Scary Situation in the Cockpit
 

Does anyone have any stories of close calls or scary situations in the cockpit?

the makings of a Vmc roll over the runway
 

I was a new MEI practicing engine shutdowns and airstarts with a student in a typical multi-engine trainer and the left engine refused to restart. No big deal, I had landed countless times before with simulated engine failure. My student had done very well with his single engine landings up to that point, so I thought it would be good practice for him to do the approach and landing. He crossed the threshold a little too fast even though I kept telling him to slow down. Then he flared too abruptly and the plane balooned a little. He reacted by adding too much power on the operative engine. If you remember your Vmc factors, you can imagine how the plane reacted. It quickly began to sharply pitch up and roll toward the dead engine. I usually don't grab the controls, but I didn't want to be upside down on the grass!

The worst was an early morning flight I was operating from OMA-CVG, when on climb out and I was done hand flying, the A/P was quickly put on. The flight seemed normal all the way up to 10,000 feet, when flex thrust was switched to normal climb.

I reached into my flight bag and to my complete dismay, I could not find my copy of the USA Today. Frantically, I searched my side of the flight deck to no avail. Being a good, modern airline pilot, utilizing CRM, I included the captain in the search. Then, just as it seemed that all hope had expired, I caught a glimpse of the sports section smiling at me from below, in between the QRH and PPAS book. Memory items complete, I EMER deployed my USA Today and all was well in the world again.

Sigh, when I can hear Diver Driver laughing from across the table, I know he is on these forums and I know he is up to no good. :rolleyes: Of course he could regal you in his tales of a nuisance Hydraulic 3 low press, or deadsticking a Cessna 206.

Had a captain with really bad gas once. Needed the O2 twice.

Also had a long enough sit in O'hare once, walked all the way over to the gyro place only to find out they didn't have any gyro meat.

I think we have a winner! ORD is just not worth it without a good gyro or burning dog served by someone yelling in Greek.

lol... ya, the HYD 3 LOW PRESS was like a week after my recurrent LOE checkride where they threw a HYD 2/3 LOW PRESS at us. It was nice to see that msg go away. Now, the 206.... well... ya. That just sucked. At least I was over the airport, kicked out the skydivers, landed and didnt have to ditch it in a field.

I worked in a greek restaurant in highschool and have a soft spot for them. Their gyros might be the best I've ever had. I've actually ran from C to F to grab one on a 40 minute for the captain and I. You can only imagine the way that cockpit smelled after that leg :)

Yeah, we are lucky enough errr used to be lucky enough, to have it right by our gate.

a comair gate agent came to the cockpit and said she had to pull me out of the jumpseat so they could add more fuel...i was trying to commute home...didn't make it that day...

there is nothing worse than six days of reserve then getting stuck...

lol scary situation indeed my friend!

This is why the FAA and their designees will pink slip MEI candidates that shutdown verses simulating (ie throttle back) the engine failure below 3000 AGL...

nevermind......

For clarification, we were NOT below 3000 ft when I shut the engine down. We were at 5500ft and 6 miles off shore over the Atlantic. All procedures were followed properly, but the engine simply wouldn't restart. We flew home single engine. It wasn't a big deal until the student ballooned and shoved the power in too much.

I'll attempt to get this thread back on track,

I once got caught up in a c-130s wake turbulence in the flare in a T-6, at about 20 ft above the runway the plane went instantly into a 45 degree bank, the most vivid memory is when I was staring at the grass thinking "this is it". Luckily I had enough airspeed that once I was clear of the wake, the plane righted itself and the power came on and I was able to climb out. I then spent the next 10 minutes circling to calm myself down, and when I was finally cleared to land, I was behind a 737, needless to say, I gave myself a long final, and landed WAY behind his touchdown point

I'm thinking most of these stories will be started with "My student did ........" or "when I was a student pilot." Am I far off here?

I loved teaching, but man could they always throw you for a loop at the most critical times!

The only one I had that really scared me, was a little cherokee 140(with the 150hp engine). I was just out putting some time on it so they could get an oil change on it. One of the mags decided to start crapping out, and the other one was weak. I was about 2 seconds from calling the local APP control to let them know, but I made gliding distance from the airport and took her in. I've never felt an engine run that rough in the air before, and haven't since!

In all of the emergencies; things breaking; things refusing to break; ASRS reports filed; ATC stating "call this number so the FAA can be there to help;" FAA guys shaking my hands "we're here to fry...er... help you;" Mechanics asking "isn't that plane on TV? We're all gonna be fried;" NTSB guys "we're here to fry you;" TSA guys "we're here to "secure" the premises;" Process Servers stating "you've been served by folks wishing to roast, toast, then deep fry you, on camera, of course;" and lawyers doing the roast and toast; the scariest has been when the student's check bounced.

I mean, I had rent coming out of that.

Yes, had an aircraft where the ACARS was INOP and I had to manually tune in and listen to ATIS !! :(

-Fatty

Back when I was at sierra in castle earlier this year, it was dusk turning into night.

While on the ILS 31 to KMER with a student under the hood, an Indian girl entered the left downwind for 31 with no radios or lights. She final gets through to tower to get a landing clearance on her cell phone while she’s turning base. At the same time I get a late handoff from norcal, and as soon as I switch to tower I’m told that there’s an aircraft danger close and I need to go around. As soon as tower says this the left strobe light reflects off of her window. AT THE SAME ALTITUDE! So I go around and as soon as she lands all her lights come on. And her radio works!

I’m not going to mention how close she was, because I never want to know the distance, but she was close!

being scared in the cockpit is good for us...it means we'll probably try to live for another day...

I hadn't assumed one way or the other, but, thanks for the reply!!!

I had smoke in the cockpit a couple weeks ago, that caught my attention. Fortunately it didn't get to the point where my student or myself had trouble seeing outside or breathing but none the less, we paid attention. I was out in the practice area with a student when I saw and smelled a pretty steady stream of smoke coming from behind the instrument panel. Off everything went and we turned towards the airport. By process of elimination when we turned things back on one by one, it turned out to the the transponder. Evidently it wasn't a fan of it's wiring so it decided to burn it up.

On my pre-solo phase check, I had just finished all the maneuvers and turned to head back to the airport when we (my examiner and I) smelled an unforgettable odor and saw what resembled smoke coming from the instrument panel. We turned off everything electrical and diverted to an non-towered airport just west of our home airport and about 3 nm from our current position, which was also where the flight school's maintenance center was located, conveniently killing two birds with one stone. We landed uneventfully and hitched a ride back home.

There really wasn't much smoke at all, but the smell was overwhelmingly strong, and I'll never forget that feeling of vulnerability when we entered the traffic pattern with no working radios and had to flip on the master for an instant to lower full flaps before switching it off again. Nothing like a reminder of our own mortality to maintain a healthy dose of respect for the dangers of flight.

On the plus side, I got to loiter in the maintenance hangar for a good hour or two and check out Michael Goulian's Extra and a beautiful Pitts :cool:

. . . And, as fate would have it, I flew the same plane on my first cross-country and on my PPL checkride, so I guess we got the fire out of the way on the right flight :p

I had one the other night that COULD have been scary. A night bombing flight as a division (4 airplanes) with a student who is afraid to fly formation in the day time much less at night! You can imagine that I kept a close eye on him (and we put an IP in his baclseat as insurance). The good news is though that he did pretty good. Maybe he gained some of that confidence back that he had lost earlier.

USMCFLYR

How much seperation is there between you guys during formation flight? Any difference during day/night??

Depends on what type of formation flight we are doing - but the parade formation gives 4' of wingtip clearance.

USMCFLYR

Thats just unacceptable.... No ACARS no GO!

4' sounds pretty close, man. :eek: