On Jan 31, 10:05 pm, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN"
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote:
I took a Turbo C-206 out of a 2200' grass strip (Branson Field) on a hillside
that led downhill directly to Lake Norman in the Pidmont of North Carolina.
There was a storage building right at the edge of the water so you needed to be
a good 15 feet in the air as you crossed the shoreline. All takeoffs were
downhill; all landings were uphill, no matter what the wind was doing. There
were trees on both sides but the strip was a good 200 feet wide so you didn't
feel horned in.

I'd never flown a 206 of any kind before and had no checkout. I did have a few
hundred hours in C-210s so I didn't feel completely out of place. So I cranked
it up, did my runup at the top of the hill and poured the coal to it. The
damned seat slid to the rear of its travel!

Talk about a wild ride down the hill towards that storage building. Stopping
was not an option. I was stretched out trying to keep my feet on the rudder
pedals so I couldn't see where I was going. At what I hoped was the correct
time, I staggered into the air and leveled off as soon as I could so that I
could slide the seat back forward.

All I can say is I was glad nobody saw me. I started paying a lot more
attention to the seat locking in the track after that.

And that's why Cessna requires a placard on the panel
stating that the pilot must make sure that the seats are positively
locked, and why the FAA has an airworthiness directive against those
rails and locks:
http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Gu...0?OpenDocument
I've seen some pretty ratty rails and seat locks. It's a wonder
there aren't more accidents. The biggest lawsuit in civil aviation
history was due to those stupid things. IIRC, it was a 185 on floats
that reared up right after takeoff, stalled and crashed when the
pilot's seat slid back and he reflexively pulled back on the column.
The seat locks and rails were all shot, but the jury awarded the
plaintiff (the estate?) $450 million anyway. Textron appealed and I
think it'll be in the courts forever. The whole idea that there was a
lawsuit I find annoying, considering that the owner was the pilot,
IIRC, and the owner, by law, is responsible for the proper maintenance
of the airplane. A classic example of why aviation costs so much.

Dan