Aerosan's Emergency
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:18 pm
"Duck, hold your heading and altitude" "Yes Sanna, I AM a pilot and I CAN fly a plane. Just watch my arse and don't fly into me", I reply.
Susanna is on my tail at around my 7 o'clock position and if I crank my neck hard left, I can just about see him. Manie, in the other Koala is just to the left of San.
So we toodled around the outskirts of the airfield in formation and the next thing this frantic, petrified voice screams over the radio: "Baragwanath traffic, this is ZS-XXX declaring an emergency and returning to the runway immediately!" "Clear all traffic, I'm coming in! I have a problem!"
I crank my neck again just in time to see Sanna break off and dive left, heading straight for the runway. "What the heck is going on?" I wonder. I don't wanna ask him because he sounded like he was shitting himself and I don't want to bother him now. Let him concentrate on getting the "stricken" ship down. No use confusing him further, he has enough on his hands by the sounds of it. So, Manie and I continue onwards while Sanna fights his plane back to the runway.
"ZS-XXX, what's your emergency?" It's Manie. I suppose he couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.
"Emergency, emergency! I can't steer this thing properly! The rudder is sticking left! Get the hell off the runway, you guys down there!" is the reply. Planes scatter in all directions and all ground traffic come to a halt. Everyone's staring at this fast descending bullet, expecting the worst.
"Eish, hier kom groot kak" I think to myself and I tell Manie to break off to the left. I turn left just in time to see Sanna safely land the "uncontrollable-rudder sticking-emergency declared" plane on the black strip. Straight as a die. No problem. "Now what now?" I think to myself. That didn't look like an uncontrollable plane with a sticking rudder.
Sanna says nothing. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. All's well it seems. I loose sight of him on the runway as I turn North.
A few minutes later...."Baragwanath traffic, ZS-XXX lining up runway 13 for immediate take-off. Left turn out and will remain in the circuit"
He rejoins us in formation a bit later and I'm really itching to ask but I hold my tongue. Not on the air, I think. It's not appropriate. Sanna says nothing.
As the sun sets, with fuel just about depleted, we land and taxi up to the hangars. I can't wait to ask. "Don't ask!" he threatens as we park the planes. "Well, speak up then" I say. "You had the entire airfield's attention, creating havoc on the ground and then....nothing!"
"Well, ok then....if you must know," he says softly. "I like to fly with my feet just off the pedals and just after I executed a left turn and returned my feet back off the pedals, it suddenly yawed left. I corrected it and the same thing happened. That's when I realised that the rudder was stuck left......."
"Yes Sanna, I understand. But how come it landed normally and you were back in the air again just after that? And how come everything was fine after that?"
"Well...." he whispers, "it turned out it was only my shoelace that was caught on the rudder pedal and everytime I moved my foot off the pedal, the shoelace would drag the pedal backwards........."
"Oh" I said and turned away to my hangar, biting my lip so as not to laugh out loud! I don't want to embarras him. I'm a gentleman. I won't tell anyone. Promise.
PS. A new handle is born: Aerosan shall henceforth be known as "Shoelace San" :D
Susanna is on my tail at around my 7 o'clock position and if I crank my neck hard left, I can just about see him. Manie, in the other Koala is just to the left of San.
So we toodled around the outskirts of the airfield in formation and the next thing this frantic, petrified voice screams over the radio: "Baragwanath traffic, this is ZS-XXX declaring an emergency and returning to the runway immediately!" "Clear all traffic, I'm coming in! I have a problem!"
I crank my neck again just in time to see Sanna break off and dive left, heading straight for the runway. "What the heck is going on?" I wonder. I don't wanna ask him because he sounded like he was shitting himself and I don't want to bother him now. Let him concentrate on getting the "stricken" ship down. No use confusing him further, he has enough on his hands by the sounds of it. So, Manie and I continue onwards while Sanna fights his plane back to the runway.
"ZS-XXX, what's your emergency?" It's Manie. I suppose he couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.
"Emergency, emergency! I can't steer this thing properly! The rudder is sticking left! Get the hell off the runway, you guys down there!" is the reply. Planes scatter in all directions and all ground traffic come to a halt. Everyone's staring at this fast descending bullet, expecting the worst.
"Eish, hier kom groot kak" I think to myself and I tell Manie to break off to the left. I turn left just in time to see Sanna safely land the "uncontrollable-rudder sticking-emergency declared" plane on the black strip. Straight as a die. No problem. "Now what now?" I think to myself. That didn't look like an uncontrollable plane with a sticking rudder.
Sanna says nothing. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. All's well it seems. I loose sight of him on the runway as I turn North.
A few minutes later...."Baragwanath traffic, ZS-XXX lining up runway 13 for immediate take-off. Left turn out and will remain in the circuit"
He rejoins us in formation a bit later and I'm really itching to ask but I hold my tongue. Not on the air, I think. It's not appropriate. Sanna says nothing.
As the sun sets, with fuel just about depleted, we land and taxi up to the hangars. I can't wait to ask. "Don't ask!" he threatens as we park the planes. "Well, speak up then" I say. "You had the entire airfield's attention, creating havoc on the ground and then....nothing!"
"Well, ok then....if you must know," he says softly. "I like to fly with my feet just off the pedals and just after I executed a left turn and returned my feet back off the pedals, it suddenly yawed left. I corrected it and the same thing happened. That's when I realised that the rudder was stuck left......."
"Yes Sanna, I understand. But how come it landed normally and you were back in the air again just after that? And how come everything was fine after that?"
"Well...." he whispers, "it turned out it was only my shoelace that was caught on the rudder pedal and everytime I moved my foot off the pedal, the shoelace would drag the pedal backwards........."
"Oh" I said and turned away to my hangar, biting my lip so as not to laugh out loud! I don't want to embarras him. I'm a gentleman. I won't tell anyone. Promise.
PS. A new handle is born: Aerosan shall henceforth be known as "Shoelace San" :D
I felt the rudder cables and they were tight and seemed fine. This of course added to the confution and mr BRAIN aka ( shoelace san) had absolutely no idea what was going on and choose to land asap. All of this happend in a minute or so but felt like an half hour believe me... anyway the problem was soon discoverd but I still landed just to shake the poep out of my broeks.... 
all is well that ends well they say 
platpoot