Your Dumbest Benign Moment

ScottK said:
I'm not sure this is my dumbest moment, but it's got to rank right up there. Even worst, I saved it for my checkride.
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I saved mine for the checkride to!

The weather that day was sunny and COLD!!! Anyway I had completed all my pre-flight checks and prepared to start the engine. That is were it went all downhill. :redface: I tried to start that engine FOUR times but could never get it to stay running. I ended up flooding the engine after the fourth try. The whole time my CFI was standing outside watching us. I remember his face going from happiness to shaking his head. :nonod:

At that point the DE took over and with one try got the thing started. My heart sank at that point. My CFI had always told me if he takes over the checkride was busted. Thankfully he looked at me with a grin and said don't worry I had already "loosened the lid" per se.
 
comanche said:
As a student pilot, (Don't we all do dumb things) I had to complete a cross country so I chose Llano, Texas. It lies just over the required 50 miles distance from Ile (Killeen Skylark Field) With my 20 or so hours under my belt, I am on final and note that the runways are very narrow. About 20 feet or so.

Landed without incident and am in the FBO where no one is minding the store. I get a coke and put a couple of dollars in the coke jar. Just then I see the dust being generated behind a 30 year old pick up truck driving up to the FBO. Out pops this very spry, rather old lady. She greets me rather warmly and I said I got a coke and put a couple of extra dollars in the kitty. With all of that extra money I asked if they could widen the runway. She tells me the runway is perfectly fine. So I countered

"If you were a pilot, you would know how narrow the runway is. She smiles.
I ask her to please sign my logbook to proove I made the trip to Llano. I glanced at the entry.

Emily Gould CFI/CFII and her FAA instructors number.

I could not wait to get airborne.
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Yep, that is the winner, thanks for sharing it. Sounds like something I would do! ;)
 
comanche said:
As a student pilot, (Don't we all do dumb things) I had to complete a cross country so I chose Llano, Texas. It lies just over the required 50 miles distance from Ile (Killeen Skylark Field) With my 20 or so hours under my belt, I am on final and note that the runways are very narrow. About 20 feet or so.

Landed without incident and am in the FBO where no one is minding the store. I get a coke and put a couple of dollars in the coke jar. Just then I see the dust being generated behind a 30 year old pick up truck driving up to the FBO. Out pops this very spry, rather old lady. She greets me rather warmly and I said I got a coke and put a couple of extra dollars in the kitty. With all of that extra money I asked if they could widen the runway. She tells me the runway is perfectly fine. So I countered

"If you were a pilot, you would know how narrow the runway is. She smiles.
I ask her to please sign my logbook to proove I made the trip to Llano. I glanced at the entry.

Emily Gould CFI/CFII and her FAA instructors number.

I could not wait to get airborne.
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I also ride a motorcycle and often in a group we ride by the Llano Airport. Just noticed the city of Llano named the road leading into the airport Emily Gould Drive. Makes me remember that incident even more clearly.
 
After having a philosofic disscussion with an old sage of an instructor who told me, concerning when a student is ready to solo: "When you can just sit in the back of the Citabria...with your hands over your eyes - while your student conducts touch and goes. If you're THAT confident in them, they're ready".

One sunny afternoon in the traffic pattern I shared my old instructor's advice with my student. I told her she was ready to solo - and just to make sure, the next 3 times around the pattern I'm just covering my eyes. If you screw up, I told her, we'll just end up in a big ball of steel tubing and ceconite. So be careful...

It was only after the 3rd (successful) landing with my student that I learned I had been inadvertantly transmiting the whole thing on tower frequency. So, it WAS snickering I heard on the radio! How embarrassing.
 
I would have loved to have seen the sweeeeet smile on Emily's face. I bet it was a beaut.

Open mouth insert foot up to your hip, yep, I've done that but can't remember exactly the circumstances well enough to post it ... I'll think on it
 
Ahh heck, I didn't tell this one...

Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away... I found myself in the right seat of an ATR-42 during a Part 91 repositioning flight. I won't explain how that came to pass to keep the innocent safe... but there I was.

Obviously I knew the guy in the left seat, and we were telling jokes back and forth on the "intercom" while he let me hand-fly the thing at FL230, which I wasn't doing so hot at... but we weren't hurtling toward Earth in a death spiral, so he was ignoring me mostly. It was sometime around 3AM in the morning over Texas somewhere.

Anyway... after about a half hour of jokes back and forth, after I tell the punchline to one of them, we hear someone key up and laugh out loud on the radio. My friend looks over at me with wide eyes, and says... "Which way are you pushing that switch?"

You see... in the ATR... we were getting some background noise into the intercom, so he'd selected the manually keyed intercom mode and... the trigger switch on the yoke goes TWO directions... you pull it TOWARD you to transmit, and push it AWAY from you to talk on the ICS.

Guess which direction I'd been going...

My last transmission was "What do you mean, which way am I pushing the switch?!"

The howls of laughter from the other airliner on the otherwise dead quiet frequency, and the rather simple admonition from Ft. Worth Center... "Stuck mic." (Which wasn't quite accurate, but got the point across...)

All I wanted was to rewind 30 minutes and have the foresight to ASK how to run the intercom properly, as my heart sank into my shoes.

My friend just tipped his head back and laughed out loud harder than he had at any of the jokes and said, "You push that switch AWAY from you to talk on the Intercom, Nathan!"

Still funny after all these years...
 
denverpilot said:
we hear someone key up and laugh out loud on the radio. My friend looks over at me with wide eyes, and says... "Which way are you pushing that switch?"
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THAT is a funny story!! I love it!
 
comanche said:
As a student pilot, (Don't we all do dumb things) I had to complete a cross country so I chose Llano, Texas. It lies just over the required 50 miles distance from Ile (Killeen Skylark Field) With my 20 or so hours under my belt, I am on final and note that the runways are very narrow. About 20 feet or so.

Landed without incident and am in the FBO where no one is minding the store. I get a coke and put a couple of dollars in the coke jar. Just then I see the dust being generated behind a 30 year old pick up truck driving up to the FBO. Out pops this very spry, rather old lady. She greets me rather warmly and I said I got a coke and put a couple of extra dollars in the kitty. With all of that extra money I asked if they could widen the runway. She tells me the runway is perfectly fine. So I countered

"If you were a pilot, you would know how narrow the runway is. She smiles.
I ask her to please sign my logbook to proove I made the trip to Llano. I glanced at the entry.

Emily Gould CFI/CFII and her FAA instructors number.

I could not wait to get airborne.
Click to expand...

ROLMAO!:rofl::rofl: Thats a great story and I bet it still stings huh? Ya also know what just a stab in the dark here but for some reason I'm betting that Emily Gould was an awesome CFI! Great story thanks for sharing.
 
I was finishing up my night flights before the check ride. The CFI and I were coming up on our fourth airport of the night an call up tower. Tower advised to enter left downwind for 12, and I confirm back. As we are getti g ready to enter, I make a left turn to 120 to enter the downwind when tower calls us up to ask where we are going. Yup, I blew that one and the instructor didn't even catch it until after I told him what I had done. Thankfully it was a quiet night and no one else was in the pattern.
 
comanche said:
As a student pilot, (Don't we all do dumb things) I had to complete a cross country so I chose Llano, Texas. It lies just over the required 50 miles distance from Ile (Killeen Skylark Field) With my 20 or so hours under my belt, I am on final and note that the runways are very narrow. About 20 feet or so.

Landed without incident and am in the FBO where no one is minding the store. I get a coke and put a couple of dollars in the coke jar. Just then I see the dust being generated behind a 30 year old pick up truck driving up to the FBO. Out pops this very spry, rather old lady. She greets me rather warmly and I said I got a coke and put a couple of extra dollars in the kitty. With all of that extra money I asked if they could widen the runway. She tells me the runway is perfectly fine. So I countered

"If you were a pilot, you would know how narrow the runway is. She smiles.
I ask her to please sign my logbook to proove I made the trip to Llano. I glanced at the entry.

Emily Gould CFI/CFII and her FAA instructors number.

I could not wait to get airborne.
Click to expand...

Wow....thats straigt out of Curb Your Enthusiasm!
 
I was curious so I just looked. Seems the runways at llano are now 75 feet for the paved one and 150 for the turf.... Maybe they used that coke money after all :)
 
denverpilot said:
Ahh heck, I didn't tell this one...

Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away... I found myself in the right seat of an ATR-42 during a Part 91 repositioning flight. I won't explain how that came to pass to keep the innocent safe... but there I was.

Obviously I knew the guy in the left seat, and we were telling jokes back and forth on the "intercom" while he let me hand-fly the thing at FL230, which I wasn't doing so hot at... but we weren't hurtling toward Earth in a death spiral, so he was ignoring me mostly. It was sometime around 3AM in the morning over Texas somewhere.

Anyway... after about a half hour of jokes back and forth, after I tell the punchline to one of them, we hear someone key up and laugh out loud on the radio. My friend looks over at me with wide eyes, and says... "Which way are you pushing that switch?"

You see... in the ATR... we were getting some background noise into the intercom, so he'd selected the manually keyed intercom mode and... the trigger switch on the yoke goes TWO directions... you pull it TOWARD you to transmit, and push it AWAY from you to talk on the ICS.

Guess which direction I'd been going...

My last transmission was "What do you mean, which way am I pushing the switch?!"

The howls of laughter from the other airliner on the otherwise dead quiet frequency, and the rather simple admonition from Ft. Worth Center... "Stuck mic." (Which wasn't quite accurate, but got the point across...)

All I wanted was to rewind 30 minutes and have the foresight to ASK how to run the intercom properly, as my heart sank into my shoes.

My friend just tipped his head back and laughed out loud harder than he had at any of the jokes and said, "You push that switch AWAY from you to talk on the Intercom, Nathan!"

Still funny after all these years...
Click to expand...

Did you download it from liveATC? That would be priceless.
 
Oh and I would add mine but I think there have been similar threads like this (with different titles). I had a list when I posted in those including my dropping the dipstick. I had *HOPED* the dumb mistakes were only for student pilots but I have made plenty of my own including with POA members in my aircraft. Mostly almost forgetting to do stuff, or acting dumb with ATC or getting "lost".
 
Jeanie said:
I was curious so I just looked. Seems the runways at llano are now 75 feet for the paved one and 150 for the turf.... Maybe they used that coke money after all :)
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I received my PP certificate on May 8, 1981 so this occured probably February or March 1980. Do not care how much time has passed this is one incident I will never forget - unfortunately. :mad2:
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Did you download it from liveATC? That would be priceless.
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LiveATC and streaming audio on what we now know as the Internet didn't exist back then.

If you would have recorded the audio and compressed it, you could have uploaded it to CompuServe for about $150 and leaving the modem dialed in all night. If you had a college account on a VAX or similar you'd have gotten a warning you had exceeded your file storage quota.
 
denverpilot said:
LiveATC and streaming audio on what we now know as the Internet didn't exist back then.

If you would have recorded the audio and compressed it, you could have uploaded it to CompuServe for about $150 and leaving the modem dialed in all night. If you had a college account on a VAX or similar you'd have gotten a warning you had exceeded your file storage quota.
Click to expand...

And maybe a visit with the Dean of the CS department, if you'd invented a cool audio compression algorithm, and he'd explain that it was now university property and if you behaved he'd let you be a co-author on the publication about it.
 
denverpilot said:
LiveATC and streaming audio on what we now know as the Internet didn't exist back then.

If you would have recorded the audio and compressed it, you could have uploaded it to CompuServe for about $150 and leaving the modem dialed in all night. If you had a college account on a VAX or similar you'd have gotten a warning you had exceeded your file storage quota.
Click to expand...


This is a much more technical answer than I expected.

You could have just said "no."
 
TMetzinger said:
Yes, but part of GeekCred is talking about how things were in the Jurassic Era of IT - you know, the late 1970s.

Remember, there are only 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
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I almost bought a binary clock from ThinkGeek for my desk at work.

(No I don't understand it but the clock was cool).

Here it is:

led-binclock-alt1.jpg



"It's easy for any self-respecting geek to figure out how to read this clock in a few minutes. Check out the image below for the details. Still don't get it? Then you probably shouldn't buy one, should you?"
 
Well, I tuned in ATIS on COM2 and turned down the volume on COM1 because with the constant chatter I couldn't follow the long ATIS. Switched over to clearance delivery on COM2 and gave them direction of flight. Switched the panel back to COM1 to talk to ground. Waited for a second to make sure no one else was transmitting, and called ready to taxi. Waited for a reply, and didn't get one. A short while later I tried again, thinking they might have been splitting the position or something, and still no response.

About then I start checking my equipment, only to find that I hadn't turned up the volume on COM1. Dufus time, right? No, that was just practice, as it was only a very busy class C airport.

This is so fun, I need to try it elsewhere. I know, how about a busy class B airport? Yeah, that's the ticket. I have no idea how many I talked over that night, oblivious to my transgression. Worse, when I finally got myself discombobulated I didn't realize that I had missed the "squawker" code they gave me, so I took off on 1200. Doh!
 
TMetzinger said:
And maybe a visit with the Dean of the CS department, if you'd invented a cool audio compression algorithm, and he'd explain that it was now university property and if you behaved he'd let you be a co-author on the publication about it.
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As if. ;)

If I were that brilliant I'd have hidden the code, published it, and made millions like Marc Andreesen on borrowed government student loan and grant money from the NCSA. ;)

That dude's a piece of work. Knows how to milk money out of thin air though.

His buddy Zuckerberg gave him $700 Million in Facebook options this week for being on the Board. Ahh a new generation of Board members sitting on each other's boards making sure to pay each other first. Warm the heart. ;)

Zuck also made sure to completely screw his staff that built his company by issuing them all 10:1 diluted shares.

Instant 10X loss, boss and investor-approved!

Hard work pays off, but Asperger's Syndrome pays off even more handsomely later, once again, for the mentally ill top dogs -- is the continuing moral lesson of U.S. Corporations.

Sorry. Thread hijack for a little rant there. Facebook's employees got so screwed...
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I almost bought a binary clock from ThinkGeek for my desk at work.
Click to expand...

It's more fun to grab components, a microcontroller like a Microchip PIC or an equivalent Atmel AVR chip, some wirewrap wire, a handful of LEDs and current limiting resistors, and make your own. ;)

(I wish I had time to play on the electronics workbench still. The microcontrollers have gotten so dirt-simple to program and such. Those little Arduino boards look fun. Take some of the work out of board layout and such.)
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I almost bought a binary clock from ThinkGeek for my desk at work.

(No I don't understand it but the clock was cool).

Here it is:

led-binclock-alt1.jpg



"It's easy for any self-respecting geek to figure out how to read this clock in a few minutes. Check out the image below for the details. Still don't get it? Then you probably shouldn't buy one, should you?"
Click to expand...

Clock? That's not a clock. That's a portable EKG meter. Great for in flight use in the cockpit.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I almost bought a binary clock from ThinkGeek for my desk at work.
(No I don't understand it but the clock was cool).
Click to expand...

Each vertical column is one digit and counted in binary.
Bottom light it the lowest digit. Top light is the highest digit. Each additional light is double the previous one. (1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256) Add each light together for the column total for the decimal digit you are after.

Counting in binary:
0000 = 0
0001 = 1 (0+0+0+1)
0010 = 2 (0+0+2+0)
0011 = 3 (0+0+2+1)
0100 = 4 (0+4+0+0)
What is 0110? 0+4+2+0 = 6
1011 = ??? (8+0+2+1=11)

For the picture: Left to right. Six columns, six digits on a clock.
10 0000 : 100 1000 : 011 0110
Actual time = 10 : 48 : 36

And there is an IC that will take that binary display output signal and convert it to decimal on a 7 segment display. It's a plug it in, attach the wires, done kind of conversion. This clock is exactly that except they stopped adding parts when they got the binary output. It's a PITA to read until you learn it then it's easy and instinctive just like any other language or reading weather information. (And for the record, there is no way I will allow something despicable like that in my house without it being modified with a sledge hammer)

And I should not be able to remember binary after all these years. Ick. Nasty. Excuse me while I go wash my mouth out with liquid soap and baking soda now.
 
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Those BCD chips double the price of any clock these days... the modern crop of micro controllers are so cheap (we're talking $1 in low quantity) with enough output pins, that a little code loaded in them does all the work of driving the number's segments without the need of an additional $0.80 chip. :) The code typically does BCD "behind the scenes" because it's very efficient and then uses a binary lookup-table in the flash to "know" which segments to light for human-readable numbers.
 
Shortly after I got my private, I landed at Colorado Springs and taxied off the runway. I saw a sign marked "TRANSIENT AIRCRAFT" and I followed it only to find the TRANSIENT AIRCRAFT were all painted green. I had to confess to ground control that I had no clue where I was.
 
flyingron said:
Shortly after I got my private, I landed at Colorado Springs and taxied off the runway. I saw a sign marked "TRANSIENT AIRCRAFT" and I followed it only to find the TRANSIENT AIRCRAFT were all painted green. I had to confess to ground control that I had no clue where I was.
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<giggle> You guys don't know how much pressure you're taking off of me by sharing these stories. Not that I will slack as a result, just reminds me that we're all human. :yesnod:
 
I went to get my complex/high performance sign-off in a 182RG at Jack Edwards in Gulf Shores AL (I lived in Pensacola at the time). Up until that time the 'biggest' airplane I had flown was a 172. I guess I was kinda nervous about it because one time when I was on the radio announcing position or something, I just clamped my finger down on the PTT switch and never let go. So I have the PTT switch down probably for at least 30 seconds and am just jabbering away to the CFI, and then I realized I head a death grip on the switch.

When we got back to the FBO my wife told me she was sitting there and all of a sudden there I am coming over the radio behind the counter and just blabbering away. She said the guys said something and she said, "Yep. That's my husband."
 
flyingron said:
Shortly after I got my private, I landed at Colorado Springs and taxied off the runway. I saw a sign marked "TRANSIENT AIRCRAFT" and I followed it only to find the TRANSIENT AIRCRAFT were all painted green. I had to confess to ground control that I had no clue where I was.
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ROFL! "Welcome to Petersen AFB... the kids with the M-16s will be over to escort you off the ramp." :)

Gotta be careful at those mixed-use airports.
 
Noticing that my cell phone is not in its holster on my belt and looking all over the house for it while I was actually talking to someone on it.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I almost bought a binary clock from ThinkGeek for my desk at work.

(No I don't understand it but the clock was cool).

Here it is:

led-binclock-alt1.jpg



"It's easy for any self-respecting geek to figure out how to read this clock in a few minutes. Check out the image below for the details. Still don't get it? Then you probably shouldn't buy one, should you?"
Click to expand...

You should...I have one on my desk, people don't know what the hell it is. Make up all kinds of names for it. Doomsday device, radio transmitting in morse code, motion detector, etc.

345lvh3.jpg
 
Graueradler said:
Noticing that my cell phone is not in its holster on my belt and looking all over the house for it while I was actually talking to someone on it.
Click to expand...

Done that a few times too. Looking for something I had in my hand, etc.
 
OK, this is only semi-aviation related. It does have flying objects in it though.

It's 1981. I'm 15 and in summer camp at Camp Tohkomeupog in the Northeast part of New Hampshire. It's a sleepaway camp for boys, and I've been going there for ten years. My uncle (mom's brother) runs it.

One of the guys, nicknamed Flounder (and yes he looked like the kid from Animal House) has an Estes model rocket kit. It's the one with a 110 camera in it. You wind the camera, launch the rocket, and it takes a picture right before parachute deployment. Our area of the camp is on a hill, and the cabins are at the top. Down the hill is a baseball field and a pond. We decide the afternoon activity will be to launch the rocket. I get the bright idea to go down the hill by the pond and be ready to retrieve the rocket quickly if it's going to land in the water.

So... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 54321 and FOOSH!, up goes the rocket. I'm watching it, waiting for it to reach apogee, and pop the chute. Hmm, no chute. I decide to run. I get 1 step and THWACK!, something punches me in the left leg, right above the knee. I look down and there's a thumb-sized hole in my leg and blood is gushing (not spurting thank God) out of it. I have the sense to grab the wound and press on it as I fall down.

So the counselors take me to the hospital in North Conway, where they take me into an operating room and do something to stabilise the little divot in my femur, close whatever vein was nicked, and stitch me back together. All's ok, except for my Uncle who has to explain to my mom about my little "accident".

Still have the scar, it gives me something useful to report on all the security forms about "identifying characteristics", and when I was in the DEA people just assumed I'd gotten shot at some time or another.
 
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