I learnt About Flying From That

[AndyG]

Hi All,

I have just read Bushveld Blues topic listed Wind, Terrain & Downwash that he posted on the accident/incident Forum. It got me thinking to a book that I have Called "I Learnt About Flying From That" It is a complilation of incidents etc that were posted monthly in a popular flying magazine that I subscribed to for some years.
Basically pilots, instructors, ATC's etc relate incidents that happened to them. Forget that it was pilot error, wrong instructions from ATC, mechanical failure etc etc. The guys simply related as to what had happened and where it had gone wrong in the hope that fellow aviators could learn from these mistakes.

I think that if fellow pilots here are able to share experiences then we could all learn from this.

Don't know what you guys think?

[grostek]

Hi Leftseat,

A great proposal.

Kind regards,

Gunter Rostek

[AndyG]

Thanks Gunter,

Here is one to start the ball rolling.


My very first solo cross many years ago. Flying from Cato Ridge to Howick via Albert Falls Dam. Plan was to leave fairly early and have a cup of coffee in Howick and return. All in all the flight up was uneventful with all waypoints and landmarks appearing on time. Entered Howick airspace, into the circuit, cut no one off and pulled off a decent landing.
Met up with 3 fellow pilots from my airfield who had flown up earlier.(all had lots of hours). Enjoyed a good breakfast and coffee and prepared to depart. Got outside the clubhouse and noticed that the wind had picked up and was looking very thermic. Phoned my home airfield and asked what the conditions were like. My instructor told me that they were much the same and if I was not happy I should put the trike into a spare hangar and he would jump into my car and come and fetch me. However he left it to me.
I went outside and told the three guys outside that I was thinking of leaving the plane there and that the instructor would fetch. What basically happened after that is that I listened to people telling me that I would be fine and it was hardly going to be bumpy at all. I had got here all right by myself after all hadn't I. I could fly with them and follow them and I would be fine.
With regrets in my head we took off and headed home via Otto's Bluff and the Umgeni Valley. things were fine for the first twenty minutes. We then flew over Ottos Bluff and and I felt the first few big knocks. Ah this is fine I reassured myself I can handle this. Fine for the next 5 minutes and we then hit the Umgeni Valley(Valley of a Thousand Hills)
The gent on my starboard wing was about 100 meters ahead and 200 feet lower than me. I then saw him shooting upwards at a rapid rate of knots and he was then about 400 feet above me. f#*ck I thought, how did he do that? Imagine my surprise when I was zooming past him as I hit the same thermal that he had just left. The next 40 minutes were pure misery as I was bashed around the sky. I had been told not to tense up on the bar but that is easier said than done when it feels like a sumo wrestler is trying to rip it from your grasp After an eternity I saw familier landmarks that showed we were not far from home. Let me land safely and I will never fly again I swore to myself. One of the other trikes called to say that I should follow them in as things were a bit tricky on the ground. Gee, thanks a lot, I felt a whole lot better. Imagine my concern when all three trike aborted their landings and did go arounds. Here is a 10 hour pilot trying to land in conditions with pilots of 600 to 700 hours aborting.I lined up on finals and felt like I was in a washing machine. Managed to keep her on centreline and when in ground effect the landing felt fine. Now that I was on the ground the next problem was to stop the trike being blown over. I saw guys rushing from the hangers and a voice in the headset told me to cut engine and they would hold the wings down. I did and the ordeal was over. Of the 3 trikes still in the sky 2 of them went around again.

What did I learn,
1. Trust my feelings.
2. Trust the instructor who I had phoned and told me If I wasn't happy to put the plane away and come home by car.
3. Don't listen to the other if it means you are still in control of the plane. They are unable to help when they are flying their planes as well. Two of them actually said after landing that if they had known it was going to be that rough they would also have left their planes in a spare hangar.
4. I learnt that the windlass is one tough little plane and can take a helluva beating.

I told my instructor that I had sworn If I got down safely I was quitting. He just quitely said that I must come to the airfield the next morning and have a chat and a cup of coffee with him

I did and got into the trike with him an hour after having coffee. It made the world of difference just knowing he was back there. After an hour of emergencies, forced lobs etc, we landed and all he did was pat me on the shoulder and say to me, "I'm happy that you fly my trike any day. She is in good hands."

That was 15 years ago and I have never forgotten that flight.

[Uncle Spud Murphy]

Outstanding story Leftseat and what a wonderful Topic 'Bushveld Blue' has prompted.

Asseblief guys. If you have stories like BB and Leftseat, do tell. As a total novice who is needing to fly soon I am learning things on this topic that may save my life one day and the lives of others.

Please do not allow this topic to 'Die the death of time' as others do. Keep em coming guys and even if you have to admit making a prat of yourself flying as you shouldn't, you survived. Now help others too by not making the same error/s asseblief. Dankie.

Live long and prosper

Old man Jerry

[grostek]

My small contribution.

When I first stated to fly in Rhodesia I trained on a Cessna 150 the early model with manual flaps.
Having been send solo I was at the stage where I had to practice solo forced landings in the General Flying Area.
There was a lovely grass strip available for simulated forced landings, long enough but with high trees on approach and departure.

Well on this particular morning I was at the airfield bright and early after a party of note the night before.
No hangover per se but not normal either.
Well, pre flighted the 150 and took off, beautiful smooth air , headed for the General Flying Area and from 2000 ft agl did a 360 to check for other traffic did my checks, pulled the throttle back to idle, pulled out carb. heat, set up my approach and descended to my intended landing spot , everything beautiful Cleared the engine every 500 ft arrived on short finals with altitude to spare so pulled first notch of flap and immediately second notch, ah that’s better going down nicely but still too high so full flap now that’s more like it, will now easily make the first third of the runway so I let the 150 go down to the prescribed 200 ft agl where overshoot was to be initiated.. Hit 200 ft and opened throttle and removed carb heat, well the 150 just sat there and was slowly sinking lower and those trees were now higher than I was, why was the 150 not climbing after all it had easily climbed with me and the instructor a few days before at this same strip at the same time in the morning?

I looked out to the left and saw that barn door flap hanging there in the breeze mocking me.
Jees Dump flap but not too fast because she will sink even lower, so gently manipulated the flaps past the indents while physically holding the flap handle .
I cleared the trees but the undercarriage did not quite .
When I was clear and a decent rate of climb was established with first position flaps I could have kicked myself, what a fool I was.
Did a 5 more simulated forced landings at the same strip but was now wide awake

The landing back at base was uneventful but had a phone call from the instructor asking me to explain the leaves in the undercarriage legs.
What he said to me can not be said here.

What did I learn
Don’t fly while under the influence.
We always joked about 8 hours bottle to throttle but as I had proven to myself this was clearly not enough.
Thereafter I made it 12 hours bottle to throttle, basically if I wanted to fly early the next morning no alcohol the night before. In effect I had imposed a 24 hour ban on alcohol on myself before flying.

If the Cessna had had electric flaps I would probably have flown into those trees.

Kind regards,

Gunter Rostek

[Pilot Pete]

Here we go. Pre flighting an aircraft I hadnt flown for some time. Found some fuel cocks under the seat so asked owner what they were for. He informed me not to worry as they were for long range tanks. Finished pre flight and took off. At 1000ft engine coughs and dies. No chance of turning back although tempted. Spotted a large field ahead and realized would make it but would probably ding the aircraft and myself. Amazingly calm and focused. 200ft above ground and dirt road appeared. Full flaps and managed to put her down for one of my better landings. In the confusion I had forgotten that there was another set of fuel cocks. Totally my fault as when told not to worry I had stopped checking the rest of the fuel system.

Lessons learnt.
1. Never assume anything.
2. Practice forced landings till they become second nature.
3. Listen to hanger talk. It was hanger talk that stopped me trying to turn back to the field with the inevitable results.
4. Dont be an idiot.

[andreb]

I had a simliar experience with turbulance and wind. On my first "outing" away from Microland after I got my wings, I went to Kroon with Dieselfan. Going ther was uneventful, except for the fact that we wanted to go to AP and eneded up at Kroon. I know the area and made wrong assumption about which field was which. DF had his Mom as pax and I was alone. We got there about 08h30 and the wind was already pumping from the East. We had coffee and decided to leave at about 09h00. By that time the temp was over 30 C and wind was really blowing. I remember the local instructor dawie saying we should park the trikes and fly out later. We knew better...I didn't want to look like a sissy in front of DF and Batman and the others.
So back we flew to Microland, almost into a really strong wind. Plus my radio was palying up!!
it was the longest flight in my history. It took us over an hour to get back to Microland and we were bounced all over the sky. Especially at 200ft AGL as directed by Waterkloof AFB. I swore I would never fly again if I got back in one piece. I hated every moment of it. We eventually got back ok and landed perfectly into a string wind on 09. Put my plane away and then had a good laugh.
Lesson learnt:
- Don't fly outside your skill and comfort limit. Not worth it. It could have turned out bad over the Magalies ridges.
- Listen to experienced instructors. They have had the bad knocks.
- When you in trouble, trust your training and keep calm.

Next event I had was a few weeks later. I took my wife for her fisrt flight to Bronkies Dam. My fellow pilot was Marius (ZS-NEL) with his pax. We took of in weather that was cool with lot;s of moisture and scattered clouds. When we approached Bronkies we saw it covered in mist and decided to trun back towards Rhino for some coffee. When we did so we saw that the mist was in fact closing in everywhere. We had a choice, be a smart arse and head back for Microland (this was just an inconvenience and we weren't sissies now were we!)....or do a precautionary landing. I decided on the latter.
I found a field and tried to radio marius, whose radio was playing up. he did the right thing and stayed in visual and quicly caught on to what I was doing. We did several low levesl over the filed, but couldn't see if through the ling grass. We then spotted a "goat" track further up the hill. Same routine again. Several low levels to see if all was OK on the track. We then had to land as the list was on the ground by then. We did so and luckily we were OK. Sat it out for several hours until Microland gave us the all clear and we headed back home. that day sevral people had been caught out in what was the worst mist Gauteng had seen in many years. I know one guy at Petit had a really bad time and had to be talked down.

Lessons learnt for me:
- Always carry our cell phone and water (and wallet and a few other items).
- make your decison to do precautionary soon and the carry it out quickly.
- trust your training and follow the procedures.
- don't be afraid to change your plan if the landing site is unsuitable
- Keep your passenger calm and tell them exactly what you are doing. My wife didn;t panic and today still completely trusts my flying and judgement

3rd incident was a few months ago. Got a puncture fixed by local mechanic/technician. Did normal preflight on a Sunday afternoon and then started up and taxied for 03. What I did spot during preflight was that I had 2 exhaust springs broken. My hangar neighbour said it would be fine as we were only flying to Kitty Hawk. This immediately went aginst my rule of not flying when something was wrong on preflight. Anyway we did run up checks and taxied for 03 for taleoff, but I noticed that somethign was not right with front wheel. Felt like my brake was stuck. I aborted my take off and taxied up and down a few times, but thinsg seemed OK. I then took off OK and flew out to Kitty Hawk. I was about 10th in the circuit and eventually got lined up for a landing. As I touched down the front wheel locked and the trike almost flipped over forward. i left a lng black mark on the runway. I managed to rev my plane off the runway as there was a twin behind me on short finals.
On closer inspection we found that the wheel nuts had not been tightened properly on the front wheel and teh wheel had come out of the slots. It could have turned out a lot worse. We straightened and tightened and got back to Microland OK. Thanks to Greg for the help.

lessons learnt:
- Carry the right tools with you.
- Don't fly when something goes wrong. Rather check it out properly first. I had 1 opportunities to abort and check things out.
- Specifically check out repair items when doign preflight. I did check the front wheel, but should have been more rigorous.

Probably a few more lessons here....jsut getting tired of typing. Hope this helps. Seems I have a gaurdian Angel watching over me.

Fly safe guys.

[AndyG]

Gunter and Pete,

This is exactly the response I was waiting for. I have already learnt from both of you and this is what I want all of us to do.


Every story will tell a tale and teach someone something.

If one person takes something away from this and learns then I am happy.

Fly safe guys,

[AndyG]

AndreB,

You posted while I was typing thanks for that.

Guys this is great because i am learning.

Keep it coming.


There are lots of stories out there so lets hear them.

Cheers,

[Uncle Spud Murphy]

Outstanding people absolutely outstanding and thank you (Dankie) to you guys who have sat down and typed out your stories. It takes time, patience and concentration to remember the incident you are writing about as it happened but also in the order it happened and most importantly. To write it in a way that even wanabees like me (Want to learn, don't know nothing yet) can understand what is being said.

Well done and just think of the fliers who will avoid grief because of the contributions to this topic. THE BEST I HAVE EVER SEEN. Bushvel Blue, you started this and Leftseat spotted the opportunity. Bloody well done both of you

Keep them coming guys. Save lives ja

Avdb

[Learjet]

I had fairly recently qualified on my gyro and decided to fly to the Piketberg Fees. Weather was perfect and softness and I soon found ourselves touching down on the local golf-gourse fairway which had been roped-off for use as a make-shift micolight landing strip for the duration of the festival.
The day turned out to be a scorcher - and by 3pm when we decided to depart (so as to still have plenty of daylight at our home field for landing), the temperature was still in the 30's!
Lining up on the long fairway I was quite happy that there was more than enough usable runway to compensate for the DA / heat. Started my take-off roll with a light cross-wind breeze, rotor rpm came up nicely to 220 and the nose-wheel started to lift...
Eased the stick forward to build up more ground-speed before gently pulling back expecting to lift off...but the main wheels just kept glued to the grass! Now I could see the putting green or whatever you call it with the little flag-pole at the end of the fairway approaching and with my hand a mili-second away from closing the throttle and aborting, the wheels lifted and we were airborne. But not out of the woods yet... even with the throttle aginst the stops and turbo engaged the gyro seemed reluctant to climb out of ground effect and we passed over the flag pole and the golf course boundary wall with a lot less clearance than I'd liked to have had. Recognising that I was perilously close to getting behind the power curve I wanted to push the nose down to get airspeed, but doing so meant sacrificing altitude - and I had precious little to give. Turning into the wind would provide more lift but the golf-course was situated on a mountain slope and that would mean turning into the rising slope. Straight ahead, the flood-light towers and trees at a nearby sports field were looming and the only option left was to turn downwind, push the nose down and thank my lucky stars that the downward sloping terrain fell away more quckly than my dip in altitude as I gathered airspeed and got everything back on track! Softness, oblivious to my sweaty palms could only comment as to how nice it was that the people waved as we zoomed over their heads...

BIG Lessons learned:
1. DA bites hard. And even though I was happy with my DA calculation I hadn't taken into account...
2. The rolling resistance of the fairly thick fairway grass!
3. Substantially less lift created by a cross-wind as opposed to a headwind.
4. My lack of having not properly determined an abort point prior to commencing my take-off roll.
5. My lack of having identified "escape routes" prior to take-off.

[Cali]

Great Topic and great posts. Thanks for you honesty guys. I am coming up to the completion of my MPL, and I am a bit worried to say the least.
I will bring my trike back to Mullewa as soon as I have my MPL. The problem I have is the absolute remoteness of this area. I will be the only microlight for hundreds of miles. I don't have a problem with flying alone, but I will miss a "Hangar Buddy" to ask if you are not sure. Someone else to help make a decision when you are uncertain, someone to help notice things on your trike that you may miss. Basically someone with more experience than me.
That is where topic's like this will help me a lot.
I have a pull-start on my 503. When I read about the incident at Microland, it scared the snot out of me. I always knew what the consequences of a runaway trike would be, but I never thought that it would happen. Now I make 100% sure of everything before I start, my hand never leaves the mag switches etc.

Keep them coming guy's.

(We all make mistakes and poor judgment calls every once in a while, but only some will admit to it)

[Low Level]

Softness, oblivious to my sweaty palms could only comment as to how nice it was that the people waved as we zoomed over their heads...

The hair on my neck actually rose while reading your story, then had a good chuckle when I got to this part. Good for you making a calm, informed decision.

Recognising that I was perilously close to getting behind the power curve I wanted to push the nose down to get airspeed, but doing so meant sacrificing altitude - and I had precious little to give.

Can't tell you how many times I have played this one in my mind, thinking of sacrificing altitude in a steep turn trying to miss oncoming obstructions. Guess no matter how many times you think about it, the choice will only become evident in that particular situation.

Did any one yet choose to do a downwind, downhill take off instead of an uphill, into the wind take off. Obviously depending on the strength of the wind and the slope, but say both moderate, what would the best ckoice be ?

[Morph]

Learjet, you were'nt the only one being caught out there that day. One of our mates in his fixed wing, with pax tride to negotiate a landing on the fairway. Now typically you would do an inspection first, but lots of guys were landing so he just joined the 'circuit'

He turned 'final', but was too hot and finally only touched down halfway down the fairway. There was no way of stopping in time so he powered up and pulled her back into the sky, as power lines and trees were approaching fast. (This was on one of the diagonal fairways to the top right of your google image). Additionally the town is nicely nestled against a moerse big mountain to the left, from where the wind was blowing, so there must have been significant rotors. Anyway he pulled her into the sky, behind the curve and the right wing stalled. This dropped and a combination of pure luck, skill and devine intervention he managed to save it. Him and the pax (also a pilot) agreed not to try that again and headed back to Morning Star.

Lessons learned, were,
1. the runway was too short to attempt a STOL landing for the first time,
2. Don't just trust everyone else and blindly land. If you don't know, do a low level inspection first. This would have highlighted the slope, length and the obstacles
3. There was another better longer safer runway to use, but he wanted to land on the golfcourse, not a good motive
4. from what I could see he landed downwind, mountain behind him, wind behind him, and a sh!tload of rotors rolling down the mountain. Weather was against him.

[AndyG]

Another mistake I made,

My wife is very well known in the Equestrian circles.
She had entered an Eventing competition in the Midlands(cross country etc etc)

It was to be held at Siearra Ranch(what a lekker place) Mooi River

All in all with travelling we were going to be there for 3 days.

I decided to fly up with my trike. I organised hangorage at Treverton School where a mate of mine was and that was that.

Flew up uneventual and landed at Treveryon. Met up with my mate and flew onto Sierra Ranch and landed there before my wife. The hotel very obligienly sent up a vehicle to fetch us and we had a lovely brunch.

Flew back to Treverton and hangared the plane.


Spent the weekend flying the beautiful Natal Midlands and was set to return home on Sunday.

Weather was K.A.K and left the plane there and drove home with my Softness.

Went back the next weekend to take the plane home.

Got there early and fairly misty. Phoned Met and was told it would burn off within the next hour or two.


Phoned a mate at Oribi(PMB) and was told it was all clear.


Waited an hour and things seems to be breaking. My mate from Mooi River said things will be fine and forward to PMB will be good.

I took off and did a short circuit and looked towards PMB and it did look OK???

I landed again again and told my mate and he said it would clear.

Took off again and set off towards PMB, after 10 min all was fine, after 15 I could see billowing clouds building up in front of me. No problem I thought, I have the escape route behind me. After another 5 min I was not happy and decided to return to Mooi River. Did a gradual 180 turn and guess what, all I saw was a bank of cloud approaching.

I had virtually 500m in front and a 1000 m behind of visibility.

Looked left, right and straight down and saw a forest track leading into a forest.

There was no where else to go and I set my self up for the landing. No time for a precautionary or anything. The mist was rolling in. I hit my finals at 45 deg because of the terrain and straightened up at the the last moment. The track must have been and I kid you not about 85 metres in length before it entered the forest. I rolled into the forest and had about 2 metres on either side of the wing. When I stopped I wanted to cry as I did not believe how quickly things had changed. Within 5 minutes I was surrounded by little chaps from a neighbouring kraal who had seen the Mlungu fall from the sky.

I sat there for 3,5 hours before the cloud lifted. I had to pull my trike into the forest to turn it around for the take off. Imagine racing down an avenue of trees as your runway and popping out at the end.

The rest of the flight was great and smooth not an event.

Landed at the home airfield and got the evil eye from the softness. " what took you so long, I have been home and offloaded the horses already and you have just got here"

If only she knew!!!!

What did I learn,
Be very very wary of low cloud.
Don't go on the word of a local who says it will clear. Be 100% sure before you proceed with the flight
Always have landing options.

Get rid of my wife's horses

By the way she won the show