Last moments of my life!
This was back in 2004. I had just been signed of to be able to fly by myself from my instuctor. I did acouple landings and taxied back to the fbo. Afterwards I was told congrats like 20 times by everyone I knew; each of them saying how smart I was and that they were proud of me. I felt great. The next day I went and did some steep turns and spirals... each of which are some of my favorite tricks of the trade. After a half an hour of doing that, I decided I would make my way over the ocean and do some quick stalls before heading back. On my 2nd or 3rd stall, to my great suprise, I guess that I finally knew what a uncontrolled spin was. It all started at around 2,000 feet above the clear blue ocean. I listened to the AWOS from the airport closest to me and pointed straight into the wind. I set up for a power-on stall just how my instructor had taught me. I applied full power and pulled the yoke back. I guess I may have been alittle too excited and could have not been paying attention to my turn coordinator ball. I was not coordinated... While looking at my gauges and peeking at the blue ocean, my left wing dropped and the plane started spinning very quickly. I pulled back the power, and because I was so freaked out - and truly did not know the negative effects of using the alierons in a stall, I put all the right alieron I could into this small plane. Nothing HAPPENED, and I was glad of it. That could have made it worse. Anyways, I was FREAKING OUT. After about 6 seconds and four spiral rotations, I honestly thought that nothing I could have done would of saved me. At about 1300 agl I realized if I didn't do something quickly I was going to have it in for me. So I just kicked the right rudder and after a second or two I finally pulled out of the spin. From then on I flew straight back to my airport, landed and went home. All the while I was shaking and just scared of what just happened. That night, I read my book on spinning and to my suprise, I found out what needed to be done when involved in an uncontrolled spin... something my CFI did not explain to me. In retrospect, I believe my lack of knowledge could have been from the fact that I switched instructors around the time that I learned stalls and stall techniques.
The very next day, after mentally preparing myself that I was going to be O.K. when I went flying, I drove to the FBO for some more solo time. When I got there, to my suprise, I found that the plane I was going to take up had a scheduled check up- not that I was aware or anything. Anyways, the flight school's owner came over and explained that I should take the other C-152; which I have only flown once, maybe twice. This was not a big deal, all his planes were basically the same. Except one small, but big factor, the replacement plane, 948, had standard tanks, while the plane I have been using had long range tanks... but again I did not know this. So like usual, I went out to the plane and did all my checks and finally checked the fuel. I took my fuel stick and checked the fuel... both visually by my eyes and by reading the fuel stick. I remember taking out the fuel stick/hawk and it read "5." Totally enough fuel for acouple of hours of flying... in 26L, the long range plane that I was accustomed of flying. Nevertheless, the fuel was good in my eyes so I went up and did some steep banks and all that stuff. Besides stalls, I really felt like I was getting the hang of this solo thing. Getting back in the pattern, I decided I was going to make a few touch and gos. I did one. Two. Three. Four. Turning final on my 5th landing, I decided I was going to make this one a full stop. I had enough time and enough fuel*, but I decided I had spent enough money that day. I taxied back to the FBO and drove home after talking to the owner again, explaining that the flight went great. (He did not know about yesterday's incident.) Later that night, I got a call from the owner on my house phone. This suprised me, he always waited to talk to me in person about business. We played the whole, 'how are you' game, but then he asked me something totally irrelevant. "How much fuel was in 948 when you flew today?" I told him that there was like 15 gallons, roughly, according to my stick which read "5" for the fuel level. He then explained that when the fuel truck came to fill up the plane, the employee put in like 24.2 gallons out of the 26 gallon tank... 1.5 of which were unusable... . . . If you are quick at math, you would have already fiqured out that I had .3 gallons of useable fuel left when I shut off the engine that day. I was shocked when he told me this, that was a huge deal. I may have had to use my emergency landing training that I more or less deemed useless... after all, the whole stigma of that could never happen to me comes into play sometimes... back on the subject, I had .3 gallons left. Putting it into picture, the C-152 needs like 1.2 gallons for taxi and 1.9 gallons for take off to 2000 feet agl. If I hadn't made number 5 a full stop, I would have made my touch and go, and at like 600 feet the engine would have stopped. By this time I would be to high to land on the runway, and to low to turn back. I would have had to land straight... and if i would have done that, I am pretty sure I would have had to land on either houses or on parked cars... So I am extremely glad that I didn't.
Now most of you are trying to understand how I am still alive today being a "stupid" young pilot as it is. Well let me explain. Firstly, my instructors never explained to me what I should do if i ever get into and uncontrolled spin... I know now. Secondly, my instructor did not know I was going to take the standard tank airplane, so he never explained that 26L was long range, and the new plane 948 was standard; and the lucky 5 on my fuel rod would have told me that I needed more fuel. So in my defence, in both cases I did not know both of the factors that contributed to my amazingly stupid/scary stories. To this day, I ask so many questions about the plane I am going to fly, and make sure I know every aspect of it before I think about taking it up. Just remember CFIs, make sure your students know everything needed for a safe flight. Don't assume that they do like my instructors did... Assuming makes an ASS out of U and ME... Be smart; use my story as an example of what could have gone wrong when a young, 15 hour pilot, is not informed of certain aspects that could lead to an emergency. Afterall, if a student pilot's CFI doesn't tell him what he needs to know, who is?
I am prepared for a lot of remarks on this... enjoy.
Fortunately I noticed my mistake right away and threw the lever forward before it actually feathered. It was kind of embarrasing - first time I'd ever done that and it was the day before my MEI ride.
