All You Sinners (pilots) It’s Time To Confess Your Flying Sins

[Bernie]

This list is only some EXAMPLES of sins - Please add more to my examples - for we know we ALL sin. And Bernie with one sin - I don’t believe you!

Fuel cap .

Bernie .

[Old Koreelah]

Six.

What are the chances of two totally separate failures at the same time?

 

Failed to secure cap after refuelling (blame rushing to leave and distractions from curious onlookers).

Landing lights left on after takeoff (busy airspace) overloading the circuit and popping a breaker, killing all engine instruments. Negative air pressure in fuel tank with cap off leading to engine missing until tanks swapped.

[johnm]

there's one missing

 

forgot to screw down oil filler on a C152. went for short flight and had to clean fueslage with paper towels - covered in oil

 

all cleaned up for a cpl flight test which I passed ! - immediately before flight test the local flight instructor said 'you'll never get it' (great words of encouragement)

[NT5224]

One I have seen, started and taxied with dolly attached to front wheel.

Did the gallant aviator take off? ?

[NT5224]

Engaging topic! ?

 

I guess im guilty of about five of the list, but have learnt from each stuff-up. Only yesterday I stupidly pushed back from bowser with fuel cap resting on wing after a distraction. I luckily remembered it before firing up, but the occaisional senior moment like that worries me!

 

Funnily enough, the worst mistakes ive witnessed and worst airmanship (which make my own misdemeanours pale by comparison) have been made by very senior pilots and instructors.

 

We're all human.

 

Alan

[facthunter]

There's always the time and need to do a basic check of the ESSENTIALS at ANY appropriate stage of the flight. IF you get distracted , start again from the beginning. Experienced Pilots should know better than cut corners. "That doesn't APPLY to me .I've got thousands of hours and know it all." is a dangerous attitude . "Too tough to care is" another syndrome. It's NOT sissy to be careful. Of course at the other end of the scale is the"Nervous on a fine day" type, who maybe should give it up, or never have started in the first place. Nev

[IBob]

Lining up to land on the strip of grass between two parallel runways?

[Mike Borgelt]

Onetrack, an engine failure at 150 ft, if handled properly, should not cause you to go straight down. That sounds like a stall to me, and the pilot should have maintained airspeed. So there was more than one mistake here.

Knew a guy who killed himself in a Motorfalke (long time W.A. gliding guy - if you go to the Bull Creek RAAF museum in Perth you used to see a Schneider Kingfisher hanging up. He restored it. Beautiful job - I completed my Silver C in it before the restoration). Engine ran fine for taxi due to slightly leaky fuel tap which was in OFF position. Took off and float chamber emptied, engine stopped. Impacted nose down. Supposedly tried to turn fuel on instead of landing ahead. 4500 foot runway (the one I did my first solo from) with level wheat paddock over the small fence at end.

[IBob]

Knew a guy who killed himself in a Motorfalke (long time W.A. gliding guy - if you go to the Bull Creek RAAF museum in Perth you used to see a Schneider Kingfisher hanging up. He restored it. Beautiful job - I completed my Silver C in it before the restoration). Engine ran fine for taxi due to slightly leaky fuel tap which was in OFF position. Took off and float chamber emptied, engine stopped. Impacted nose down. Supposedly tried to turn fuel on instead of landing ahead. 4500 foot runway (the one I did my first solo from) with level wheat paddock over the small fence at end.

Mental note to self: practise (at altitude) getting the nose down fast from a climb attitude. There's a video that's been referenced here before, I think it may be the Flightchops one about minimum manouvering speed, and the instructor has him repeatedly practising pushing the controls forward very positively on power loss.

[Old Koreelah]

Mental note to self: practise (at altitude) getting the nose down fast from a climb attitude. There's a video that's been referenced here before, I think it may be the Flightchops one about minimum manouvering speed, and the instructor has him repeatedly practising pushing the controls forward very positively on power loss.

One of my instructors really focussed on engine failures and pulled the power on me in all sorts of situations. When he suddenly closed the throttle on a steep climb after takeoff, I instinctively jammed the stick forward so fast he got quite a shock. That was the last of about twenty engine-out tests he gave me.

[facthunter]

You "Jammed" the stick to "Conserve" energy, I suppose? Nev

[Old Koreelah]

Thanks to previous glider training, I quickly reduced G loading until I had the nose down enough to guarantee safe airspeed.

[RFguy]

You "Jammed" the stick to "Conserve" energy, I suppose? Nev

Doesn't pitching over into vastly negative AoA territory put you into the other side of the drag and lift versus AoA curve ? Into a high drag , low/no lift situation ? IE left hand negative side of AoA curves???

[facthunter]

VASTLY negative is as you say but zero weight in the seat means there's no DRAG associated with producing lift. and also you won't be stalled. You can "punch" a plane out of a stall. Now, you ex bulldozer drivers better not take this to much to heart, We don't want to be vertical, nose to the ground at 50 feet. OR in an inverted spin.. Nev

[turboplanner]

You can "punch" a plane out of a stall. Now, you ex bulldozer drivers better not take this to much to heart, We don't want to be vertical, nose to the ground at 50 feet. OR in an inverted spin.. Nev

You're closer than you think; if you're sliding down a steep hill in a 40 tonne bulldozer, punching small trees is a good way to slow down.

[RFguy]

You're closer than you think; if you're sliding down a steep hill in a 40 tonne bulldozer, punching small trees is a good way to slow down.

I was wondering. If ASI is rather important Why is the ASI not right up until the nose of the pilot, rather than somewhere else amongst the clutter in the panel ? Or do pilots get to know their airspeed from the amount of control effort and maybe smaller cues like wind noise) ? IE engine fail on take off, 50', probably around best glide speed (depending on flap position) . there seem to be numerous examples of pilots not choosing AoA for best glide and putting it down nose first or wing tip side stall first in an open field, and NOT into a obstacle. . (putting aside obstacles controlling choices)

 

Should have make this a separate topic rather than polluting this topic ?

[turboplanner]

No, it's OK, I'm finished with bulldozers today.

[onetrack]

Mike, I presume it was this glider fatal at Cunderdin that you speak of? The fatal one that I recall, involving fuel tap off on takeoff, was at Beverley (W.A.), either in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

I can't find the investigation report, and I'm not sure there is one, because I seem to recall the BASI didn't record recreational crashes in that era.

 

https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1989/aair/aair198900247/

Edited August 16, 2020 by onetrack

[IBob]

Also now thinking of not turning on the ANC on my headset until some time after takeoff....

[marshallarts]

Also now thinking of not turning on the ANC on my headset until some time after takeoff....

 

Yes interesting point, that. ANC is nice is many situations but it has often occurred to me that it might not actually be a good idea for pilots of small aircraft. Engine sounds are important feedback, and I'd be fairly confident that an over-ear headset without ANC would do a good enough job of reducing the possibility of hearing damage. If I was flying I don't think I'd want an ANC headset.

 

For the same reason, it always worries me to see people riding bikes around on the roads, with earbuds stuck in their ears from their phones. That's far worse than ANC, because they are not just suppressing ambient sound, they are actively replacing it with their own, often at about force 10 on the Richter scale. They really need to be able to hear what's going on around them.

[M61A1]

Yes interesting point, that. ANC is nice is many situations but it has often occurred to me that it might not actually be a good idea for pilots of small aircraft. Engine sounds are important feedback, and I'd be fairly confident that an over-ear headset without ANC would do a good enough job of reducing the possibility of hearing damage. If I was flying I don't think I'd want an ANC headset.

 

For the same reason, it always worries me to see people riding bikes around on the roads, with earbuds stuck in their ears from their phones. That's far worse than ANC, because they are not just suppressing ambient sound, they are actively replacing it with their own, often at about force 10 on the Richter scale. They really need to be able to hear what's going on around them.

I'm guessing you've never used an ANC headset. You can still hear the necessary things easily, although some of them provide next to no passive protection with the ANC off.

Don't let using one worry you, it's absolutely nothing like bike riders using earbuds.

[marshallarts]

I'm guessing you've never used an ANC headset.

 

I haven't as a pilot of a light aircraft, but used ANC headphones as a passenger on a 787, just once. Mixed feelings about it in that scenario. It was a Bose QC25, so reasonable quality (I think) but maybe not up to aviation standard. It did a reasonable job but I didn't like the odd feeling of a sort of acoustic "pressure" in my ears - it was not as unobtrusive as I expected/hoped it would be.

[IBob]

I have the Lightspeed Zulus, they are extraordinarily good. And that is before you turn on the ANC.

Highly recommended, also very comfortable, and with no sense at all of acoustic pressure.

[marshallarts]

I have the Lightspeed Zulus, they are extraordinarily good.

 

Happy to believe that. I would hope they'd be pretty good for the price I saw!

[NT5224]

Back to OP

 

I’m confessin’. Yesterday I made a profound aeronautical error, and learnt a lesson that l will now never forget.

 

I believe this lesson so important it should be included in the BAK syllabus. This is it:

 

When at a fly in, never hoist your little dome tent close to where a helicopter might take off. The rotor wash blasted our tent and broke the poles... last night my wife and I slept under a sagging mossie dome ?

 

Alan