Any Experiences Kind of Like the TV Show AC Investigation?

jayd1038

jayd1038

Well-Known Member
I admit I really enjoy that show for some reason. It's crazy just how damn unlucky some pilots/crew/passengers are and how awesome gifted some pilots are (i.e. the episode that they lose both engines and glide for a crap load of miles)

Anyhow, anyone ever have any real serious " Oh • we are in big trouble moments" while flying and can you share any stories? I've heard that more things happen in the cockpit that if the passengers knew they'd be freaking out a little, than gets let out.

Thanks!
 
More than once, I've had a guy fall out. Then I said "Jumpers away over..." and that was the end of it.
 
I hit my head once in front of a cabin full of people. Well, actually, I still do that pretty frequently.
 
I had to whizz in a Gatorade bottle in turbulence and that went about as well as you'd expect. It was like time slowed down and "Adagio for strings" started playing.
 
In 20 years of airline flying, I've only had to shut down an engine inflight once, and it wasn't even an engine problem but a duct leak. Other than that, it's been over 10,000 hours of blissful boredom.
That said, I've probably just set myself up for some massive engine problem and will have to divert off the NAT tonight.
 
Had a gear stuck in the well, in an aircraft that , after contacting mx, they said " it can't stick up". Politely asked if if he wanted me to send him a pic of it stuck in the well. ( gear is easily seen from the cockpit)
 
I made a mistake and accepted an aircraft with about sixty gazillion cockpit light MELs (I'm guessing it was 3 or 4 MELs). No biggie - who needs cockpit lighting?

Plane flew fine until sunset 8 legs and 6 hours later. There was no cockpit lighting - no instrument lighting, the only thing we could see was the ADI and HSI - only because there were CRT screens, all the airspeed, altimeter, RMI, VSI, fuel, engine ITT, torque, prop RPM, oil temp gauges were steam gauge and normally they're lit by instrument backlight. Not tonight - not a single gauge could be read. The only other illumination in the cockpit was the TCAS gauge (another CRT screen) and the digits on the com/nav radios.

Ok, close the flight deck door time so the pax won't be alarmed. Break out the emergency flash light, FO holds the flash light over the instrument panel, 5 minutes later the flash light dies, break out the other emergency flash light, it dies 5 minutes later too.

Back on the ground, wrote up the emergency flashlights. Airplane grounded.

TMAAT emergency interview story - check.
 
I'm surprised there aren't more experiences posted so far. Obviously a good thing if it is really rare to really have any "Oh •" moments while flying due to some unexpected happening ( not being in a bottle lol).

Just goes to show even more how damn unlucky some of those pilots were in that show.
 
I had a complete brake failure on a Navajo once. Fully loaded, short strip in the Bahamas. Landed, applied brakes, started to slow, then both pedals went to the floor. Actually, the left went out slightly before the right... So I was swerving towards the edge of the runway at still a pretty decent speed. Coaxed it back towards center with nose wheel steering as well as pumping the left brake.

Remember I said this was a short runway? So now that I had it straightened out, all I saw were a bunch of rocks at the end that we were heading towards. I yelled for the pax to brace, and killed the mixtures and throttles.

I'm now thinking I can't believe this is happening, as we roll off the runway towards the rocks, when the sand at the end quickly (but smoothly) slowed us to a stop.

Turned out the brake fluid was contaminated with water, which vaporized to steam when I initially applied the brakes. Without a doubt, that is the most dangerous situation I've ever been in with an aircraft. Could've been REAL ugly if a couple things were different.
 
GypsyPilot said:
I had a complete brake failure on a Navajo once. Fully loaded, short strip in the Bahamas. Landed, applied brakes, started to slow, then both pedals went to the floor. Actually, the left went out slightly before the right... So I was swerving towards the edge of the runway at still a pretty decent speed. Coaxed it back towards center with nose wheel steering as well as pumping the left brake.

Remember I said this was a short runway? So now that I had it straightened out, all I saw were a bunch of rocks at the end that we were heading towards. I yelled for the pax to brace, and killed the mixtures and throttles.

I'm now thinking I can't believe this is happening, as we roll off the runway towards the rocks, when the sand at the end quickly (but smoothly) slowed us to a stop.

Turned out the brake fluid was contaminated with water, which vaporized to steam when I initially applied the brakes. Without a doubt, that is the most dangerous situation I've ever been in with an aircraft. Could've been REAL ugly if a couple things were different.
Click to expand...

Wow that's nuts, glad you were all ok. I don't know how you have the guts to fly again after that, I am not so sure I could if that were me lol.
 
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