Your Dumbest Benign Moment

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So... all these threads about dangerous things... I thought I'd open the floor for something else: your dumbest ever moment that was completely benign, put nobody at risk, but made you feel like a complete fool. Cheek burners are what I'm after here.

I'll start: my absolute dumbest ever was on my solo cross-country as a student. I flew in to Haigh (o37), which is kinda hard to spot from the air unless you know exactly where it is, and the numbers for runway 15 are a bit faded, and with the sun shining at the right angle... well, anyway, after a few heart-racing moments looking, I finally saw it, and coming in across the airport to get into the downwind, I announced absent-mindedly that I was "entering downwind to runway four five" (which is what I saw when I glanced over there, what with the sun and all).

The next few seconds were full of laughter exploding in my ears on the radio. My cheeks were burning real hard, I can tell you that. First time I admitted this to anyone, but there is one pilot out there who can say he heard me that day.

And thankfully, I have no clue who they are.
 
I have called out on the radio 5 miles out like a good little pilot. Announcing my position and intentions I hear nothing in return. I enter the pattern and there is two planes! :eek:

I still could not figure out why they were talking on 128.00, I was. :rolleyes::redface:
 
Solo long XC: flew to a towered airport that had me come in right pattern, which I really wasn't used to. It went well.

However, the next airport where I had to make a stopover for XC requirements... un-towered... Small small small airport, only one guy in the pattern. We talked to each other, I didn't see him, he didn't see me...

Why? Because I flew in on a bloody right pattern. Probably due to the adrenaline and the last landing on my brain was a right pattern. Funny thing is I admitted it to him, we had a chuckle and I told him it was my long XC for training. He chatted with me a bit and when I finally got around to the correct side and landed and took off again he said "you done great!" and off I went. Sounded like an older guy. It actually made me feel pretty good after all that.
 
I broke out of a cloud at night once and forgot to light up the runway. No Ted, it wasn't the Aztec...:D. However, you might think that the fact that I was in a single was dumber than that.
 
Having a controller ask me in the middle of the night what the max gross was of the 172RG I was flying, and drawing a blank.

Not having a clue why he wanted to know I gave him a standby and dig out the POH in flight. Looked it up, called him with the info...

And found out he was just having a bet with the guy next to him as to how many pounds of airplanes they'd work that night, and he couldn't remember what a "Cutlass" was. ;)
 
Danos said:
I broke out of a cloud at night once and forgot to light up the runway. No Ted, it wasn't the Aztec...:D. However, you might think that the fact that I was in a single was dumber than that.
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Going in to Estherville for Tony and Leah's wedding, I shot the GPS approach in. Night after 6 hours of flying, light ice, and I had to change a starter before leaving. The runway lights, which I had turned on, did not light. Apparently, I needed to be closer. :)

Got them on, landed safely, had a great time.
 
Forgetting what N number you are in tonight.

file under one and trying to open under another. Daaa
 
Tom-D said:
Forgetting what N number you are in tonight.

file under one and trying to open under another. Daaa
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Ooh. Forgot that one. Not for filing but just for helping with radios in other people's birds.

"79M" comes out automatically now. D'oh!
 
hm, starting the engine with the wheels chocked is part of my standard procedure... BWTHDIK
 
Tom-D said:
Forgetting what N number you are in tonight.

file under one and trying to open under another. Daaa
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I've always filed the right plane, but tower has heard calls of "Az- er- Twin Ce- er- Navajo four eight- er..."
 
denverpilot said:
Ooh. Forgot that one. Not for filing but just for helping with radios in other people's birds.

"79M" comes out automatically now. D'oh!
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ComStar #1 ready for release, ComStar #1 we don't see you on the schedule tonight" Ahhhh ......Nothing is as embarrassing as a young JO snickering.
 
The thrust reverser didn't stow completely on the Lear so the captain had me go out and push it in by hand. I went to the other side of the plane to see what the good engine looked like. Yes..it was running. Damn near got my head blown off. . Cut me some slack. it was a long day! Anyway, I looked like this :hairraise: and the captain asked me why my hair was all f'd up. It was one of those "I hope there were no cameras around because that could make youtube history" moments. I never told anybody. I don't even know why I posted this...
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
I've always filed the right plane, but tower has heard calls of "Az- er- Twin Ce- er- Navajo four eight- er..."
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the worst was when returning From Fallon to Pt. Mugu and reporting " Blood Hound 54 inbound from Pine Mountain"

"Blood hound 54 we don't have a flight plan on file for you"

that will get you face to face with the skipper.
 
Danos said:
The thrust reverser didn't stow completely on the Lear so the captain had me go out and push it in by hand. I went to the other side of the plane to see what the good engine looked like. Yes..it was running. Damn near got my head blown off. . Cut me some slack. it was a long day! Anyway, I looked like this :hairraise: and the captain asked me why my hair was all f'd up. It was one of those "I hope there were no cameras around because that could make youtube history" moments. I never told anybody. I don't even know why I posted this...
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:rofl::rofl::rofl::lol:
 
Hmmm...

Ted DuPuis said:
Starting the engines and realizing I didn't pull the chocks.


Done it more than once... :mad2:
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Me too. And anyone who says they haven't is either lying, or hasn't got much experience. :rofl:

denverpilot said:
Ooh. Forgot that one. Not for filing but just for helping with radios in other people's birds.

"79M" comes out automatically now. D'oh!
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Done that... It took me a while to un-train my mouth from saying "71G" in reply to everything.

stagecoachco said:
Of course there is the ubiquitous "67C is left final for XX" :redface:
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Whoo boy, did that once during my private training too...
 
How about approaching SEA and coming up on the wrong freq, for the sector you are in..
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Starting the engines and realizing I didn't pull the chocks.


Done it more than once... :mad2:
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I haven't done that yet, but I have been belted and locked in twice reaching for the master when I realized the chocks were still in.

I *DID* manage, however, to start the engine once with the oil door still open... with a CFI in the right seat, no less.
 
Danos said:
The thrust reverser didn't stow completely on the Lear so the captain had me go out and push it in by hand. I went to the other side of the plane to see what the good engine looked like. Yes..it was running. Damn near got my head blown off. . Cut me some slack. it was a long day! Anyway, I looked like this :hairraise: and the captain asked me why my hair was all f'd up. It was one of those "I hope there were no cameras around because that could make youtube history" moments. I never told anybody. I don't even know why I posted this...
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Now that's the spirit I was hoping for with this thread...

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
*Sigh* Well back when I was a PP I took some friends flying and they wanted to go to a bigger airport so we flew to a Class C airport, That will remain unnamed. I was having a bad day and kinda got the run around from approach (I'm sure they were busy) but anyway, after cleared to land I got a stuck mic and I bad mouthed them and said some choice words to my friends that were not appropriate. Any way long story short after landing I called tower to see if the wanted us to switch to ground and the said "Welcome back N6**F!" Oh crap:eek: "We have a number for you to call when you park!" Talk about embarrasing. So I called them and they were really cool about it. He told me "Listen, We are saying the same things up here in the tower. Just make sure you mic is off before you talk!" I said yes sir, sorry sir! So even thousands of hours later, I still check for the "T" on the radio to be off. I will never make that mistake again. So there is my Dumbest Moment!
 
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. This is taken from my checkride write up.

"We head out to the airplane for the pre-flight (PA28-140) and he asks me questions as I go. Pre-flight done, we climb in to the plane. Now as I said, he is a big guy. After settling into the airplane and getting buckled in, I realize that I left my headset inside the flt school. (face palm!) Out he goes. He gets my headset and crawls back in. Lap belt on, he asks me to get the foggles out so he could have them ready. I reach into my backpack and can't find them. (face palm 2!) Out he goes again. Great, I'm going to fail before I start the engine. I felt like a total idiot. Finally, we're ready to go."

Fortunately, he was a good sport about it, but I still felt really stupid.


Also, I did the "start the engine with the front chocks in" for the first time the other day.
 
Two come to mind. I checked the oil during preflight for my checkride (good!). We got in, started the engine and I realized I'd left the oil door open.

During my second solo (sent to the practice area, by myself!) I was singing in the airplane only to find out I had a stuck mic. :redface:

John


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
jsstevens said:
Two come to mind. I checked the oil during preflight for my checkride (good!). We got in, started the engine and I realized I'd left the oil door open.

During my second solo (sent to the practice area, by myself!) I was singing in the airplane only to find out I had a stuck mic. :redface:

John


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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Coming back from Florida a few weeks ago we heard "We are lucky enough to have a uuhhhhhh rare opportunity today. If you look off to the left uhhhhhhh you can see the Atlantic Ocean, and if you're lucky enough to be seated on the the right, uuhhhhhhhhhh, you can see the Gulf of Mexico. At our destination there are light winds from the northeast and the temperature is a pleasant uuuhhhhhhh, 75 degrees. We'll be coming by with some refreshments so sit back, and enjoy the flight." This happened not once, but twice in the same day! The captain and I were in tears.
 
Danos said:
Coming back from Florida a few weeks ago we heard "We are lucky enough to have a uuhhhhhh rare opportunity today. If you look off to the left uhhhhhhh you can see the Atlantic Ocean, and if you're lucky enough to be seated on the the right, uuhhhhhhhhhh, you can see the Gulf of Mexico. At our destination there are light winds from the northeast and the temperature is a pleasant uuuhhhhhhh, 75 degrees. We'll be coming by with some refreshments so sit back, and enjoy the flight." This happened not once, but twice in the same day! The captain and I were in tears.
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I have heard that before..too funny
 
I was in the runup area, and in the process of checking the flight controls I noticed the right side gas cap sitting on the top of the wing, where I left it when I fueled up. Had to tell ground I would be off frequency for a while for a shutdown. Didn't mention why I had to shut down.

And of course there was that time I seemed to be unable to taxi out of my parking spot. I forgot to remove the rear tie down chain.

I was obviously thinking ahead of myself when I called Hayward tower "Napa tower." He said "You must be going to Napa, huh."
 
I announced at Lake City, Florida that Skyhawk 64Golf was "turning final for runway errrrr.... X", (sure enough, there was a HUGE "X" on the runway) "make that exiting the pattern to the South in order to screw my head on straight".
 
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.
 
At Redbird in Dallas the controller got very worked up with me when I had to ask him three times for taxi instructions when the directions he was giving me made absolutely no sense. I finally realized on the third time that I had forgotten to set the DG, which is what I was using to orientate myself as to the proper location of runway headings on the field.
 
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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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:rofl: Winner!
 
I once squawked traces of a greasy looking fluid at the wing roots.... It turned out to be the remains of that morning's deicing fluid!

-Skip
 
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