Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
I once jumped in the cockpit during a downpour with the intention of doing my walk-around after the rain passed. Guess what, forgot the entire walk-around. A change in routine can bite you.
Things at the airport that make you go hmmmm....
- Thread starter BravoHotel
- Start date
dasleben
That's just, like, your opinion, man
Nothing as entertaining as your post here, but I flew with a high mins SkyGod a few months back... Less than 100 hours in type and already talking about wanting to be a check airman. You know the type.
Apparently, having a fourth stripe based on your DOH means that you automatically get +5000 XP in the jet, since myself and the other FO had to endure a "You guys on this fleet use the boards too much" lecture. Sure, guy.
So, his leg, and we're cooking down the approach into somewhere and we're fast and trending high. Still listening to him say that he won't have to use the boards, and that in the Navy blah blah blah.
"Flaps 5."
"Hooookay." *clunk*
VNAV path quite expectedly goes full scale high, and suddenly REALLY unable to slow down and go down now, he drags out full boards.
Really nothing to say to that one. Though, I did feel obligated to say something about him starting the flare at 40'.
Yep, check airman material right there.
Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
During the second week of the Iraq war in '03, my back seater was being interviewed out at our jet just prior to starting up. I sat in the front seat while he was talking to the reporter and sitting in the back set.
After the mission -- on which we'd attacked an active SA-2 SAM battery that shot at us and we threat reacted to -- and after landing, I realized that not only had my ejection seat not been armed for the whole mission, but I had also not been strapped in to my parachute harness or my seat belt for the entire sortie.
All because my pre-flight habit patterns had been interrupted by a TV interview.
We had a similar thing happen to a guy in my unit back in the day. He'd been going through the hot pits and decided to use the relief tube. Have to undo the leg straps to do that, and common practice was to lay the left strap over the throttles. It's not known if he did that or not, but it is known that he failed to reengage the straps. Took off on a sortie southeast of here, ended up having a midair with the oncoming FAC who had just relieved me on station (I was GFAC). Both planes go down, both pilots eject. Except this guy, upon seat-man separation and parachute inflation, slid out of the harness and fell about 8000 feet to his death, north of Douglas, AZ.
TFaudree_ERAU
Mashin' dem buttons
My internet persona has never done anything stupid in an airplane, but I know this one dumb ass in the real world that has done no less than the following:
Tried to taxi a 172 with the LEFT wing still tied down.
Cranked a Cirrus with the cowl plugs still in. They fly really far when you do that.
Almost taxied a Cirrus over an orange cone that a line guy put in front of the plane, Mission Impossible style, on a quick turn. Ironically, the chief pilot of the flight school that said idiot pilot used to work for happened to be there and save his bacon.
Flew a 45 minute trip in a Lear with Flaps 8 extended.
Flew the first 15 minutes of a trip in a Hawker with Flaps 15 extended.
Tried to taxi a 172 with the LEFT wing still tied down.
Cranked a Cirrus with the cowl plugs still in. They fly really far when you do that.
Almost taxied a Cirrus over an orange cone that a line guy put in front of the plane, Mission Impossible style, on a quick turn. Ironically, the chief pilot of the flight school that said idiot pilot used to work for happened to be there and save his bacon.
Flew a 45 minute trip in a Lear with Flaps 8 extended.
Flew the first 15 minutes of a trip in a Hawker with Flaps 15 extended.
Some of those sound really familiar.
Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
That's exactly what went through my mind when I reached down to safe the seat and found it all ready safe...and went to unlatch the Koch fittings in the shoulder harness to find them all ready dangling free....and went to unlatch the lap belt and found no buckle anywhere near my lap.
Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
Not a year goes by that a dad doesn't forget a sleeping child in the back seat after a change in routine.
Romulus
Well-Known Member
At a ground school a couple a years back we talked about the nose door AD. One of our older pilots with more navajo hours than everyone else has total time spoke up and said that it had happened to him four times. The last time it happened he flew over an hour with it open. He never had anything go through the prop though. I think thats where the big danger lies.
Autothrust Blue
“If you jump on my shift, that’s just rude, man.”
"Boy, this thing isn't climbing so well..." -glance at flap gauge- "Uh..."
BravoHotel
Well-Known Member
I noted how when other people are thrown off their routine by one reason or another things get missed etc.
I have two instances of this.
I was skydiving with a newish guy, we were taking our time to go through our dive flow etc. It was about that time when DZ management started ranting at us to hurry up and get on the plane etc. We were putting on our gear as we ran and jumped into the now taxing airplane. The whole way up to altitude I had this uneasy feeling, I checked my handles and gear about 10 times. It wasn't until I landed I was able to shake that uneasy feeling. Being rushed when you're used to a certain way of doing things is a good way to forget things.
Another time I flew some scientist types in our jump plane. These were guys were conducting some sort of drop tests with unmanned parachutes. You could tell they were not comfortable in a plane, especially having to wear a parachute. I should have better briefed the individual. We were on our drop run, I told him to get ready and open the door. What he proceeded to do was open the door like a mad man, throw out his bundle, close the door and scurry back to where he was sitting in the three seconds I told him to standby look at my position and look back and tell him get ready to push. Fortunately our drop zone was in a rather large field with nothing around for quite some distance. Thankfully the bundle landed harmlessly under parachute at the edge of our field. A very clear brief would have put it on target, and prevented a potential unwanted outcome.
I have two instances of this.
I was skydiving with a newish guy, we were taking our time to go through our dive flow etc. It was about that time when DZ management started ranting at us to hurry up and get on the plane etc. We were putting on our gear as we ran and jumped into the now taxing airplane. The whole way up to altitude I had this uneasy feeling, I checked my handles and gear about 10 times. It wasn't until I landed I was able to shake that uneasy feeling. Being rushed when you're used to a certain way of doing things is a good way to forget things.
Another time I flew some scientist types in our jump plane. These were guys were conducting some sort of drop tests with unmanned parachutes. You could tell they were not comfortable in a plane, especially having to wear a parachute. I should have better briefed the individual. We were on our drop run, I told him to get ready and open the door. What he proceeded to do was open the door like a mad man, throw out his bundle, close the door and scurry back to where he was sitting in the three seconds I told him to standby look at my position and look back and tell him get ready to push. Fortunately our drop zone was in a rather large field with nothing around for quite some distance. Thankfully the bundle landed harmlessly under parachute at the edge of our field. A very clear brief would have put it on target, and prevented a potential unwanted outcome.
gotWXdagain
Polished Member
"I uhhh.... just kept flaps 15 to help us have a better climb gradient"
"Dude, we're in MOT, what are you gonna hit?"
"Dude, we're in MOT, what are you gonna hit?"
Stomp16
You mean Shennanigans?!?!
It's always fun when you're PM and notice the the PF hasn't called for flaps up. It reaches its hilarity pinnacle when you're now in cruise, the aircraft is trimmed out and is doing considerably less in the speed department and the PF is completely oblivious to the fact that he's dragging the airplane along. With just a bit of a smirk, "Flaps zero??"
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
Autothrust Blue
“If you jump on my shift, that’s just rude, man.”
One of our LA captains is fond of asking "Hey dude, do you want your flaps up?"
(When you're leveled off doing 220+ knots [Vfe15 = 180].)
We obviously need more new FOs, since he tried the trick on me twice last week and neither time it worked.
z987k
Well-Known Member
Simply placing your hand on the flap lever at the appropriate time usually works without saying anything and bruising no one's ego.
I do know of a person that did an entire 1 hour flight and then when they went to put the flaps in the approach position found that the invisible person in the right seat apparently had already lowered them.
In the A-10, if someone forgets the flaps up after takeoff, they will auto-retract......even with the flap switch selected to MVR (7 degrees) for takeoff. And below that speed if the switch isn't set to UP, they'll auto extend back to 7 degrees. So it's no real big deal if not caught......except in one area:
The air refueling speed of the A-10 is around 190 or so. Generally, A/R is done in a descent, with both the tanker and receiver descending in a "toboggan" maneuver in order to not have to be at opposite ends of the speed spectrum: the A-10 trying to get speed, and the tanker trying not to stall out.
One day, I'm on the tanker wing and my #2 is moving into the pre-contact position behind the tanker to set up for contact. We were near the bottom of our ATC granted ALTRV, so a toboggan wasn't able to be performed. Tanker was light, so he was able to slow a little more than normal. As the wingman slowly accelerated towards the boom, he would reduce power to match the tankers speed, but each time he slowed towards 185 or so, the flaps began motoring down to 7 degrees, and he'd begin slowing and fall aft away from the boom and the tanker. This happened about 3 or 4 times and I was wondering what was going on, until the tanker started a turn and the sun glint and look angle allowed me to catch his flaps extending on the next time around. Of course, it doesn't occur to me immediately that he'd left the flaps switch set to MVR after takeoff, I just assumed that he was physically lowering his flaps for some stupid reason way up at altitude and in the middle of air refueling. One radio call cleared up that buffoonery.