The Worst Day In My Life Flying

Ernest Cawby · From: Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Was The day of My Check ride for my ticket, here it is.
For my test flite I had my instructor, here goes. Odie Bell told me a long time before I was ready ti take the flite That I could do it then, many hours before I had all my time in.
Well we took off I knew he had an appointment when we took off, He told me to make a short field landing, I knew that was all I had to do and the ticket was mine, Boys I can hit he numbers on the end of the runway anytime I fly, but not that day, would you believe I blew it, I hit the intersection, Odie Bell called his secretary and cancelled his meeting looked at me and said go to Garson Point, the practice area. He put me thru everything in the book, he put me under the hood and put the plane in a spin, and then said you got it, I took it out of the spin under the hood, try that one, after about 45 minutes of this he said see that cow field if you land this plane in that field without killing us you have your ticket, I was 15 feet over the fence, he took the controls and put us back up and said fly us in. His favourite thing was to shut off the motor and make you restart it, we did that also.
Boy that was a flite to remember.
This is not for removed from steel playing remember your worst Day ????????????????

ernie

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

my first gig is tomorrow night , could be MY worst day, I'll let you know

Antolina · From: Dunkirk NY

Dennis Saydak · From: Manitoba, Canada

Well Ernie, it can get a lot worse than not being able to hit the numbers. The day I went for my licence it was 35 below F. I had to sweep the frost off the wings and heat up the engine under a canvas cover before it would start. When I climbed onto the wing walk of the Warrior I couldn't open the door. It was frozen shut. When it finally let go I fell backwards onto the wing after the door hit me in the head. I had to lay down in the hanger for an hour or so to stop the bleeding and soften my headache. After all that "pain" I got my licence that day.
_________________
Dennis
Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race, the rats get faster.

Dick Wood · From: Springtown Texas, USA

I had a pretty bad, ok, almost fatal experience flying from Fort Worth to just North of Conroe TX.

This was to be a quick trip to drop off the step kids and return the same evening. We landed just as it was getting dark and I taxied back to leave.

I was flying a Cessna 182 and I wasn't instrument rated but shortly got into night IFR after climbing through 2000 to 4500ft. My initial thought was that I'd pop out in a few minutes but I wound up in the soup for 45 minutes in the dark.

Everything that could go wrong did. I had the worst time staying level and at altitude. At one point I was in a left spiral descending at 1500 FPM and then in right climbing turn. The strobes made me get vertigo extremely bad and also gave me the impression the propellor had stopped even though I could hear the engine running.

At one point I invisioned the headlines in some local paper about the crash and the two people killed and that woke me up to get serious and use every little bit of experience my teacher gave me over the years.

On top of trying to hide this big problem from my wife,she kept constantly asking how I knew where I was going and asking all kinds of questions.

About half way back to Fort Worth I got into a good rhythm with the plane and decided to slowly descend where I finally popped out at 1900ft. to a huge sigh of relief.

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Rick Campbell · From: Sneedville, TN, USA

Dick,

You do much of that in the Applachian mountains of KY, WV, etc... and you'll be playing the harp instead of the steel. Sounds like you did okay, kept your cool, and the hood time paid off. I could teach you to do that down to ILS mimimums of 200 ft. AGL.

Dick Wood · From: Springtown Texas, USA

Rick,

I hear ya,thankfully around these parts it's pretty flat but there are some 2000ft TV towers poking up here and there.

My instructor put me under the hood every chance he got and I thanked him for it a few months later.I had also just happned to have read a book on principals of IFR flying prior to my flight and that was a big help too.

Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

Granite cumulus might be lacking in your area.....
but what about that 'other guy' doing the same thing you were guilty of? REMEMBER what the TWA Constellation and UAL's DC-6 did over the Grand Canyon on a clear and sunny day and not another plane in the sky?

There's soooooooooo much that an instrument pilot learns/knows, that the private non-instrument pilot never dreamed of. If you're not one yet, it will open your eyes, trust me.

Not lecturing.........but all too many NTSB Reports define "the probably cause' as being........'on let down, the pilot failed to clear higher terrain.'

And what about the 'freezing level'? What if your generator belt snapped off? What if your gyro's quit working? They don't have warning devices on the older units.

Jim Eaton · From: Santa Susana, Ca

I have to say that my worst night of flying was when our Douglas RA3B Sky Warrior had a double flame out over Laos due to water in the JP4 in the port wing tank and when the skipper could not get'em to relight after a few seconds of "gliding like a rock" he blew down the belly hatch/door with the air bottle and all 3 of us went sky diving into the jungle. That was the 1st of 3 times my aircrew left the airplane during my 28 months of "Aerial Combat Photography" back in 1970-72.
JE:-)> - Photographers Mate 2nd Class - U.S.N.R.

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

1969.
Company 6 seater.
Flying over Lake to Canada.
Lightning strikes cowling.
Wires, solder, strange parts all over laps.
Only range finder works.

Flying:
Absolute boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

Charlie Tryon · From: Glovertown Newfoundland, Canada

Well with only 600 plus hours of flying I must say I have had nothing but good times. I have a night rating and VFR over the top. I did a lot of night flying in northern Ontario and that is where I got my night rating but as my instructor told me night flying in the north is more like IFR. There were many noghts when there were no lights in sight so it was all instument. I have about 80 hrs of actual instrument time logged with an instructor but I'm not interested in getting an IFR ticket I just keep it VFR it is more fun for me and the only time I rely on my instruments is on those really dark nights.

So every buddy fly safe and have fun.

Charlie
_________________
My NEW TUBE AMP CWT Amplifiers I build, JACKSON COMMEMORATIVE all wood 3&5, Fender Steel King Amp,Telonics pedal

John Kingsley · From: Los Angeles, CA

I guess my "worst" day flying was my first solo cross country from Norwood KOWD to Orange KORE. My instructor really wanted to get me in that day, as he was going to be out for a while, and i was very close to finishing the private, so I went in anyway. When I checked the weather there was light turbulence, but by the time I actually got up it was pretty severe. I got on with boston approach and talked to them for a while, but they terminated radar service after a while, so I was on my own, bouncing up and down like a basketball. Orange is a non towered airport, and the ctaf is 122.8, so of course since it was a weekend, the ctaf was jammed with every airport BUT orange lol. I made my calls looking for traffic advisories and such, but no one said anything for my airport. The airport is in a valley which makes it pretty tough to enter the pattern, and it was really bumpy, esp. for a student pilot. I flew what is probably written somewhere as the absolute ugliest entry ever, and overshot the runway from base to final, but was determined to put it down anyway, even though there was like a 10 knot crosswind. I landed it, and when I went to take off again, monitoring the ctaf, i didn't hear anything, but all of the sudden i see about 8 parachute jumpers falling out of the sky! I guess someone forgot to tell me lol...I laugh about the whole thing now, but in the moment, it was pretty scary...

James Cann · From: Phoenix, AZ

Dick Wood · From: Springtown Texas, USA

Well,no,probably never.

Most of my sporadic flying is close to the airport these days and that has pretty much dried up due to the ever increasing cost to rent even a 152.

Mickey Adams · From: Bandera Texas

Dick...ill be happy to train you for your instrument rating...and your Commercial, Instructor, and ATP.....
_________________
ARTIST RELATIONS: MSA GUITARS
2017 MSA LEGEND XL D10, S10, Studio Pro S12 EXE9
Mullen G2, Rittenberry S10, Infinity D10, Zumsteel 8+9
Anderson, Buscarino, Fender, Roman Guitars, Sarno Octal, Revelation Preamps, BJS BARS, Lots of Blackface Fenders!

Forum Index > Steel Players		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: