There’s a few less hairs on my head today

gliderboy said:
Reason #1: At the Pt.135 airline where I flew, a single pilot operation, I'd do 12 takeoffs and landings on a typical day. Using the e-trim going up and down all day like that wears them out quickly, and they're very expensive. (And MX has more important things to do.)

#2: Never have to worry about runaway trim, as happened to one of our pilots.

#3: Better feel for the airplane and smoother transitions during the ballistic trajectories we were required to fly to stay within glide-to-land distance.
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To each their own, but that sounds dumb
 
gliderboy said:
Reason #1: At the Pt.135 airline where I flew, a single pilot operation, I'd do 12 takeoffs and landings on a typical day. Using the e-trim going up and down all day like that wears them out quickly, and they're very expensive. (And MX has more important things to do.)

#2: Never have to worry about runaway trim, as happened to one of our pilots.

#3: Better feel for the airplane and smoother transitions during the ballistic trajectories we were required to fly to stay within glide-to-land distance.
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roger and I both flew 135 in Vans doing similar flying…. I stand by his “ummmm k.”
 
fholbert said:
How did you sleep? When I had a major emergency the what if's kept me up all night.
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It's interesting. I didn't have that reaction, but I did (and still do) occasionally wake up in the middle of the night with "what if" nightmares.
 
Acrofox said:
It's interesting. I didn't have that reaction, but I did (and still do) occasionally wake up in the middle of the night with "what if" nightmares.
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I guess I'm the real weirdo. I've only had one what you'd call "this thing may very shortly be a hole in the ground" moment (roughly on the level of @mrivc211's experience here), but I've had more than what I imagine to be my fair share of whatever is one-step-back-from-that events, and, to the best of my recollection, I was always a bit shaken for about ten minutes, then nothing. Have a couple of beers, couple of yuks, sleep like a baby.

This probably sounds like macho chest-beating, but it's not. It's likely a maladaptive characteristic, to be honest. Like, if you (perceive yourself to have, at least) nearly died, it's almost certainly not normal to wake up fully refreshed and go back to fly the same crap the next day, but I've always seemed to just shrug it off and go back to work with nary a care.

Again, I'm not trying to spray everyone with my manly musk, or whatever, I'm just interested in the psychology and physiology of varying responses. When my Mom died, I was a basket-case for a week, and wouldn't have flown if you'd waved six figures in my face. Any sort of interpersonal dispute gets overthought for days or weeks. And as many will attest, I'm not exactly Bob Hoover on my best day. But scary airplane stuff just doesn't seem to stick, for whatever reason. It may be that deep down I can't believe the damned things get in the air in the first place, so it's all make-believe, dunno.

This would probably make a really interesting poll.
 
Anytime flight controls get worked on, removed or adjusted it always makes me nervous. I'll run multiple checks with multiple people in the cockpit with me outside or vise versa double and triple checking. And even then I won't trust it and will come back at least one more time before the airplane is released to check it again with hopefully another fresh set of eyes, usually another RII. Trim and spoilers seem to confuse people as to how they actually work in practice versus when looking at it on the ground. It takes me a long time to start to truly trust someone, hopefully people feel the same way about me. Most of the airplanes I work on the majority of the flight control inputs can't be visually verified from the cockpit. I never really lose that anxiety until the airplane has flown at least once. I've heard and read so many horror stories over the years it's just one of those things that has been hammered into my head, Aviate, navigate, communicate. If the pilot can't do the first one things are likely to get ugly and I'm not sure I could live with myself if it was my negligence that caused it. @mrvic211 I'm glad you'll be around to fly another day.
 
Boris Badenov said:
I guess I'm the real weirdo. I've only had one what you'd call "this thing may very shortly be a hole in the ground" moment (roughly on the level of @mrivc211's experience here), but I've had more than what I imagine to be my fair share of whatever is one-step-back-from-that events, and, to the best of my recollection, I was always a bit shaken for about ten minutes, then nothing. Have a couple of beers, couple of yuks, sleep like a baby.
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Honestly, I can mostly relate. In my case, I've tried to lead a boring, compliant, safe career in aviation, and mostly have succeeded.

My one "fun" story involved inadvertent VFR-into-IMC at at < 501' AGL in a tight little canyon (too narrow to turn around) with a malfunctioning GPS/nav display. There were 2000' mountains on each side (and one in front of me), and I was forced to climb into the clouds.

(I was following a senior pilot who said the weather was good in the inlet and "got better the further in you go." Later, on the ground, he told me that he just didn't want to say he'd gone IMC on the radio.)

I had no trouble sleeping after that, but a few times ever year, I'd wake up from a nightmare of flying along in clouds and having trees suddenly rush up into the windscreen.

Cool, huh?

(Normally, in my flying-related nightmares, I'm a dragon, flying along and enjoying the flow of air across my scales and wings, taking in the scents and watching the world go by... and then I realize that I'm busting class B without a clearance, and I get all freaked out.)
 
Acrofox said:
Honestly, I can mostly relate. In my case, I've tried to lead a boring, compliant, safe career in aviation, and mostly have succeeded.

My one "fun" story involved inadvertent VFR-into-IMC at at < 501' AGL in a tight little canyon (too narrow to turn around) with a malfunctioning GPS/nav display. There were 2000' mountains on each side (and one in front of me), and I was forced to climb into the clouds.

(I was following a senior pilot who said the weather was good in the inlet and "got better the further in you go." Later, on the ground, he told me that he just didn't want to say he'd gone IMC on the radio.)

I had no trouble sleeping after that, but a few times ever year, I'd wake up from a nightmare of flying along in clouds and having trees suddenly rush up into the windscreen.

Cool, huh?

(Normally, in my flying-related nightmares, I'm a dragon, flying along and enjoying the flow of air across my scales and wings, taking in the scents and watching the world go by... and then I realize that I'm busting class B without a clearance, and I get all freaked out.)
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Is that the story that you told me in SLC?
 
Boris Badenov said:
I guess I'm the real weirdo. I've only had one what you'd call "this thing may very shortly be a hole in the ground" moment (roughly on the level of @mrivc211's experience here), but I've had more than what I imagine to be my fair share of whatever is one-step-back-from-that events, and, to the best of my recollection, I was always a bit shaken for about ten minutes, then nothing. Have a couple of beers, couple of yuks, sleep like a baby.

This probably sounds like macho chest-beating, but it's not. It's likely a maladaptive characteristic, to be honest. Like, if you (perceive yourself to have, at least) nearly died, it's almost certainly not normal to wake up fully refreshed and go back to fly the same crap the next day, but I've always seemed to just shrug it off and go back to work with nary a care.

Again, I'm not trying to spray everyone with my manly musk, or whatever, I'm just interested in the psychology and physiology of varying responses. When my Mom died, I was a basket-case for a week, and wouldn't have flown if you'd waved six figures in my face. Any sort of interpersonal dispute gets overthought for days or weeks. And as many will attest, I'm not exactly Bob Hoover on my best day. But scary airplane stuff just doesn't seem to stick, for whatever reason. It may be that deep down I can't believe the damned things get in the air in the first place, so it's all make-believe, dunno.

This would probably make a really interesting poll.
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Wait until you have a cargo fire warning. Come screaming down from FL350. Think your gonna burn. Declare an emergency. Land with all the fire trucks around. And then crew skeds says "looks like the plane will be green in an hour, here's you new departure time".
 
Boris Badenov said:
I guess I'm the real weirdo. I've only had one what you'd call "this thing may very shortly be a hole in the ground" moment (roughly on the level of @mrivc211's experience here), but I've had more than what I imagine to be my fair share of whatever is one-step-back-from-that events, and, to the best of my recollection, I was always a bit shaken for about ten minutes, then nothing. Have a couple of beers, couple of yuks, sleep like a baby.

This probably sounds like macho chest-beating, but it's not. It's likely a maladaptive characteristic, to be honest. Like, if you (perceive yourself to have, at least) nearly died, it's almost certainly not normal to wake up fully refreshed and go back to fly the same crap the next day, but I've always seemed to just shrug it off and go back to work with nary a care.

Again, I'm not trying to spray everyone with my manly musk, or whatever, I'm just interested in the psychology and physiology of varying responses. When my Mom died, I was a basket-case for a week, and wouldn't have flown if you'd waved six figures in my face. Any sort of interpersonal dispute gets overthought for days or weeks. And as many will attest, I'm not exactly Bob Hoover on my best day. But scary airplane stuff just doesn't seem to stick, for whatever reason. It may be that deep down I can't believe the damned things get in the air in the first place, so it's all make-believe, dunno.

This would probably make a really interesting poll.
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the difference is they have something to live for
 
Boris Badenov said:
I guess I'm the real weirdo. I've only had one what you'd call "this thing may very shortly be a hole in the ground" moment (roughly on the level of @mrivc211's experience here), but I've had more than what I imagine to be my fair share of whatever is one-step-back-from-that events, and, to the best of my recollection, I was always a bit shaken for about ten minutes, then nothing. Have a couple of beers, couple of yuks, sleep like a baby.
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Same. I’ve never been shaken for more than a few minutes by something happening in an actual plane. But like @Acrofox, I do have somewhat recurring (every few months) nightmares completely unrelated to real world emergencies. Almost always loss of flight controls nightmares, but I think there have been a few inflight fire ones, too.

What’s interesting is that they haven’t gone away or reduced in frequency since leaving professional aviation. Must just be ingrained at this point.
 
SlumTodd_Millionaire said:
Same. I’ve never been shaken for more than a few minutes by something happening in an actual plane. But like @Acrofox, I do have somewhat recurring (every few months) nightmares completely unrelated to real world emergencies. Almost always loss of flight controls nightmares, but I think there have been a few inflight fire ones, too.

What’s interesting is that they haven’t gone away or reduced in frequency since leaving professional aviation. Must just be ingrained at this point.
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I think I finally stopped having nightmares about walking into a final exam after forgetting to go to class all semester about 10 years post-graduation
 
Acrofox said:
Honestly, I can mostly relate. In my case, I've tried to lead a boring, compliant, safe career in aviation, and mostly have succeeded.

My one "fun" story involved inadvertent VFR-into-IMC at at < 501' AGL in a tight little canyon (too narrow to turn around) with a malfunctioning GPS/nav display. There were 2000' mountains on each side (and one in front of me), and I was forced to climb into the clouds.

(I was following a senior pilot who said the weather was good in the inlet and "got better the further in you go." Later, on the ground, he told me that he just didn't want to say he'd gone IMC on the radio.)

I had no trouble sleeping after that, but a few times ever year, I'd wake up from a nightmare of flying along in clouds and having trees suddenly rush up into the windscreen.
Click to expand...
That’s rough. For better or for worse my close calls have been all on me. Oddly enough none weather related, 2 near stall spins and a totally boneheaded move (wrong way turn) on an IFR departure.
 
I have dreams that include my dad and my brother, it always seems like we're trying to do something but it never works out. They've both been dead for a few years and I miss both of them more than they would've probably imagined when they were alive. The subconscious is a very strange thing.
 
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