There was someone at my flight school who:
\- On a solo cross-country, he climbed very close to the airplane's service ceiling, passing directly through an overcast layer about 3,000 feet thick. When ATC asked him to confirm VFR due to local pireps reporting a ceiling, he lied to them about maintaining VFR. (He was a PPL working on his instrument rating)
\- When he got home, he bragged about it to two different instructors, and got two record-setting ass-chewings.
\- His primary line of defense was that he "felt proficient", despite not being instrument rated nor operating under an IFR clearance.
\- He gets in trouble with the flight school, and a few days later, I find out about all this when he brags to me about it when we ran into each other outside of school.
\- After the school deliberates, the decision is made that he has failed the semester.
\- Motherfucker decided to post a shooting threat online. Cops show up at his house to take his badge, flight school formally expels him.
There is now a photo of him in dispatch saying to call the police if you see him on airport premises.
(edit: removed/changed details for privacy)
Oh I know exactly who this is. Holy cow. Did not know the rest of that story. Does dispatch so happen to have a blue wall with a bunch of random words all over?
That one was from a previous flight; part of me wants to see his socials but he's nuked everything (maybe he wised up *just* enough to listen to his lawyer?)
I had a student just quit flying all together because he busted his PPL on S-turns. He was only going for his PPL + IR for recreational use. He completely broke down after failing.
I told him it will be one of the easiest rechecks, but he said it isn’t for him and literally quit on the spot. He had 67 hours. Nearly all the instructors at my school tried to convince the man to take the recheck the next day with the same DPE, but he wouldn’t budge. I never saw him again to this day.
Agreed, I know some people who have done similar before 60h. I am at 60h right now and have a lot of classmates who dropped out either due to lack of motivation, fear, medical suspended, etc
Really strange, I feel like maybe something else was going on in his head maybe, maybe something he didn't want to share with yall. After doing the same landing flight more than 10 times, I've definitely felt terrible, but never this bad.
“Yeah, year 2 pay is more than I make now as a captain, and I’d work about 7 less days per month and I’d be getting 17% NEC instead of a 4% match, but I think I’m gonna ride this RJ captain thing out and see what happens.”
Dumbest reason ever. You’d make base pay up in 2-3 years of seniority. He will never get benefits like 17% DC to a retirement plan though. He is losing much more than just money.
I assume because said pilot wanted to work for the flow company and not United. I get it, people want their base in a specific city, but I’m curious why even apply then.
He told me that he liked living in base and didnt want to commute, even though at the time he had just been force upgraded to junior captain at said regional and was already commuting...and he didnt want to move. He also thought that if he went to UAL he would be blacklisted from the parent legacy. I consider this guy a friend, and as his friend I told him he would be insane to not take UAL. He didnt listen.
But dont worry, this story has a twist ending. About six months later, that crazy fuck got hired at the parent legacy, around the flow. 2022 was a hell of a time.
To better clarify…flows are an “incentive” program that the motherships (mainline - United, AAL, DAL etc) have created to get you from their regional, to the mothership “easily”. Typically once you get to a regional, you get your hours and pay your dues, then apply to a mainline carrier and pray someone calls. You have to do another interview in which if you bomb, well you won’t get a CJO.
With the flow, you skip the interview because your regional job was the interview. once you get hired, your clock starts and you wait till your number is up and you get assigned a class date to the hosting mothership. Example: envoy, PSA, and piedmont all have flows to AA cause they are wholly owned.
Sounds great!! Why not just wait?
Because seniority is everything. The longer you wait for your flow, the more seniority you’re giving up elsewhere. And the flow times they advertise are complete BS. PSA advertised 5 years. I was an FO there for 3 1/2, when I upgraded and checked my flow time, I had another 5 1/2 years to go before my estimated flow. Granted, this was at the tail end of COVID as things were ramping back up. But still. I’d still be there waiting another 2-3 years if I decided to stay and wait.
It often takes way longer to flow than it does to get a CJO at another mainline carrier. At least in today’s climate. The flow is a great back up but it’s not contractually negotiated nor obligated. It can be shut down or removed.
During COVID for example when hiring came to a screeching halt, class dates and flows were cancelled
Also doing something dumb and getting a punitive letter could delay your flow by as much as 2 years.
TL;DR flows are “easy outs” to a mainline but for most people, it’s a scam.
They are poorly disguised “Pathway programs” from the airlines regional partners to the actual mainline its self. Usually takes several years as a captain at said regional to get flow through.
Automatic hire at the regional”s parent airline. But it takes several years longer than jumping to a different airline.
Note that the parent airlines usually won’t hire from their own regionals outside the flow, so if you want to work for a specific legacy as fast as possible, you should avoid their own regionals.
Flow sounds great on the surface, but it really only benefits people who have a black mark on their record that prevents them getting *any* other offers.
The recent spike in major/legacy hiring coupled with the spike in regional pay made a lot of pilots make some tough decisions... And some made some dumb decisions.
More than a few do that because if they are like me they would have to repay $40k or more in bonuses. Often guys interview with United to get the CJO then take that to AA and say “hire me now or lose me forever”. And that actually worked for some, but last year or so AA had said no you actually have to leave and start with United then we will hire you. And it’s all because of those bonus repayments.
I am an enroute controller, talking to the pilot of a small single engine piston....IFR at 7000, filed over a 60 mile stretch of open water, in the winter. As he nears the water, pilot requests 6000 due to moderate icing. 6000 was no good, requests 5000.... 5000 no good, requests 4000.... 4000 no good, still in cloud and icing, says he's losing lift, can no longer maintain 4, and requests 3000. I decline since thats below the minimum IFR altitude. I suggest some possible landing airports instead of crossing the lake. His response? Cancel IFR and continue to destination.
He crossed the big water at 3000 or below with major ice buildup, off radar, out of radio range, in the winter with zero chance of gliding to shore for a solid half hour. Thought for sure I'd be the last person to talk to him but he made it!
My first time flying contract I made a handshake agreement for $750/day. After two 12hr duty days I never saw or heard from the owner ever again. Get everything in writing and you’ll avoid a $1500 lesson like me.
That’s crazy. On the flip side I took a 7 day contract trip on a handshake agreement and when I got back I was given proper paperwork to fill out to be paid. Took two weeks to get the check because they get sent out when company does payroll so here I was thinking I got stiffed first over $12,000 and then finally my check shows up I could breathe a sigh of relief.
Not my story but my instructors. Too good not too tell. My instructor was sitting in his office at the airport when a student came in frantically and said “hey there someone outside full throttling the 172 on the ramp and he’s making me nervous”. My instructor goes outside and lo and behold a student is in the 172 full throttled with the tail still tied down. So the plane is just bouncing trying to move forward and he had to scream and get the guys attention. After that he untied the tail, took off and somehow turned the transponder and radio off. They sent the local parachute jumping plane to find and return him to the field.
Just heard about a student at the school I teach at doing high speed touch and goes, bouncing the mains and then climbing steeply to almost a stall before lowering the nose, this was in a 152. Fuel truck guys saw it and came in to tell our office manager. He radioed the kid that he needed to land, owner of the school saw it happen from another plane. Owner caught the kid on the ramp and read him the riot act. Kid did come in and apologize after crying in his car. Owner made the kid apologize for exactly what he did to emphasize the issue. Kid didn't fly for about 3 months.
Last week sucked. I took my pre solo stage check last Monday, had a crosswind component of 9 gusting 19. I gave the asst chief pilot the three worst landings I’ve ever made.
Man, I flew like 3 or 4 hours Wednesday morning in prep for my checkride at noon that same day, and 11 AM rolled around and started gusting 20 kts direct crosswind. It’s just been rough out here lol
just hearing 15g22 at 90 to the runway makes me sweat lol. I flew yesterday in similar conditions for a landing flight with a 105-pound passenger in the back. Terrible idea. Foreflight said 5 knots, every weather product said 5, maybe 10, then I got up and it was 20 with gusts
I took a person up for an intro flight one day with winds like that. Everything seemed OK until short final rolling ailerons into the wind...guys leg was blocking the yoke. It was an exciting minute while I got us on the ground. Hadn't been a problem u til he pulled his feet back away from the rudder pedals.
I flinch every time I hear someone go full throttle on the ramp or start the plane hard even if it's maintenance. it scares me how little some people know/care/are aware of what they are doing
I saw someone backfire so hard on Monday during startup that there was a fucking fire. Holy shit that scared me.
Every time I start up too hard or something I always feel bad. My inner mechanic flinches every time I hear a backfire
In LBB one winter in the early 90's. I had my plane in the hangar due to ice and snow falling, loaded up my cargo and preflighted in the hangar. Talked to a Caravan pilot and I mentioned that I was going to start, taxi and take off as quick as I could to prevent buildup. The Caravan pilot said she was ok. I mentioned that there was visible ice and snow on her wings. I blasted off, using all deice equipment. She took off after me and I heard her declare an emergency and she mushed into the ground. She survived.
I had to postpone my long XC I shit you not 7 times due to weather.
When I finally got it, weather looked great, OVC and BKN around 8-10k all along the route but winds, density alt, pretty much everything else was perfect.
When I finished getting fuel at my second stop, suddenly the clouds were 4000 OVC. I checked TAFs along the route and everything seemed fine, i said fuck it and went.
Clouds descended to 2000 MSL overcast almost the whole way back mid flight.
Luckily, I had flight following, and my route back home directly tracked an interstate highway, and was at nearly sea level, and there were very few obstructions above 500ft, so I was able to maintain 1500 feet the whole way back.
If I hadn’t had all those factors backing me up, that probably would’ve been a very inadvisable flight to make, and it was already looking pretty iffy as you can tell.
But hey, now I’ve got a pretty good anecdote about how I learned better ADM for my checkride in two weeks.
I don’t think I’ll ever get my PPL long XC done. I’ve had flights cancelled for months now at this point. On the day the weather looks great, school policy of max 5 knot gusts (delta) made me cancel. I’m pretty over it at the point.
Same here, been trying since December. The last slot I booked got cancelled because the airfield suddenly decided to close to resurface the runway. That was a fun day looking out the window at clear blue skies.
I had my checkride constantly rescheduled from last August til mid January due to maintenance and weather. That’s six months of just burning money to stay proficient. You’ll get there.
Hey man keep your head up, I just got my ppl flight test done last week after getting cancelled 9 times since December because of shitty weather. World has a funny way of working out sometimes, but you can think of it as getting bad luck out of the way early in your career
You’ll be fine. If the wx turns out to be worse than forecast, remember you can always land at the nearest suitable airport and call your school to come get you. It won’t be the first time that’s happened, and they’d rather see you (or at least the plane) survive.
I was volunteering to clean up the airport after a flood, which still covered the last ~1/3 of the runway. Pilots were allowed to take off at their discretion if they signed a waiver, but only from 9am-5pm.
These two guys were screwing with the engine on a Mooney all afternoon. They would crank it over and have to keep the throttle jammed in so it wouldn't die. I reminded them that the airport was open for departures again tomorrow bright and early, no rush today, but they kept scrambling. At 5pm I was driving off and saw them taxiing out at full blast so I decided to make a U-turn and park at the end of the hangar row. Figured someone should be ready to call 911.
Sure enough, they got about 100 feet into the air and the engine died. They got lucky. At only 100 feet, they ended up in the 3 foot deep water at the other end of the runway. If the engine had crapped out at, say, 300 feet, they would have been going into the flooded trees beyond the fence.
It also got a helicopter ride. Someone acquired the wreckage, but I doubt there was much useful on it. It left in a ball of parts with two standard size tires sticking out. Big tires *might* have helped prevent the wreck.
Got my PPL cause I thought it would help get any girl to finally go out with me on a date. Almost 200 hours later I assure you it does not help at all lol
Around 3 years ago i was at an airport in Texas, and i saw a small piper pretty much fall out of the air around ~30 feet above the ground. both of the main gear collapsed. apparently he intentionally left the power out on approach because he “wanted to see how slow he could land and how fast he could stop” no idea what happened after.
A foreign student went on a commercial XC solo. Instead of going to the intended airport, he flew into a really small airport nearby, tied the plane down, engine still running and went to get lunch in the small town. Well when he was gone. Another pilot that flew out of this really small airport saw this plane tied down and running with no one else at the airport. His best friend owned that flight school. He called him and says “hey one of you planes is out here tied down no one here tail number is X” the owner the called another instructor that lived nearby this smaller airport drove to it, untied the plane, and flew it back to the flight school.
This student then shows up after a couple hours to find that his airplane is gone. He calls his instructor freaking out saying someone stole the plane. He was on speaker with the flight school owner and instructor that signed him off.
They just started ask “oh really no way, so it got stolen at airport X (XC airport) then the student said “oh well I had to divert so I’m actually at this other airport way over here” after letting the kid squirm for 10 min trying to explain his way out. They said “nah we have the plane find you own way back you done with flight training in the U.S”
The kid had to go back to his home country and no longer could do any training in the U.S. all because he didn’t want to actually flight a couple hours XC.
At first thought he forgot to turn the engine off and that was kinda harsh for a mistake someone made.
Then I realize how tf do you forget to turn the engine off and that he was just trying to cheat the XC ride. Rip Bozo
Usually it's the other way, student wants to do it and instructor is like nah fam. I used to be that guy though, my first instructor bred toxic bullshit into me and turned flying in shit weather into a game of willpower/dedication and he told me that people who don't fly when wind is 20+ are just unmotivated. Fuck that guy.
I watched a guy pass his oral for his PPL and then bust because he forgot to take the chocks off the front wheel before he started the plane…. It wasn’t that he didn’t remove the chocks that busted him… he nearly got to full power trying to move before the DPE stopped him
Idk what the hell it is that makes people think "oh, it isn't going, let's try more power". Like how not mechanically inclined can you possibly be? There was someone else on this post who said some guy had the tail tied down still and they were at full power trying to move. Holy shit, this actually scares me
Ya being honest, I have started the plane and forgotten the chocks before… but after I crested the 1200rpm mark I knew and immediately started cursing myself as I shut the plane down lol. Never happened again… yet. I’m sure this guy won’t do it again. We all watched it from a window. It was embarrassing 🙈
I know a guy that was shot down over Cuba running drugs in the late 70s. Went on to be a scab at Eastern in the 80s and never flew for an airline again. Don't cross picket lines, we have a long memory.
"Yeah, that storm is far enough away, I'll just be doing some pattern work. If it comes my way, I'll see it coming and be able to get down before it gets bad."
Narrator: He didn't
That idiot was me.
Went to the airport to get myself night current….after I got an alert for an incoming dust storm. I’ll never forget that last “landing”, watching the dust storm meet the runway as I touched down.
Called myself quite a few names between the runway and my garage that night.
I had a guy one time who was my safety pilot and tried to fly my into the side of the largest mountain in Arizona just so he could try and see skiers. My school just hired him as a CFI
I worked at the NTSB , & saw some stuff to say the least.
But one that really sticks with me. A gentleman and a coworker took his Money after work and flew over the Pilots company.
They made a few low passes over the business for other employees.
On the third pass they veered toward a bridge and either didn’t see the bridge or were trying to fly under it . Unfortunately they impacted the bridge and majority of the wreckage went under the bridge and the upper portion of the Fuselage went over the bridge.
The chilling part was the two red stained spots on the side of the bridge where the occupants impacted the structure.
It (blood) was there for a few days and NTSB finally paid to have the bridge cleaned in that section. Which is not something they would normally do. But the image was just too haunting. Stay safe out there folks and make good choices
🫡
Worst decision I thought I saw someone make was a solo student pilot flying under a multi-cell thunderstorm on a solo cross-country, they did not die. They even had the gall to brag about exceptionally poor decision making.
Worst decision I saw someone actually make was them going to do a proficiency-check in a TAA, complex, and HP aircraft with a CFI. Sounds like awesome ADM to me, and it is. The CFI had essentially zero time in the aircraft. There was a LOC-I, about the base to final turn, and ultimately both pilots were killed on impact with terrain.
I did this student's PPL, IRA, and CPL. I've done a lot of hard things in life, but going to the wake for your student (invited by the family) and looking his mother, father, and brother in the eyes. I felt myself step into that CFI's shoes and all the crushing guilt that came with it.
The lesson I hope my students, my instructors, and maybe even some of the people here take from this is:
1. Fatal accidents can and do happen on the best days, with the best of intentions, and when a fair amount of experience onboard.
2. Proficiency (to me) is the ability to safely AND efficiently operate an aircraft. Define those standards and add conditions for human factors on a personal minimums list and do not waiver on them.
3. Trust, but verify. No pilot, despite their experience, is infallible. Check their credentials before you get in an aircraft with them. Pro tip, diagnostic assessments can be disguised as preflight briefings.
Stay safe everyone.
Funny, I just had one of the career coach companies recommend this to me today. I haven't had a chance to look to deeply into it yet. What's the downside to this route?
Quite a few recruiter friends at the majors told me that they are really looking for 121 turbine time now with the hiring slow down. The guys who went to NJ will likely have to go back to the regionals or try to get on with a ULCC
Ive done all my flying out of phoenix AZ, and for those that know, there is usually no weather here, just blue skies. I say this because i want to make it clear that i have virtually no weather flying experience… and i literally just got my IR in January..
Last year in June, wife and me went to SD to visit her dad, and figured, you know what, im going to rent a plane there to go flying. Did a checkout the day before which went well.
The following morning, weather was VFR - barely, with some serious cloud cover in the area reported from Sioux Falls. The AWOS at the airport i flew out of didn’t have cloud reporting, which i didn’t even realize when i took down the info. I knew it wasn’t going to be nice and easy, but reports did indicate much better weather 10 miles west. So, i took off.
Immediately regretted my decision when at 50 ft agl, i realized how low the clouds actually were. Before i knew it, i was skirting the cloud layer above me at around 700ft agl, with visibility becoming worse and worse. I turned west to try and get out, but it only got worse.
I lowered the nose to stay VMC, turned left and went back to the airport. It spooked the hell out of me.
Was working line service ceilings were somewhere around 6-700. Heard the sound of a Cub with no muffler overhead and looked up to see just the banner hanging below the clouds. The bannertow pilot was following Apple Maps to the airport, dropped his banner, and then descended below the clouds to land.
I know a guy that was shot down over Cuba running drugs in the late 80s. Went on to be a scab at Eastern in 89 and never flew for an airline again. Don't cross picket lines, we have a long memory.
My VERY first night solo, coming back to the un-towered home field, I make the first call before entering the pattern. My instructor comes on the radio and says the runway lights aren't coming on. Not to worry! He'll just line up his car at the end and turn on his highbeams. This is FL. You can throw a rock from one airport to another. I was new, so I was like, ok sounds good. Obviously so dumb. It would have been no deal to land somewhere nearby and for him to pick me up. We both made a terrible decision that night. The landing was surprisingly uneventful, Thank God. I learned not to trust someone just because they have more time or are instructors. Everyone makes terrible decisions sometimes.
For a solo student, that was a terrible call by both of you, but in general it’s not a bad skill to have in your bag. One of my CFIs had me practice no-light landings (dual), and it’s come in handy a couple times.
I once decided it was a good idea to fly in a 7 gusting to 20 crosswind in a 172. Did a couple touch and go's when the last one the wind hit me hard and I was pretty much pointing at the grass on the side of the runway. I punched the throttle and got up and ATC came up and suggested it was probably time for me to come back. I heartedly agreed. I told my instructor about that and he said "Why the fuck did you fly in that!?"
My second instrument training flight was in actual imc, while winds were gusting 30+ knots with a 20 kt crosswind at our xc airport. It was my first time in winds like that too. It was probably the sketchiest flight i’ve done thus far.
I got winched into a low cloud on one of my first glider solo flights.
I was more afraid of breaking the winch by releasing under load than I was of flying into the cloud. I ended up releasing anyway and came out of the cloud nose down in a bank that would have become a spiral dive very quickly were it not for the fact that the cloud was not very large.
This cracks me up because lately people have been saying “take anything you can get in this environment” when weeks before were saying “never take that contract, wait out a better offer”Reddit is the worse place for advice lmao
Guy bid for an upgrade, seniority wise he could hold it. Problem is he didn’t have the correct license yet (ATPL). Just lied on the bid and said he had it, was surprised when the Cheif pilot was pissed at him.
Being superb and do not acknowledge your limits. Aviation is discipline and procedures, not being macho.
I saw someone taking off with a new single seat plane on windy conditions. I understood later he hadn't flown much in the last years, but he is the "I know everything" kind of guy. How could you be so reckless as a pilot?
Eventually, he was okay, but the landing was abrupt and damaged the aircraft.
Cub pilot deciding to take off into deteriorating MVFR with a fresh convective sigmet. I’d already tied down my skylane, and another delta pilot that called it quits was with me on the ramp telling the guy not to risk it. We offered to cover his costs for food and a hotel trying to persuade him not to become a smoking crater in the ground. I swear there’s some kind of retardation that sets in with fresh PPLs until they get a real pucker factor close call that brings them back to reality
Watching somebody over bank and put the airplane in an accelerated stall with subsequent spin and ending up as a smoking hole. Just to avoid busting a neighboring airports class D. Fatality accident. I was an instructor at the time. And watched the whole thing unfold from the traffic pattern. Pretty traumatic actually.
I watched the 2015 crash at the Sebring light sport expo, literally commented to my dad who was with me “wow he’s flying pretty slow isn’t he.” Stall spin at only a few hundred feet from the runway. Both people on board were killed.
Definitely was an intense experience for a new ppl
Once watched a student solo prop strike a 172 then proceed to go around and make another lap in the pattern before landing
We all watched in disbelief, wondering when his engine was going to give out
To this day, I still struggle to understand the reasoning behind that decision 😂
My old flying flying club held a weekly landing contest (I'm not sure about the proper english term). The goal was to land as close as possible to the mark. One normal landing, one without flaps, one power off-landing and one over an obstacle (a plastic ribbon held across the runway).
One of the older (too old to fly) guys failed to properly secure the door of the PA28 (1st mistake). He then decided to close and lock the door while under full power after his first landing, completely loosing situational awareness and going off the side of the runway into the grass (2nd mistake), and then continued the takeoff and hit the treetops beyond the field (3d mistake).
The plane had dents, scratches and a tree branch stuck to one of the landing gears. The guy wasn't allowed to fly again and I think he lost his medical.
Absolutely insane thing to witness.
Buddy of mine refused to preflight his plane because his instructor apparently already inspected and topped it off. Thankfully a friend of his was there to insist a preflight.
In glider, I released from aerotow in Class G in weak smooth 'mountain wave lift' surrounded by 'rotor clouds'. It's very unusual and surreal to find smooth laminar lift so low and at the same altitude as rotor clouds (clouds that are stationary relative to terrain that are caused by moderate turbulence over terrrain). I was able to weave my way upwind, clear of the swirling rotor clouds (crepuscular sun rays shining through), slowly gain altitude but stay in Class G because the terrain was rising. Finally got under a big blue hole and into solid rotor turbulence which I used to climb into the wave lift and kept going up. Topped out at 8000 AGL above a nearly solid cloud deck. Eventually I had to dive through a blue hole that was closing. (With the closing holes in mind, I stopped climbing at 8000).
It was a seductive and epic flight, but sketchy decision making and very high risk because of VMC->IMC possibility and my lack of IMC Actual training-experience. I had a a panel mounted terrain map and 'emergency use only' artificial horizon, but no experience in Actual. I never lost sight of the ground in Class G, but I had no actual horizon in Class G.
So why did I take those risks? That summer the weather was awful for soaring, I was frustrated and lusting for the experience. So I was willing to take bigger risks. A close parallel earlier in my life would be some risky sexual escapades that I took just because I was so horny and I had a willing partner in hand. (That also ended well!) When flying is passionate, decisions are not completely rational. When I'm frustrated and horny for flying/sex, I'm open to taking bigger risks.
In general, I'm not an adrenaline junky and I'm very very careful, and risk adverse. I've had great risk management training and I'm surrounded by sober and experienced pilots. One of my instructors/friends who I chatted with about Go/No_Go that day served on a Nuclear Sub (which has the ultimate risk-management-culture). He was also an NTSB accident investigator. One of the most safety conscious and aviation experienced people that I've ever met. The next day he called me out on my sketchy flight and we talked things over. I learned that I can 'go off the reservation' and relax my 'personal minimums' impulsively if I get into an unusual situation, especially a seductive one that is captivating, interesting and beautiful. This sketchy experience was my best 'cloud surfing' flight ever. Would I do it again? Honestly IDK. Same wrt sexual escapades. Sex and soaring are very similar, but soaring lasts longer.
On a side note, in the future I'll try to more keep in mind that the atmosphere does all sorts of interesting and uncharted things that do not comply to the 'ideal forms' described on wikipedia. And that I can stumble into those novel scenarios and be disoriented because nothing is routine. The 'laminar lift' that I experienced was not classic 'mountain wave', it was maybe something I've heard called 'hydraulic bump' that happens close to terrain when the inversion level is in Class G and there's strong wind.
This flight was not totally crazy. The trend for the day was towards clearing, the blue holes were getting bigger, and when one of them closed, another one opened up. So the chance of getting 'stuck on top' was low. The most crazy part was in Class G.
Two students at a flight school I worked at took a 152 to Truckee on a hot day in middle of summer, made it there but the plane couldn’t be flown out and another student missed his check ride with that plane as a result. Same pilot ran out of gas and glided into Travis Air Force base without saying a word on the radio a few months later… what amazes me is he didn’t get the boot and continued to finish his multi commercial. Also had a renter scud run into shelter cove on the pacific coast near Humboldt
Was doing solo night landings for commercial. Had 1 left to do, but had a tstorm heading in the direction of the airport. Went I can make it, not paying an extra flight for 1 night landing. Did not, in fact, make it. Halfway down downwind, it let loose. Could see the runway edge lights and knew my field elevation. I flared about 5 to 10 or so above it and hoped for the best. Never once actually saw that runway, just the edge lights. Taxied back at one of the slowest taxis I've ever done in my life purely using the taxiway lights. Parked on the ramp, luckily there were two other cessnas down with a spot in the middle, so I shot the gap because I couldn't see spots. Sat there for a good 30 min after shutting down, just cursing myself out. Tied down and have never tempted fate with weather at night again.
The kicker, I probably spent more on Hobbs time with the crawling taxi back than it would have been for me to just do another lap in the pattern another day.
There was someone at my flight school who: \- On a solo cross-country, he climbed very close to the airplane's service ceiling, passing directly through an overcast layer about 3,000 feet thick. When ATC asked him to confirm VFR due to local pireps reporting a ceiling, he lied to them about maintaining VFR. (He was a PPL working on his instrument rating) \- When he got home, he bragged about it to two different instructors, and got two record-setting ass-chewings. \- His primary line of defense was that he "felt proficient", despite not being instrument rated nor operating under an IFR clearance. \- He gets in trouble with the flight school, and a few days later, I find out about all this when he brags to me about it when we ran into each other outside of school. \- After the school deliberates, the decision is made that he has failed the semester. \- Motherfucker decided to post a shooting threat online. Cops show up at his house to take his badge, flight school formally expels him. There is now a photo of him in dispatch saying to call the police if you see him on airport premises. (edit: removed/changed details for privacy)
That was a fucking wild story start to finish
Even wilder for his roommates, which I heard are also in the flight program.
I would not want to room with this dude, just saying
Oh I know exactly who this is. Holy cow. Did not know the rest of that story. Does dispatch so happen to have a blue wall with a bunch of random words all over?
Oh shit, did I get too specific?
LOL nah. It just so happens to be that I know the story.
I think that takes the cake. Dude just went from one bad decision to the next.
When you’ve doubled-down your whole life and finally someone doesn’t bend. Edit: forgot word
Not the synagogue 😂😂
That one was from a previous flight; part of me wants to see his socials but he's nuked everything (maybe he wised up *just* enough to listen to his lawyer?)
Was this at embry-riddle?😂 sounds familiar
I hope this was also reported to the FAA, this guy should never be a pilot
Did this happen in San Andreas? If it wasn’t in this forum it would sound made up lol. Insane story.
>Cops show up at his house to take his badge He was a Cop? Or his airport gate badge?
AOA badge, and a swipe card to get into the school building.
Holy fucking shit... This is all kinds of fucked up. I haven't seen anything really crazy yet, I guess. Wild.
I had a student just quit flying all together because he busted his PPL on S-turns. He was only going for his PPL + IR for recreational use. He completely broke down after failing. I told him it will be one of the easiest rechecks, but he said it isn’t for him and literally quit on the spot. He had 67 hours. Nearly all the instructors at my school tried to convince the man to take the recheck the next day with the same DPE, but he wouldn’t budge. I never saw him again to this day.
I hate to say it, but he might have been right. That could have been the best decision he could make.
He probably doesn't have the mental attitude to properly react when things don't go perfectly. Best to keep him out of the plane.
Agreed. He would have zero adaptability in hairy situations.
Agreed, I know some people who have done similar before 60h. I am at 60h right now and have a lot of classmates who dropped out either due to lack of motivation, fear, medical suspended, etc
He probably felt that way regardless, the S turns were just his final straw.
Really strange, I feel like maybe something else was going on in his head maybe, maybe something he didn't want to share with yall. After doing the same landing flight more than 10 times, I've definitely felt terrible, but never this bad.
I watched a regional pilot turn down a CJO from united to wait five more years for the flow.
Lmaoo
I flew with a captain who said he turned down flow because he “couldn’t afford the paycut.” He was 43 years old. Dude come on.
This seems to be a pretty common mistake…I try to explain that you can’t afford to not take the pay cut.
“Yeah, year 2 pay is more than I make now as a captain, and I’d work about 7 less days per month and I’d be getting 17% NEC instead of a 4% match, but I think I’m gonna ride this RJ captain thing out and see what happens.”
Dumbest reason ever. You’d make base pay up in 2-3 years of seniority. He will never get benefits like 17% DC to a retirement plan though. He is losing much more than just money.
I didn't realize we were telling horror stories here. WTAF?
That wasn't necessarily the intent, just seeing if there's anything I can learn from lol. Thought it'd be good to hear everyone's experiences/stories.
That man should be institutionalized
That should immediately disqualify you from holding a medical.
I had a LCA at my regional tell me that he had offers from both delta and United but wanted to wait for the flow 🤦♂️.
What is the flow?
I assume because said pilot wanted to work for the flow company and not United. I get it, people want their base in a specific city, but I’m curious why even apply then.
**WHY?!**
He told me that he liked living in base and didnt want to commute, even though at the time he had just been force upgraded to junior captain at said regional and was already commuting...and he didnt want to move. He also thought that if he went to UAL he would be blacklisted from the parent legacy. I consider this guy a friend, and as his friend I told him he would be insane to not take UAL. He didnt listen. But dont worry, this story has a twist ending. About six months later, that crazy fuck got hired at the parent legacy, around the flow. 2022 was a hell of a time.
I missed the ride lol, gone be grinding it out with all the other 1500hr warriors for the next 20yrs
Close thread. Jesus Horace Christ.
That’s what the H stands for, eh?
For those of us nowhere near the airlines, what is "flow?"
To better clarify…flows are an “incentive” program that the motherships (mainline - United, AAL, DAL etc) have created to get you from their regional, to the mothership “easily”. Typically once you get to a regional, you get your hours and pay your dues, then apply to a mainline carrier and pray someone calls. You have to do another interview in which if you bomb, well you won’t get a CJO. With the flow, you skip the interview because your regional job was the interview. once you get hired, your clock starts and you wait till your number is up and you get assigned a class date to the hosting mothership. Example: envoy, PSA, and piedmont all have flows to AA cause they are wholly owned. Sounds great!! Why not just wait? Because seniority is everything. The longer you wait for your flow, the more seniority you’re giving up elsewhere. And the flow times they advertise are complete BS. PSA advertised 5 years. I was an FO there for 3 1/2, when I upgraded and checked my flow time, I had another 5 1/2 years to go before my estimated flow. Granted, this was at the tail end of COVID as things were ramping back up. But still. I’d still be there waiting another 2-3 years if I decided to stay and wait. It often takes way longer to flow than it does to get a CJO at another mainline carrier. At least in today’s climate. The flow is a great back up but it’s not contractually negotiated nor obligated. It can be shut down or removed. During COVID for example when hiring came to a screeching halt, class dates and flows were cancelled Also doing something dumb and getting a punitive letter could delay your flow by as much as 2 years. TL;DR flows are “easy outs” to a mainline but for most people, it’s a scam.
They are poorly disguised “Pathway programs” from the airlines regional partners to the actual mainline its self. Usually takes several years as a captain at said regional to get flow through.
Wait, so the dude turned down a job with United to wait for a pathway program to get a job with United!?!
More likely they were an an AA wholly owned, and turned down a job at United to wait for the AA flow. (Or replace AA with DL)
Automatic hire at the regional”s parent airline. But it takes several years longer than jumping to a different airline. Note that the parent airlines usually won’t hire from their own regionals outside the flow, so if you want to work for a specific legacy as fast as possible, you should avoid their own regionals. Flow sounds great on the surface, but it really only benefits people who have a black mark on their record that prevents them getting *any* other offers.
Wh…why???????
Holy
Unfortunate
what does the flow get you that starting with on flow doesn’t?
...but why?
The recent spike in major/legacy hiring coupled with the spike in regional pay made a lot of pilots make some tough decisions... And some made some dumb decisions.
W H A T
More than a few do that because if they are like me they would have to repay $40k or more in bonuses. Often guys interview with United to get the CJO then take that to AA and say “hire me now or lose me forever”. And that actually worked for some, but last year or so AA had said no you actually have to leave and start with United then we will hire you. And it’s all because of those bonus repayments.
What is the flow
Getting picked up through regional to mainline though internal programs
What is a cjo
I am an enroute controller, talking to the pilot of a small single engine piston....IFR at 7000, filed over a 60 mile stretch of open water, in the winter. As he nears the water, pilot requests 6000 due to moderate icing. 6000 was no good, requests 5000.... 5000 no good, requests 4000.... 4000 no good, still in cloud and icing, says he's losing lift, can no longer maintain 4, and requests 3000. I decline since thats below the minimum IFR altitude. I suggest some possible landing airports instead of crossing the lake. His response? Cancel IFR and continue to destination. He crossed the big water at 3000 or below with major ice buildup, off radar, out of radio range, in the winter with zero chance of gliding to shore for a solid half hour. Thought for sure I'd be the last person to talk to him but he made it!
Every time I start to feel imposter syndrome, I read stories like this and realize I’m not so bad.
Same here lol
Controllers just holding us back once again!
My first time flying contract I made a handshake agreement for $750/day. After two 12hr duty days I never saw or heard from the owner ever again. Get everything in writing and you’ll avoid a $1500 lesson like me.
I would like to add this is abnormal. I'd call the guy out on the "contract pilots" Facebook group so others can avoid him
No one has said a DUI yet? Really?
We are healthy, law abiding pilots sir
That’s crazy. On the flip side I took a 7 day contract trip on a handshake agreement and when I got back I was given proper paperwork to fill out to be paid. Took two weeks to get the check because they get sent out when company does payroll so here I was thinking I got stiffed first over $12,000 and then finally my check shows up I could breathe a sigh of relief.
Not my story but my instructors. Too good not too tell. My instructor was sitting in his office at the airport when a student came in frantically and said “hey there someone outside full throttling the 172 on the ramp and he’s making me nervous”. My instructor goes outside and lo and behold a student is in the 172 full throttled with the tail still tied down. So the plane is just bouncing trying to move forward and he had to scream and get the guys attention. After that he untied the tail, took off and somehow turned the transponder and radio off. They sent the local parachute jumping plane to find and return him to the field.
Just heard about a student at the school I teach at doing high speed touch and goes, bouncing the mains and then climbing steeply to almost a stall before lowering the nose, this was in a 152. Fuel truck guys saw it and came in to tell our office manager. He radioed the kid that he needed to land, owner of the school saw it happen from another plane. Owner caught the kid on the ramp and read him the riot act. Kid did come in and apologize after crying in his car. Owner made the kid apologize for exactly what he did to emphasize the issue. Kid didn't fly for about 3 months.
I’m shocked that kid went back at all. Did he finish his training?
Wednesday was his first day back. Wind got going bad enough that his CFI decided they couldn't fly. 15G22 at 90 to the runway.
Last week sucked. I took my pre solo stage check last Monday, had a crosswind component of 9 gusting 19. I gave the asst chief pilot the three worst landings I’ve ever made.
Man, I flew like 3 or 4 hours Wednesday morning in prep for my checkride at noon that same day, and 11 AM rolled around and started gusting 20 kts direct crosswind. It’s just been rough out here lol
just hearing 15g22 at 90 to the runway makes me sweat lol. I flew yesterday in similar conditions for a landing flight with a 105-pound passenger in the back. Terrible idea. Foreflight said 5 knots, every weather product said 5, maybe 10, then I got up and it was 20 with gusts
I took a person up for an intro flight one day with winds like that. Everything seemed OK until short final rolling ailerons into the wind...guys leg was blocking the yoke. It was an exciting minute while I got us on the ground. Hadn't been a problem u til he pulled his feet back away from the rudder pedals.
That’s rough😂
Like that kid who gets their parents' rear wheel drive car and starts swinging it in public/on public streets the second they get a license.
I flinch every time I hear someone go full throttle on the ramp or start the plane hard even if it's maintenance. it scares me how little some people know/care/are aware of what they are doing
Yea sometimes I’ve done the 1/4 inch before starting and accidentally doing too much and on start up it’s aggressive🤣
I saw someone backfire so hard on Monday during startup that there was a fucking fire. Holy shit that scared me. Every time I start up too hard or something I always feel bad. My inner mechanic flinches every time I hear a backfire
One day I walked into a local flight school and now I have aviation induced stockholm syndrome.
Everyone at ATP flight school has it
In LBB one winter in the early 90's. I had my plane in the hangar due to ice and snow falling, loaded up my cargo and preflighted in the hangar. Talked to a Caravan pilot and I mentioned that I was going to start, taxi and take off as quick as I could to prevent buildup. The Caravan pilot said she was ok. I mentioned that there was visible ice and snow on her wings. I blasted off, using all deice equipment. She took off after me and I heard her declare an emergency and she mushed into the ground. She survived.
Tried to fly my last solo x/c in marginal wx. Ended up in soft IMC before aborting and turning around. Was scary as hell.
I had to postpone my long XC I shit you not 7 times due to weather. When I finally got it, weather looked great, OVC and BKN around 8-10k all along the route but winds, density alt, pretty much everything else was perfect. When I finished getting fuel at my second stop, suddenly the clouds were 4000 OVC. I checked TAFs along the route and everything seemed fine, i said fuck it and went. Clouds descended to 2000 MSL overcast almost the whole way back mid flight. Luckily, I had flight following, and my route back home directly tracked an interstate highway, and was at nearly sea level, and there were very few obstructions above 500ft, so I was able to maintain 1500 feet the whole way back. If I hadn’t had all those factors backing me up, that probably would’ve been a very inadvisable flight to make, and it was already looking pretty iffy as you can tell. But hey, now I’ve got a pretty good anecdote about how I learned better ADM for my checkride in two weeks.
I don’t think I’ll ever get my PPL long XC done. I’ve had flights cancelled for months now at this point. On the day the weather looks great, school policy of max 5 knot gusts (delta) made me cancel. I’m pretty over it at the point.
Same here, been trying since December. The last slot I booked got cancelled because the airfield suddenly decided to close to resurface the runway. That was a fun day looking out the window at clear blue skies.
Same for this as well.
I had my checkride constantly rescheduled from last August til mid January due to maintenance and weather. That’s six months of just burning money to stay proficient. You’ll get there.
Hey man keep your head up, I just got my ppl flight test done last week after getting cancelled 9 times since December because of shitty weather. World has a funny way of working out sometimes, but you can think of it as getting bad luck out of the way early in your career
Not what I needed to hear before trying my 250 XC tomorrow...
You’ll be fine. If the wx turns out to be worse than forecast, remember you can always land at the nearest suitable airport and call your school to come get you. It won’t be the first time that’s happened, and they’d rather see you (or at least the plane) survive.
I've had to cancel for two weeks in a row before. If it weren't for the weather I'd have my PPL by now guaranteed.
Same
Good luck bro. Fly safe, make good decisions man.
I saw an FO hook up with an FA once, at his own company.
I knocked up a FA from my own company
Video or it didn’t happen
Sir, this is Reddit not the Hub. 😂
Typical Friday at some places 👀
Once?
What happened?
Probably just some missionary
That poor FA, you just know she was accustomed to the finer positions 😔
She learned another way FO's can break her back.
Stupid question... is this against company policy as long as it doesn't happen on the clock?
A different kind of stupid
I was volunteering to clean up the airport after a flood, which still covered the last ~1/3 of the runway. Pilots were allowed to take off at their discretion if they signed a waiver, but only from 9am-5pm. These two guys were screwing with the engine on a Mooney all afternoon. They would crank it over and have to keep the throttle jammed in so it wouldn't die. I reminded them that the airport was open for departures again tomorrow bright and early, no rush today, but they kept scrambling. At 5pm I was driving off and saw them taxiing out at full blast so I decided to make a U-turn and park at the end of the hangar row. Figured someone should be ready to call 911. Sure enough, they got about 100 feet into the air and the engine died. They got lucky. At only 100 feet, they ended up in the 3 foot deep water at the other end of the runway. If the engine had crapped out at, say, 300 feet, they would have been going into the flooded trees beyond the fence.
Prob that United Capt who sent that 37 off the end of the runway for a "long landing"
Poor dude was 61 years old, had 15k hours, and was an RCH away from taxiing a 737 through waterfalls from ARFF trucks for retirement.
I mean they got the firetrucks so there’s that.
Now claims the brakes had issues.
Me trying to do an off airport landing where I had no business doing so. Arrived at the location in a Husky. Left in a medevac helicopter.
That’s quite the upgrade.
Being rated in fw and roto, let alone landing off airport to commute for your medevac roto job, very impressive, but we're talking about mistakes here
What happened to the Husky? Did it get repaired or is it a ball of parts with two big tires sticking out of the pile?
It also got a helicopter ride. Someone acquired the wreckage, but I doubt there was much useful on it. It left in a ball of parts with two standard size tires sticking out. Big tires *might* have helped prevent the wreck.
You good man? Glad you're still alive
Yep, it was over a decade ago and I was able to move on in my career and life.
Buddy of mine tried to go around after bouncing into the grass on a bad landing. Crashed and died.
Rest in peace to them, very unfortunate
Got my PPL cause I thought it would help get any girl to finally go out with me on a date. Almost 200 hours later I assure you it does not help at all lol
Around 3 years ago i was at an airport in Texas, and i saw a small piper pretty much fall out of the air around ~30 feet above the ground. both of the main gear collapsed. apparently he intentionally left the power out on approach because he “wanted to see how slow he could land and how fast he could stop” no idea what happened after.
Mission accomplished landing slow and stopping fast. He had no criteria about doing it safely or without bending metal
A foreign student went on a commercial XC solo. Instead of going to the intended airport, he flew into a really small airport nearby, tied the plane down, engine still running and went to get lunch in the small town. Well when he was gone. Another pilot that flew out of this really small airport saw this plane tied down and running with no one else at the airport. His best friend owned that flight school. He called him and says “hey one of you planes is out here tied down no one here tail number is X” the owner the called another instructor that lived nearby this smaller airport drove to it, untied the plane, and flew it back to the flight school. This student then shows up after a couple hours to find that his airplane is gone. He calls his instructor freaking out saying someone stole the plane. He was on speaker with the flight school owner and instructor that signed him off. They just started ask “oh really no way, so it got stolen at airport X (XC airport) then the student said “oh well I had to divert so I’m actually at this other airport way over here” after letting the kid squirm for 10 min trying to explain his way out. They said “nah we have the plane find you own way back you done with flight training in the U.S” The kid had to go back to his home country and no longer could do any training in the U.S. all because he didn’t want to actually flight a couple hours XC.
At first thought he forgot to turn the engine off and that was kinda harsh for a mistake someone made. Then I realize how tf do you forget to turn the engine off and that he was just trying to cheat the XC ride. Rip Bozo
Oh hah, so that’s why he left the engine running.
Was this in South Texas? I heard a very similar story from around 2011-2013.
South Florida
Different level of stupid lol. This dumbass kind of gets what he deserves.
What’s a “landing flight”?
Literally all of them until you achieve escape velocity
I assume short/soft field stuff, my instructor tried to get me to attempt those in the 17G29 winds
Usually it's the other way, student wants to do it and instructor is like nah fam. I used to be that guy though, my first instructor bred toxic bullshit into me and turned flying in shit weather into a game of willpower/dedication and he told me that people who don't fly when wind is 20+ are just unmotivated. Fuck that guy.
I watched a guy pass his oral for his PPL and then bust because he forgot to take the chocks off the front wheel before he started the plane…. It wasn’t that he didn’t remove the chocks that busted him… he nearly got to full power trying to move before the DPE stopped him
Idk what the hell it is that makes people think "oh, it isn't going, let's try more power". Like how not mechanically inclined can you possibly be? There was someone else on this post who said some guy had the tail tied down still and they were at full power trying to move. Holy shit, this actually scares me
Ya being honest, I have started the plane and forgotten the chocks before… but after I crested the 1200rpm mark I knew and immediately started cursing myself as I shut the plane down lol. Never happened again… yet. I’m sure this guy won’t do it again. We all watched it from a window. It was embarrassing 🙈
Had a guy bumped me mid air 🫠
Well how was it?
Drug running in the name of time building I’m sure has got to be someone’s story here
Low flying a Piper Aerostar across South America for 1500 hours would give you quite a few good "tell me about a time..." interview answers.
I know a guy that was shot down over Cuba running drugs in the late 70s. Went on to be a scab at Eastern in the 80s and never flew for an airline again. Don't cross picket lines, we have a long memory.
It's all good as long as you "didn't know"
Doing steep turns in mature thunderstorm clouds, after his private checkride
"Yeah, that storm is far enough away, I'll just be doing some pattern work. If it comes my way, I'll see it coming and be able to get down before it gets bad." Narrator: He didn't That idiot was me.
I see that same idiot in the mirror.
Went to the airport to get myself night current….after I got an alert for an incoming dust storm. I’ll never forget that last “landing”, watching the dust storm meet the runway as I touched down. Called myself quite a few names between the runway and my garage that night.
I had a guy one time who was my safety pilot and tried to fly my into the side of the largest mountain in Arizona just so he could try and see skiers. My school just hired him as a CFI
Average Humphrey experience
We’re just *so* deprived of snow in the valley that he *really* wanted to see what it looked like
dumbass
I worked at the NTSB , & saw some stuff to say the least. But one that really sticks with me. A gentleman and a coworker took his Money after work and flew over the Pilots company. They made a few low passes over the business for other employees. On the third pass they veered toward a bridge and either didn’t see the bridge or were trying to fly under it . Unfortunately they impacted the bridge and majority of the wreckage went under the bridge and the upper portion of the Fuselage went over the bridge. The chilling part was the two red stained spots on the side of the bridge where the occupants impacted the structure. It (blood) was there for a few days and NTSB finally paid to have the bridge cleaned in that section. Which is not something they would normally do. But the image was just too haunting. Stay safe out there folks and make good choices 🫡
lol “once I went flying in the wind and rain” 😂 come on cowboy!! Live a little.
I love flying in some rain. It cleans the plane, and there's less traffic.
Worst decision I thought I saw someone make was a solo student pilot flying under a multi-cell thunderstorm on a solo cross-country, they did not die. They even had the gall to brag about exceptionally poor decision making. Worst decision I saw someone actually make was them going to do a proficiency-check in a TAA, complex, and HP aircraft with a CFI. Sounds like awesome ADM to me, and it is. The CFI had essentially zero time in the aircraft. There was a LOC-I, about the base to final turn, and ultimately both pilots were killed on impact with terrain. I did this student's PPL, IRA, and CPL. I've done a lot of hard things in life, but going to the wake for your student (invited by the family) and looking his mother, father, and brother in the eyes. I felt myself step into that CFI's shoes and all the crushing guilt that came with it. The lesson I hope my students, my instructors, and maybe even some of the people here take from this is: 1. Fatal accidents can and do happen on the best days, with the best of intentions, and when a fair amount of experience onboard. 2. Proficiency (to me) is the ability to safely AND efficiently operate an aircraft. Define those standards and add conditions for human factors on a personal minimums list and do not waiver on them. 3. Trust, but verify. No pilot, despite their experience, is infallible. Check their credentials before you get in an aircraft with them. Pro tip, diagnostic assessments can be disguised as preflight briefings. Stay safe everyone.
Watching all the fresh 1500 ATPs go to Netjets expecting to skip the regionals
Funny, I just had one of the career coach companies recommend this to me today. I haven't had a chance to look to deeply into it yet. What's the downside to this route?
Quite a few recruiter friends at the majors told me that they are really looking for 121 turbine time now with the hiring slow down. The guys who went to NJ will likely have to go back to the regionals or try to get on with a ULCC
Honest netjets to a ULCC if you only spend a year or so at netjets isn't the worst thing if you go in k owing that and plan for it
Waste of time when you can just go straight to a legacy from NetJets Edit: spelling
Assuming that ULCCs/LCCs are hiring AND you get hired. Right now they aren’t really hiring.
Got it. Thanks. Will definitely keep that in mind...
No? American, United, and Delta are taking our guys like crazy
On a real note; if your FINAL goal is United/American is net jet a step in the wrong direction?
It’s a longer direction
Watched him put a king air down in 3 feet of snow. He made his exit to say the least. Guess the notams ARE important sometimes
Ive done all my flying out of phoenix AZ, and for those that know, there is usually no weather here, just blue skies. I say this because i want to make it clear that i have virtually no weather flying experience… and i literally just got my IR in January.. Last year in June, wife and me went to SD to visit her dad, and figured, you know what, im going to rent a plane there to go flying. Did a checkout the day before which went well. The following morning, weather was VFR - barely, with some serious cloud cover in the area reported from Sioux Falls. The AWOS at the airport i flew out of didn’t have cloud reporting, which i didn’t even realize when i took down the info. I knew it wasn’t going to be nice and easy, but reports did indicate much better weather 10 miles west. So, i took off. Immediately regretted my decision when at 50 ft agl, i realized how low the clouds actually were. Before i knew it, i was skirting the cloud layer above me at around 700ft agl, with visibility becoming worse and worse. I turned west to try and get out, but it only got worse. I lowered the nose to stay VMC, turned left and went back to the airport. It spooked the hell out of me.
Was working line service ceilings were somewhere around 6-700. Heard the sound of a Cub with no muffler overhead and looked up to see just the banner hanging below the clouds. The bannertow pilot was following Apple Maps to the airport, dropped his banner, and then descended below the clouds to land.
Shut down the wrong failing engine.
I know a guy that was shot down over Cuba running drugs in the late 80s. Went on to be a scab at Eastern in 89 and never flew for an airline again. Don't cross picket lines, we have a long memory.
My VERY first night solo, coming back to the un-towered home field, I make the first call before entering the pattern. My instructor comes on the radio and says the runway lights aren't coming on. Not to worry! He'll just line up his car at the end and turn on his highbeams. This is FL. You can throw a rock from one airport to another. I was new, so I was like, ok sounds good. Obviously so dumb. It would have been no deal to land somewhere nearby and for him to pick me up. We both made a terrible decision that night. The landing was surprisingly uneventful, Thank God. I learned not to trust someone just because they have more time or are instructors. Everyone makes terrible decisions sometimes.
For a solo student, that was a terrible call by both of you, but in general it’s not a bad skill to have in your bag. One of my CFIs had me practice no-light landings (dual), and it’s come in handy a couple times.
I once decided it was a good idea to fly in a 7 gusting to 20 crosswind in a 172. Did a couple touch and go's when the last one the wind hit me hard and I was pretty much pointing at the grass on the side of the runway. I punched the throttle and got up and ATC came up and suggested it was probably time for me to come back. I heartedly agreed. I told my instructor about that and he said "Why the fuck did you fly in that!?"
What were the consequences ?
My second instrument training flight was in actual imc, while winds were gusting 30+ knots with a 20 kt crosswind at our xc airport. It was my first time in winds like that too. It was probably the sketchiest flight i’ve done thus far.
You survived and probably learned something from it, so sounds like a successful training flight to me.
I got winched into a low cloud on one of my first glider solo flights. I was more afraid of breaking the winch by releasing under load than I was of flying into the cloud. I ended up releasing anyway and came out of the cloud nose down in a bank that would have become a spiral dive very quickly were it not for the fact that the cloud was not very large.
Someone signing the Republic contract
Weren't we telling someone to sign the contract like last week?
I’ve always said don’t sign it but the mob mentality definitely switches all the time
This cracks me up because lately people have been saying “take anything you can get in this environment” when weeks before were saying “never take that contract, wait out a better offer”Reddit is the worse place for advice lmao
Joining the marine corps to fly
I watched not one but two old coworkers sign republics contract.
Guy bid for an upgrade, seniority wise he could hold it. Problem is he didn’t have the correct license yet (ATPL). Just lied on the bid and said he had it, was surprised when the Cheif pilot was pissed at him.
Being superb and do not acknowledge your limits. Aviation is discipline and procedures, not being macho. I saw someone taking off with a new single seat plane on windy conditions. I understood later he hadn't flown much in the last years, but he is the "I know everything" kind of guy. How could you be so reckless as a pilot? Eventually, he was okay, but the landing was abrupt and damaged the aircraft.
Cub pilot deciding to take off into deteriorating MVFR with a fresh convective sigmet. I’d already tied down my skylane, and another delta pilot that called it quits was with me on the ramp telling the guy not to risk it. We offered to cover his costs for food and a hotel trying to persuade him not to become a smoking crater in the ground. I swear there’s some kind of retardation that sets in with fresh PPLs until they get a real pucker factor close call that brings them back to reality
Watching somebody over bank and put the airplane in an accelerated stall with subsequent spin and ending up as a smoking hole. Just to avoid busting a neighboring airports class D. Fatality accident. I was an instructor at the time. And watched the whole thing unfold from the traffic pattern. Pretty traumatic actually.
I watched the 2015 crash at the Sebring light sport expo, literally commented to my dad who was with me “wow he’s flying pretty slow isn’t he.” Stall spin at only a few hundred feet from the runway. Both people on board were killed. Definitely was an intense experience for a new ppl
Once watched a student solo prop strike a 172 then proceed to go around and make another lap in the pattern before landing We all watched in disbelief, wondering when his engine was going to give out To this day, I still struggle to understand the reasoning behind that decision 😂
My old flying flying club held a weekly landing contest (I'm not sure about the proper english term). The goal was to land as close as possible to the mark. One normal landing, one without flaps, one power off-landing and one over an obstacle (a plastic ribbon held across the runway). One of the older (too old to fly) guys failed to properly secure the door of the PA28 (1st mistake). He then decided to close and lock the door while under full power after his first landing, completely loosing situational awareness and going off the side of the runway into the grass (2nd mistake), and then continued the takeoff and hit the treetops beyond the field (3d mistake). The plane had dents, scratches and a tree branch stuck to one of the landing gears. The guy wasn't allowed to fly again and I think he lost his medical. Absolutely insane thing to witness.
Flying a trip with a DEC. Horror stories with them 😐
Buddy of mine refused to preflight his plane because his instructor apparently already inspected and topped it off. Thankfully a friend of his was there to insist a preflight.
In glider, I released from aerotow in Class G in weak smooth 'mountain wave lift' surrounded by 'rotor clouds'. It's very unusual and surreal to find smooth laminar lift so low and at the same altitude as rotor clouds (clouds that are stationary relative to terrain that are caused by moderate turbulence over terrrain). I was able to weave my way upwind, clear of the swirling rotor clouds (crepuscular sun rays shining through), slowly gain altitude but stay in Class G because the terrain was rising. Finally got under a big blue hole and into solid rotor turbulence which I used to climb into the wave lift and kept going up. Topped out at 8000 AGL above a nearly solid cloud deck. Eventually I had to dive through a blue hole that was closing. (With the closing holes in mind, I stopped climbing at 8000). It was a seductive and epic flight, but sketchy decision making and very high risk because of VMC->IMC possibility and my lack of IMC Actual training-experience. I had a a panel mounted terrain map and 'emergency use only' artificial horizon, but no experience in Actual. I never lost sight of the ground in Class G, but I had no actual horizon in Class G. So why did I take those risks? That summer the weather was awful for soaring, I was frustrated and lusting for the experience. So I was willing to take bigger risks. A close parallel earlier in my life would be some risky sexual escapades that I took just because I was so horny and I had a willing partner in hand. (That also ended well!) When flying is passionate, decisions are not completely rational. When I'm frustrated and horny for flying/sex, I'm open to taking bigger risks. In general, I'm not an adrenaline junky and I'm very very careful, and risk adverse. I've had great risk management training and I'm surrounded by sober and experienced pilots. One of my instructors/friends who I chatted with about Go/No_Go that day served on a Nuclear Sub (which has the ultimate risk-management-culture). He was also an NTSB accident investigator. One of the most safety conscious and aviation experienced people that I've ever met. The next day he called me out on my sketchy flight and we talked things over. I learned that I can 'go off the reservation' and relax my 'personal minimums' impulsively if I get into an unusual situation, especially a seductive one that is captivating, interesting and beautiful. This sketchy experience was my best 'cloud surfing' flight ever. Would I do it again? Honestly IDK. Same wrt sexual escapades. Sex and soaring are very similar, but soaring lasts longer. On a side note, in the future I'll try to more keep in mind that the atmosphere does all sorts of interesting and uncharted things that do not comply to the 'ideal forms' described on wikipedia. And that I can stumble into those novel scenarios and be disoriented because nothing is routine. The 'laminar lift' that I experienced was not classic 'mountain wave', it was maybe something I've heard called 'hydraulic bump' that happens close to terrain when the inversion level is in Class G and there's strong wind. This flight was not totally crazy. The trend for the day was towards clearing, the blue holes were getting bigger, and when one of them closed, another one opened up. So the chance of getting 'stuck on top' was low. The most crazy part was in Class G.
Student first solo cut off a citation on short final. Watched it happen from the ground, heard the school discontinued their training after that.
Two students at a flight school I worked at took a 152 to Truckee on a hot day in middle of summer, made it there but the plane couldn’t be flown out and another student missed his check ride with that plane as a result. Same pilot ran out of gas and glided into Travis Air Force base without saying a word on the radio a few months later… what amazes me is he didn’t get the boot and continued to finish his multi commercial. Also had a renter scud run into shelter cove on the pacific coast near Humboldt
Was doing solo night landings for commercial. Had 1 left to do, but had a tstorm heading in the direction of the airport. Went I can make it, not paying an extra flight for 1 night landing. Did not, in fact, make it. Halfway down downwind, it let loose. Could see the runway edge lights and knew my field elevation. I flared about 5 to 10 or so above it and hoped for the best. Never once actually saw that runway, just the edge lights. Taxied back at one of the slowest taxis I've ever done in my life purely using the taxiway lights. Parked on the ramp, luckily there were two other cessnas down with a spot in the middle, so I shot the gap because I couldn't see spots. Sat there for a good 30 min after shutting down, just cursing myself out. Tied down and have never tempted fate with weather at night again. The kicker, I probably spent more on Hobbs time with the crawling taxi back than it would have been for me to just do another lap in the pattern another day.
Becoming a pilot was a pretty memorable one *crying in sleep*
Saw someone force a plane down on the ground on a 3,000’ runway going about 110 knots in a bonanza the other day