Closest Calls/Scariest Moments

Stomp16

Stomp16

You mean Shennanigans?!?!
Continued from a jobs needed thread...

GlenA said:
Oh the books I could write about I almost died :)
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No kidding. I've often thought about writing something up. Not that any other pilots would want to read it since we've all had our near death experiences, but for personal reflection. Two days ago I had two of my biggest scares thus far. We were mapping in the Echo above a Delta and below a Bravo. We were fat, dumb and happy towards the end of a line and a plane decided it wanted to drop like a rock from 1000ft above and turn parallel right on top of us. We made a diving right hand turn and he went right over the top of us at and estimated 150ft. If we wouldn't have moved we would have been pancaked. During this same mission, about two lines later our traffic system suddenly went crazy. We looked on the box and tried to best guess where he was at since no altitude was being shown. We made a left hand turn and half way through spotted the traffic coming right for us. We immediately turned back to the right and an experimental flew by at our altitude about .25-.5miles away. If we wouldn't have spotted that traffic and kept the turn going, I don't think I'd be sitting here writing this today. Definitely got my heart racing. The funny thing about it is ATC called the traffic about 30 seconds later. Traffic in sight was a bit of an understatement at that point.

Let's hear some stories.
 
Maneuvering down low about 8 miles east of a non-towered airport with a student, and I'm (for whatever reason) tuned into that airport's CTAF. We do a couple turns around a point, simulated engine failure, yadda yadda, flying along fat, dumb and happy and I happen to catch on the radio "BFE traffic, mumbletypeg something something niner, 8 east, 1500, landing". I look out the back window of the 172 and see what is very obviously a Beech Twin (I think it was a Travel Air) on our 6, at our altitude, heading directly for us. I take the controls and bank and dive out of the way. He passes us by, and because the sun was in his face at the time probably never even saw us. It's just a good thing I was monitoring CTAF as well as the practice area frequency.
 
These threads always die a terrible death when some old timer gets on here and says, "so there I was, AA all over the place and my threat receiver making a continuous beeping...."

Recently (and it really wasn't my scariest, but it did get my attention) I rotated at V1-5 with about 800 feet or runway remaining. Who knows what happened, but for what ever reason the numbers didn't work out the way they were supposed to.
 
My instructor and I were downwind approx mid field at pattern altitude. I had the controls and my instructor was thumbing through his charts with his head down. Out of the corner of my eye I catch a plane high and slightly left descending on us very fast. I pushed the yoke forward and to the right diving away. I dropped 500 feet so fast that my instructor hit his head on the ceiling (little negative G situation). He said a few words like WTF are you doing etc etc. Then he saw the light twin in front of us now at TPA. The tower jumped on the radio and asked if we were OK. Then the tower “attempted to contact" the idiot in the twin who was not on frequency. When the tower was finally able to get the guy on freq he used a few words I cannot repeat on here and instructed the guy to land immediately and park at the base of the tower.

Had I not caught him out of the corner of my eye, he would have descended right on top of us and I would not be typing this today. The tower guy said he nearly crapped his pants when he saw the incident. My instructor still emails me now and then just to say thanks for saving his life.

It all happened in a few seconds and that’s all it takes... I think we used one of our 9 lives that day... ;)

ILS
 
In just over 30 hours I have already had around two and expect plenty more of these to come:insane: Nothing too crazy, but definitely enough to get the heart pumping a bit higher than usual.

Just north of the Delta the other week and I see a spot in the windscreen that keeps getting bigger and bigger but doesn't move. Hmmm, this sounds familiar, sort of like what I've read about in the AIM. Head on collision anyone? I make a quick left turn and sure enough, a V-tail Bonanza passes right by at my altitude.

Had a a close one entering the pattern in the glider a few months ago too. An eye opener for sure! Traffic avoidance in the glider can be a real chore and it is imperative to keep the SA up at all times.

While not a "close one" per say I had the opportunity to see the 787 from a great vantage point in May. I was doing winch launches down near COS and the 787 in the ANA colors was shooting approaches. We climb up to about 2000 on the winch and see the 787 just filling up the windscreen about a mile or so off at the same altitude. Coolest thing I have ever seen, once in a lifetime experience!
 
MikeD said:
:D :D

I'll stay quiet.
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No man, you really need to link back to wherever you typed up the one about the IMC joinup on the tanker. Or the self-made procedure turn to get under the cloud deck into the valley to support the ground pounders. Then get Orange Anchor in here and it'll be a party.
 
Couple few years ago flying west of the DC ADIZ or whatever it was called then I was west bound level when a black thing started getting bigger and bigger. Eventually I decided that I was either seeing the mothership from Pluto or I was about to get shot down. A few seconds later I reluctantly surmised that it was a B2 Spirit and he had two F16 escorts zipping around him. Now I was thinking of the endless federal prodding in a cage that I would have to endure as the end of my flying days. They pulled a hard turn and went on their merry way and after 10 minutes of mental calculation I realized they had been out there holding for their turn at the Edwards Base Airshow. It was scary for this low timer back then.
 
I was shooting an ILS under the hood when I heard my CFI say "woaaaahh!" and peeked up (I know, I know) to see a Decathlon coming out of a loop towards us right about our altitude. Passes maaaaaaybe a half mile off our right wingtip and does an aileron roll.
I really haven't had any crap my pants moments in my 150 hours so I guess I've been pretty lucky... so far.
 
Roger said:
No man, you really need to link back to wherever you typed up the one about the IMC joinup on the tanker. Or the self-made procedure turn to get under the cloud deck into the valley to support the ground pounders. Then get Orange Anchor in here and it'll be a party.
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Since you asked:

First self-made instrument procedure:

http://forums.jetcareers.com/49792-post10.html

The fun of freight dogging:

http://forums.jetcareers.com/1106563-post35.html

Second self-made instrument letdown:

http://forums.jetcareers.com/1313794-post23.html

IMC flying; Weather trapped; and making it happen when it matters (3-part):

http://forums.jetcareers.com/general-topics/11769-imc-pucker-factor-war-stories.html
 
A couple that stand out in my mind:

Was in the 210 going from SHV to DAL, on a crystal clear day. A line of storms had blown through earlier, and everything was beautiful. I was just about over longview at 2000 feet and encountered the worst turbulence ive ever had. The definition of severe, with no exaggeration. First a killer bump, head hits the ceiling, headset comes of, and a 50lb bank back flies to the front seat, and as im recovering from that, the airplane gets rolled about 100 degrees to the left. By the time i get out of the roll im at about 1500 feet. So now im straight and level, full power Vy, and dropping like a stone at about 1800FPM. I went from 1500 feet down to 500. I was so sure i was toast, i put my gear down to absorb the shock of the crash. The plane finally started climbing out, I landed at love, and went straight to the bar.

Was taking off 17C at DFW in the 'van, behind a 767. It was a full length departure, so i wouldnt get the wake turb. delay. I was "right at" max gross that morning, and the take off roll was pretty long. I get to about 100agl and hit the wake of the 76. The van goes into a 60 degree roll and the stall horn goes off. I level the nose, and decided just to fly the departure heading. Problem is, im at about 75 feet now, and just happen to pass right over an MD 80, and they start raising all kinds of hell over the radio about the cowboy caravan buzzing them etc etc. I switch to departure and get the pleasure of copying the number.

So, i landed, called the tower, smoothed it over, and lived to fly another day.

I've already managed to rack up one or two war stories in my short time flying floats, but its too soon for those. :eek:
 
MikeD said:
Since you asked:
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I only have about 180 hours of flight time, so I haven't had many opportunities to have close calls (thankfully). The closest call I have had so far was instructor error. I did the majority of my private training with a very high time ex air force instructor. The first 10 hours however, I flew with this female instructor with a pretty wet certificate.

We were just doing pattern work to polish up on my landings. The tower controller here at Montgomery can sometimes be pretty loud on the mic. He isn't yelling on purpose or anything, just talks loud. I had just performed a touch and go, and I was to fly around the pattern and report mid-field downwind. When I was turning crosswind my instructor just said "this tower controller is so loud, he just like yells in the mic the whole time and I really can't stand it". So she leans up and turns down the volume some. When I was mid-field downwind I made my call and I got no response. I was at my 45 degree point and was about to turn base, when I decided I would try to turn up the volume a little bit. When I turned the knob, I heard the controller really yelling at us trying to get contact, we were about to turn in front of a C-130 on about a 3 mile final. The approach side of the Montgomery was in the sun so we really couldn't see the C-130. We ended up having to fly an extended downwind to let the -130 pass us and do their touch and go.

My lesson: Make sure whether it is you or your instructor, to only turn the volume down in very small increments. If we had turned in front of that -130 in a warrior it could have been a really bad situation. We eventually parted ways, our schedules did not match up very well so I got another instructor, which turned out to be a godsend. I learned a lot from that guy, and I think he really made me be a better pilot.
 
Let's see, I guess I've got one for ya. I think this was my first real good one.

I was heading up to Dahl Creek Mine, I had about 450hrs and I was building time by flying for helicopter company moving their parts around. I got to Galena (PAGA) and refueled for my last leg of the day. So I take off in the 172RG loaded with a mechanic and lot's of freight and blast off to the north. I pass over Coffee Can Lake on my way up to the Sheklukshuk Range to get through the pass to Dahl Creek. From Galena, all the way past Huslia to the base of the range the weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the afternoon sky, however once I closed in on the foot hills of these small mountains I ran into some lower scud.

Now being the young dumb 450hr commercial pilot, and knowing that going IFR certainly wasn't an option (DCK didn't have an approach, and I was wayyyyyy off airway anyway), I decided I'd try to go under it. After all, I'd been through these hills in good VFR about a half dozen times now, and I knew the terrain pretty well. So I kept on trucking towards the pass that I knew of that would take me through with altitude to spare because the easy way around to the east was fogged in. I was looking for a valley shaped a certain way. So I saw what I thought was the valley and turned right up it. Too my surprise after taking what would have been the correct couple of turns, I realized that I had flown up the wrong valley, and (also to my surprise) that this one was significantly narrower than the others. So, running out of options and VFR conditions I cranked it over to the left and dumped full flaps in my diving left hand turn to turn around. I swear the whole airplane buffeted the whole way around the turn, and I could have sworn that a second later I wouldn't have been able to make it out of there.

After I made it out of the canyon, the mechanic sitting next to me wakes up and says, "hey, we aren't going?" Nah, we're going back.

Moral of the story, don't fly down the middle of the canyon (fly to one side) and either know the terrain for sure or go around. The whole goal of the escapade was to make it through the range, and with the help of a simple 30 mile divert I probably could have run under the clouds with much better terrain clearance. Keep the greasy side down.
 
For me two moments stand out.

1. Practicing go arounds with a student, he put the flaps all the way up instantly. I regained control at almost the very last second.

2. In the embraer getting an RA right after rotation. We were at a smaller outstation, and other aircraft was a 172 flying vfr. He was completely in the wrong place and apparently unseen by ATC. I couldnt understate how close he was to us, and in our configuration we were limited with what we could do. Ive had more TA/RA's than I can count but that one will always stand out in my mind.
 
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