Okay guys, both my mentor and my CFII say I've earned a callsign. So, who better to give it to me than the best aviation group of Van's.
My flight this weekend was cut short by a broken throttle cable. Lucky for me, the engine stuck at about 2200rpm. I was on my 8th T&G, pulled power mid-field downwind and she said "No, I don't think I want to do that today". I could not climb above 900'agl and could not go faster than 100. Luckily, I had an 8000' runway to land on. On the first attempt, I couldn't get her to slow below about 140mph. On the second time around, through some really creative flying learned from watching the space shuttle, I got her down to about 105 on final and cut the engine to land "dead stick".
Now, this in itself is no major accomplishment, but take a walk back through time with me. Here's what I've had to deal with over the last couple of years. Before you ask, they were in many different aircraft, so it's not just one piece of junk airplane.
1. Smoke and fire in the cockpit in another plane from a burned wire (3 weeks ago)
2. Lost comms in the above incident inside class C
3. Lost alternator which led to lost comms, no lights, no transponder, .....(3 months ago)
4. Lost engine at 8000' when the mixture cable pulled out of the carb (4 months ago)
5. Broken nose wheel and flat tire (not sure which caused which) (4 months ago)
6. Coyote on runway in the flare at night - missed by about 10'
7. Blown main tire on landing roll (6 months ago)
8. Near mid-air with a C130 while flying a T-34C
9. Chip light emergency landing in T-34C
10. Bird strike in T-34C which broke canopy
11. In flight on September 11 when the radio started singing "All aircraft return to base - return to base immediately".
A ton more like split flaps, manually lowering gear, runway lights going out on short final......
My first question is "Is God trying to tell me something?" My second question is open for inputs. I've earned my Callsign, so what's it going to be? By the way, "Crash" is not an option
My flight this weekend was cut short by a broken throttle cable. Lucky for me, the engine stuck at about 2200rpm. I was on my 8th T&G, pulled power mid-field downwind and she said "No, I don't think I want to do that today". I could not climb above 900'agl and could not go faster than 100. Luckily, I had an 8000' runway to land on. On the first attempt, I couldn't get her to slow below about 140mph. On the second time around, through some really creative flying learned from watching the space shuttle, I got her down to about 105 on final and cut the engine to land "dead stick".
Now, this in itself is no major accomplishment, but take a walk back through time with me. Here's what I've had to deal with over the last couple of years. Before you ask, they were in many different aircraft, so it's not just one piece of junk airplane.
1. Smoke and fire in the cockpit in another plane from a burned wire (3 weeks ago)
2. Lost comms in the above incident inside class C
3. Lost alternator which led to lost comms, no lights, no transponder, .....(3 months ago)
4. Lost engine at 8000' when the mixture cable pulled out of the carb (4 months ago)
5. Broken nose wheel and flat tire (not sure which caused which) (4 months ago)
6. Coyote on runway in the flare at night - missed by about 10'
7. Blown main tire on landing roll (6 months ago)
8. Near mid-air with a C130 while flying a T-34C
9. Chip light emergency landing in T-34C
10. Bird strike in T-34C which broke canopy
11. In flight on September 11 when the radio started singing "All aircraft return to base - return to base immediately".
A ton more like split flaps, manually lowering gear, runway lights going out on short final......
My first question is "Is God trying to tell me something?" My second question is open for inputs. I've earned my Callsign, so what's it going to be? By the way, "Crash" is not an option
