What was your most embarrasing situation?

Was cleared by ground to taxi to runway 17, got to the parallel taxiway and turned... to a heading of 170... and didn't catch it till all the way down at the runup area. Called tower and said "I'll get it right here in a minute...", they were laughing about it and said "Second time today, don't worry about it."
 
bluefalcon94 said:
Realizing on the taxi out you have a intermittent mike button and being instructed by the DPE after take off that you must call approach and get traffic advisories from approach during your ride. :mad2:
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That happened to me on my private check ride, examiner said no worries I'll handle the radio. He knew the tower guys and they were chatty during the flight, was a bit disconcerting. Tower was calling us c172 heavy, and cracking cg jokes at our expense. The examiner was a big guy.
 
On my check ride I was doing a short field landing. he said no brakes, just looking to see if you can set up correctly. I landed with inches of the solid white line before the numbers, it was perfect. Then I did something I never had done before and since, I locked up the brakes. I didn't have 3 point seat belts at the time, I looked over at the DPE, his head was damn near the dash. When I stopped I asked him should I taxi to brovo or just turn around to alpha since it's so damn close. Somehow he gave me my ticket and I bought two brand new tires.
 
You know, it's pretty hard to get a Mooney moving with chocks still on the nose wheel.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Two.

1. Attempting to taxi over my nose wheel chock to start my Instrument checkride. I recognized it right away and was mortified. DPE just chuckled.

2. An incident in an unfamiliar aircraft telling dirty jokes with one of those trigger style PTT switches that go both away and toward you and a broken intercom VOX that required we manually key the intercom. The last words I said over the air were, "What do you mean, which way am I pushing the switch?" As the Center controller at 2AM hinted (after he'd listened for the better part of twenty minutes to the jokes...), "Stuck mic."

Mortified and at the same time thought... Well it wasn't really stuck...
 
On my first XC solo:

I am getting flight following for the first time, having never needed it during my training. Approach tells a Citation with a similar call sign to climb and maintain 23 thousand. I acknowledge...in a 172...VFR.
 
#1 I get taxi instructions at an unfamiliar, yet pretty straightforward airport to the FBO. I'm going along and see a huge building with the FBO's sign, a fuel truck and some planes parked out front. Naturally, I ASSume this is the place. I shut down, and the line guy says I'm in the wrong place. He tows the plane to the proper location, and I get a ride to the FBO. First question at the counter is (to paraphrase): Are you the idiot who parked your plane in the wrong area? Guilty as charged.

Pretty harmless, but still embarrassing and yet easily avoided by asking for clarification.

#2 More funny than embarrassing: on a checkout flight in a DA40 my CFI and I are heading back in for T&G's. After being prompted for the before landing checklist, I start out with my usual flow as I would do in a Cessna: Me: "fuel's on both" Him: "Like hell it is!" Oops.
 
Bouncing a C152 about 50 feet in the air on landing... turns out there is a reason for a flare.... woops...
 
Amazingly, I actually avoided being embarrased throughout my primary training and beyond... mainly because if nobody sees the boneheaded move I made, it doesn't count as embarrasing. But, I do have one memorable one... This was when I had returned "home" after my first solo XC to OSH and back. I included an airport diagram.

I landed straight in 21 and tower had me turn left on runway 14... which I did. My student pilot mind told me that I should spend as little time as possible on a runway so I kept going and turned left on Charlie, then proceeded to the east ramp for parking. I got a call up from ground and an ass chewing because "you can't just taxi anywhere without clearance"... I sheepishly apologized and talked to my CFI afterwards about it. I don't know that it was that bad of a screw up, but I felt extremely stupid!

madison-diagram-L.jpg
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Amazingly, I actually avoided being embarrased throughout my primary training and beyond... mainly because if nobody sees the boneheaded move I made, it doesn't count as embarrasing. But, I do have one memorable one... This was when I had returned "home" after my first solo XC to OSH and back. I included an airport diagram.

I landed straight in 21 and tower had me turn left on runway 14... which I did. My student pilot mind told me that I should spend as little time as possible on a runway so I kept going and turned left on Charlie, then proceeded to the east ramp for parking. I got a call up from ground and an ass chewing because "you can't just taxi anywhere without clearance"... I sheepishly apologized and talked to my CFI afterwards about it. I don't know that it was that bad of a screw up, but I felt extremely stupid!
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That actually doesn't sound that stupid, I could see many people (not just students) making that mistake. Obviously it was wrong and presumptuous to exit there but if that's where you were headed it seems like it would be extremely unlikely that the tower would have to exit anywhere else. I could see a friendly reminder but an ass chewing seems a little harsh.
 
Hmm. I think my most embarrassing situation was probably on my first dual flight to a towered field. Got to the field just fine, got my landing clearance and taxi instructions, no problem. Get myself to the FBO to hang out for a bit, no problem. Get out to the plane, it fails to start a few times and we have to do a GPU start - okay, no big deal. Grab the ATIS, contact clearance delivery and get my departure instructions, then contact tower for taxi instructions. I'm given a taxiway that's nearby, but right next to an access road.

You can probably guess what happened next.

So I start taxiing, see the sign with my taxiway assignment, and make an immediate turn onto the access road.

I think to myself "this doesn't look like a taxiway, but my instructor hasn't complained yet so I guess I'm doing the right thing?" and keep going. Then my instructor asks me where I am.

"I'm on taxiway X, heading to RWY Y."

Keep on puttering along for a few more seconds and he asks again where I am.

"I'm on taxiway X, heading to RWY Y, aren't I?"

Then tower chimes in, quite irate, asking, effectively, what the hell I'm doing on an access road and to turn around immediately. My instructor gets on and apologizes for me - he wanted to see if I would figure out the error myself, which I didn't, and he was just about to take over before the tower called. Whomp.

From there, they give me progressive taxi instructions and I make it back to my home base where the chief CFI sees us and says "So, XXX tower called us a few minutes ago. Did you learn about progressive taxi and unfamiliar airports on this flight?"

And to top it off, when parking back at the home drome, I was flustered and forgot to turn the master off. Double whomp.

On the plus side, I now a) am super paranoid about taxiing at unfamiliar fields and b) double check that the master is off on shutdown.
 
No c) I'm now more familiar with taxiway markings?

A broken yellow line in the center isn't right….
 
MAKG1 said:
No c) I'm now more familiar with taxiway markings?

A broken yellow line in the center isn't right….
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Well, I figured that c) was obvious... And oddly enough, this access road didn't have a broken yellow line, rather it had a solid white centerline. Regardless, I definitely got more schooling on airport feature identification after that experience. :redface:
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I have also turned the radio down in flight and forgotten. More than once.
The best was when my CFI and I were talking and turned the radio down for a second and forgot.

We were on flight following. Controller was clearly ****ed when we realized the um radio malfunction ;)
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Similar story, I had my wife and her sister on a $100 hamburger run getting flight following and we were all chatting up a storm on the intercom. Center finally reached me when I was something like 30NM past the sector changeover and chewed me out a bit before handing me off. I learned on that trip how to use the ISO function on the audio panel.

Another embarrassing story - I took a couple of guys in a 172 on a Saturday to the aircraft salvage yard at 2M1 and had the place to ourselves. After we were done looking around we got in the plane and back taxied. Even though the runway was 80' wide, when I started turning the plane I was too close to the edge and one of the mains rolled off the edge of the runway and promptly got stuck in mud. So I had to shut down, and it took all three of us to get unstuck. I got club airplane washing duty all to myself.
 
tehmightypirate said:
That actually doesn't sound that stupid, I could see many people (not just students) making that mistake. Obviously it was wrong and presumptuous to exit there but if that's where you were headed it seems like it would be extremely unlikely that the tower would have to exit anywhere else. I could see a friendly reminder but an ass chewing seems a little harsh.
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My take on this is he exited the runway (properly) but without further taxi instructions and failed to stop to obtain a taxi clearance.

At the (sleepy) towered airport I'm based at now, I am always given a "taxi to park, monitor ground .8" as soon as I'm clear so I don't have to stop.
 
Sadly, this is a fresh one. Was out doing ground reference manoeuvres with my CFI this past weekend - we'd been flying for pretty close to three hours before heading back to home base. For some reason, nobody else was out flying on this gorgeous spring day, so we got a relatively rare straight in approach. I pretty much had all day to line up what should've been the smoothest landing in history.

As we crossed the threshold, however, I flared a little bit too nose-high and the airspeed dropped off, so we touched down on the mains with a bit of a thud and the nose gear settled soon after. Not the worst landing in the world but it should've been a lot better given the conditions were basically ideal. I taxied clear of the runway and started the after landing checklist when the plane suddenly listed to one side. I got it back to the tie-down area and sure enough I opened the door to the unmistakeable scent and hissing noise of leaking hydraulic fluid.

Per the mechanic after the fact, the o-rings on the strut were shot and due to give out anyway, but there's nothing like the plane adding its own brand of "helpful commentary" to your landing skills (or lack thereof).
 
iflyvfr said:
My take on this is he exited the runway (properly) but without further taxi instructions and failed to stop to obtain a taxi clearance.

At the (sleepy) towered airport I'm based at now, I am always given a "taxi to park, monitor ground .8" as soon as I'm clear so I don't have to stop.
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You're correct.

Sometimes I'll get a taxi instruction from the tower, other times it will be an "exit here and contact ground"... I think it depends on how busy the tower is.

I was just a student but it was really embarrassing.
 
tomheinan said:
Sadly, this is a fresh one. Was out doing ground reference manoeuvres with my CFI this past weekend - we'd been flying for pretty close to three hours before heading back to home base. For some reason, nobody else was out flying on this gorgeous spring day, so we got a relatively rare straight in approach. I pretty much had all day to line up what should've been the smoothest landing in history.

As we crossed the threshold, however, I flared a little bit too nose-high and the airspeed dropped off, so we touched down on the mains with a bit of a thud and the nose gear settled soon after. Not the worst landing in the world but it should've been a lot better given the conditions were basically ideal. I taxied clear of the runway and started the after landing checklist when the plane suddenly listed to one side. I got it back to the tie-down area and sure enough I opened the door to the unmistakeable scent and hissing noise of leaking hydraulic fluid.

Per the mechanic after the fact, the o-rings on the strut were shot and due to give out anyway, but there's nothing like the plane adding its own brand of "helpful commentary" to your landing skills (or lack thereof).
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I hear you, brother. Returning after my first flight in more than 6 years, the nosewheel went flat during rollout and we had to be towed back to the hangar from the taxiway at a fairly busy Class D. If it was due my landing (I had 3 that day) it certainly wasn't due to my last one, which was pretty smooth. The first landing I had was pretty thuddy though (at another airport) and might have been the culprit. At first we thought the nosewheel strut had collapsed but I found out the next time I flew that it was only the innertube popping. Didn't make me feel any better though. :redface:
 
on my second solo, took off with full flaps in a c172. nose high and refusing to gain speed i panicked and returned to the airport. After midfield downwind noticed flaps were at 30 degrees. Tower: "cessna 388v cleared to land left base for 16r, why are you comng back? me "uuuuuum i forgot i have homework cessna 388v" never forgot flaps again, total hobs time .2
 
My first solo XC I went to a small uncontrolled airport where my mom and grandmother (who paid for my training) lived. Never had landed there before and there were power lines you had to clear and a much shorter runway than I was used to. Did 2 go arounds before I set her down. Taxi'd over and parked and grandma came up and said "it's alright honey you'll get it eventually". I just laughed not really embarrassing I'd rather be safely on the ground than try to be a show off and stick something that didn't feel right.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Amazingly, I actually avoided being embarrased throughout my primary training and beyond... mainly because if nobody sees the boneheaded move I made, it doesn't count as embarrasing. But, I do have one memorable one... This was when I had returned "home" after my first solo XC to OSH and back. I included an airport diagram.

I landed straight in 21 and tower had me turn left on runway 14... which I did. My student pilot mind told me that I should spend as little time as possible on a runway so I kept going and turned left on Charlie, then proceeded to the east ramp for parking. I got a call up from ground and an ass chewing because "you can't just taxi anywhere without clearance"... I sheepishly apologized and talked to my CFI afterwards about it. I don't know that it was that bad of a screw up, but I felt extremely stupid!

madison-diagram-L.jpg
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If tower told you to cross runway 14 via taxiway Charlie then ground shouldn't have had a problem with that. Now if he said turn "left on Charlie, contact ground point nine." Ground will have a problem if you kept going to East Ramp without calling them.
 
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I landed on 32 and was instructed to turn left on 14 and over to ground. That intersection is before Charlie and 32. I can't remember if I switched over to ground, come to think of it maybe I didn't and it was the tower who chewed me.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
I landed on 32 and was instructed to turn left on 14 and over to ground. That intersection is before Charlie and 32. I can't remember if I switched over to ground, come to think of it maybe I didn't and it was the tower who chewed me.
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Ok, I miss read. I thought you were crossing 14 at C. If you taxied onto C without calling ground then yeah that would be a problem. Technically a PD but not worth reporting. I'd take the chewing over a PD any day.
 
Midpoint said:
My first solo XC I went to a small uncontrolled airport where my mom and grandmother (who paid for my training) lived. Never had landed there before and there were power lines you had to clear and a much shorter runway than I was used to. Did 2 go arounds before I set her down. Taxi'd over and parked and grandma came up and said "it's alright honey you'll get it eventually". I just laughed not really embarrassing I'd rather be safely on the ground than try to be a show off and stick something that didn't feel right.
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This speaks volumes about the unspoken expectations for us to make good landings every time, especially when friends\family are watching. You made a great choice.
 
iflyvfr said:
I am always given a "taxi to park, monitor ground .8" as soon as I'm clear so I don't have to stop.
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Same here. I enjoy it.

jetstreamcessna said:
on my second solo, took off with full flaps in a c172. nose high and refusing to gain speed i panicked and returned to the airport. After midfield downwind noticed flaps were at 30 degrees. Tower: "cessna 388v cleared to land left base for 16r, why are you comng back? me "uuuuuum i forgot i have homework cessna 388v" never forgot flaps again, total hobs time .2
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0.2? Let the oil temp rise a bit more next time...

I've had to return to land more than once after the door on the Arrow opened up after takeoff.

Heftiger said:
This speaks volumes about the unspoken expectations for us to make good landings every time, especially when friends\family are watching. You made a great choice.
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I always make great landings the first time.

:no:
 
I have a few.

IFR X/C was a RON in oakland with my cfii and her friend. I preflighted, and proceeded to leave the dipstick on the cowling. When i started up the engine, it blew off, leaving us with a mostly flat battery when i shut down.. almost an hr for the FBO to find a jumpstart cable.

Another was when i was a primary student and on my night X/C. I had just had one of those landings when it seems like the airplane just merely rolled onto the runway, and my CFI had just started complementing me when i decided to stand on the brakes and try and make the first turnoff.. the mighty 152 got quite squirrly, and he had to take over to keep us on the runway.. Asked wtf i was thinking, and i said i wanted that first turnoff really bad. He said there's another 3K feet of runway out in front, why did i want it that bad.. I had no idea.
 
RJM62 said:
Pretty ripe and noisy fart during dual XC.
-Rich
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My buddy tried to ignore his CFI ripping one during training, but it was SO god awful it was impossible ... his CFI recovered by stating," We'll count that as your distraction today." :lol:

The only one I felt stupid on was first flight to Class C with my instructor pretty early on in training. After first TNG and on downwind, tower called up and indicated traffic on final, "we'll call your base" (which was new to me at the time). Instead of responding extending downwind, I responded with "you've got base" which came off sounding like the "got milk" ad. My instructor razzed me about it the rest of the flight.
 
On my tailwheel training, after a particularly bad landing, on a stop and go, had the tower ask me; " Are you okay to continue?" My instructor, the gentleman that he is, said nothing. :redface:
 
...nothing too bad for me thus far. I seem to always forget to pull chocks when I'm parked, especially briefly just picking someone up, at a FBO. I'll even walk the plane and make a mental note to pull them and forget. Pretty embarrassing to get the engine all fired up, push the throttle in and you're stuck in the mud...oops.
 
I don't want to talk about it.

Well, okay here's one that I felt kind of sheepish about: Decades ago, I spent many fun and challenging hours instructing in Citabrias. After having had a long, insightful conversation with and old sage of an instructor - about WHEN one knows their student is really ready to solo, the instructor's counsel was, in effect if I was confident enough in my student's ability that I could just sit in the back of the airplane, with my hand covering my eyes - while said student performed a couple touch and goes, well, they're ready.
The Citabria in question had only a simply navcom on the panel and an intercom which required depressing a button on the stick. There was a red toggle switch on the speaker above the door, that selected whether the stick button either transmitted on the radio or was just conversation between the student and I. You can probably see where this is going, but the long and short of it was that after observing my rather gifted student fly the airplane with such precision, I recounted the recent conversation with my mentor instructor, and I basically told her that, for the next few landings I will be just sitting back here, eyes all covered up, so if she screwed up I'd have to cancel out on my Great Lakes student at noon, so, for goodness sake, be careful! I really blathered on about my being truly helpless back here, so, whatever happens, bla bla bla.
It wasn't until after she made a nice full stop landing and pulled over to the shoulder of the runway so I could sign her off, that the controller asked if me eyes were uncovered yet...How embarrassing.
 
Fortunately for me mine both happened as a 16-year-old student pilot in a C150 (many years ago).

I was doing solo touch-and-goes and on my 3rd or 4th one on the downwind I reached for the carb heat but instead grabbed the mixture knob (they were both black) and killed the engine. Fortunately it fired right back up after I realized what I had done, but I made it my last one for the day.

On another solo flight I decided to practice a soft-field takeoff. I heard a very quiet scraping sound for a few seconds before the plane lifted off. Later, when I tried to tie down the tail, I couldn't because the tie-down hook was bent sideways.

This one wasn't me in the airplane, but I was working in the tower and a student pilot on his first solo flight in a C172 veered off the runway on his first landing. Fortunately the area between the runway and parallel taxiway and ramp was paved, and he didn't hit anything. The instructor ran across the ramp and they talked for a half hour right where the airplane stopped, angled across 2 parking spots.
 
I had a slightly embarrassing situation happen on my short solo xc the other day. I flew from LRO over JZI to RBW where I landed and closed my first flight plan on the phone after shutdown. Coming back I was going to do a few landings at JZI and my flight plan was ending there. I wasn't going to shutdown so I decided to try out the nifty Bluetooth feature on my Zulus. I was all alone on the taxi way so I called wxbrief. After a longer than usual time to actually get someone, another plane had joined me on the taxi way. I could tell he was ready to go so I gave him the go ahead to take off before me. Meanwhile the briefer had finally picked up and I could tell he was getting frustrated because nobody (me) was responding to him. My headset finally let me talk to him and I closed the plan. When he confirmed it, the other pilot thanked me which cut out the briefer. He kept repeating himself asking if I was there in a short tone. Whoops. Lesson learned don't call up wxbrief on Bluetooth while also on the radio.
 
I'd bet in the 25 years of flying, I've made most of these once (or twice). Too old to be embarrassed by them and too old to learn from them all.
I do however, have a helicopter unique one. Student pilot flying with my CFI last year, landing at KBOS for a FAA STEM Expo, cleared for landing at the intersection of taxiway ALPHA and Lima. Not only did I miss ALPHA and LIMA, but made it all the way to BRAVO and Xray. My poor excuse was a left quartering tailwind. The controller was nice enough to give me a pass (after a minor complaint).
The instructor didn't need to say a thing. I knew where I was.
That was April 2013 where the day was 20, the morning "breeze" was 300 @ 15 Gusts to 21, and the pilots door was back in the shop. Much better was when we left where it had warmed to 25, was 330 @ 25 with gusts to 33. I wisely let the CFI fly the home route. It did give me this picture.
 

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