. did the unload of bags, Took a little brake, came back to find the tide had gone out.
 
- Saw a pilot cut off another airplane without any radio calls, land on the rwy, stop and announce on the frequency "not clear of the rwy, I just ran out of fuel".
- Saw a pilot turn around in front of an open hangar, just to coat everybody and everything inside with dust, gravel and sand.
- Saw a pilot pull out an airplane out of a T-hangar and do a 2-hour preflight while pretty much blocking access to other T-hangars.
- Saw an airplane cut if front of me and stop on a taxiway without any radio traffic with the tower. Informed ground that I am holding position and got a response "I have no idea what that airplane is doing". :)
- Witnessed a total dumba** taxi to the pumps with the propeller near feathered. How I know? I was at the controls. :eek:
 
Saw a Citabria try to taxi out with one wing still tied down at Hemet, CA. He really gunned it too and went 90 degrees around before he figured out the "issue".
 
During PPL training (Pinnacle,KCRQ) I was there to do something besides fly, I can't remember now. I get outside and see two C-152s flipped upside down, where they are usually tied down. There's a bunch of people standing around just staring at these two upside down aircraft. It hadn't quite clicked yet, so I asked someone wtf just happened. They said a jet pilot blasted them while taxiing and flew the little Cessnas like kites before the chains broke loose and they flipped over.

I wish I could find a pic. Walking out of the hangar to see that was one of those times I realized nobody is exempt from screwing up, and I couldn't imagine what the pilot was going through. Luckily the 152s were empty and didn't hit anything.
 
There's a CJ pilot here that I have never seen do a preflight. Hasn't cost him yet, but I wouldn't fly with him.
 
I once saw a Cirrus taxiing at really loud, high power. I think he left the parking brake on....

I watched another pilot once taxi over a pair of chocks and run the engine to 1800 RPM to "clear the plugs" before shutdown. It did not end well; he didn't see me gesticulating "stop engine" marshalling signals at him (or else he didn't understand it).

I think everyone has tried to tow the airport or turns around a tiedown at one point or another, myself included.
 
Why do I feel like this is some kind a trap? Like Sgt Schultz said, "I know nuthink!" .... ;-)
 
Picked up passengers. Briefed and belted in. Started engine. 4 old guys sitting on FBO porch all shouting and pointing in unison to the chocks still sitting under the nose wheel. Shutdown and send right seat passenger to get the chocks. Passengers were not amused.

<--- this guy.
 
MadseasoN said:
Picked up passengers. Briefed and belted in. Started engine. 4 old guys sitting on FBO porch all shouting and pointing in unison to the chocks still sitting under the nose wheel. Shutdown and send right seat passenger to get the chocks. Passengers were not amused.

<--- this guy.
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Got that T shirt myself. Couple of 'em I think.
 
Me too. Along with leaving my sectionals and coffee on the wing when starting the engine.
 
Tom-D said:
I'll start :
leaving a towbar on a nose wheel then starting the engine.
powering up while blowing on a open hangar.
allowing the aircraft to get away while hand propping.

I know you've got plenty more.
Click to expand...

Yep, and then I taxied to the pumps. Call me stupid and lucky.
 
JonH said:
During PPL training (Pinnacle,KCRQ) I was there to do something besides fly, I can't remember now. I get outside and see two C-152s flipped upside down, where they are usually tied down. There's a bunch of people standing around just staring at these two upside down aircraft. It hadn't quite clicked yet, so I asked someone wtf just happened. They said a jet pilot blasted them while taxiing and flew the little Cessnas like kites before the chains broke loose and they flipped over.

I wish I could find a pic. Walking out of the hangar to see that was one of those times I realized nobody is exempt from screwing up, and I couldn't imagine what the pilot was going through. Luckily the 152s were empty and didn't hit anything.
Click to expand...

Heard a few minutes later "Caution. Wake Turbulence"
 
First night flight with pax and CFI, did a stellar preflight, then inside, testing brakes, upto 1400 rpm, plane wouldn't move, looked to my CFI trying to figure out how well the brakes are holding, he said, good predlight, now shut down the engine and move those chokes

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
I heard that one time, a pilot posted on PoA. What a macaroon.
 
Watched one open the hangar door, start the engine while inside the hangar, complete the run up and then try to drive through the three foot snow drift just outside the hangar. What a moron.
 
Norman said:
Watched a charter pilot with pax aboard fail to start both engines on a 421. He deplaned, told me the problem. You know the rest of the story. Engines run better when the fuel selectors are turned on.
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Just in case anyone saw it... ;) o_O

I did that once in the Seminole, but it was just the instructor and I, and I missed the mags. :) LOL.

We were both having a grand old time practicing our "hot start" techniques and tricks right up until I said, "I bet it'd start if those were on..." pointing at the four mag switches in the off position.

Great day for a P-Lead and battery test!!! haha.
 
Working in my hangar one afternoon, I watched a Cessna with unfaired wheels taxi in, tie down nearby, and the occupants left for a couple of hours. Before they came back, I noticed one of the mains was slowly going flat. By the time the dudes got back, it was totally flat. I waited for them to load up to leave, just to see if they would notice the tire (nope). They didn't do any preflight whatsoever. I didn't have the heart to let them start and try to taxi, so it was then I flagged the pilot down and pointed at the tire. Yes, I helped them fix it.

Taxi up nose-first to the hangar to get out and address a minor MX issue. Get back in plane, start up, and... There really oughta be a reverse gear on small planes.
 
I'm currently reading "Piper Cub Era at Nicolet Airport" by Beverly Butler. There's a lot of crazy stuff in there!
 
watched a part 135 pilot at OKH pull the chocks from a caravan, then watch it roll into the hangar doors. dent still there but the airline is long gone.
 
MAKG1 said:
I once saw a Cirrus taxiing at really loud, high power. I think he left the parking brake on....
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That's actually quite dangerous. I've read an NTSB report where a Cirrus pilot was riding the brakes (or the Cirrus brakes were dragging, I don't remember which), the brakes overheated and the wheel pants caught fire.
 
Tom-D said:
I'll start :
leaving a towbar on a nose wheel then starting the engine.
Click to expand...

I'm that guy, only worse. I once nearly started my Mooney up with my Redline Sidewinder powered tug still attached. (see below) If it weren't for an observant A&P working on his own plane on a tie down waving me off, I would have had a very, very bad day. There was never any danger of me hurting myself, or anyone else as the plane never would have moved a foot. The prop would have hit that machine, damaging the tug, the prop, possibly the nose truss and linkages and maybe requiring an engine tear down.

So of course, most are wondering, how can you possibly miss that thing on the front of your plane?? I don't really know myself, but as I walked the short 15' or so from closing the hangar doors to walking around behind the plane to the passenger side I missed it. Likely thinking ahead to the flight, or who knows, I can't remember. Once you are behind and walking up the right side to board the plane, you can no longer see the tug. Once in the plane from any position you can no longer see the tug.

Fortunately another pilot and plane owner as well as A&P, was watching the dumb ass in motion. He keenly observed be closing up, strapping in, running checklists and finally switching on the beacon and starting the boost pump. At this point he waved me off. I never cranked the engine.

I have since created a new procedure. I open the hangar with my keys (that also have the plane's ignition key attached) and then place the keys in the place where the tug goes when I'm out flying. This requires me to go get the keys when I put the tug away. This system is working well now, but even this took some work to turn into a routine. I was so used to putting the keys back into my pocket, that I really have to work and not doing that.

Anyhow, I'm on the other side of this discussion. My name is Dave and I'm a recovering pilot dumb ass.

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