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My dumb story, and the danger of breaking your routine

N546RV

Well Known Member
When I say "routine," I mean in terms of things like checklists, preflights, etc.

This past Saturday, I reserved my favorite spam can (an Archer) for a couple hours of general rust removal. I'm flying into OSH for the first time this year, and I'm being very conservative about the whole experience, including making sure I'm comfortable with the airplane.

As always, my first stop upon arriving was to check the aircraft squawk book. I noted that someone had complained of trouble closing the door a couple days prior; nothing else recent though. I strolled out to the ramp, where I completed an uneventful preflight. OK, time to get going. Once in the plane, I pulled the door shut...yep, it was definitely difficult to close. After a bit of finagling, I got the main latch secured, but the top latch would not catch no matter what I tried.

I hopped out and took a look at the catch...it certainly looked out of place to me. Looking down from overhead, I could see that the latch hook was not about to grab the catch. Harumph. OK, no flying for me today. I proceeded to round up all my gear, tie the plane down and rechock it, then headed back inside. One of the flight school guys was still sitting inside. When I described the problem, he said, "Oh, Pipers do that all the time. I'll show you how to take care of it." Sure enough, we walked out and with some thumb pressure, he rotated the catch back into place.

Well, that was easy. After thanking him, I climbed back in and set about breaking my gear out again, then I got in place, shut the door, ran the prestart checklist, and fired her up. Check ATIS, sounds good, OK, time to call ground. For some reason I can't explain, I waited a second. Something didn't feel right.

Suddenly it occurred to me. I didn't remove the tiedowns and chocks.

*sigh*

Shutdown, hop out sheepishly (of course this has to be in sight of the airport restaurant's patio, the kid's park, and the observation area), remove tiedowns and chocks, OK, now to really aviate.

Should I have run a complete preflight again after coming back out? Probably not. But I should have done some kind of a quick walkaround before just hopping in, during which time the tiedown situation would have been pretty obvious. My mind, however, was in the mode of "I already preflighted, the problem is fixed, go fly."

In the grand scheme of things, this is fairly mundane. Pretty much the worst-case scenario would have been me calling ground, getting taxi instructions, trying to ease the plane forward, and rapidly realizing my mistake, prior to having to admit my idiocy over the radio. But it's a good illustration, I think, of the brain perceiving what it expects, and unexpected things happening.

Luckily, this time, it was just a little embarrassing.
 
I've never done anything like that.

Well, not recently.

Well, not that anyone can PROVE!

:) Nothing bent, not a problem. The truth is we all have the occasional...moment. Moments don't require a written explanation (though you were kind enough to give us one anyway), aren't subject to any FAA investigation and don't ding your insurance rates. Even better news is that most of us would still fly with or around you even though you committed the grievous error of not being perfect. Next time..see if you can pull the tie downs out of the ground before realizing the error. Then we can at least make fun of you.

Cheers man, I hope the flight was enjoyable!
 
I have seen a few 172's flying (and landing!) with the towbar still attached, so your brief oversight isn't so bad in my view. And I should add that I too have allowed myself to commit to same oversight as you. Its always good to be reminded what can happen if you get too comfortable, relaxed or out of practice.
 
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There's a lesson to be learned here no matter what you fly, habit patterns are a powerful tool, but like anything else only if you use them.

From preflight, to shut down, if I get interrupted for any length of time during some phase/checklist/flow etc., if there is any doubt whatsoever about where I left off, I start over.

Thanks to the OP for posting. This lesson is applicable in so many more ways than just a little ramp embarrassment.

Oh and a C-152 can jump a set of 2x4 chocks, or so I've heard :D
 
Years ago, when I was just starting out and didn't hear comments like, "your hair sure is getting thin back there," I flew a Piper Archer into a small airport in NH next to a golf course to visit my girlfriend (now wife) and her family. I was thinking I was pretty cool (still do) and did a low pass down the strip for the neighboring golfers and then peeled off to land and shut down. As I taxied to the transient area, I remember seeing a foursome watching me arrive and park. Doing my best to look cool, I shut the airplane down, grabbed by Tom Cruise Ray Ban's (told ya it was long ago), tied it down and proceeded to walk past the 15th tee box to find my ride. As I walked by, some old timer says to me,

Him: "Hey kid, that was some neat flying there."

Me: "Thanks Man"

Him: "Where you heading?"

Me: "Uh, inside the clubhouse to find my girlfriend."

Him: "You in a hurry?"

Me: "No, why?"

Him: "Just wondering. Are all those bright lights on the airplane supposed to be blinking like that with no one in it?"

Me: "Wha....? ****."

There goes the cool factor as I do the walk of shame past the foursome back to the airplane to shut off the strobes, the beacon, and the master switch. Doh!
 
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How about this one!

A friend of mine many years ago was driving a car down a simi rural road and something caught his eye. It was an object floating down from the sky. He pulled over and picked it up from the side of the road. It was an airplane canopy cover. It had an N Number embroidered on it too. I believe it was from a Cherokee.

Steve
 
Many more of us have done something similar than will admit it.

I've cranked (once) with the chocks in place.

I've cranked (once) with the pitot cover in place.

I've gotten belted up and ready to crank (once) with the oil fill door open.

So far, I've never taxied without catching it, maybe because I final-check my checklist just prior to taxi.
 
It's really unfortunate that the ramp where my rentals live is literally right under the airport restaurant patio. There's always a good audience if you do something dumb.

(If you sensed another story coming, you win the Christmas turkey!)

This ramp is situated parallel to a taxiway; the aircraft are also lined up parallel to the taxiway, in two rows. I'm parked in the front row. (towards the taxiway) Unless there are a serendipitous number of aircraft out flying on a particular day, it's necessary for me to taxi to my spot, turn away from it, then push the plane back into its spot after shutting down.

I've done this plenty of times, and never have I had any issues. Except for this one day...as usual, I taxi up, turn the plane so it's not angled too much off the spot, shut down, take off my headset, unbelt, and open the door. As I climb out on the wing (probably imagining small children and attractive ladies watching The Pilot), something feels...off.

Oh. That's because the plane is slowly rolling forward towards the taxiway. EEEEEK! Seems I found the one non-level part of this particular ramp. My coolness destroyed, I clamber back into the plane (anyone who's flown a Cherokee knows there's no graceful way to enter the plane in the best of circumstances) and stand on the right-seat brakes.

Now what? Maybe I'm back on a level spot. Brakes off...she starts rolling again. ****.

I ended up setting the parking brake, grabbing the travel chocks out of the baggage compartment, chocking the nosewheel, climing back in and disengaging the parking brake, then pushing back with the tow bar while kicking the chocks along so as not to leave them out in the open where they might be a hazard.

All under the watchful eye of the restaurant patrons.

:D
 
Saw a Mooney pilot do something similar on Sunday...

Was in the car with the wife getting ready to leave when I noticed someone in a Mooney just starting up, although they were still tied down on the right wing. Couldn't tell if the left wing was also tied down, and was too far away to get there in time or be heard, so I turned to the wife and said, "This should be interesting." Out of the corner of my eye I see another fellow running down the hill from the parking lot toward the Mooney yelling and waving his arms, but he couldn't get their attention. Sure enough, the poor fellow with the backwards tail idles for a few seconds and then gooses her to get her rolling. Although only the right wing was tied down, fortunately he didn't go very far, and no harm was done, except to his pride as he had to shut down and do the disembarkation of shame to untie himself.

And yes, I've started up (in a Cessna no less!) with the pilot-side chock in place <sigh>...why does this NEVER happen when nobody's looking?
 
I used to fly a Maule, which is very difficult to climb in/out of. Once, I taxied up to the gas pumps, swung the tail around, shut down and opened up the door with a crowd watching - boy was I a cool kid in the throaty STOL taildragger. Pulled off my David Clarks and put them up on the glare shield and proceeded to climb out with the swagger of a Mustang driver while the adoring audience watched.

Then I hooked my foot in the cord of my headsets, which were still plugged in to the panel, got it wrapped around my ankle, missed the step and fell out of the pilot's seat, bounced off the wing strut and landed on by face on the ramp with my foot still tied inside the cockpit.

"Somebody put some gas in this thing and let me get the h*** out of here, please."
 
These, of course, were the replacement David Clarks. I ran over my first set with a Cessna 152 as a student pilot. :rolleyes:
 
Not all that long after I received my Private ticket I took a girl out on a date. Where else is a 17yo with a pilots license going to take a girl...flying of course. We made the short hop from long beach over to Catalina went hiking and had a nice lunch. Feeling great about myself we headed out to the plane. As we walked up I saw the rotating beacon still on. I really hoped I could get the thing to fire off and save the embarrasment, but it wasn't to be. I had to call the cart over for a jump-start... :rolleyes:

Not the same type of situation, but a reminder that you should always listen, sometime the world is trying to tell you something:
Durring my PP training I was finally signed-off and ready for my long solo cross country. My instructor was out for a couple days, so another instructor signed me off. The weather briefing called for clear skys so I decided to go. I preflighted and hoped into start. I then realized I didn't pull the pilot side chock. Ok, back out, pull the chock...no big deal. I start up and as soon as I do, the oil door popped open, guess it wasn't latched all the way. Shutdown, close door, start back up.

Finally get to take off. As soon as I rotate, the seat back goes all the way down. Luckily I'm not as ham-fisted as I though since I didn't pull the yoke when I fell back, so I didn't stall the thing. So now I'm climing out holding onto the glareshield. Once I get to some altitude I level off to see if I can get the seat right. I grap the lever and nothing, cable is broken. I end up poping the dor open so I can reach the rear of the seat and grab the latching mechanism. I get the seat fixed and settle back in. I then realize that clouds are moving in over my coastline route. I just said screw it, I'm going home.
 
eye candy

I have found that the likelyhood of doing something stupid or
embarrassing is directly proportional to the visual appeal
of your passenger.....

Jim
RV-9A 350 hrs
 
Use a checklist?

Done all those and more. Canopy unlatched, transponder off, gust lock in place, coffee cup on roof (the boss), belt out the door, etc. Once I departed into lousy weather with one of my bags still in the car--should have made two trips due to use of umbrella. Almost every time I forgot something was the result of one and/or two things. Distraction while doing something and not using a checklist. Think I will dust that checklist off and use it every time.
 
Pro pilots never forget chocks (yea right)...

I worked for an FBO/Charter/Air Ambulance company mostly operating King Airs. Chock issues happened often enough that we had a good-natured rule.... you had to have an ATP to jump the chocks. Only a commercial certificate = shut down and climb out for the walk of shame.

When I worked lineservice during college, there were multiple times I got the call over unicom from guys who wanted me to come pull the chocks after they had started.....not only no, but h*#l no.... unless it was a jet, which made it a much safer proposition.
 
My boss was always In a hurry. Once he jumped us in the break room after an inspection because we had arranged his ink pens incorrectly. He said "I need everything in that plane right, because you guys know when I get in there the last thing I'm thinking about is flying".
Anyway' one day he whipped in, jumped in the cornquest and took off. Leaving the SUV on the ramp......running........locked.........with the dog inside. Having a routine is nice, but having your brain engaged is critical. I tell myself, don't go HUMA......head up my ***, otherwise known as "under the hood".
 
My boss was always In a hurry...

I used to work for this guy's clone. The lad was always going Mach 1 with his hair on fire. Lots of stories including taking off with the towbar still attaced to his Cessna 310. An electric powered towbar, no less. One of my duties as "the other pilot" in the company was to open the hangar doors when he was going to go flying. When I returned a few hours later to close the doors, I just stood there and laughed. The hangar was full of Jepp plates, scattered everywhere. Seems he had, as was his habit, started up in the hangar and taxied out. The 2" Jepp binder was probably left on the wing in his haste. I gave a couple of seconds thought to cleaning up the mess, but figured there might be a "teaching moment" at hand. I picked up the plates that were outside the hangar, tossed them inside and closed the doors. He returned later that evening and never said a word.

John Clark ATP, CFI
FAAST Team Representative
EAA Flight Advisor
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
Done all those and more. Canopy unlatched, transponder off, gust lock in place, coffee cup on roof (the boss), belt out the door, etc. Once I departed into lousy weather with one of my bags still in the car--should have made two trips due to use of umbrella. Almost every time I forgot something was the result of one and/or two things. Distraction while doing something and not using a checklist. Think I will dust that checklist off and use it every time.

This is one of my personal red flags, if I find myself getting distracted from habit pattern/checklist a big red warning light has evolved and I'll start over if need be.
 
I used to have a placard on the panel of my old Cherokee that said, "Brainfarts prohibited in this aircraft".

I saw this at the local EAA pancake breakfast a couple years back:

302104_10100256734923069_3791393_n.jpg
 
Philip,
This is a rule at work that I use with my own personal flying. Once the flight is cancelled (or a NOGO is reached) for any reason, It is not flown no matter how bad I wanted to fly. ORM (operational risk management) wise the brain has a tough time re-engaging on that task. Unless, the process is started from the beginning and all those ?routines? are re-established.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have also done similar things. One of my least favorites was putting my wife?s bran new ipad on the wing, closing the canopy, starting, taking off, landed about 30 miles away to then figure out the ipad was not inside the plane. At least I did not leave my wife.
 
I had to modify my pre-start checklist to include "towbar, chocks & tiedowns removed" at the top. Dont ask.
erich
 
both of my close friends have taken off with tow bar engaged. 1 damaged, one not. they were both CFI ratings.

I'll tell my quick dumb one that coulda been bad and demonstrates the usefulness of standardized controls-

my carb heat and throttle are the same type of lever on my varieze (sold) I was on final and went to add more throttle and nothing happened. thought I had lost my engine! kept pumping it, and finally realized I was moving the carb heat lever not the throttle. luckly caught it before anything bad happened. sometimes you gotta just take a deep breath and engage the brain as some have said.
 
Check List

IMSAFE works for me - not only when about to fly but before any task that involves risk - like operating any kind of equipment, driving, etc.
 
Being in a Hurry

Once I was headed on a day trip for work and called my brother to see if he wanted to tag along. He's a PPL also. He hurried over to the airport where I had the plane running and waiting. Off we went... Things ran long and we didn't return until 10:00 at night. He had parked his truck in front of the hanger but couldn't find his keys when we returned. We searched the airplane and truck several times. Nothing. After an hour we decide to just push the truck out of the way so we could put the airplane away and go home. Had to climb under the truck to disconnect the shifter to get it out of park. Luckily the wheels were straight so I open the door and start pushing..... hey wait a sec.... There is a note on the windshield....
"Left your truck running. It was almost out of gas. Keys in the FBO".
We have no idea how long it took someone to realize it was left running. Imagine having to go to the office at the FBO and ask for the keys back..... "hey I'm the guy that left his truck running all day. Can I have my key back please?"
Maybe I should add that to my preflight checklist....
 
I've often heard pilots proclaim that they say out loud what they're touching with each checklist item. I've never seen the need for such foolishness.

Until last weekend. :eek:

I took Smokey up for a quickie in the area on Saturday and wrung out some stiffness from both of us. As I set up for a routine landing, I noticed that there were a few planes at the clubhouse ramp, with their pilots and passengers just waiting to grade my landing.

I decided to use the parallel grass runway (landing on grass is always smoother-looking than the unforgiving pavement) and made a delicate, picture-perfect landing. If grass could squeak, it would have.

I decided to avoid taxiing by the crowd due to time constraints, despite my ego needing a good stroking. A nice taxi with a pilot wave to the adoring crowd would have felt good, I'm sure. I stowed the ego and taxied across the pavement on the other grass runway toward my hangar.

As soon as I cleared the active runway, I did what I always do -- I raised the flaps and turned off lights and fuel pump. I know better than to do that on an active runway (not that I'd do something stupid.)

I had no more cleared the active and raised the flaps and the engine quit!

I tried in vain to restart the engine, knowing that by now the assembled crowd of adoring fans on the ramp were wondering why my engine died. "Bet the idiot ran out of gas," they were probably opining. "Good thing he made it to the airport. Moron."

After a couple of tries (the fuel pump was still on, naturally), I decided that I needed to treat it like a flooded engine. Still no go.

Then I saw why the engine had quit. Instead of flipping off the switches for the taxi and landing lights, I had flipped the switches for the IGNITION! They're not even on the same panel. Talk about a brain fart. Sheesh ... :rolleyes:

Needless to say, as soon as I flipped the mag switch back on and cranked the engine, it started immediately. I'm just glad that I didn't pull that stunt in front of the assembled crowd of adoring fans. I'd have never heard the end of it! :D
 
Yes, routine seems to be important! :)

It's struck me that you mentioned the restaurant view. I was eating on the patio of Lincoln Park in Northern NJ one day and watching an elderly gentleman ready to depart with a lady friend. He was tied down outside in front of the restaurant and had no need that I can remember to tow the plane but he cranked it over with the tow bar attached. The prop struck it a few times (twice??) and then it either came free or he stopped the starter at that point. He got out not more than 60 feet from the patio of the restaurant and hastily removed or retrieved the tow bar, stowed it, ran his hand over the prop quickly and then got back in and started up and departed. The whole thing has stuck with me for years.
 
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