Big scare story

I had an engine out once in a R22 on my way back from Hagerstown to
Frederick, MD in a round about kind of a way. I full autoed it onto
10+ inches of snow on someones farm near Camp David. My first real
emergency, and I somehow executed a smooth flare that my CFI would
have been really proud of. I never did get it that good w/ the CFI
onboard, and there was never a full down auto. I didn't perceive it
as an emergency at the time, neither did my passenger. He thought
that the first couple of seconds of the auto was a little startling,
but did reallize it was an auto. He thought that it supposed to be
quiet when you land and only wondered why we landed in the field. I
explained to him that the engine went out on its own. He too didn't
reallize the danger at the time. I checked out the engine, started it
up again and it ran smoothly. I concluded that it was carburator
icing. Instead of hiking a couple of miles to the farm house in deep
snow to call the FBO, We took the easy way out. We flew the chopper
back to Frederick, MD. I told Bill at Advanced Helicopters about the
engine out and that I may have oversped the rotors doing the auto. He
said he would have it looked at.


In retrospect, I should have walked to the farm house and had someone
at Advanced Heli with more experience come get the chopper. I was
real stupid to have flown it again that day. Anything could have been
wrong with it. The bearings could have been shot from the overspeed.
I could have been back in the air when it failed.


Bryan "The Monk" Chaisone

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:55:09 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

I thought this rental business venture was going to be like Donald
Trump....
turned out to be more like Schneider, the building super from "One Day at
a
Time".

ROTFL!

Yeah, people have this vision of running any kind of rentals -- apartments,
hotels, motels, B&Bs, rooming houses -- as just sitting in a rocking chair,
collecting money. They don't see all the time spent snaking bottles of
shampoo out of toilets, or re-attaching towel bars...

With *our* place, (and this is partially my fault for perpetuating the "Bob
Newhart" myth in a well-known magazine), I'm actually occasionally asked
what I do with "the rest of my time" -- the implication being that SURELY
running this little place isn't a full-time job.

I used to get incensed. Now Mary and I just laugh and laugh, nearly to
tears, leaving the poor inquisitor wondering what they said that was sooooo
funny...

I'd think the hysterical tone would give it away.:-))

When I was a kid, my folks would buy up *inexpensive* homes and small
stores. Fix them up and then rent or sell. Even on land contracts it
took a long time to get your money back after spending all summer
working some very long days.

I only have 40 acres left of the "old family farm" and had thought of
selling it. What I get off rent, or share cropping (figures out about
the same) is just about what I'd get per year on a land contract. So
I might just as well keep it.

OTOH *most* successful businesses run by an individual or family take
a lot of work and oft times the business ends up running you instead
of you running it.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

;-)

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 09:30:28 -0500, "Mark T. Dame"
wrote:

David Megginson wrote:

Dallas wrote:

I was reading some of the older posts of this group and was highly
entertained by NW_Pilot's carburetor icing thread.

My guess is that all of the high time pilots have at least one "big scare
story" they might share... How about it, what was your scariest moment?

Signing the purchase agreement for my Warrior (which doesn't have a
toilet, fortunately).

That's why planes with toilets require two pilots.


Ever hear of a "Pilot relief tube"?

The toilet comes to visit you.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
-m

I had an engine out once in a R22 on my way back from Hagerstown to
Frederick, MD in a round about kind of a way. I full autoed it onto
10+ inches of snow on someones farm near Camp David.

Since I didn't read about you in the papers, I presume this happened
*before* the no-fly zone around Camp David?

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Right here, Jay!

As I recall it, the upshot of our NORDO donnybrook was that I agreed
that if one has a radio and can use it, it would be stupid not to. And
you agreed that if one can't use a radio, one ought to use one's eyes
religiously. Correct?


Jay Honeck wrote:
Third scariest was when I looked over Mary's left shoulder, in the
pattern,
and saw a beautiful Stinson ready to T-bone us in mid-air. I grabbed the
yoke and broke right and down, and we missed each other by tens of feet.

Did the Stinson ever see you?

Nope. And that incident is what got be going on an anti-NORDO rant that
carried into this newsgroup for over a month.

Which is how I met Henry Kisor, who was (at that time) very active on this
newsgroup -- and member of the Deaf Pilots Association. Obviously, his
take on the situation permanently changed my attitude toward NORDO flying...
:-)

I wonder what ever happened to Henry? I haven't seen him post here in a
very long time...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 06:58:22 GMT, "Dallas"
wrote:

I was reading some of the older posts of this group and was highly
entertained by NW_Pilot's carburetor icing thread.

My guess is that all of the high time pilots have at least one "big scare
story" they might share... How about it, what was your scariest moment?

Trying to retrieve a "lunch bag" from the "pocket" just forward of the
door on the passenger side of a Cherokee 180 while the passenger is
threatening to go for the distance record on hurling.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com



Dallas

Roger

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 14:09:20 -0600, Darrel Toepfer
wrote:

Roger wrote:

Ever hear of a "Pilot relief tube"?

The toilet comes to visit you.

I read/heard a story once about a Beech. That it seemed to the owner, it
was the only part that hadn't been repaired or replaced...

Beech 18?

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 06:25:26 -0800, "Seth Masia"
wrote:

Fueling a rented 172 and putting 40 gallons into the two 21-gallon tanks.

Why would that scare you, unless it was *after* you flew the plane.
Me? I'm paranoid about fuel.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Seth

"ls" wrote in message
. ..
Dallas wrote:
I was reading some of the older posts of this group and was highly
entertained by NW_Pilot's carburetor icing thread.

My guess is that all of the high time pilots have at least one "big scare
story" they might share... How about it, what was your scariest moment?



Dallas

I'm not high time, but my biggest scare was the time the axle broke on my
quicksilver. The scare actually occurred on the ground after I'd landed. I
noticed the plane was "low riding" during the trip back to the hangar -
when I got out I saw the axle had split right at the middle and was close
to dragging the ground....
On the quicks, the axle is a stress-bearing component of the airframe so
if it collapses the airplane would become uncontrollable...

I didn't even come back to the airport for about a month after that, much
less replace the axle. I eventually did both though and flew the plane
another 150 hours or so before I finally sold it. It's still flying for
the new owner....

But even my engine-out was cake compared to that......

LS
N646F

On 16 Nov 2005 21:06:19 -0800, "cjcampbell"
wrote:

I take that back. I was once terrified while still in the cockpit.
Flying into Las Vegas once, Las Vegas Approach said, "McCarran Tower
would like you to give them a call when you land. Are you ready to
write down their number?" It was innocuous, but it scared the living
daylights out of me.

I've had low flying traffic cross under me when on final so close the
vertical stab went between the nose gear and mains. It was so sudden
that he was gone before either the instructor or I jumped. I landed
on 24 into the wind and discovered a Comanche landing down wind. I
just pointed the old Colt out between the lights. I've had a complete
engine failure on take off, but never once have I gone back with the
"what if" I had been 5mph faster, or lower, or sooner, or later.
Nothing happened and I put the incidents behind me.

When a GMC Jimmy shot out in front of me, I only left about 12 feet of
skid marks. As his roof line disappeared over the top of my windshield
I had a sad feeling and asked if this is all there was going to be,
followed by, Oh, ****, I'll bet this is gonna hurt!. There was a loud
bang (the air bags) then nothing. The next thing was the feeling of
the car spinning and coming to a stop. I couldn't see a thing due to
the dust from the air bags. I wasn't hurt, but I don't think a 6-pack
on an empty stomach could make me that punchy.
I wasn't even sore the next day.

I won't even touch on the things from my "younger days".

I've been there and done that in many of the things that have been
posted with no more than a heightened sense of awareness, but this
would have scared me. :-))

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Roger wrote:
Fueling a rented 172 and putting 40 gallons into the two 21-gallon tanks.

Why would that scare you, unless it was *after* you flew the plane.
Me? I'm paranoid about fuel.

that would scare me too; I hate the idea of sharing an
aircraft with somehow who would be so careless; what other
stupid thing the same bozo did to the aircraft?

--Sylvain