Stuff airlines don't tell you, or doesn't make news

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

After a long career in AOG I guarantee I could tell you guys stories that would scare you off of flying for the rest of your days. Except for Ted and Seahawk. I'm sure nothing I could say would even mildly surprise them. The rest of you would all be taking the train. Or a boat.

that would make for a fun thread, please do... PS: I had an engine die on me on my first solo flight when I was 17, so I'm not entirely surprised either.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

that would make for a fun thread, please do... PS: I had an engine die on me on my first solo flight when I was 17, so I'm not entirely surprised either.

Two things:

1. Yes, there is nothing more I enjoy than AOG stuff...it simply, as a former maintenance test pilot in Navy squadrons, amazes and fascinates me.

2. If you do not tell us more about your solo, I know a guy you knows a guy: it will get ugly. Capiche?

Seriously. Engine failure on your solo. Talk to me Goose.

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

This one at least made the news today.. Seriously, Boeing is on a streak !!!

But it has a backup wing on the other side!

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

2. If you do not tell us more about your solo, I know a guy you knows a guy: it will get ugly. Capiche?

Seriously. Engine failure on your solo. Talk to me Goose.

LOL... we're talking almost 40y ago, in the south of France. I had saved some $ on summer jobs and wanted to learn to fly & was taking driving lessons at the same time (18y old for DL there), so I was driving to the airfield and back with the driving instructor, who also wanted to learn to fly. Heck of a coincidence, can't make this up, that's how I chose him - we each took a lesson and learned from each other too. Let me tell you there was not a non-sweaty part of my body after a 40m driving lesson, 30m-1 hour flying lesson (me or the driving instructor, or both), 40m more driving home... You could wring me when I got home (but I'd like to think it taught me to drive better). I wanna say the solo was 6.5-7h into my training on a "MS Rallye" airplane. Pretty cool plane in that it had slats on the leading edge of the wing like a Bf109 and would absolutely NOT stall conventionally but instead just gently fall down like a parachute ;-) Ok you could stall it bad but you had to go near vertical to do so ;-) So doing patterns essentially, and for extra fun that runway was 1/2 civilian 1/2 military so sometimes in the pattern I'd hear "Lima Kilo prepare to be overtaken from the right" and a bleeping Fouga Magister (am I dating myself yet?) would practically flip me upside down from its jetwash and the surprise 2 secs later . Good times.

Anyway, Solo day, surprise, after a few average landings, the guy is telling me that "I suck and he doesn't wanna fly with me and I should fly myself" and gets off and leaves me there... Ok then... I "got it" when he talked to me on the walkie "3 touch and go" - happy happy joy joy, the damn plane takes off so fast without the instructor (and I was seriously lighter than now too), blah di blah, one landing, I think, second one I am "downwind" (I think, TBH dunno all terminology in english), checklist, carb heat and fuel pump (for some reason I do not recall but I swear it was on the check list)... Engine goes phlump phlump DEAD... oopsie... I mean I can see the airport I'm literally above my hangar and the runway on my right I am not trying to make a big deal out of this story or overstate my skills, LOL, I coulda thrown a rock at the runway... Tried to restart while flying the thing and losing altitude for speed (again very benign airplane), call tower to say I'm cutting the corner shorter than usual - nobody else around, the thing more or less restarted eventually on final (!! gee thx) but sorta kinda running like crap but frankly at this stage you do not need the power as I already cut the corner back to land, landed a little long but nicely enough... I taxi with a seriously unhappy engine (farther than I ever have as generally I'm a first exit guy. Never visited that part of the runway) then engine died completely again... instructor runs to me and tells me not to try to start it... We tow it by hand...

Thought it was me, turned out it was a complete engine failure as it transpired later... because it was a military controlled field I had to go to the tower and explain myself, I shoulda declared an emergency instead of just cutting my pattern short, but did not, lalala (17y old, clueless aside from "aviate first, talk later"), there was paperwork to be filled....

Anyway I made it too long, non event and less dramatic than you thought probably. Never finished training because the required Navigations to get the licence were in 1.5/ 2h increments and at 17, I simply could not catch up with the money while working kid side jobs and when I ran out of the initial savings $, each lesson became too spaced out... 1 step back 2 steps forward, not efficient enough to improve "cheaply". I had aptitude but never finished, switched to sims (in 87 that was not quite as good as now) and am thinking of starting over here and now but TBH I am a little terrified of ATC in english, and my ears are ageing to boot and I'm near 2 major airports, not a fun area ;-) "what did he say?"