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01-12-2008, 08:27 PM
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fugio ergo sum
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Carlsbad, NM
Posts: 1,912
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scard
One night flying back home from Llano at about 5500', a massive bright flash flew right overhead at an incredible speed from behind and lit up the night sky...
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Ok, this one is off topic, but it does relate to Scott's post in a sorta "you think that is somethin" vein.
Several years ago I was a passenger in a Piper Cherokee (Louise Hose's old airplane) headed to a fly-in in broad daylight in the summer around 8 AM. I suddenly saw a bolide trail ahead, through the cirrus overcast. I sort of commandeered the controls to turn the airplane toward where the track intersected the horizon, for a bearing. I thought it might help in any search for meteorites.
Turned out that wasn't necessary as some of the pieces fell into a barn and others fell into a woman's kitchen as she was having coffee.
Because of the cirrus, I estimated the meteor hit about 20 miles from me, it turned out to be over a hundred miles away near Portales, NM. Got my picture in Astronomy Magazine over that one. Pretty impressive show.
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Larry Pardue
Carlsbad, NM
RV-6 N441LP Flying
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01-12-2008, 08:30 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: x
Posts: 16
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Oh S***!
I didn't have a close encounter with balloons, bags or a stowaway feline but I did once come within feet of performing a one wheel touch-and-go off the top of a C-152 at 3000' while heading in opposite directions.  I must ashamedly admit that I did, in fact, pee a little bit as I nearly pulled the yoke out of the panel.  Don't laugh, you would have too. The other pilot, wearing a blue shirt, a Red Sox baseball cap, and DC headsets, never took his eyes off his panel. Lesson learned? Flight following is NO guarantee of a safe flight and collision avoidance is ultimately MY responsibility as a pilot.
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01-12-2008, 08:34 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 672
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Pringles & wing root seals
Had a can of Pringles blow the lid off. Not sure what was worse, the noise or the lid ricocheting around the cabin.
Worse than that though was when the wing root seal on my Cherokee peeled back beginning at the front and beat the heck out of the floor right under my wife's seat before it finally tore loose and dropped away. I didn't think I was going to live to get the airplane on the ground 'cause she was about to kill me.  We both thought we were toast for a minute or two. Sounded like the wing on her side was ripping off the airplane or something.
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Joe Schneider
RV-7, IO-360, BA Hartzell, N847CR
Flying since 2008
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01-12-2008, 10:58 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Austin
Posts: 130
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The bag of chips in the back should be part of our private pilot check ride, because it has happened to so many of us.
Another one that got my head a turning, was while on final approach, I heard a loud beeping sound, it was my pager from work. It is a familar sound that has awoken me many times at night for emergency call backs . But this time my brain convinced me it was some kind of alert coming from the aircraft that needed prompt action. It took a few seconds to scan the panel to understand that the aircraft was ok, and what the source of the sound was. Back then I was working Robbery and just hearing the pager go off while standing around would cause an adrenaline dump.
Last edited by c177tx : 01-12-2008 at 11:00 PM.
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01-12-2008, 11:53 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Ankeny, Iowa
Posts: 194
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Everyone's story is of something making extra noise. Mine was a lack of noise. I'm flying along happy as a clam, when I swear the engine goes silent for a fraction of a second. Its almost like when the lights flicker and you ask someone else to make sure it wasn't just you, except I didn't have anyone else to ask! No change in any insturments and no chance in the feel of the plane so to this day I'm not sure if it was me or the plane.
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Chanler Childs
RV-8A
Empennage complete
Building wings
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01-13-2008, 06:47 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Dayton, Nevada --- A34
Posts: 1,464
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My newbie's stupidist mistake
I departed Carlsbad on one of my first cross-country after getting my newly purchased RV home and started climbing up for the trip over the Guadalupe Mountains. At 7000' I called Center for flight following. It was the start of fall and the elevation gave me a chance to use the cabin heat for the first time. Right after pulling the cabin heat (and over the rugged mountains), I notice that my speed slowed. Odd. I assumed it was a change in the winds as I climbed. I got colder, added heat, and the plane slowed some more. At that point, my head went into the cockpit. All instruments seemed fine. Carb heat? No change. I took the heat off. Still I didn't gain speed. And, it wasn't just the GPS ground speed. It was also the air speed.
I called Center to let them know I was turning back to Carlsbad and experiencing some problems. A slow day, he tried to help me puzzle through the situation. I continued to stare at the gages. Then, I hear "Louise, is that you?" I didn't recognize the voice but said "Yep." "Well this is Scorch and I'm flying the Boeing out of El Paso right now. My guess is you have a fouled plug again. You should be fine taking it back to Carlsbad." I had met Ross about a week before when he helped me with a fouled plug on the ramp. It was remarkably reassuring to know that someone who knew me (albeit, just barely) was following my progress back to Carlsbad. The Guadalupe Mountains can seem awfully lonely when you're scared and I was grateful to Ross for chiming in.
Well, as I set up for the landing at Carlsbad and started to drop the flaps, I discovered that they were already mostly down. It turns out that I had inadvertently been bracing my hand on the electric flap switch each time I pulled out the cabin heat. With gloves on, I hadn't noticed the pressure and the flaps kept dropping. When I pushed the heat knob back in, I didn't brace on anything. An inspection on the ground and two more years of flying haven't revealed any resulting issues with the airplane.
Lessons? The main one is to also look outside the plane when a problem comes up. Assuming an engine problem, I had my (overwhelmed) head completely inside the cockpit. Before someone suggests that this story is a reason for manual flaps, I will point out that I found the manual flaps button too stiff for my thumb and will NOT own an RV with manual flaps (unless that spring was modified). Although I never had a repeat problem, the flap switch is now removed from the cabin heat and other knobs on the new panel.
__________________
Louise Hose, Editor of The Homebuilder's Portal by KITPLANES
RV3B, NX13PL "Tsamsiyu" co-builder, TMXIO-320, test platform Legacy G3X/TruTrak avionics suite
RV-6 ?Mikey? (purchased flying) ? Garmin test platform (G3X Touch, GS28 autopilot servos, GTN650 GPS/Nav/Comm,
GNC255 Nav/Com, GA240 audio panel)
RV8, N188PD "Valkyrie" (by marriage)
Last edited by Louise Hose : 01-13-2008 at 07:56 AM.
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01-13-2008, 07:36 AM
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Super Moderator
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 81
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Hi Louise!
I remember that incident well, and yeah, I think we were the only two people on the freq that day. I remember thinking a fouled plug might have been your problem, since that had been the previous trouble.
In hindsight, of course, I was not even close, and in spite of the reassurance you felt, I think you would have been better served if I had just shut up. As pilots, we feel this irresistable urge to "help" when one of us is in trouble. Usually, the only way we can "help" is by keying the mike and talking, which of course is usually no help at all. In this event, all I did (with good intentions) was possibly distract you from diagnosing the real problem.
Lesson learned: when you hear someone with their hands full of sick airplane, THINK before keying the mike and "helping." Sometimes the best thing we can do is stifle this well-meaning urge to ride to the rescue.
I'm supposed to know this stuff ... okay, I'm over it, I forgive myself!
See ya at BBRSP.
__________________
Ross Burgess
DFW area
Bought flying RV-6
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01-13-2008, 07:52 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Dayton, Nevada --- A34
Posts: 1,464
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Tough call
Interesting thought, Ross. But, I know I sure felt better and the reality is that I wasn't in a serious problem so calm was the order of the day. Thinking there was a simple, inexpensive, and non-life-threatening answer to the problem might have made a difference in keeping me calm enough to make an uneventful flight and landing back home. Then again, I might have kept my mind more engaged in problem solving if I didn't think I had an answer. I just don't know.
__________________
Louise Hose, Editor of The Homebuilder's Portal by KITPLANES
RV3B, NX13PL "Tsamsiyu" co-builder, TMXIO-320, test platform Legacy G3X/TruTrak avionics suite
RV-6 ?Mikey? (purchased flying) ? Garmin test platform (G3X Touch, GS28 autopilot servos, GTN650 GPS/Nav/Comm,
GNC255 Nav/Com, GA240 audio panel)
RV8, N188PD "Valkyrie" (by marriage)
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01-13-2008, 08:04 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Calgary, Canada
Posts: 408
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RPM Drop
Winter flying in a Supercub here (in Canada) means you are bundled up a fair amount. I was out doing some circuits not too long ago, still relatively new to the plane (maybe 20 hrs). SOP for downwind procedures is to pull carb heat, scan the fuel gauges and instruments, go back to cold air on the carb and get ready to turn base. Well, in my bundled up state, when I went to slide the carb heat lever forward (it's on the left sidewall in kind of an awkward position to reach back with your left, throttle hand), I bumped the rear seat throttle back with my elbow. I'm expecting the RPM to increase by going back to cold air, and instead it drops ~200! Quickly look at oil pressure/temp (which I had just looked at anyway). Start cheating a little closer to the field on the downwind... just in case. I pulled the carb heat again... hit the throttle with my elbow again and noticed what I did.
Felt a little silly over that.
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JV
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
RV7 QB - Airframe largely complete, sans canopy and glass... unfortunately sold
RV6 - O-360-A1A, Hartzell CS, dual G3X VFR... purchased
Dues paid 2015
"Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent."
-- Marilyn vos Savant
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01-13-2008, 08:21 AM
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VAF Moderator / Line Boy
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Dayton, NV
Posts: 12,256
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Another of mine....
Again, in the "sudden noise" category, I rolled for takeoff in my Grumman (again, think RV-6A slider) at Richard's Gebauer in Kansas City, in a hurry, after a quick fuel stop. Got about 50 feet in the air and suddenly heard a loud machine-gun-like sound on my left. "Fly the Airplane!" I yelled at myself, and called the tower for an immediate return to land. The noise continued, and on downwind, I figured it out - I had lost a #8 screw on the canopy slide-rail fairing -right at the front. The fairing strip pealed back and started vibrating, beating itself half to death - but threatening no real harm to the airframe's fly-ability.
The tower wanted to know if I needed "the equipment", and i told them "no, I just lost a fairing screw". Then they started peppering me with questions on the size of the screw, because they wanted to know if I'd FOD'ed the runway (they were still flying A-10's out of there at the time).
And then there was the time I added power in a C-150 trying to get out of a muddy tie down and heard a HORRIBLE noise coming from the right side. Yup - seat belt was hanging out the door! At least I was on the ground.... 
__________________
Paul F. Dye
Editor at Large - KITPLANES Magazine
RV-8 - N188PD - "Valkyrie"
RV-6 (By Marriage) - N164MS - "Mikey"
RV-3B - N13PL - "Tsamsiyu"
A&P, EAA Tech Counselor/Flight Advisor
Dayton Valley Airpark (A34)
http://Ironflight.com
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