Lost stories here

I have always felt a sort of kinship with those IP's who took on initial
transition training for guys coming off the Tweet and into the Talon. The
girls used to say these guys had the fastest hands on the base. Little did
they know!! :-))
Dudley Henriques


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 13:38:16 -0500, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 10:00:26 -0600, "Danny Deger"
wrote:

What is your favorite "lost" story?


Every IP knows that you have to let the students go a little bit, so
that they can see the outcome of their errors and then the lesson is
reinforced. The difficult judgement call is knowing how far to let
them progress and still be able to make the recovery without damage to
the airplane or the landscape.

Correct of course...............and this can no doubt take on some real IP
"decision making moments" as he sits in the back of a T38 on final with a
student up front starting to develop a rather LARGE sink rate :-))))))
Dudley Henriques


I've not done the UPT thing in a T-38, but spent about 1500 hours (in
.9 increments) as an IP (and IP's IP) in the AT-38 at Fighter Lead-In.

Generally the landing wasn't much of an issue. The flight attitude
would tell you most of what you needed to know--if you had the right
pitch and the airspeed was ball park, you were OK. But, things happen
occasionally.

I had an old friend who had been a UPT student of mine, come through
Holloman for a fast jet requal after a staff job. He'd been a Raven
and was generally crazy, but a good aviator. First traffic pattern,
just as you describe. He falls back on his old FAC flying patterns and
goes to "flare"--not the thing to do, in the Talon which responded to
holding constant attitude until entering ground effect and then when
the airplane tries to lower the nose in response to the increased wing
effectiveness, simply adding back pressure to hold the landing
attitude.

He flares at about 40 feet AGL. I sense impending doom and calmly
adopt a mezzo-soprano tone as I scream "I've got it!" Grab the bird,
freeze the stick and simultaneously reach for a yard of throttle.
Bottom falls out, we impact and bounce into the air about 25 feet just
in time for the burners to light and I gingerly milk it back into
controlled flight.

"Let's try another one, and this time lets do it like the briefing,
OK?"


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.

Just think -- with the advent of GPS, this is one thread that no one
will understand in another 20 years.

Pilot in 2027: "Lost? How could you ever get *lost*?"

:-)

(Actually, it's already true now -- but we all still remember "BG" --
Before GPS...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.

Just think -- with the advent of GPS, this is one thread that no one
will understand in another 20 years.

Pilot in 2027: "Lost? How could you ever get *lost*?"

:-)

(Actually, it's already true now -- but we all still remember "BG" --
Before GPS...)



Post your GPS flat battery stories here ....



--

Cheers

Dave Kearton

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.

Just think -- with the advent of GPS, this is one thread that no one
will understand in another 20 years.

Pilot in 2027: "Lost? How could you ever get *lost*?"

I've NEVER been lost. I've been "temporarily disoriented", but NEVER
lost!!!!! :-))))
Dudley Henriques

Jay Honeck wrote:
Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.

Just think -- with the advent of GPS, this is one thread that no one
will understand in another 20 years.

Again? :-) I have an extensive collection (over 400) of air
navigation books.

1900s = we'd never get lost as soon as we had "lighthouse" balloons all
over.

1910s = we'd never get lost as soon as we had good compasses.

1920-30s = we'd never get lost with all the coming radio beacons.

1940s = we'd never get lost with a separate navigator on board.

1950s = we'd never get lost with a good autopilot.

1960-70s = even better beacons.

1980-now = gps

2020-xxx = ?? Probably ground guidance for everything Each plane
will be a remotely-piloted vehicle. The pilot can't get lost... he's
in a chair on the ground.

Cheers, Kev

"Danny Deger" wrote in message
...
Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.

I was a student flying to Nashua, NH. My instructor asked me to drop him off
in Fitchburg so he could pick up another plane. As we were landing, I saw a
huge column of smoke right near the airport. One of the nearby factories was
burning.

I dropped off George, and departed on runway 34. My desired heading was 34
degrees, so I maintained runway heading. I even checked the compass a few
times and the DG, and sure enough, they read 34.

After 20 minutes or so, I didn't see anything familiar. That's when I
realized my mistake. (my course was 340, not 34). I figured I could fly
perpendicular to my intended course (124) and when the column of smoke from
Fitchburg was off my right wingtip, I could turn left to 34, and be back on
course. I did, and it worked out great.

When I returned and told my instructor about it, he congratulated me, but
said that he couldn't burn down a building every time I got lost.

Dudley Henriques wrote:
I've NEVER been lost. I've been "temporarily disoriented", but NEVER
lost!!!!! :-))))



I wish I could say the same. I've been LOST.

When I was a brand new pilot, I did a night VFR flight from Rock Hill, SC to
Wilmington, NC... at least that was where I wanted to go. Having very little TT
(less than 100 hours), I navigated the same as I did in daytime VFR. At least I
thought I did.

Basically you just flew at about 100 degrees until you got to Laurinburg, then
turned another 10 degrees or so to fly down the railroad tracks until you got to
Wilmington. What I hadn't figured was that most small towns look pretty much
the same at night and I couldn't see the damned tracks.

Anyway, I got to where I thought I should call Wilmington Approach to report I
was inbound for landing and said that I was about 25 miles to the west of the
airport. They gave me a squawk code and then radar identified me.... about 18
miles EAST of the airport. The next landfall would be the island of Bermuda.

Rather than test my swimming abilities to the max, I chose to take their offer
of radar vectors to the airport.

Embarassing, to say the least. I never again navigated by pilotage and /or dead
recconing at night again. From then on it was radio navigation for me at night.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

"Kev" wrote in message
oups.com...

2020-xxx = ?? Probably ground guidance for everything Each plane
will be a remotely-piloted vehicle. The pilot can't get lost... he's
in a chair on the ground.

At which point his video drivers will crash and he'll have to beg some
flight simulator geek on the usenet to help him land his plane. Or call
tech support:

"Please to uninstall and reinstall Windows 2020, update your video drivers
and reinstall your pilot software. If you continue to have difficult, send
an e-mail to and you will receive a reply within 24-48 hours. My name is
Nahasapeemepetilon. I hope you have been helpful to this."

-c

"Dave Kearton" wrote in message
...
Jay Honeck wrote:
Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.

Just think -- with the advent of GPS, this is one thread that no one
will understand in another 20 years.

Pilot in 2027: "Lost? How could you ever get *lost*?"

:-)

(Actually, it's already true now -- but we all still remember "BG" --
Before GPS...)

Post your GPS flat battery stories here ....

Cheers

Dave Kearton

No problem.

Last summer, we were headed back to Atlanta from San Antonio, and were
dodging some pretty big weather in the process. Of course, the weather
avoidance put us in the proximity of a restricted area in Alabama, which I
was trying very hard to avoid.

And then I noticed that the information provided by the GPS didn't make any
sense. I was pretty sure I was holding the same heading I'd been maintaining
for a few minutes, but the GPS heading was off by 20 or 30 degrees and the
groundspeed was off by 50 knots. And the restricted area was getting
closer...

After a couple of minutes of consulting maps, repositioning the GPS antenna,
etc., I noticed that the portable MP3 player was sitting on the glareshield
right next to the GPS. Naah, couldn't be interference, I thought, but I
moved the MP3 player anyway.

The GPS started giving believable information, and things were right with
the world again. The missing 50 knots of groundspeed returned and I was
still clear of the restricted area.

Was I ever lost? Nope, but I was fairly concerned/confused for a couple of
minutes while I tried to sort out the situation.

It all proves that even a GPS isn't a good substitute for maintaining
situational awareness.

KB

Danny Deger wrote:
Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.


First night cross country during my PPL training. Flew from KFIT to
KPSM, just over 50 nautical. No problem on the way up there. The return
was the issue.

Departed 34 out of KPSM for the trip back. I had all my wind correction
angle computed for the winds aloft, I had my way points and my timing
down for all that dead reckoning / pilotage stuff we all learn. I knew I
had to fly a course like 238 deg or something like that. I climbed to
altitude, picked up flight following to KFIT and saw the friendly
welcoming lights of the Mt. Wachusett ski area, it being winter and all.
The ski area is just to the west of KFIT. The mountain is always a
friendly beacon to steer towards. So I promptly forgot everything I had
preplanned and flew towards the lights.

I looked down at my DG several times, steering 270 due west. Hmmm. My
planning must have been off. Fly fly fly. Hmmm, I couldn't have been off
by that much, but those *must* be the lights. fly fly fly. Approach
comes on the radio ... Cessna November two zero four confirm
destination. Fitchburg two zero four.

Cessna two zero four, turn 50 deg left to 220, direct to Fitchburg.
Hmmm, ok. "two zero four 50 left", turn turn turn. Oh, those lights.
Sheepish grin.

My CFI sez, "I wondered when you were going to figure that out."

I guess they must have been the lights of a highway going over the hills
in NH towards VT, route 12 I guess.

Lesson learned.

KC