It's never too late to go around!
What's your 'student-pilot-time' horror story?
- Thread starter JamesDoolittle
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Fredbob711
Pre-takeoff checklist
True, and I want to say I considered it in the split second I had, but I honestly don't remember. It probably would have been advisable, but at the same time with how quickly the weather was changing my next attempt could have been just as bad if not worse.
Definitely something to learn from and keep in mind.
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Bob Noel
I don't believe that is true. If you can't outclimb the obstacle(s) off the departure end of the runway, you are going to hit something. I'd rather run off the end of the runway at 20mph than smash into the trees at 60mph.
I guess it depends on the situation. The poster above said he 30 degrees crooked off of the runway. If he stayed that way he would have side loaded the plane and probably flipped over. If there were no obstacle I definitely would have gone around
Warrior
Line Up and Wait
Many years ago when Page Field KFMY was the commercial landing airport I got told to watch for jet traffic as I approached the field on a solo cross country. That got me a little rattled so when they told me which runway to land on I didn't pay a lot of attention, I just used the one that the 727 had used. That wasn't the runway that ATC told me to use. I found out about my error after touchdown and decided to cuss into the microphone to add to the wrongdoing.
Thankfully the powers that be didn't follow up my misdeeds with any punishment and I flew out of there back to my home of KTMB later.
Thankfully the powers that be didn't follow up my misdeeds with any punishment and I flew out of there back to my home of KTMB later.
asechrest
En-Route
Early on in my solo training time, I came in for a landing (probably way too fast), "gave up" on holding it off, and had my first porpoising episode. I was well aware that this was a bad thing, and on the third bounce I fire-walled it to go around. I was pretty shaken up and so I failed to retract my flaps and for a moment couldn't figure out why my climb was so anemic. During the next lap in the pattern my knees were shaking and when I came in for the next landing I bounced it again, but not to the same extent and managed to get it under control at the second bounce. That scared me quite a bit since it was my first episode. I went on to learn what most student pilots eventually learn: speed control and energy management are king during landing.
On my first stage check with the chief flight instructor, we had a plane fail to vacate the runway and I had a go-around, and then on the next attempt we had a breaker pop and had to do a no-flap landing.
Those were my worst. I also had an interesting thing happen during training:
On another training flight a short hop from our towered field to an untowered field, we landed and were taxiing back toward the runway when airplane parts started raining down about 50 feet in front of us. The light sport that departed after we landed had failed to latch their canopy and it blew off and broke apart over the taxiway. He brought it around safely but the folks with him who were watching from the ground ran out to the taxiway and were quite concerned.
Oh, and as for planes landing on top of other planes, here's another data point in my local area.
On my first stage check with the chief flight instructor, we had a plane fail to vacate the runway and I had a go-around, and then on the next attempt we had a breaker pop and had to do a no-flap landing.
Those were my worst. I also had an interesting thing happen during training:
On another training flight a short hop from our towered field to an untowered field, we landed and were taxiing back toward the runway when airplane parts started raining down about 50 feet in front of us. The light sport that departed after we landed had failed to latch their canopy and it blew off and broke apart over the taxiway. He brought it around safely but the folks with him who were watching from the ground ran out to the taxiway and were quite concerned.
Oh, and as for planes landing on top of other planes, here's another data point in my local area.
B17Rex
Pre-takeoff checklist
About 7 hours in, my co worker rode along with my instructor and I (he had taken lessons 20 years ago and was interested in getting back into it). We took off from KMYF, turned for a right downwind departure. As soon as I rolled out of my turn into downwind, I look over and there is a Blackhawk crossing the field at my altitude. Tower comes on right then and warns us about it, my instructor immediately grabbed the controls, continued to climb and turned inside of the helo. We crossed so close, I could see the door gunners face rather clearly. At the time, I didn't have a solid understanding of wake turbulence, but especially now after seeing that video of the Cirrus flipping on landing, much more respect for the military helos!
On that same flight, we were attempting to land at Ramona, only on VERY short final we were called off due to a fire fighting plane needing to takeoff due to a real fire. Then both the tower and the plane behind us lost track of us, which gave me a very scary feeling.
-Brian
On that same flight, we were attempting to land at Ramona, only on VERY short final we were called off due to a fire fighting plane needing to takeoff due to a real fire. Then both the tower and the plane behind us lost track of us, which gave me a very scary feeling.
-Brian
Ventucky Red
Pattern Altitude
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Jon
My horror story...... My instructor forgot to take his Beano on a very cold January day...
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MAKG1
Touchdown! Greaser!
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MAKG
Just wait until you start taking some mountain training.
And what kind of "very cold" day could you possibly have in Ventura?
Ventucky Red
Pattern Altitude
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Jon
I am from/learned to fly Southeastern Pennsylvania... I believe it was like 15 degree on the surface that day...
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DesertNomad
Pattern Altitude
On my second cross country solo it was cold enough to move an airport at 4308' MSL to a density altitude of -1600'. Way below zero outside.
JasonM
Pattern Altitude
I had spent countless hours planning my first amazing 160 nm solo XC journey to 2 new airports in a cessna 172. With a whopping 36 hours under my belt, I knew everything about the weather and flying right?. I was about to be a pilot soon after all.
Well, I land at my second airport for the day "knowing" the weather will be and was fine. I get out, stretch my legs, use the bathroom, then hop in the airplane, taxi, then contact tower telling them I am ready at the runway. The entire time not focusing on the sky at all.
Tower says (in a what the hell are you thinking tone) : "Cleared for takeoff, Immediate right turn out approved"
I responded with all that stuff (thinking why the hell did he say immediate right turnout?), I looked left for any incoming traffic on final (great looking weather out there) and took the runway. I was totally not focusing on the sky down the runway. As I power up to full power and my focus goes from the runway in front of me to the end I see this crazy dark line of rain creep onto the end of the runway. This was a small but very strong little storm cell.
I take off thinking it is far enough away to beat it out and as soon as I am about 10 feet in the air I got rocked by a very strong wind sheer from this storm. My climb rate felt like nothing. I immediately at low alt turned right away from the storm, but was fighting the downdrafts and then the heavy rain and lightening within seconds. I just did whatever I could do to keep the airplane flying and eventually outrun the storm.
That was and still is the most scared I have been in a small airplane. I have since learned a lot more about and gained a lot of respect for the weather, but most importantly I look at the sky and where I am heading before taking a runway.
Well, I land at my second airport for the day "knowing" the weather will be and was fine. I get out, stretch my legs, use the bathroom, then hop in the airplane, taxi, then contact tower telling them I am ready at the runway. The entire time not focusing on the sky at all.
Tower says (in a what the hell are you thinking tone) : "Cleared for takeoff, Immediate right turn out approved"
I responded with all that stuff (thinking why the hell did he say immediate right turnout?), I looked left for any incoming traffic on final (great looking weather out there) and took the runway. I was totally not focusing on the sky down the runway. As I power up to full power and my focus goes from the runway in front of me to the end I see this crazy dark line of rain creep onto the end of the runway. This was a small but very strong little storm cell.
I take off thinking it is far enough away to beat it out and as soon as I am about 10 feet in the air I got rocked by a very strong wind sheer from this storm. My climb rate felt like nothing. I immediately at low alt turned right away from the storm, but was fighting the downdrafts and then the heavy rain and lightening within seconds. I just did whatever I could do to keep the airplane flying and eventually outrun the storm.
That was and still is the most scared I have been in a small airplane. I have since learned a lot more about and gained a lot of respect for the weather, but most importantly I look at the sky and where I am heading before taking a runway.
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red4golf
Line Up and Wait
Departing from Merrill Field (PAMR) in Alaska the tower said something like "N12345, you are trailing something that looks like smoke or fuel. Say intentions".
The oil filter wasn't secured properly during the oil change that morning and it was dripping on the exhaust as well as being pumped overboard.
The oil filter wasn't secured properly during the oil change that morning and it was dripping on the exhaust as well as being pumped overboard.
woodchucker
Pattern Altitude
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lol.... something like this happened to me. I needed a bare minimum to complete for my xc solo hours, and I came up just shy. Keep in mind this is B airspace. I taxied towards the parking area... really not sure what to do. Finally called up the cajones to go back to ground and request one more lap around the pattern "for practice" (I actually told the controller that). Granted, and got my Hobbes to where it needed to be.... barely. I don't know if it technically met the requirements, but whatever.
Kritchlow
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Kritchlow
I love that story!
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
I always make sure I get a private pilot candidate student lost during their training to see what they do. By that point I've given them all the tools they need to figure out where they're at. Some people figure it out in .1 others fly around for about a hour and a half ****ed off that I won't tell them where we are. Last guy that did that finally realized he could just read the water tower in a small town to find his location. He later appreciated the lesson.
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jsstevens
Interesting. My primary instructor tried to do this with me at night. But I've lived in this area all my life. I told him where we were and he wanted to know how I knew, so I told him (by identifying the only lighted bridge for miles). He made some good natured crack about me not being any fun. I didn't realize this might be a specific attempt to stress me.
To be fair, I live in central Florida and one pilot friend who grew up and learned to fly in Oklahoma claimed Florida pilots should have "Can't navigate" stamped on their certificates because if you climb and fly east or west you're going to find one coast or the other in fairly short order.
John
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
It'd be harder to do around here at night because both Omaha and Lincoln are easily seen for quite some distance.
During the day I achieve it pretty easily by putting them under a hood and knocking out a good 45 minutes or so of hood training while I have them do various things. Under the hood they typically lose situational awareness.
I'll eventually "vector" them to about 500 AGL maybe 25 miles from Lincoln. I'll tell them hood up and take me home. I do it so low so there is nothing obvious around them other than corn fields. I'll also "fail" the VOR and GPS if equipped. Most people will climb, get a look around, and start to figure it out. Some buzz around at 500 ft for awhile and eventually read a water tower. Other's just panic.
Either way the purpose of the exercise is to give them the tools to navigate by looking out the window and at a map from an unknown location. The reason for that? Because I know damn well once they get their private the map will never come out of the flight bag and they'll follow the magenta line all over. The day that magenta line quits working, they'll remember back to the day in training that was the same scenario and they'll utilize the tools they learned with me to figure out where the hell they are and get home. Will that day ever happen to them? Who knows. But these are the things I do to keep my students out of NTSB reports.
My worst fear as an instructor is to have someone I taught crash in a fatal accident and then have to read the NTSB report and question if there was something I failed to teach them that lead to their demise. I don't want that to ever happen...so I have "things" I do that aren't really in the PTS but help me sleep at night and make them a better pilot.
I posted this another thread a while back. My dad and I were doing some unsual attitudes and basic instrument flying over the LI sound. While I had my head down he flipped the DG 180 degrees. LI became Connecticut and Connecticut became LI. When we were done he said let's go back home. I was so confused and didn't know which way was home! After a few kinutes passed he said look at your DG and compass. I'll make sure to use this on my future students.
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
Had a student yesterday forget to retract the 40 degrees of flaps on a touch and go. I thought for a few seconds as to if I should tell him, and chose not to, I don't think he'll make that mistake again.
BigBadLou
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Lou
Not a horror story here (sorry, don't have one - haven't flown long enough, obviously ) but maybe a learning story will do.
Doing some slow stalls high up with the CFI one day, he says "okay, clean up and climb back up". I add full power, check the mixture, slowly drop the flap handle to gain speed and climb and the Cherokee is still climbing very slowly. I said "something ain't right". He asks "what do you mean"? "She is pretty anemic", I said. He commented that we're at 3,000', I tell him "she should still climb better than this". He asks "how do you know?". I tell him "I know, I've been flying her for months, this doesn't feel right". He just shakes his head.
So I start checking everything and find the Carb Heat handle in the On position. I pull it back up to Off (don't ask, it's a Piper thing) and she immediately livens up, climbing much better (considering the 6,000' DA). I ask my CFI "did you put the carb heat on?". "Yup", he answers. "Without telling me?" "Standard procedure". I said "only if required and it is not humid today, please don't touch my airplane".
Later, on the ground, I apologized because I realized I must have sounded impolite. He said it was alright and I was right to not wanting anything touched in my cockpit. I don't think the CFI did it on purpose to confuse me or test me. And even if he did, it is great training.
I was proud (as a student) that not only I could feel the problem but I could also troubleshoot it and find the cause.
Oh the good ol' days of student training, how I miss those. And my cool CFI.
) but maybe a learning story will do.Doing some slow stalls high up with the CFI one day, he says "okay, clean up and climb back up". I add full power, check the mixture, slowly drop the flap handle to gain speed and climb and the Cherokee is still climbing very slowly. I said "something ain't right". He asks "what do you mean"? "She is pretty anemic", I said. He commented that we're at 3,000', I tell him "she should still climb better than this". He asks "how do you know?". I tell him "I know, I've been flying her for months, this doesn't feel right". He just shakes his head.
So I start checking everything and find the Carb Heat handle in the On position. I pull it back up to Off (don't ask, it's a Piper thing) and she immediately livens up, climbing much better (considering the 6,000' DA). I ask my CFI "did you put the carb heat on?". "Yup", he answers. "Without telling me?" "Standard procedure". I said "only if required and it is not humid today, please don't touch my airplane".
Later, on the ground, I apologized because I realized I must have sounded impolite. He said it was alright and I was right to not wanting anything touched in my cockpit. I don't think the CFI did it on purpose to confuse me or test me. And even if he did, it is great training.
I was proud (as a student) that not only I could feel the problem but I could also troubleshoot it and find the cause.
Oh the good ol' days of student training, how I miss those. And my cool CFI.
Zeldman
Touchdown! Greaser!
Not my horror story but someone elses.
I was scheduled to take my multi-commercial checkride. Nervous as all get out. The examiner approached me with a person that look more stressed than me. The examiner (I had done all my previous checkrides with him) asked me if it was possible for me to give my scheduled time to this other pilot because he wants to do his ATP ride and has a flight out a couple hours later. Sure, no problem. I'll be back in a couple hours.
A couple hours later I showed up. I asked the counter person for the flight can for the plane I will be using. He looked at me with a strange look. He asked me if I had heard.
No, I haven't heard. Ok, well it turns out that during the simulated single engine approach, the running engine tossed a rod out the side of the case. They just barely made the runway, hitting the gear hard.
I was wondering if the examiner would be ready to go out again when I suddenly smelled bourbon in the air. I turned to see my examiner walking towards me. He just said we will schedule your checkride for later and then left.
It didn't hit me until I was almost back at my shack that if I had done the checkride instead of giving my time to another pilot then that engine would have let go while I was flying it.
And he passed his ATP Checkride with some exciting memories.
I was scheduled to take my multi-commercial checkride. Nervous as all get out. The examiner approached me with a person that look more stressed than me. The examiner (I had done all my previous checkrides with him) asked me if it was possible for me to give my scheduled time to this other pilot because he wants to do his ATP ride and has a flight out a couple hours later. Sure, no problem. I'll be back in a couple hours.
A couple hours later I showed up. I asked the counter person for the flight can for the plane I will be using. He looked at me with a strange look. He asked me if I had heard.
No, I haven't heard. Ok, well it turns out that during the simulated single engine approach, the running engine tossed a rod out the side of the case. They just barely made the runway, hitting the gear hard.
I was wondering if the examiner would be ready to go out again when I suddenly smelled bourbon in the air. I turned to see my examiner walking towards me. He just said we will schedule your checkride for later and then left.
It didn't hit me until I was almost back at my shack that if I had done the checkride instead of giving my time to another pilot then that engine would have let go while I was flying it.
And he passed his ATP Checkride with some exciting memories.
ScottK
Pre-takeoff checklist
My instructor took advantage of a recent snowfall to test my ability to figure out where I was. Everything looked alike. Even the major checkpoint at the practice area (huge warehouse with white roof) was tough to pick up. I cross checked a couple VORs and was actually surprised at where we were. I was off by about 10 miles in my head.
And I agree...every student should have to do that during training.
ScottK
Pre-takeoff checklist
Closest thing to a horror story I had was having the runway lights go out on me at night on short final.
We had climbed higher than usual because my instructor was fond of height at night. More time/more options. Anyway, as we approached from the SW, the runway lights were on. We crossed over midfield and 360'd into the pattern for RW 7. I set up for the approach and was stable on a very short final when the lights went out. I hadn't even considered recycling them. As it turns out, it was SKC and a full moon night. Even without the lights, I could still see the runway. I made a decent landing and taxied off. I attempted to turn the lights on before touching down, but I think I was clicking too quickly.
Looking back, in the same situation now, I'd go around, get in the air, turn on the lights and settle things down. Either way, it was a great lesson. I haven't forgotten to recycle the lights since.
We had climbed higher than usual because my instructor was fond of height at night. More time/more options. Anyway, as we approached from the SW, the runway lights were on. We crossed over midfield and 360'd into the pattern for RW 7. I set up for the approach and was stable on a very short final when the lights went out. I hadn't even considered recycling them. As it turns out, it was SKC and a full moon night. Even without the lights, I could still see the runway. I made a decent landing and taxied off. I attempted to turn the lights on before touching down, but I think I was clicking too quickly.
Looking back, in the same situation now, I'd go around, get in the air, turn on the lights and settle things down. Either way, it was a great lesson. I haven't forgotten to recycle the lights since.
danhagan
En-Route
You're very lucky and probably emptied your luck bucket into your experience bucket in one run
We had two guys in a Husky take off at an airshow here about 7 years ago and run into the only rain shaft from a single cloud in the area at the end of the runway... it was so forceful they were immediately forced into the ground just after the departure end after take off
Sound like you're a good CFI Jesse ...
Well my experiences were not as wild as most of what I've read here so far, but..
My first CFI was giving me way too much help on the controls in my early training, he was putting in some control pressure on every landing. He also taught me to fly the pattern in a very step by step manner rather than rolling with the changing conditions. The result was, while I knew pretty much how to land I couldn't really handle crosswinds or gusty conditions at all.
On my first solo, 3 in the pattern, I skidded a little sideways on each touchdown. Felt very uncomfortable. Told him this, he said "well it looked good from here". Given the runway length, he was over a mile away from my touchdown point in the FBO. I don't know how he'd have seen it.
Probably a month or so later I'd purchased my Archer and was flying out to meet my instructor at another airport. IIRC, 10kts of crosswind at this other airport. I managed to get into the downwind, turn base, turn final... putting all my flaps in and everything. Had my airspeed in... a tad fast but good enough. I was having all sorts of trouble lining up with the runway though. I knew what to do by wrote... ailerons into the wind, opposite rudder. I was doing that, but I didn't have the right coordination to make it work right at the time. The whole landing is a blur but I remember crossing the runway threshold in a crab, jamming hard on the rudder to straighten myself out just before touchdown, and thinking I was going off the runway into the grass... which I did not but damned close. Again instructor not too concerned and by the time we went back up and tried a landing there was very little wind and he didn't see what I was so worried about.
I was afraid to go practice in just about any wind over 10kts... even more/less down the runway at that point. Fortunately I finished with a different CFI who drilled me hard on crosswinds and now I'm pretty ok with them.
Only other excitement was on my 2nd cross-country my attitude indicator quit. Pretty much a non-event in the end but still...
My first CFI was giving me way too much help on the controls in my early training, he was putting in some control pressure on every landing. He also taught me to fly the pattern in a very step by step manner rather than rolling with the changing conditions. The result was, while I knew pretty much how to land I couldn't really handle crosswinds or gusty conditions at all.
On my first solo, 3 in the pattern, I skidded a little sideways on each touchdown. Felt very uncomfortable. Told him this, he said "well it looked good from here". Given the runway length, he was over a mile away from my touchdown point in the FBO. I don't know how he'd have seen it.
Probably a month or so later I'd purchased my Archer and was flying out to meet my instructor at another airport. IIRC, 10kts of crosswind at this other airport. I managed to get into the downwind, turn base, turn final... putting all my flaps in and everything. Had my airspeed in... a tad fast but good enough. I was having all sorts of trouble lining up with the runway though. I knew what to do by wrote... ailerons into the wind, opposite rudder. I was doing that, but I didn't have the right coordination to make it work right at the time. The whole landing is a blur but I remember crossing the runway threshold in a crab, jamming hard on the rudder to straighten myself out just before touchdown, and thinking I was going off the runway into the grass... which I did not but damned close. Again instructor not too concerned and by the time we went back up and tried a landing there was very little wind and he didn't see what I was so worried about.
I was afraid to go practice in just about any wind over 10kts... even more/less down the runway at that point. Fortunately I finished with a different CFI who drilled me hard on crosswinds and now I'm pretty ok with them.
Only other excitement was on my 2nd cross-country my attitude indicator quit. Pretty much a non-event in the end but still...
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jsstevens
On my 2nd or 3rd instructional flight we were headed out to the practice area and I noticed the alternator light was on. I pointed it out to the instructor. He said "We'll have plenty of battery to get back." and turned off the master. I knew about magnetos so I wasn't worried about the engine quitting. I thought it was odd and not something I'd have done, but he's got 60 years and 9000+ hours so, OK. We went out and did ground reference maneuvers, steep turns (I think) and stalls. We headed back in and he turned the master back on, and everything came back. He called in and we went in a landed without mishap. On reflection, we were in the mode C view around KMCO the whole flight and nobody said anything about the transponder being off for 45 minutes. Hmmm. Never wondered about that until just now.
John
John
asechrest
En-Route
I forgot one of mine. During my night dual cross country with my instructor, we were arriving at KVNC (Venice, FL) on an evening that was not ideal; we'd been dodging some clouds to stay VFR. We clicked the airport lights on and I made a first approach to the runway and was high and fast. I opted to go around and as I am on the upwind I look back toward the airport and I see nothing but black. The lights have prematurely gone off. I have a moment of disorientation because it doesn't immediately occur to me that the lights have gone off and I just think that I've simply lost track of where I am. I was actually real confused for a moment. I say to my instructor, "where's the airport"? She glances back and doesn't see it either, but recognizes the lights have gone off. She asks me to start trying to click the lights on again, and so start working the PTT switch to get them back on.
At this point, I'm sort of half-assing my pattern because I am unfamiliar with the area, I am preoccupied with the lights, and it is unclear to me if we'll even be attempting another approach. After a bit of time I realize I have been neglecting my focus on flying the plane and look down to see my speed decaying through 65 knots and continuing, which is around my target final approach speed and here I am in the middle of the pattern. What I had done is pull the power back to level off at pattern altitude (and had pulled a bit more power than usual in some off-hand thought that I'd want to fly a slower pattern to give myself time to figure the lights out), and then unconsciously continued to apply back-pressure and allow my speed to decay while I was preoccupied with the airport lights.
I caught it and corrected it. No, death was not imminent. But it startled me because at that moment I understood how "flying the plane" can be so easily pushed to the side if you do not remain vigilant. I thought about that moment quite a bit during my training.
It was also a good lesson about how disorienting an event can be, especially at night, when your brain fully expects to see one thing and your eyes fail to deliver what it expects. Something about that airport being there one moment, and then disappearing into a black abyss the next, really disoriented me for a moment.
Good lessons throughout that flight.
At this point, I'm sort of half-assing my pattern because I am unfamiliar with the area, I am preoccupied with the lights, and it is unclear to me if we'll even be attempting another approach. After a bit of time I realize I have been neglecting my focus on flying the plane and look down to see my speed decaying through 65 knots and continuing, which is around my target final approach speed and here I am in the middle of the pattern. What I had done is pull the power back to level off at pattern altitude (and had pulled a bit more power than usual in some off-hand thought that I'd want to fly a slower pattern to give myself time to figure the lights out), and then unconsciously continued to apply back-pressure and allow my speed to decay while I was preoccupied with the airport lights.
I caught it and corrected it. No, death was not imminent. But it startled me because at that moment I understood how "flying the plane" can be so easily pushed to the side if you do not remain vigilant. I thought about that moment quite a bit during my training.
It was also a good lesson about how disorienting an event can be, especially at night, when your brain fully expects to see one thing and your eyes fail to deliver what it expects. Something about that airport being there one moment, and then disappearing into a black abyss the next, really disoriented me for a moment.
Good lessons throughout that flight.
The day before my checkride my cfi and I were going to practice all the maneuvers once again, I was just borderline enough hours to take the test.
The ceiling was overcast around 4000ft with the tops about 6000-6500. My CFI wanted to do them all again since we had only done them a couple times before, once about my 3rd lesson or so and again a couple weeks prior to this and so we found a hole in the clouds to climb up to about 8000ft in his Cessna 152. The hole in the cloud was probably not quite VFR minimums but we alerted the control tower and they were keeping an eye on us. It seemed to take us forever to climb up there and that was the first time I had ever been on top of the clouds in a GA airplane.
That was the first and only time I have been terrified in an airplane!! Not being able to see the ground was bad enough for me but doing stalls and unusual attitude recoveries up there was scary for me. My instructor had to keep telling me to take my arm off the A-pillar, I was keeping it there to keep me from falling out, haha.
I realize there probably was no reason to be scared like that it was just such a new experience for me and falling out of the sky towards the clouds a 1000ft below wasn't my idea of a good time.
The ceiling was overcast around 4000ft with the tops about 6000-6500. My CFI wanted to do them all again since we had only done them a couple times before, once about my 3rd lesson or so and again a couple weeks prior to this and so we found a hole in the clouds to climb up to about 8000ft in his Cessna 152. The hole in the cloud was probably not quite VFR minimums but we alerted the control tower and they were keeping an eye on us. It seemed to take us forever to climb up there and that was the first time I had ever been on top of the clouds in a GA airplane.
That was the first and only time I have been terrified in an airplane!! Not being able to see the ground was bad enough for me but doing stalls and unusual attitude recoveries up there was scary for me. My instructor had to keep telling me to take my arm off the A-pillar, I was keeping it there to keep me from falling out, haha.
I realize there probably was no reason to be scared like that it was just such a new experience for me and falling out of the sky towards the clouds a 1000ft below wasn't my idea of a good time.
deyoung
Line Up and Wait
Mine is pretty tame compared to some here, but still definitely a learning experience. It was actually after I passed my PPL checkride, but not by much, and in retrospect I still didn't have much idea what I was doing.
I was renting a 172 to go out and just fly for fun, and at this point I had almost all of my maybe 50 hours in a Cherokee 160, so I was not very familiar with the airplane. I came in to land at an unfamiliar airport, and it was bumpy and a little windy; not much, really, but at the time enough to make me a little uncomfortable.
I flew the pattern on the high side and didn't get power out soon enough at all, and ended up significantly high on final. I can get down there... and I did, but I touched down WAY fast, and quite a bit harder than I meant to. I didn't porpoise, at least, but the airplane had that really uncomfortable skidding feel and was hard to control on the rollout, and I finally decided to put all the throttle back in and get back in the air.
It popped back into the air immediately and easily, another clue (in retrospect) that I'd been WAAAY too fast.
Some more lesson time helped me refine what I was doing wrong, and that not-really-in-control feeling while rolling too fast on the runway is not something I'll forget soon. Looking back, I had a tendency to land fast in general then, and I think it was partly a subconscious response to all the "don't stall near the ground" material you see. It took more hours and more experience to put the bigger picture together.
I was renting a 172 to go out and just fly for fun, and at this point I had almost all of my maybe 50 hours in a Cherokee 160, so I was not very familiar with the airplane. I came in to land at an unfamiliar airport, and it was bumpy and a little windy; not much, really, but at the time enough to make me a little uncomfortable.
I flew the pattern on the high side and didn't get power out soon enough at all, and ended up significantly high on final. I can get down there... and I did, but I touched down WAY fast, and quite a bit harder than I meant to. I didn't porpoise, at least, but the airplane had that really uncomfortable skidding feel and was hard to control on the rollout, and I finally decided to put all the throttle back in and get back in the air.
It popped back into the air immediately and easily, another clue (in retrospect) that I'd been WAAAY too fast.
Some more lesson time helped me refine what I was doing wrong, and that not-really-in-control feeling while rolling too fast on the runway is not something I'll forget soon. Looking back, I had a tendency to land fast in general then, and I think it was partly a subconscious response to all the "don't stall near the ground" material you see. It took more hours and more experience to put the bigger picture together.
How did you do ground rerence maneuvers if you were on top? 4000 feet is more than enough to do every maneuver.
We did ground reference underneath.
My semantics were off on the cloud level, I was saying that was the altitude not AGL. Our field elevation is around 1700 so the clouds were only about 2300AGL, take off the 500 for VFR that's 1800. I believe to do maneuvers you are supposed to be at least 3500AGL.
Edit: Up above the clouds we did slow flight, the various stalls, UAR and refreshed on how to set up for each.
Gotcha.
rightseatguy
Filing Flight Plan
I was working on my commercial, flying a Cutlass (172RG) in the pattern at a class D airport with my instructor. The flight school manager was in another airplane in the pattern working with a different student, following us around. We had already landed a couple of times, and were turning onto final when I went through my final checks and verified everything was in order. As I was entering my flare, the flight school manager radios ME in a panic and says "Is your gear down?!?" I just about had a heart attack as I looked at the indicator showing me green, and instantly radioed back saying "yes it is" WHILE touching down safely on the runway (I should of concentrated on the landing then radioed, but hindsight and all...). After we were down I looked out the window and verified that I could see the wheel (I knew it was ok because we were rolling on it, but had to look anyway). Stole a glance from my instructor and she was just as agitated as I was, then we were cleared to parking and taxied back without incident. On the way back the tower radioed the other airplane and said they thought my gear was up initially when we had turned onto base, but then could see the wheels were down so they didn't mention anything.
The other airplane did another lap around the pattern then followed us back in. After the debrief with my instructor I looked at the owner and said she scared the pants off of me when she called. She replied "well when you radioed back you sounded very calm"... Sheesh!
The other airplane did another lap around the pattern then followed us back in. After the debrief with my instructor I looked at the owner and said she scared the pants off of me when she called. She replied "well when you radioed back you sounded very calm"... Sheesh!
Shawn
En-Route
Just after my solo I was doing T&G's with my CFI.
Full flaps...touchdown...flaps up...full power...rotate...UHHHHHHHHH...I know I am new but something is not feeling right. Scan everything...check...crap...not climbing like it should...UH OH!
Scan again and look again at the flap lever. Lever is up at zero...but the indicator is still down at 30 degrees! Look out the window...yup...flaps are still down! Lower back down and raise it up...flaps engage and come up...heartbeat goes down.
Meanwhile my CFI is looking aimlessly out the window and looks over and asks "what was what all about?"
"You're f%$king plane is broke!"
On my first solo XC I got outta the plane at my first destination and slightly pulled the mic cable out. Got back in the plane to depart and contact ground...nothing. Took about 15 min of troubleshooting followed by a "DUMBA$$" face palm to get that figured out!
On my second solo XC I was flying a G1000 and the autopilot locked up and would not disengage. Had to pull the breaker to reset the AP.
First time my ANR batteries ever failed was on short final during training. Everything got REALLY loud all of the sudden and that thew me for a loop to figure out what was happening...while crossing the threshold!
After all that my CFI said "well, you have malfunction trouble shooting down"!
Full flaps...touchdown...flaps up...full power...rotate...UHHHHHHHHH...I know I am new but something is not feeling right. Scan everything...check...crap...not climbing like it should...UH OH!
Scan again and look again at the flap lever. Lever is up at zero...but the indicator is still down at 30 degrees! Look out the window...yup...flaps are still down! Lower back down and raise it up...flaps engage and come up...heartbeat goes down.
Meanwhile my CFI is looking aimlessly out the window and looks over and asks "what was what all about?"
"You're f%$king plane is broke!"
On my first solo XC I got outta the plane at my first destination and slightly pulled the mic cable out. Got back in the plane to depart and contact ground...nothing. Took about 15 min of troubleshooting followed by a "DUMBA$$" face palm to get that figured out!
On my second solo XC I was flying a G1000 and the autopilot locked up and would not disengage. Had to pull the breaker to reset the AP.
First time my ANR batteries ever failed was on short final during training. Everything got REALLY loud all of the sudden and that thew me for a loop to figure out what was happening...while crossing the threshold!
After all that my CFI said "well, you have malfunction trouble shooting down"!
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woodchucker
Pattern Altitude
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woodchucker
Thinking back, I've never really had *that moment*, but I have had what could have been, but it was long before I was a pilot. When I was 15, my dad took me along on one of his flights. He used to fly freight in a large twin turboprop for a company in Michigan (not sure what exactly he flew but something that looked like maybe a DC3). It was a round robin flight, two stops and rtb. Anyways, on taxiing for initial departure, nearing the runway, he used the brakes to help with the turn. The plane did at least a 180 spinning around. I suppose one of the brakes had failed. On the way back to the hangar he casually mentioned something along the lines of "I'm glad I had to use this runway, otherwise the landing would have sucked." I guess he was implying that that the opposite runway would have been a more direct departure... little to no braking needed. Anyways, offloaded the cargo onto another plane and off we went. He let me fly a bit. ATC came on and reprimanded him on his altitudes... hahahaha.
He was a crazy sob in his youth though. Flew bush up in Canada in the early '70s along with firefighting missions in the US. The type of guy to land on roads in a cessna for the heck of it.
He was a crazy sob in his youth though. Flew bush up in Canada in the early '70s along with firefighting missions in the US. The type of guy to land on roads in a cessna for the heck of it.
epmcinty
Filing Flight Plan
When I was 16, I was doing my first solo cross country and I was still getting used to the whole triangulation method and navigating which I was doing fine at up until that moment LOL. I was flying from KTUS (Tucson, AZ) back to KCHD (Chandler, AZ) and as I got near, I picked the wrong mountain peak as one of my points of triangulation and it totally threw me like 5-10 miles off course and sent my inexperienced butt into a state of bewilderment. However, after a couple seconds of "Oh s***", I just did the 5 C's (well to an extent). I just circled my area I was over, tuned some VOR's, found some other landmarks and found a more positive identification of where I was a minute later and headed my way back to CHD! Definitely sent some adrenaline pumping through my veins for a few minutes but just have to use your resources and be confident you can get out of your situation whether it is major or not. Loving these other stories guys!
Blueangel
Line Up and Wait
My horror stories were the CFI from hell who left nasty voice mails on my cell phone after I fired him for incompetence. He was not teaching me correctly after I did a phase check with a much better instructor half way through training. Fortunately I moved on and became a pilot and no longer see this clown.
overdrive148
En-Route
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overdrive148
On my first solo cross country to Tehachapi from Apple Valley:
Just then, two Planes of Fame (from Chino, CA) P-40's went screaming across the nose (they were 3 mile 45 when they called and we hadn't even cleared the end of 18 yet so we thought we had time). They were down quick! All week they were out and about doing sound recording and filming for the movie Valkyrie, so they were pretty impatient with us smaller planes being in the way.
Or the time I went with my instructor to Palm Springs as a cross country and we got held at the holding pattern for about 2 hours. And finally, they were bringing us in and vectoring us, and then just up and forgot to bring us down altitude wise. I was about to key the mic to tell them that it's a pretty long way down to the runway but my instructor said no, wait, I have this (we had been cleared to land). She pushed the yoke straight forward and took us into a pretty moderate dive. I saw what she was doing and dropped flaps. We were just barely inside the white arc on the way down. As we got over the numbers at ludicrous speed and touched down, I reached down to the floor to retract the flaps (handle style in a Musketeer) and looked to my left as I moved. There was an MD-80 starting his takeoff roll on the runway to our left. And we passed him. "Huh. Would you look at that", I thought. And then I heard a roar as he caught back up with us as we were positive rate. And I saw kids in two of the windows waving at us. I didn't have time to enjoy it though, because ATC told us to make an immediate right turn for traffic, and all I saw was wing as he went up and turned.
On the PPL checkride:
- Engine wouldn't start for 20 mins after my instructor took off in her plane ($100 hamburger at destination airport).
- Mechanic (never seen before) came out to help me by hand-propping (never done before). He lived, to my bewilderment
- Moderate ammeter discharge halfway there
- Called downwind for the wrong airport
- Winds kicked up just after takeoff
- Didn't do a climbing turn after takeoff as I had been advised and ended up a lot lower than I should've been
- Flew the wrong base for Victorville. Found out because I was told I could switch to ground freq and I notified them I was still airborne. They told me to fly the -other- base.
- Apologized the whole length of the runway at VCV (15,000ft)
- Flew home and kissed the ground
Just then, two Planes of Fame (from Chino, CA) P-40's went screaming across the nose (they were 3 mile 45 when they called and we hadn't even cleared the end of 18 yet so we thought we had time). They were down quick! All week they were out and about doing sound recording and filming for the movie Valkyrie, so they were pretty impatient with us smaller planes being in the way.
Or the time I went with my instructor to Palm Springs as a cross country and we got held at the holding pattern for about 2 hours. And finally, they were bringing us in and vectoring us, and then just up and forgot to bring us down altitude wise. I was about to key the mic to tell them that it's a pretty long way down to the runway but my instructor said no, wait, I have this (we had been cleared to land). She pushed the yoke straight forward and took us into a pretty moderate dive. I saw what she was doing and dropped flaps. We were just barely inside the white arc on the way down. As we got over the numbers at ludicrous speed and touched down, I reached down to the floor to retract the flaps (handle style in a Musketeer) and looked to my left as I moved. There was an MD-80 starting his takeoff roll on the runway to our left. And we passed him. "Huh. Would you look at that", I thought. And then I heard a roar as he caught back up with us as we were positive rate. And I saw kids in two of the windows waving at us. I didn't have time to enjoy it though, because ATC told us to make an immediate right turn for traffic, and all I saw was wing as he went up and turned.
On the PPL checkride:
- Completely forgot how to use VOR's
- Was told to change a soft field landing to a short field takeoff while on the go and had no idea where to start
- DPE yawned and reached behind my seat, flipped up the window latch, and pushed the window out into the airstream. Charts everywhere, dirt and dust and etc. I push through the surprise and land and get off the active and look over. Why did you do that?? "I was hot!"
- Took dad to Twentynine Palms and back for a flight (nothing there, didn't even stop!)
- Experienced electrical issues and a loud pop over the speaker in the back halfway back
- Ammeter discharging hard
- Turned off lights/radios/etc to compensate
- Dad laughed at me and told me fly the plane (ex RAF interceptor pilot)
- Remembered that I could toggle master switch and possibly fix it
- Ammeter charging hard, exploded into existence on final approach with every light known to man to balance it out
RotorDude
Pattern Altitude
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GliderDude
When I was a student instrument pilot my CFII had me fly quite often to his favorite airport restaurant in Reading PA, which had his to-die-for "shoo fly pie" on the menu. Well this one time he also had a big juicy (maybe rare?) burger to go with it, and on the way back his digestive system protested in no uncertain terms. Me being under the hood, I had to keep all the vents open all the way home to not suffocate or get a horrific headache, as he kept apologizing sheepishly.