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Addition to Mooney tales
This one is in two,parts...
First part - in preflight of my ?61 M20B, noticed that a mud dobber really liked my pitot tube as his/her new home. Tried to dig it out (gently, of course!), but was unsuccessful. Of course, the next thing is to try to blow it out (yes, I know all of the stories about that - but I could do it - right?). My buddy saw the needle on the airspeed make about three revolutions in a blur. Of course, now remove the a/s and send it to be recalibrated. It could, but in the discussions with the instrument shop, it was discovered that it actually was intended for a jet aircraft originally, and was good to 700kts. Not sure how that happened, it it was in the bird when I bought it and had a Mooney logo. Decided I needed to buy a sock for the pitot tube. Second part - some time later, I was departing the Thomasville airport at the end of the flyin, and wanted to get out before the crowd. Since I flew it I that morning, of course no preflight was necessary. Everybody knows what is coming next - about halfway through the takeoff run I noticed that I had no airspeed indications. Just about that time, a helpful fellow pilot announced to the world that my pitot cover was still on. I thanked him, aborted the takeoff, removed the pitot cover, and waited in line to take off. Lesson learned and only had to deal with a bit of embarrassment. |
Moved a ton of **** in my 6A with me solo. A lot of stuff in the passenger seat too. If I do that I normally put it in a good duffel bag and then use a 5 point harness to keep it in place but it was a short flight so just used one strap. All is good then on short final I am focused and could tell something isn?t correct. Not getting full stick back and my flare isn?t right. At last second my CFI?s excellent drills worked as I powered up and did a go around without incident. Found my **** in the right seat found it?s way between the stick and seat. Fixed it and landed
Anyway one out of the luck bucket as they say. |
Wait and Balunce for Dummies
Many moons ago two legends in aviation loaded their small two seat airplane for the annual flight to the Mecca of Aviation. Mecca at that time did not sell adult beverages. So the number one priority was a large ice chest in the baggage area filled with adult beverages AND ICE. After a short time in the air they noticed that the stick was well forward of the normal position and the situation was slowly getting worse. A precautionary landing was made and a meeting was held. They simply refused to sacrifice and of the adult beverages. After a lengthy discussion they realized "we can buy ice at mecca". So the ice was dumped, some of the adult beverage was moved to near the First Officers feet, and the flight continued to Mecca. The names have been changed to protect the not so innocent so we will call them Capt Frick and FO Frack. Would lite adult beverage help avoid this situation?
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The holy hand grenade from Monty Python
...And the count shall be to three, and never to five, and not to two, except on the way to three...
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My 2 dumb mistakes
1- On my first RV-7 I built I was still in college and got the airworthiness certificate. I flew it about 30 hours and felt very confident in it but it was my first airplane build so I wanted to get it completely checked out by a professional just to be safe. The closest A and P that could do a complete annual for me was a 12 minute flight away. The mechanic said that if I did all the inspection plates/cowling and fairing work he would do all the important stuff for around $300 instead of $500+ . I researched extensively on VAF (should have called vans) about flying without certain fairings but couldn?t find anything so I decided to fly the 12 minute flight without the wing root fairings and without the empennage fairing to save time being out of town. Normal takeoff occurred but as I gained speed the controls were a bit heavy and as I went over 90mph or so the tail started to buck up and down a bit: I slowed down to 70 and came right back to land ( I was quickly glad nothing worse happened and a normal landing was possible). I learned quickly that I was not, and don?t want to be, a test pilot!
2- On my second RV-7 I was selling to a guy out of state. The plane was/ still is beautiful and I painted it with an extremely expensive paint ($1600 a gallon). The new owner (of about 20 minutes) was packing it up for the 2 day flight back home and I asked if he wanted any of the freebies that I had for that plane. I gave him a few things like extra fuses and a couple tools and equipment that helped with working on specific parts and I also said I had a 1/4 gallon of extremely expensive paint that I was just gonna throw away. We made sure the lid was secure and packed it in the baggage compartment. I watched the new owner take off and on climbing out I saw the plane roll to one side quickly and turn right back around to land. My anxiety went wild on why he came back to land.. he shut down the engine right in front of me and his face was pale white. He thought the engine exploded and he was gonna crash but instead he had a bunch of paint on his stuff and I had an hour long job of cleaning the baggage compartment to keep it from looking like a paintball war occurred back there. |
One of my all time favorite captains to fly with owned a RV4. He owned a summer lakeside cabin about 70 miles north of our airline's headquarters. He was due a semi-annual simulator check and decided to fly the RV4 down to headquarters.
He threw his flight bag filled with worldwide Jepp coverage in the back. He loved aerobatics. On the return trip, forgetting he had a 30 pound flight kit not secured in the baggage compartment, decided to put on an aerobatic show back at the lake. During the first pull-up, yep you guessed it, the shift in CG put him out of control. He crashed inverted in the lake in about 10 feet of water. Miraculously he survived and later built another RV4. |
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Flashlight & Fuel
Years ago when I was flying in Army I had a night flight currency due. My crew-chief and I wondered out to the flight line in 20 degree winter weather in Michigan. it was dark, cold and windy, We started the pre-flight on the aircraft. I normally would have the Crew-chief call out the walk around checklist and I would do the preflight as per regs, but again it was cold, dark and windy. So, I started checking the rotor head system and asked him if he could check the fuel level and make sure it was topped off. The Fuel cap on a UH-1 is on the right side about 3 foot up the side of the fuselage. When its full you can remove the cap and look inside and see the fuel level even with the bottom of the fill port all the way across the entire fuel cell 200 Gallons. Anyway, While I'm up on top of the bird, I hear the word OOPS! So I ask, hey what's going on, My crew-chief informs me that he just dropped his lit Mini Mag-light in the fuel cell and it had sank 30 inches down in the full tank. No flight that night. Should have done my pre-flight as required.
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I know a guy who, not long after getting his private certificate, decided to take a girl for a $100 hamburger. After about an hour flight, they landed, and walked a half a mile or so to the restaurant just off the field. That particular spot is somewhat remote with no other option for miles and no crew car. The pilot didn't realize his mistake until they were met at the door by a sign saying "Closed for the week". :eek:
Those two never went for another hamburger, $100 or otherwise. |
When I was 17, fresh PPL in hand I took a girl on a date for lunch over at Catalina (AVX). All went well until it was time to leave and I discovered that I had left the master on and drained the battery......luckily they had a jump cart.
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