Worst inflight situation!

-Total hydraulic failure in the Lear right after takeoff.

-Attitude Indicator began tumbling right when I rotated and weather was at minimums when I was flying freight in the Navajo, I was single pilot flying that day and the copilot's AI was MEL'ed. That was fun.

I had more than a few scary things happen when I was a CFI, most were during the flare and touchdown portion.
 
- Both spark plugs on the number 3 cylinder in a 152 fouled at the same time resulting in a forced landing.
- Multiple radio and alternator failures. (Think I'm up to about 4 each on those)
- Gear got stuck in the down position on a 172RG, no biggie.
- Smoke from the panel once.
- I was working radios in the right seat and the PIC took us off the runway upon landing @ SQL. Not fun.....:mad:
- Partial power loss upon t/o (run-up checked normal) resulting in a much shorter flight than anticipated.
 
About 2 years ago, gear up in a duchess.

Just last week while surveying at 3000ft, like a lightswitch, I couldn't read the panel anymore, all the instruments were violently shaking and i was losing engine power. Pulled the power to idle but the engine was still shaking like crazy. Luckily I was about 3 miles from an airport so I told ATC about the situation as i was making a dive for the airport. Turns out a valve was stuck and i was running on 3 cylinders. Don't want to do that again.
 
In my first year of instuction, I flew 700 hours dual given in a shoddy fleet.
I went from flying happy-go-lucky to being gun shy. Extremely gun shy.

I've been flying well maintained aircrarft now for over a year and I still have some carry over from the "bad" year. i.e. I always have my field picked out and I know when I'm out of glide range of a suitable field. People think that is a good thing, but it is very time consuming and taxing.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Had to drop a deuce about 20 miles out, ended up going missed approach and had to run back on downwind.

Aircraft problems, I can handle. Physiological concerns are way worse.

A slight intolerance to lactose and a big o'trough of Legal Seafoods clam chowder from Boston don't mix too well at times.
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That's what worries me the most about this profession! I'm sure I'll piss a few people off when I can't hold the gas in anymore:laff:
 
Been pretty lucky, worst I've had is alternator failure. But, it was clear skies day VFR...not a biggie.

Told approach what happened, turned battery off until I got close to LGB, then flipped it back on with only com 1 to communicate with tower.
 
Flying back from KHIO-KMER in a C90, one of our students an hr into the flight decides he has to puke. Needless to say, the smell drifts forward from the rear and it is overwhelming. After 15 minutes of god awful smell, we all get used to it so we continue. I ask student, are you ok...response..."yes sir, a ok, we continue"

Later over Red Bluff, same student gets up, walks to the rear of the plane.... without informing anyone....student takes a deuce into same garbage bag he puked into. Now, i've been to many a concert where one has to use the porta potties. Smell can be downright nasty. The smell that eventually wafted it's way forward could have killed an elephant. Unwilling to see myself, the student flying nor the other occupants from upchucking and creating a real emergency.....I quickly executed said pilot authority and cancelled with Oakland Center and initiated a emergency descent to Willows.

Oakland Center queries me to why I need an immediate descent from 15.5....my response...."Uhhh we had a student who just deuced all over himself"
 
Rough engine just after takeoff. Wasn't much of an issue since I was in a 172 on an 11,000 ft runway. The bad part was the Arrow in the flare behind me having to go around as I put it back on the runway. Just as I start to clear the runway, the Arrow passes just above and to the right so close that I could see the brake lines in the just-closing gear bays.

The other was during a solo pattern ride at RYN as a student. The 172 I was flying did not have the twisting mixture knob, and I would occasionally grab it instead of the throttle when pulling the power back on downwind :rolleyes:. I always caught myself, but it was easy to move it a small amount without noticing. Anyway, I'm just climing out on my third touch-and-go and the engine starts coughing while I start settling back to earth. Thankfully, my training took over and I mashed the throttle and mixture all the way in. The engine came back and I went back to TUS while practicing grabbing just the throttle without looking. Muscle memory is good...
 
Guy said:
Being hit by automatc weapons fire.
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I can't even come close to that one.


Shortly after I got my PPL, I took a Warrior on a flight to a nearby uncontrolled airport for some touch & go's after work one evening. After the first t&g, I decided to make a full stop & wait out an approaching thunderstorm. 45 minutes later, the storm was far enough away, but it was also after sundown. Took off & headed for home and after a couple minutes flying in circles, I figured out that the DG had started to fail and was spinning all on its own. I also noticed for the first time that the only light to see the magnetic compass with was moonlight. I managed to find my way back home without violating anybody's airspace (as far as I know) . I can only suppose that the owner fixed the DG, because shortly after that, it was taken out of the flying club's fleet.

Also had a power shortage on takeoff in a 182RG. Was doing a short field t/o with 25 degrees of flaps. Acceleration seemed a little slow, but there was a slight headwind to mislead me. LIfted off & retracted the gear and we're just not climbing normally. Looked at the VSI and it's showing 200 fpm climb rate. Airspeed was like 60 kias so I pitch down to accelerate and the climb stops and the airspeed is only slightly increasing. The throttle is all the way in and mixture is set, Manifold pressure looks about right. Prop control is full forward, and then I notice- RPM is only 2000. Right about then, Tower calls to ask us to turn out early and that's the right time to decide this ain't gonna get any better so we answer "We're going to have to turn around and land, we're not developing full power". Tower cleared us to land "any runway". We'd taken off on 17, and at the altitude & airspeed we had by that time, we decided to turn left downwind and landed on 28 instead of trying to make it around the pattern to land on 17 or an even more unlikely successful 180 degree turn to land on 35.

I wouldn't describe either of these as scary- more like... irritated?
 
Engine shut itself down inflight in a DA-42.

Student shenanigans, the most frightening of which were in the DA42 doing single engine work.

Nearly being run over by a Travel Air in the practice area.
 
1. Lost COMM just after getting reports of microburst at the airport
2. Gear unsafe (even though the green light is on) - Gear Failed on Landing
3. TKS panels not working properly while in icing
4. Gear stuck down in a PA44.
 
Didn't apply needed x-wind landing corrections and went off the runway (headed toward ramp full of pistons at 50kts).

I re-visit that experience in my head at least once a week. It's gonna suck to get a real emergency someday like you guys have dealt with.
 
JEP said:
Eating eggs for brekkie

Long x/c for PPL

puking my guts out :eek:

diverting back to home field.....

Clean up aisle 9....:rotfl:
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You must have been in a piper with only that little, tiny vent window to puke out of :D
 
"gear up in the duchess" - get ready for the 709, Mark815?

Hope you got out ok at the time :)

Alex.
 
Engine failure - final (Turbo 182)
Partial power loss - upwind (182RG)

Severe turbulence in the Colorado Rockies followed by the nastiest downdraft of my life. Turned with descending terrain and flew out of it 50-100' AGL. The turbulence was so bad that I had to remove my headset and put my coat between my head and the top of the canopy to keep myself from getting knocked out (sole occupant). I was taking the power from idle to full just to try and maintain something near Va.
 
TallFlyer said:
Oh, and you want to be careful puking out the side window in a Cessna also, especially if there's someone in the backseat......
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Nonsense, never a better time to learn about spiraling slipstream!


Been there, done that one.

Not counting students, smoke in the cockpit is my worst so far.
 
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