WHAT WAS THAT?! Oh...never Mind...

[gvgoff99]

Not too scary until later

I was flying on one of the major airlines and sitting at a window seat where I looked down directly at the trailing edge of the wing. Upon landing I noticed that the inboard flap area was really jumping around. I thought "I hope this thing doesn't depart the plane before we land." It didn't. I then thought I should tell the pilot of the event. Sometimes they stay behind closed doors until everyone is off the plane. On this flight I got lucky as did the next flight because I am pretty sure that I read of the incident in an Aviation Safety article a year or two later.

The article was about careful pilots vs. airplane drivers and their attention to detail. It described the actions of a careful pilot and how a passenger told him of a flap that seemed to be jumping around (loose) upon landing (before touchdown). While he watched he had the maintenance people look at the flap in various degrees of extension and upon full extension they found a bolt that had loosened and was about one thread from falling out. If it had fallen out the flap would have departed the plane and most likely have hit the horizontal stabilizer with disastrous results.

Reading that article I was pretty sure it was the same situation I had been involved in and at that point is when I felt the chill as well as tremendous thankfulness that I reported the incident. I do not know if I would have done so if the pilot was not greeting passengers as we departed the plane. Today, knowing this event, I would not leave it to chance. I am very thankful the pilot was a great pilot and was there.

 

[rmartingt]

First solo surprise

So there I was, sitting at the end of the runway about to go up on my very first solo flight, my instructor standing in the grass by the runway and the ink of his signature still wet in my logbook. I had a bit of confusion with a Bonanza who had been blocking the taxiway, but eventually he waved me by him and I took the active.

Ok... mixture rich, trim set, control check... let's do this! I push the power up and start rolling. All the sudden, the airplane starts shaking! I hear metal and plastic rattling all around me, I can't read the instruments because they're so blurry... and in a sudden moment of clarity (which seemed like ten seconds but was probably about one, if that) I remembered something my dad taught me when I was learning to fly RC airplanes: "if anything goes wrong during takeoff, cut the power!" And that's what I do... cut the power, keep steering straight, and make a radio call: "Tara traffic, Cessna one-niner-eight, I've had some kind of problem, aborting takeoff!"

Anyways, I get the airplane off the runway safely and taxi back over by my instructor. He pops the door open, leans in, and goes "What the $#@&*!! was that?!"

"I don't know, the whole plane started shaking really bad and I didn't know what else to do!"

Well, the anger leaves his face and is quickly replaced by a somewhat sheepish grin. "Oh yeah," he says, "I guess I forgot to warn you about that."

"What?!"

"These little Czezznaz" (for that's how he pronounced it; he was a former bush pilot from South Africa) "have a nosewheel shimmy sometimes, if they have too much weight on them. Just keep the weight off of it next time."

Well, after my breathing returns to normal, I taxi back out and line up. Figuring I don't want any chance of that happening again, I pull the yoke all the way back and push the power up. The nose comes off the ground almost immediately, and I hold it a few inches off until the airplanes takes wing. My three circuits and the flight back to home plate were uneventful.

I never had the shimmy problem again. What really amazed me, though, was how slowly things seemed to happen once the shimmy started. It really did feel like thirty or forty seconds went by during the whole thing, when it was probably less than ten from the time the shimmy started until I taxied off.

 

[RMeggs]

Heads up!

This past summer I stopped in at Daniel field in Augusta to see my sister and brother-in-law. I got a nice scare on the way back home to KRYY.

I was flying a 182RG, level 8500' somewheres around Greene Co. airport, south of Athens. Scattered cumulus below, but building. Suddenly, the top of windscreen was filled with ALUMINUM, moving fast right-to-left. DUDE! How did I miss that guy!

Then it landed in my lap. The passenger side "beer-can" vent had popped out and flown across the cabin. That got the blood flowing.

I crammed that blasted thing back into it's hole and pressed on. Nevertheless, I was still "heads-up" for the rest of the flight!

 

[pierre smith]

Wind shear..

Earlier this year I was at 5500 heading home after looking at a flipped -4 at Atlanta Air Salvage and it was wham-bam-high G rough! I was running hard near 200 when I took a 4 G WHAM and hit the top of the canopy.....followed by a loud rushing of air.....panic...hole in the canopy...lower back hurt. Then I realized that my headset had been knocked off...no hole in the canopy....but man!...adrenaline rush.

Whew..

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Slightly OT, but relevant: How many of you guys/gals have been bounced by wise-@ss fighter jocks while flying through an MOA? It's happened to me more than once. It really got my attention when I had an F-16 practice an intercept on me and drop flares a couple of hundred yards in front of me.

Haven't gotten bounced, but at our request had an A-4 fly under, then in front of us, then around and formed up on our left wing for some formation flying...me flying a Piper Arrow and this A-4 flying ultra-sloooowly right next to us

Of course, we were having so much fun we didn't get any pictures of it