Yak destroyed when pilot bails during taxi test (snake in cockpit)

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GaryM

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Gary M
I'm wondering how a pilot could be unharmed after jumping out of a plane in a high-speed taxi.
 
There's a Facebook post, from Australia, about this incident. Few details, but what's said makes it even more puzzling, how exactly the pilot survived:

"Cliff jumped onto the wing during a high speed taxi test when a brown snake appeared beside his hand in the throttle. The Yak became airborne about 200 ft before crashing. Nothing was salvaged"​
 
Clearly in Australia one needs a "check for unsecured snake" item added to the usual preflight checklist...
 
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I had a big hairy spider crawl on my shoulder while flying a glider once. If I’d had a parachute, i may have had trouble keeping myself from using it. After landing I could not find it. I never flew that glider again.
 
I've found a couple of rat snakes in my basement. They rarely get over 90" in length, so no biggy.
Still, imagine the road rash abandoning ship. I would have perhaps pulled the throttle, ya know?
 
Kenny Phillips said:
I've found a couple of rat snakes in my basement. They rarely get over 90" in length, so no biggy.
Still, imagine the road rash abandoning ship. I would have perhaps pulled the throttle, ya know?
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That’s where the snake was.
 
There are lots of "brown" snakes. How'd this one get to be "the" brown snake?
 
Timbeck2 said:
There are lots of "brown" snakes. How'd this one get to be "the" brown snake?
Click to expand...

It's from Australia.

When one of their species of snakes or spiders or crocodiles claims to be the most badass, the other snakes and spiders and crocodiles of the world meekly nod in affirmation, because they know it's true.
 
Years ago I had an ultralight student that had a 2 seat Quad City Challenger with the dacron wing cloth. The wings are open over the cockpit. He asked if I'd fly with him to our EAA meeting about an hour away. I agreed. As he was getting the plane out of the hangar on this grass strip a very large rat came out of the wing and dropped onto the rear that I was gonna be sitting in shortly. I told him to make sure that there were no more rats because if one dropped into my lap he would be doing his first solo ... without notice!
 
From Wikipedia:

Considered the world's second-most venomous land snake after the inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), based on its LD50 value (subcutaneous) in mice, it is responsible for about 60% of snake-bite deaths in Australia.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
There are two types of animals in Australia (with some overlap):
1. That which will kill you.
2. That which at least some people will eat.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
I've found a couple of rat snakes in my basement. They rarely get over 90" in length, so no biggy.
Still, imagine the road rash abandoning ship. I would have perhaps pulled the throttle, ya know?
Click to expand...

JOhnH said:
That’s where the snake was.
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Well, then, the obvious answer (sitting here in my warm, well-lit kitchen) is to turn off the mags.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Well, then, the obvious answer (sitting here in my warm, well-lit kitchen) is to turn off the mags.
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Obviously, you have never experienced Ophidiophobia.

When I was about 10, my stepfather was running the trolling motor about 10pm at night on the Altamaha river in Southeast Georgia while I was reeling in the trot line, baiting hooks and harvesting catfish. The trot lines were strung from tree to tree and we had to go up under the trees. I suddenly heard a loud smack and a ruckus as a big snake fell from the trees into the boat right near me. I was in the river (where there were probably even more snakes than in the boat) in a heartbeat. Then my stepfather used a paddle to toss the snake into the river, ON MY SIDE! I nearly capsized the boat trying to scramble back in. He laughed his ass off till the day he died about that. I was almost glad he died because of it.
 
I was going to say something snarky, but yeah, Australia. Little nondescript brown snakes that are venomous as all hell. Normally you see one of those and you just stay still until it loses interest. Can't do that in the cockpit of a speeding airplane. I could rag on the guy's preflight, but the damn snake could have been anywhere and utterly invisible. Glad the guy wasn't too badly hurt, and a pity about the Yak. Just how things go sometimes.
 
Am I the only one wondering what happened to the snake? May be the first snake in history to log a solo flight.
 
GaryM said:
It's from Australia.

When one of their species of snakes or spiders or crocodiles claims to be the most badass, the other snakes and spiders and crocodiles of the world meekly nod in affirmation, because they know it's true.
Click to expand...
I used to think that also, then I saw a documentary on Brazil’s most deadly animals. I think that they might have Australia beat, at least in their diversity of deadly animals. Killer caterpillars.
 
Every creature in Australia wants to kill you.

“Not Wallabies!”, you say.


Hahahahahaaa
 
GaryM said:
It's from Australia.

When one of their species of snakes or spiders or crocodiles claims to be the most badass, the other snakes and spiders and crocodiles of the world meekly nod in affirmation, because they know it's true.
Click to expand...
Yep, we occasionally have a brown snake visit the judging line at an aerobatic contest - we move.

(1) Aerobatics Australia | Facebook scroll down to 4th Feb
 
I have friends in Texas that scream like a little girl when they see a rat snake. Really funny to see a couple big ol' rawboned rednecks tear out the side of a barn trying to get away from a harmless snake.
 
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