Embry Riddle Pilot Lands With Oil Covered Windshield

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But really, that was awesome. ATC was one calm cucumber.
 
z987k said:
Only time I've seen a flat engine put oil on the windshield is when the idiot driving left the oil dipstick off.
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The first student I ever signed off for a solo cross country forgot to put the dipstick back after adding a quart at his previous stop. I knew something was up because rather than come in excited from his first solo XC he grabs a bunch of rags and starts cleaning the plane.

Somehow the dipstick made the return trip back sitting on the little step to check a 150s tank and the wing strut.
 
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I was working the ramp in Vero when a guy landed in an experimental he had just purchased and picked up. He took off from Ft. Pierce just a few miles south and once he was at takeoff power and with all the wind noise- he couldn’t hear ATC anymore. So he lands in Vero broadcasting in the blind, and pulls up onto the ramp.

I marshaled him into a parking spot and after he shut down I approached him asking about what services we could offer. He was perplexed about his problem and was totally unsure how his comm radio worked. I don’t remember the exact problem but after a few seconds of looking at his radio, I fixed his problem.

He explained how he just bought the airplane and a mechanic had just given it a pre-purchase inspection. So I walked around and opened up the oil access panel. The dipstick was simply along for the ride and I think there was some oil leaking out and around the port.

This guy almost gave himself a NORDO engine failure in what I have to assume was his first flight in his new airplane. Buttoned him all up and off he went. Hopefully safely to wherever he was headed.
 
milleR said:
Kind of seems like a non sequitur; I believe Mr. Lindgurgh was frequently down to several hundred feet above the water to maintain visual conditions and avoid ice on his trans-Atlantic journey.
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He was lower than that. Read his memoirs. He talks about going low to deice the airplane, but the danger there was flying into, or getting hit by a wave. He would stick his head out the window to let the spray off the top of a wave blow in his face to wake him up.

I read it one dark, stormy night, at FL350, in the tracks going to Paris. It was rather surreal, sitting there all comfy, reading about his struggles attempting to accomplish what we were taking for granted.
 
Sorry, ......... we had a little computer problem about then and that unfinished comment was the result.

What I had intended to add was that that he had a very short hop and based on how much oil was left after landing, we estimated that he lost a quart every two minutes.
 
Cptnchia said:
Not to be Mr Pedantic, but that is the interior of The Spirit of St Louis, I believe. I’m feeling old and cranky tonight. Please tell me you know this and I just can’t read your sarcasm in this post!
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Haha I know that. I was saying the student probably had practice on flight simulator doing ILSs before this oil incident.
 
There was a midair in the pattern of two Riddle 172s 25 years ago, one a dual crew, the other a solo student on his second solo, I believe. Dual crew misidentified company traffic while on an opposite downwind to base. Collided with the solo student. Solo student's main landing gear strut and wheel went through then front windscreen of the dual crew and the tire smacked the CFI in the head. The two planes were stuck together for a moment with their wings smacking into one another before separating. Dual crew smacked the ground short of the runway. Solo student landed his plane. No fatalities.

Dual plane a write-off, solo plane heavily damaged but repaired.
 
MikeD said:
There was a midair in the pattern of two Riddle 172s 25 years ago, one a dual crew, the other a solo student on his second solo, I believe. Dual crew misidentified company traffic while on an opposite downwind to base. Collided with the solo student. Solo student's main landing gear strut and wheel went through then front windscreen of the dual crew and the tire smacked the CFI in the head. The two planes were stuck together for a moment with their wings smacking into one another before separating. Dual crew smacked the ground short of the runway. Solo student landed his plane. No fatalities.

Dual plane a write-off, solo plane heavily damaged but repaired.
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To be honest with you, I'm surprised they don't have more fatal accidents than they do.
 
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