A learning experience in IMC / Bonanza

At the end of the video someone is laughing

I hope it is somebody on the ramp mocking their stupidity, not the Ef'tards that were flying.
Speaking as someone who has been about as close to getting killed as they were and then came back unharmed as they did, once you get on the ground and you realize that you're now living on borrowed time, you can't help but laugh about it. It's not because you think any of it is funny. It's because when you're that effin' scared, sometimes laughing is all your brain will allow you to do. I don't expect anyone else to understand it, but if it ever happens to you, you'll understand.
 
Speaking as someone who has been about as close to getting killed as they were and then came back unharmed as they did, once you get on the ground and you realize that you're now living on borrowed time, you can't help but laugh about it. It's not because you think any of it is funny. It's because when you're that effin' scared, sometimes laughing is all your brain will allow you to do. I don't expect anyone else to understand it, but if it ever happens to you, you'll understand.


You said you would never mention that trip that I took you on!!! :D
 
Re: A learning expirience in IMC.

We as a flight of five flew into a cloud layer on the way to the Shari-khot valley... I remember my hand on the thrust (collective) was tingling wanting desperately to pull in power and climb. After way too long poof! We popped out at the RP before the valley.

I remember thinking along the way: "Are we this good? Are we good enough to pull this off??"
Nice thing about Long Range Low Level ASW was that you usually could rely on the RADALT coming through the clouds. The procedures changed after VP-1 screwed up their Nav and was dropping bouys on the beach just prior to hitting a mountain in Hawaii.
 
Re: A learning expirience in IMC.

Had to do a similar thing in a-stan to extract some injured troops... what you failed to include in your story was how long you held your breath. :)
and that there were sharks...everywhere! ;)
 
Meh. Glass houses. You will all have/ have had a few "Holy Ish" moments in your flying days. I know I have had one similar to that one.
If anything is to be learned, grab you friends video camera, eject the tape, and "accidentally" stomp on it!

-Oh, and learn from your previous mistakes. You think that guy will run scud again? I know in my case, that was the last time I did it. I probably had 300 hours at the time, early 80's.

Live and learn. Hopefully. It was before youtube, maybe this video will learn someone else.
 
I hoped the L39 had climbed or turned back, then thought the video showed the cameraman getting tossed up & down- as if several of the 72 seconds had elapsed prior to coming into visual (of Bushes!)
What the hell, was the pilot trying a new development of Real Estate?
They didn't show the messy diapers back on the ground, at least.
Who's gonna fix the plane, now isn't it gonna require a damage history?
 
I almost shat myself just watching that.

Very very lucky group there.

(edit)

O.O

they hit the effing trees!?!?!? unbelievable...
 
Re: A learning expirience in IMC.

Marshalling overhead, the only thing I could think to do was reference the old 1:100 map and note my position on it, and the friendlies position. Following that, I then had to determine what the elevations were surrounding and get an idea of what the terrain was doing. Turns out it was mountainous, but with good valleys. From the current position, I then had to note time/speed/desired heading, minimum altitude I wanted to go down to (I don't know how accurate the map is), turn to the heading, hack the clock, and drop into the soup. Crosschecking time/speed/heading/altitude, I was able to eventually break out of the clouds undeneath but had to very quickly get my bearings as to where I was, where the battle was, and where the granite was. Not easy at night, with no moon and no lights anywhere besides tracers and high-order detonations. From there, was able to get the wingman to do the same thing and we were able to situate ourselves and get to work supporting the friendlies on the ground.


dude...DUDE! That is an amazing tale. Like pilot of the century type stuff!
 
One thing I've learned over 15 years in flying;

Every one of you guys who are saying "I could never be that stupid" will one day suffer a rude awakening that yes you could be.

Even the best and safest pilots can and will find themselves in a situation that they promised themselves they would never be in, all because of decisions and assumptions they made. I could refer to the hundreds of highly skilled and experianced pilots who have been killed by making rookie mistakes during "milk run" flights.


It's not the fall that kills you, nor the sudden stop at the end. It's the sudden shocking realization that yes, you were that Fing stupid.
Agreed. These guys definitely should have stopped for a second to think "wait... this is stupid." I'll admit that I've done some stupid things in airplanes already, some intentional and some not, but at the very least I learned enough from them to not repeat them.
 
I'm not going to lie and say I've never done anything silly, however I've never done anything as stupid as this.
I stand by my comments, this pilot was totally and utterly stupid. I can guarantee that I will not put myself, or better, passengers in the peril that he put them in.

I think it's also important to mention that I've been flying for 12 years, and have a smidgen of experience to back up those comments.
 
I'm not going to lie and say I've never done anything silly, however I've never done anything as stupid as this.
I stand by my comments, this pilot was totally and utterly stupid. I can guarantee that I will not put myself, or better, passengers in the peril that he put them in.

I think it's also important to mention that I've been flying for 12 years, and have a smidgen of experience to back up those comments.

I've been flying for 30 years, and stand by mine.

It is the 300 hour pilots that run into these problems.
 
I recall the insurance statistics indicate likelihood of crashes at 45 hours TT, 450TT, 1750TT and one other with 10k TT.
 
Re: A learning expirience in IMC.

That you are a TOTAL badass.

And I wouldn't be surprised if thats the pilots laughing on the ground.

Every time I've really scared myself, I've always though when I was done, "damn...." then the nervous chuckling always started.
 
That is shocking. That pilot should have his license revoked... I don't care if he kills himself for being stupid but he had several passengers onboard who don't know any better and trusted him with there lives.

At the end of the video someone is laughing

I hope it is somebody on the ramp mocking their stupidity, not the Ef'tards that were flying.

Speaking as someone who has been about as close to getting killed as they were and then came back unharmed as they did, once you get on the ground and you realize that you're now living on borrowed time, you can't help but laugh about it. It's not because you think any of it is funny. It's because when you're that effin' scared, sometimes laughing is all your brain will allow you to do. I don't expect anyone else to understand it, but if it ever happens to you, you'll understand.



Very sobering read - as bdhill1979s last post on JC.... RIP- NO other words at this time...
 
I met another genius Bonanza pilot today.

He came in, requested a top off of 100LL.

I start filling the left tank and it is taking FOREVER to fill this thing. Finally, topped off the left and look at the meter. 38.6 gallons in the left tank. The placard on the wing says 40 gallons total, 37 usuable. He had about 10 gallons in the right wing when he landed. Nothing like running it bone dry.

Way to go, Mr. Bonanza pilot. :clap:
 
I met another genius Bonanza pilot today.

He came in, requested a top off of 100LL.

I start filling the left tank and it is taking FOREVER to fill this thing. Finally, topped off the left and look at the meter. 38.6 gallons in the left tank. The placard on the wing says 40 gallons total, 37 usuable. He had about 10 gallons in the right wing when he landed. Nothing like running it bone dry.

Way to go, Mr. Bonanza pilot. :clap:
hahaha, at my old FBO we had a guy that had a pretty nice old V-35 Bonanza. He didn't fly it that much, so his plane was usually buried somewhere in the hangar, making it a real pain in the arse everytime he DID decide to go flying. We had a fair number of birds in our hangar and we'd had our share of hangar rash too. This guy was known for NEVER doing a preflight. His idea of a preflight was look at the gas, look at the oil, hop in, and git. Somebody timed him the other week. Exactly 2 minutes from getting out of his car to going down the taxiway. And when he came back to get topped off the right wing would always be full and the left just about bone dry. We called him Left Wing Larry.
 
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