captain moron, checking in...
- Thread starter killbilly
- Start date
SoCalAprch
Well-Known Member
I delayed a flight because I didn't think that the intercom was working on my side. Just as Maintenance was about to pull the audio panel out I realized that the hot mic switch was off. 
CamYZ125
Well-Known Member
On my first flight with my old boss I couldn't get the airplane to start. After about three tries I realized the mags were off....
Alex.
Least you didn't run the battery dead trying. Nope, I've never done that
SFCC/UND
Well-Known Member
I when I did my long cross country to Redmond, Or, this was my first time visiting. I was having problems with the GPS. The controller told me left base for 28, I said okay, then I could not find it. He comes back to me and said do you know where you are? You past it. Got to love those moments.
cfii2007
New Member
Ever have such a dumbass moment that you wonder how you ever earned your pilot's license to begin with?
I'm flying back from AQO to AUS the other night, Houston Center hands me off to AUS approach about 35nm out.
"Austin approach, Skyhawk 1234, five thousand five hundred."
"Skyhawk 1234, expect a right base for one-seven right."
"Skyhawk 1234."
So I drone along for a few minutes and I'm thinking about it. 17R? Why the hell do they want me to come in on 17R? That's totally bizarre. That means I have to swing around SE of the airport and then reverse course to make the turn.
"Approach, Skyhawk 1234 with question."
"Go ahead, Skyhawk 1234."
"I'm 35nm northwest of AUS. Do you want me to swing southeast of the airport for a right base?"
"Skyhawk 1234, I don't understand. You're cleared for a right base to 17R. Did you want something else?"
"Negative, approach. I'll fly wherever you need me to, just curious about the routing."
At this point, something in the back of my head is telling me I've got this way wrong, but it hasn't clicked yet. Approach comes back to me in a somewhat firmer tone.
"Skyhawk 1234, I don't understand what you want. You're northwest of the airport. If you fly straight on your present heading you'll be lined up perfectly for a right base. I don't get your drift."
And then it hits me. And oh my God, how stupid do I feel? I can imagine everyone else on frequency snickering to themselves, and rightly so.
Because he cleared me for 17R. And what I was thinking of was 35R. Which would have required a long swing around the airport.
Oh God, I am such a moron. I am a tool. I am navel lint.
"Approach, Skyhawk 1234. I...uh...had the airport diagram reversed. Sorry about that. Right base for 17R."
"Ah, that explains it. Just wanted to make sure we were clear."
Controller was very friendly and professional about it. But God, did I feel dumb. I swear I will never make that mistake again. If any of you heard that one, sorry. Hope you had a good laugh.
:banghead::banghead::banghead:
(NOTE: I write a lot about the dumb things I do in the air. I do a lot of things right, too. But I figure if I share the learning stuff - the stuff that's somewhat amusing in retrospect, it not only cements the lesson in my own mind, but may help someone else.)
17....35.....whateva........
Matt13C
Well-Known Member
I left the master on once, came back to the plane after getting some food and thought, wow the gyros still havent spun down? Then i go to start and realized what I did. Had to get a jump. Felt like an idiot telling the school why we would be late returning.
Also, When calling to transition a delta I asked to transition east to west when I was really going west to east. It was really early so there was no one else in the air really, the tower guy realized my screw up and with al the disdain he could muster "you mean west to east?"...."uh, yes, west to east" DAMMIT!
Also, When calling to transition a delta I asked to transition east to west when I was really going west to east. It was really early so there was no one else in the air really, the tower guy realized my screw up and with al the disdain he could muster "you mean west to east?"...."uh, yes, west to east" DAMMIT!
Holocene
Well-Known Member
I took off on one mag once. Climbing out at about 300' AGL, I say to myself, "damn, is this really full power?". Then I reach down and flick the mags to "both", and it was like I activated the afterburners!!!!!
Holocene
Well-Known Member
Exactly what happened to me. Flying back to SYR from 6B4, I was cleared for a straight-in, rwy 28. Ended making about a mile-long right base...
mhcasey
Well-Known Member
Another Austin story from Bill's prospective CFII (hope it doesn't scare you away, Bill)...
Flying IFR home from a hockey game in College Station...should be quick and easy. I get the weather and am told to expect the ILS to 17L. Then I wait a really really long time and nothing happens. I start calling approach when I know I'm close to the Localizer, but don't hear back from them. The localizer starts to center and as I'm reaching down to squawk 7600 it dawns on me that I turned my com 1 down (approach freq active) to listen to ATIS, and forgot to turn it back up.
ATC wasn't very happy when I turned up the volume having missed their last god knows how many calls, but I guess no harm no foul (except the crushing harm inflicted upon my ego).
*The squawk 7600 was added for dramatic effect...I was really planning on just switching to com 2, which I should have done significantly sooner anyway.
Flying IFR home from a hockey game in College Station...should be quick and easy. I get the weather and am told to expect the ILS to 17L. Then I wait a really really long time and nothing happens. I start calling approach when I know I'm close to the Localizer, but don't hear back from them. The localizer starts to center and as I'm reaching down to squawk 7600 it dawns on me that I turned my com 1 down (approach freq active) to listen to ATIS, and forgot to turn it back up.
ATC wasn't very happy when I turned up the volume having missed their last god knows how many calls, but I guess no harm no foul (except the crushing harm inflicted upon my ego).
*The squawk 7600 was added for dramatic effect...I was really planning on just switching to com 2, which I should have done significantly sooner anyway.
Turbo Mcfloat
Well-Known Member
I did it a week or two ago but I only made an ass of myself to my captain
jjm
Well-Known Member
good man. One of the wiser statements posted on here in a long time.
I could come up with a good one, but I'd have to review all of the cases, rate them, put down a chronological order, categorize them and formulate selection criteria and then update the list because by the time I nailed down a good one, I'd have come home with another few to report. (i.e. "yes, roll the trucks!")
I have always kept a little spiral notebook and after each flight duty day, I go home and jot down some quick notes and that has helped me immensely over the years. (So you know I'm not bs'ing, yesterday I wrote down "Flaps 15, Ref+5, still juice a little power on flare". )
side note-- I was cleaning out my attic and found my old Pre-solo notebook and there was a big careful drawing of a traffic pattern, and little notes here and there with things like "try to talk on the radio without help" , and "Flaps ONLY in the white arc!" and "RELAX YOUR GRIP!" . What a great journey this has been.
keep your chin up and thanks for being cool enough to share.
j
tonyw
Well-Known Member
Oh, yeah, I've done that. It always resulted in a chuckle and a "well, we can talk on this frequency if you want but you're supposed to be on 123.45."
D'oh!
HeyEng
Well-Known Member
On my first flight with my old boss I couldn't get the airplane to start. After about three tries I realized the mags were off....
Alex.
First Billy, thanks for sharing. I too have many stories but don't have the balls to post most of them!
Secondly about a week ago, I pulled the Cherokee out of the hanger for a few laps around the patch and couldn't get the plane to start. It almost ALWAYS starts within two spins, so I couldn't figure out what the hell was wrong. I was cussing and ranting and was about to get out and investigate what was wrong when I noticed the mixture was in "cut off". Of course, there were about 15 people standing around surely thinking "should he be flying if he can't even start the stupid thing?!?" Amazingly, when I set it to "full rich" it started right up. D'oh!!
At my airport, we have a right pattern for 35. When a nice cool front comes through in the summer and the winds come out of the north, you only have to hang around the airport for about 30 minutes before you see someone come in on a left pattern to 35. There are SOOOO many mistakes made daily, it amazes me that there aren't more accidents.
On my first flight with my old boss I couldn't get the airplane to start. After about three tries I realized the mags were off....
Alex.
As a student pilot I had to move the 150 from one end of the ramp to to the other. I just thought I would hop in, start 'er up and taxi over. After a couple of tries cranking with the starter, priming, and wondering why the engine would die after 3 seconds... I moved the mixture to rich.
Chris Barnes
Well-Known Member
Don't worry too much about it. Read below and you'll feel ALL BETTER.
What began as a nice afternoon outing turned into a red faced moment I hope to never have again. So I went hauling a$$ out of a small airport one afternoon in a C210. It began as any flight should. I had noted that the frequency was pretty crowded that afternoon as it was nice and warm, but severely clear and calm; the flight school at the airport near mine was very busy with students shooting touch and go's.
I went thru all the procedures; start-up, taxi, run-up, takeoff, etc... and made all the required radio calls about my position on the airport, my takeoff announcement and my direction of flight. Right after I made my call regarding my takeoff runway and direction of flight the frequency immediately went bananas. (you know that high pitched squeal when 2 people are trying to talk over each other? Yeah, multiply that by 10.)
Off I went into the wild blue yonder and still laughing at the guys over at the other airport stepping all over each other. I eventually tuned the the frequency to the airport to where I was going to land. (about 20 minutes away)
When I got there I pulled up to the gas pump and shut down. Refueling went normal and I paid at the pump. I decided to go inside and grab a coke before setting off on my way. Inside there were a couple of guys standing at the counter talking. As I drank my coke I listened to them talk about an incident that had happened earlier over at the airport with the flight school. Apparently some idiot had announced he was departing on the single runway opposite the traffic flow and caused about 6 aircraft to scatter out of the pattern in anticipation of this guy taking off and making a right turn out; which would have put him RIGHT into the downwind traffic as well. Causing all sorts of hell...The funny thing was that the aircraft that announced the departure was never spotted - either on the ground OR in the air and never made another radio call after the initial takeoff announcement.
After listening a little more I heard one of the guys say, yeah they never got the full call sign but so and so said it was a Centurion of some sort. Immediately panic set in. I almost threw up. I realized that it was ME who had made those calls. The 2 airports that were close together shared the same name but each was prefixed with the county to differentiate each other. I remembered that I HAD NOT used the county prefix but just the airport name.anic:
The flight back home couldn't have been any slower. All I wanted to do was get back, put the plane in the hanger and go home. Quietly!
What began as a nice afternoon outing turned into a red faced moment I hope to never have again. So I went hauling a$$ out of a small airport one afternoon in a C210. It began as any flight should. I had noted that the frequency was pretty crowded that afternoon as it was nice and warm, but severely clear and calm; the flight school at the airport near mine was very busy with students shooting touch and go's.
I went thru all the procedures; start-up, taxi, run-up, takeoff, etc... and made all the required radio calls about my position on the airport, my takeoff announcement and my direction of flight. Right after I made my call regarding my takeoff runway and direction of flight the frequency immediately went bananas. (you know that high pitched squeal when 2 people are trying to talk over each other? Yeah, multiply that by 10.)
Off I went into the wild blue yonder and still laughing at the guys over at the other airport stepping all over each other. I eventually tuned the the frequency to the airport to where I was going to land. (about 20 minutes away)
When I got there I pulled up to the gas pump and shut down. Refueling went normal and I paid at the pump. I decided to go inside and grab a coke before setting off on my way. Inside there were a couple of guys standing at the counter talking. As I drank my coke I listened to them talk about an incident that had happened earlier over at the airport with the flight school. Apparently some idiot had announced he was departing on the single runway opposite the traffic flow and caused about 6 aircraft to scatter out of the pattern in anticipation of this guy taking off and making a right turn out; which would have put him RIGHT into the downwind traffic as well. Causing all sorts of hell...The funny thing was that the aircraft that announced the departure was never spotted - either on the ground OR in the air and never made another radio call after the initial takeoff announcement.
After listening a little more I heard one of the guys say, yeah they never got the full call sign but so and so said it was a Centurion of some sort. Immediately panic set in. I almost threw up. I realized that it was ME who had made those calls. The 2 airports that were close together shared the same name but each was prefixed with the county to differentiate each other. I remembered that I HAD NOT used the county prefix but just the airport name.
anic:The flight back home couldn't have been any slower. All I wanted to do was get back, put the plane in the hanger and go home. Quietly!
