FIRST TIME!

Prospective_Pilot

New Member
I got invited to going flying with some of my dad's friends a few weeks ago. Well this morning was my first time up in a little Cessna 172 which was something like 30 years old!!!! Had cracks in the fuselage and everything..oh, and the airspeed indicator didn't work!
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That didn't stop me from getting in it but.
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We took off and for 2 hours just made about five missed instrument approaches...fun fun! I'm even more eager to start on my PPL now.........
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-Amos
 
Hey this made me think of somthing, wouldn't it be cool if some us young teens who love flying so much end up in the cockpit together flying for a company one day. That would make a great story, somthing for you to be proud of Doug.
Oh ya, congrats on your trip man.
 
Hey, it's a small world!!! Maybe it could happen you never know. Personally I plan on going the cargo route. My ultimate dream would be flying Md-11's for FedEx or classic 747's for UPS.
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oh, and the airspeed indicator didn't work!
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Is that legal? Hmmmmm (Begging the question...)
 
Not sure whether or not it was legal. Obviously we only found out it had failed on takeoff...The only thing the people in the front seat said was "hey, you get what you pay for". They paid like $50 an hour (I THINK) for the old bird, so I don't know.....anyone else here know?
 
91.205, the first instrument in the list of required equipment is the airspeed indicator.

Having the AI quit inflight is something I could deal with if I had to, but to rotate knowing that it's not working is plain crazy. What's worse is acting like this while carrying passengers and shooting instrument approaches.
 
I had my airspeed indicator go out on the takeoff roll of my Commercial Single Checkride
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It was only a partial blockage, so it indicated enough to trick me into calling "airspeed alive", but since I was concentrating on the soft-field takeoff, I didn't notice it was registering waaayyyy off until I was already in ground effect. We did a quick spin around the pattern and took it to maintainence to have the beetles blown out.

Anyway, enough of the war stories; sound like a fun day of flying Prospective_Pilot. Doing missed approaches is really good experience, you'll have a leg up when it's time to add the instrument rating to your PPL. What approaches were you doing and where? Were you able to keep up with what was gong on the whole time?
 
Sounds like fun, and good price, just make sure the maintenance is kept up as far as inspections and annual are concerned (and required vfr equip.), or else if u get ramped, and they are not c/w, u might have a problem.
 
We took off from Spanish fork (U77) and did 5 missed instrument approaches (mixture of ILS and IFR I think) into KPVU. Both of the dudes flying the plane had around 350 hours each and one pilot was concentrating on what the other pilot was doing, so I don't believe there was any danger involed at all. At least my safety didn't feel threatend!

I had absolutely no problem whatsoever at following what was going on, although, it was kinda hard to see the panel from the rear seats. I do wish I could have sat in the front so I could have flown the aircraft, but I guess there is always next time to do that.

I have another friend who I'll be going flying with possibly in a few weeks. He said we'd either fly to Las Vegas or down to the Grand Canyon. The good thing is he was trained and got his PPL through the airforce. I suppose that means he is a trust worthy pilot to go flying with.
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Sounds cool! If your friends are CFI's, dont forget to log it as Dual Recieved if you sit in the front seat.
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One of them that flew the plane yesterday had previously worked on his CFI. Not sure why he suddenly stoped working on it. Toooo bad.

I just happend to talk to him like just 20 mins ago. I asked him about the airspeed indicator failing. He assured me we did everything legal under the type of circumstances we had.
 
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Sounds like fun, and good price, just make sure the maintenance is kept up as far as inspections and annual are concerned (and required vfr equip.), or else if u get ramped, and they are not c/w, u might have a problem.

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Since when do passengers get violated by the FAA? As long as you're not PIC, you're fine.
 
Prospective Pilot:

I WOULD NOT FLY WITH THESE GUYS EVER AGAIN. If the airspeed indicator truly failed, the aircraft was illegal to fly under VFR, let alone IFR. Were you in the clouds with these yahoos? God I hope nope. This is one of the more irresponsible acts I've heard of in GA, and I've heard of many! These a**holes risked your life and then LIED to you when they told you "everything was legal."

Two 350 hour pilots are dangerous enough in the cockpit even WITH a functioning airspeed indicator. No offense to low-time guys, but this is usually when one guy tries to impress the other and very bad things happen. Now throw in the failure of your primary pitch instrument in IMC and it's by the grace of God that we're reading this on JC and not NTSB.

Sorry to be so melodramatic, but these guys gice GA a bad name.
 
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oh, and the airspeed indicator didn't work! That didn't stop me from getting in it but.

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Flying real aeroplanes is different to flying PC simulators. When you start studying for your PPL, you will appreciate the importance of an instrument such as the airspeed indicator. You will then realise that these fools could have prevented you from never to enjoy the best hobby in the world.


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They paid like $50 an hour (I THINK) for the old bird

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I THINK your family was facing much more than that for a brand new coffin.
 
Airspeed indicator failures, yikes. It's only happened to me once, when I was a student pilot. My CFI and I were doing our night xc in a 152 and the airspeed indicator needle never moved. For some reason we didn't abort the takeoff (I was still pretty green, even by student pilot standards). We nixed the xc, made one a circuit in the pattern and landed. It's not something I'd want to experience again, and from then on I've always watched the asi closely during the ground roll, ready to chop the power should that needle stay stuck on zero.

THe good thing is, in VMC you can pretty accurately guess your airspeed using the tachometer, VSI, and Attitude indicator if you're reasonably familiar with the aircraft. In IMC all bets are off....
 
Last Tuesday the weather was fine. Not a cloud in the sky. I'm sure if it wasn't then we would have definitely returned to the airport to land immediately.

I didn't see it as being such a thing to be extremely concerned over since you can pretty much accurately guess the airspeed from other instruments (like Alchemy said). And I'm sure both the people in control of the aircraft were being extremely careful and aware at all times. However, what if it had been at night, the weather had been bad or something else had failed then I would have started to panic. But that's a little like saying what if i walked out my front door tomorrow and was shot.

All this leads me to ask another question: If small aircraft instruments are so prone to fail then why don't the FAA make it mandatory for Private pilots to carry parachutes? I don't see why one couldn't jump out of a Cessna or something from above 1,500 feet if there was nothing you could do to save the aircraft.
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>>I didn't see it as being such a thing to be extremely concerned over since you can pretty much accurately guess the airspeed from other instruments (like Alchemy said).<<

Please tell me how! a) I would never take off without an operational airspeed indicator b) I would be very happy to get on the ground if it broke inflight.

To be a safe aviator you need to have a high safety standards. Just because you might be shot tomorrow, does not make it a good idea to fly an aircraft which is unsafe as declared by the FAA.
 
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All this leads me to ask another question: If small aircraft instruments are so prone to fail then why don't the FAA make it mandatory for Private pilots to carry parachutes? I don't see why one couldn't jump out of a Cessna or something from above 1,500 feet if there was nothing you could do to save the aircraft.
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First of all the cost of such a mandate would be prohibitive and a deterrent to general aviation. Parachutes need to be inspected by a certified rigger and this costs money and takes time. More importantly, you would have many inexperienced pilots jumping ship over populated areas when the get carb ice for the first time, or some other minor problem. A better alternative would be to do thorough preflights, check the maintenance logs of any aircraft you rent, adhere to the FAR's and/or MEL if supplied and make better decisions when flying, none of which your 350 hour buddies did.
 
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