Ever do something Stupid?

[two-12sfernow]

Sometimes stupid is not even what we do to ourselves.
A number of years ago I missed a fishing trip to a high altitude lake, had to work out of state that week. Stopped on way to airport for snacks and saw a luscious striped watermelon that I thought the gang would really enjoy at the lake.
I flew over in the old -12 on the way north and dropped a mesh bag of oranges before forming plan on watermelon. Thought of steep turn for a vertical drop but altitude/terrain ruled that out so I rolled the melon up next to the door, popped the latch,flew down-canyon, slipped in like a pro and gently put the melon into flight.
I now understand the principals of skip-bombing. Really wish I had not been bore sighted on their camp.
Circle once to check for injuries then left. They appeared to be going for guns.

 

[skukum12]

For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the guy who did these things

When "he" installed new sight gauges in his 12, he failed to notice the bottom of the gauges were lower than the bottom of the wing tanks. Before the last take off of the day, the indicated fuel was about 9 or ten gallons in each wing. Lift off, climb out and 180 turn over a glacier and head home. Several miles from home base the engine coughs and begins to windmill. "Glide, gas and grass" thankfully are the first things to go through this guy's mind. Reach down and switch tanks and the fan begins to turn up to cruise rpm. It was a sweaty yet uneventful landing. He didn't even have to drain the tanks before fixing the sight gauge alignment issue.

 

[D C]

Bought a plane! Been broke ever since.


Famous last words "Hold my beer and watch this sh*t"

 

[Dave Calkins]

Sometimes when it's quiet, or when I'm laying awake late at night I still think of these things and I believe they still 'temper' my 'go for it' attitude while flying:

1. after a long flight on which I burned off one tank and switched to the 'fuller' tank, I made some 360's with the 'fuller' tank on the 'low' wing. She quit, I leveled and she ran again. I then made a precautionary landing right there, as fuel was close by, and as I slid out (skis) I was sure I would knock the gear off in the ditch ahead, but the skis 'bridged' it. My wife was along for this "joyous occasion".

2. Early in my experience, I was meeting some fishing buddies who were on the ground in a canyon, I chose to turn 180 in a tight spot rather than fly up over a saddle where there was a lake and lots of room to reverse direction. I still cringe (right now!! too) as I recall watching the ASI go down. I could feel the airspeed going away and actually took time to look at the airspeed indicator and watch it go down. It took all I had to not try to pull harder around that turn. I hate that I made the decision to try that! I did NOT crash. It still makes me think and that was a long time ago. I have dinged a/c on landing, but that one would have killed me.

3. Different time, instead of waiting for better wind conditions later in the day, I departed a strip where I used all of it to get airborne and then needed to turn to avoid a wall. Again, it took all I had to WAIT, and not pull the bird harder around the turn.

4. Early in my flying experience, I and a friend sighted a coyote in a field with trees on all sides. I dove down into the field and watched the coyote as he stood still and we flew by. I now always LOOK WHERE the a/c is GOING instead of at that object I just passed on the ground after buzzing it at very low level and high speed. Because I had my eyes on the coyote, I wasn't watching the trees at the other edge of the field. I'd have killed myself and my friend, leaving his baby and wife, and my wife. I am angry at myself when I think of this.

DAVE

 

[scubber]

I was once told, we all come into this world with a "buck of luck". The only problem is . . . . we don't know how much luck is in that bucket. My "Stupid Acts" have made me appreciate that bucket. I fly like an "old woman" now (excuse the term), not knowing how much I have left.

 

[Clyde and Susan]

What? Me do something stupid? No way! ...Clyde

P.S. If you were at Johnson Creek this year, please ignore the above. ...cgd

 

[JMBreitinger]

There was that one time, on my seaplane check ride, when I got the throttle cracked a bit too open before I hand propped a 7AC Champ while the examiner held the plane into the wind, perpendicular to the dock. He was straddling with one foot on the floats and one on the dock. Turned out, he could not be counted on at all. When the plane roared to life, he got the hell out of the way. We were lucky that day. There was very little damage, though I was badly shaken.

 

[aktango58]

I know a guy, that knows a guy... you get the picture

As the day was getting short, the loads were getting bigger, and the hunting weather was running out.

Well, there was a solid 1.7 loads on the pile, including the little 250 lb passenger, and the amount of flight time was just enough that one load would have to do it.

It was not the pilot's cub, but the hunters, and it had these great big huge cavernous areas to put MORE STUFF due to back issues, the pilot got 'help' from hunters to load.

So after sorting stuff you don't need, (red bull, water), and loading what you really need, (rifle, pack, sleeping bag) the plane taxied out to the runway for the last trip.

Now the tail wheel needed air, but that gives more float, right? but that was ok. We were, oops, they were leaving a big runway for jets, so the load was no trouble; it had a modified wing, the pilot was used to stock, and the baggage went back to max, with top and bottom.

The propane was sitting on the lap of the back seat pax, and the tail did not respond as it should. Once airborne the cub climbed, full trim and it kept climbing. stick forward and she kept climbing...

use of partial flaps and reduced throttle allowed the plane to come back around to the runway. after pulling a few pounds out of the tail section of baggage the plane flew in a safe controlable condition...

Moral: load it yourself, keep the load a little forward with big baggage, take extra trips, and don't give up when all seems lost!

and if you don't know the airplane, take another trip!!!!!!!

But I would never do somthing stupid :roll:

 

[JB]

Landed on a gravel bar with my brother in law in the back and gear fairly bony walk out the spot to check it out for take off...... moved some sticks.... the gravel bar had a curve to it. When it came time to take off I decided I would taxi a little farther to give me a little more take off distance. Turned around and went to take off instead of going the path I just taxied I cut the curve a little and after I got the tail up notice there was a tree laying across my path I turned torward the river by this time I had to much speed to make my curve to the original spot I walked out I pulled full flaps at the waters edge lifted off but then settled back down and dipped my tires in the river.

 

[Gordon Misch]

Landed on a very nice looking bar/beach alongside Lake Lebarge (of Sam McGhee fame, just north of Whitehorse, YT). Rolled it with one, then two wheels before landing, and it felt fine.

Landed mighty darn short - duh, what's going on here? Then got out of the plane and my boots told me "the rest of the story". It was May and while the surface was dry and firm, the frost was just going out of the ground and it was VERY soft underneath.

Let air out of the tires and got out ok, but boy, lemme tell ya, the ol' 12 sure was slow to accelerate at first!!! DUMB!

 

[Indabush]

Nah, never, only been 50+ since I could remember.

 

[Grizzly 1]

I am flying low and having fun over one of my favorite rivers but going the opposite direction as usual. I usually come in from the south high about 1000 feet over some large power lines then descend down on the river. I have done this many times and have become complacent with my technique. Now I am coming in from the north very low having fun as usual until it comes time time to fly over the rather large power lines. They are well marked with big red balls all along the BOTTOM wires. I had never taken the time to study these wire before because I had never been that low over them. Now I am having to get enough altitude to cross 4 more wires that are at least 30 to 35 feet higher than the marker balls. Thank god I had enough speed and energy to pull up and over. This was so damn stupid of me, I can't beat myself up enough. It doesn't matter that the wires were not marked correctly I was wrong. I can sit here now and think of numerous things I did wrong. Are you hearing me? Complacency will kill you why it didn't kill me I don't know, I can only tell you I have had my WAKE UP CALL.

Mike

I've done a few (well, maybe more than a few . . . ), but I'll admit to one here! Flying a turbocharged Cessna 206 Stationair on Wipline amphibious floats. Flew out of King Salmon with five passengers (yep!) plus all fishing gear and clothing for four of those big Texas fishermen. An overload, of course, but not unusual. Landed on the gravel strip at Painter Creek with the gear up. Was distracted by the front seat passenger (the lodge's manager) and didn't drop the gear. No damage . . . . . but one damned red face!

 

[cubx3]

I must be pretty sleepy,I seem to get a wake up call at least once a month or so The last one had something to do with skiis and not hooking up bungee cords,or was it forgetting to put the oil dipstick back after preheating. 2 quarts of oil on the side of a J3 is kinda sobering at 500 ft. .........YOU HAVEN'T INVENTED STUPIDITY.........IT'S JUST VERY CONTAGIOUS!

 

[strangeak]

My first instinct was to say no. i have never done anything stupid........ but that would just add to an already too long list...

D

 

[Zing]

I really hate to claim a high level of stupidity, but I have pulled a few dumb stunts that I was fortunate to get away with.

I was working an aeromag survey job in south-central Texas oil country. I was the sole pilot for our operation that also required a ground crew to set up and maintain a base station and remote repeater(s) for the micro wave positioning system we used in the days prior to these new-fangled GPS systems of today.
If the survey area wasn't too far from the nearest town/airport, the ground crew would come into town at night and drive to the survey area in the morning. Usually, I'd give them a bit of a head start so as to not have to burn too much time orbiting whilst the ground crew fired up the generator, computers and remote repeaters.
Some days, the ground crew took a bit longer than my estimate to get where they were going and I catch up to them moseying down some back road.
One of out vehicles was a Chvy Suburban with a huge roof rack mounted on top that was a leftover from carting around an ultralight we'd used to develop our aeromag system. That roof rack was about 18 inches wider than the wheel stance of the SuperCub and I'd figured out that I could sneak up on the vehicle from above, match its speed and then descend down onto the roof rack, plant the mains and play airshow pilot flying along on top like a big old hood ornament. I got away with that a number of times with out a problem, but I'm not sure what the occasional other traffic that appeared along those back roads thought about it.
One day, I spotted the other truck we used, a GMC pickup with a flat roofed camper mounted on it, coasting down a dirt road at about 50 mph and just wasn't smart enough to think things through before pulling the same trick on the unsuspecting driver.
The sneak-up approach went just fine and I settled the wheels softly right on top of the camper and watched the driver's side mirror as the driver first heard the sound of the airplane and then noticed me up top.
First he smiled, but then a devilish look came over his face and he stomped on the trucks gas pedal. I was ready for that and matched him by adding a bit of throttle, but that truck accelerated a bit faster than the airplane and I started to roll back just a little bit.
Not wanting to be overly stupid, I figured that was about enough horsing around for the day, work to do and all that stuff, so I opened up the throttle to lift off from the truck.
That guy Murphy who Clouddancer is always talking about in his chronicles was evidently waiting for just this moment to join the party because there was a sudden loud BANG and shards of something white hurtled out from the arc of the prop all around the airplane.
I yanked back on the stick to lift off and skidded off to the side expecting to have to make an unplanned landing in the field along side the road.
A quick scan of the panel showed everything looking normal, but I reduced the power some anyway, figuring I'd just whacked the prop on the top of the camper and I feared the engine might not like running near wide open with a bent blade.
The engine was running smoothly, no more bits of white stuff were flying around and I began to think I was okay, but a precautionary landing to look things over seemed in order. The field next to the road, a pasture, seemed smooth and even, so I circled once at low level to look for ruts, rocks of fences and seeing none, went ahead and landed.
The truck I'd been using for an aircraft carrier turned around an pulled off the road next where I stopped and we both got out to look at the damage.
Amazingly, there was no damage to the airplane, not even a nick or a scratch on the prop, but I knew I didn't imagine that loud bang or the flying debris. The two of us walked back to the truck and popped open the rear door on the camper expecting to see some kind of gash in the roof, but there wasnt any apparent damage in sight from the inside.
I clambered up on the tailgate and looked over the roof of the camper, but from eye level, nothing seemed amiss and both of us are wondering WTF?
Then, Lon, the truck driver crawled up on top of the camper to check it out himself. No sooner had he stood up on top than he started to giggle and then laughed right out loud as he spotted the damage.
Like most campers, this one had one of those roof mounted vents that used to have a light plastic cover over the square 12"X12" vent hole. That vent cover's latch had gotten crank up and down mechanism had gotten broken by high winds a few weeks earlier, leaving it attached only by the hinge on the front side.
When I added power and crept forward, the prop had sucked that cover up into its arc where it exploded into a thousand shards that I'd seen flying around me, but, luckily for me and the airplane, it was light enough plastic that it did no damage to the airplane.
There wasn't any other damage to the camperr and we decided that there wasn't any need to inform the home office of this little episode, but that was the last time I landed on top of a moving vehicle.

 

[Evan]

OK ILL TELL THIS ONE . I HAVE A 1957 H35 BONANZA AND I FRIEND OF MINE CALLS ME ON A FRIDAY SAYING HE HAS 2 TICKETS TO THE NASCAR RACE IN TEXAS THAT WEEKEND :lol: . WELL WE MEET AT THE AIRPORT SATURDAY MORNING AND THE WEATHER IS CRAP
SO I'M LOOKING AT THE RADAR AND CALL FOR A BRIEFING THEY SAID MARGINAL ALONG THE ROUTE SO WE DECIDE LETS GO! :roll: WELL CLIMBED OUT TO 10 THOUSAND AND ABOUT THE TEXAS LINE THERE'S A WALL OF WEATHER NOT REAL DARK SO COULDN'T GO OVER OR AROUND STILL IN THE SOUP AT 500 FT SO I PUNCH IN AT 6000 FT NOT BAD FOR THE FIRST 15 MIN THE IT GOT ROUGH AND DARK FLIGHT SERVICE SAID THERE NOT PAINTING ANYTHING SO THAT WENT ON FOR ABOUT 10 MIN THEN WE CAME OUT THE OTHER SIDE TO A BEAUTIFUL BLUE SKY DAY AND MY PASSENGER SAID MAN IN GLAD THAT'S OVER JUST ABOUT THE TIME EVERYTHING GOT REAL QUIET HE SAID MAN DON'T DO THAT! AS I WAS TRYING TO GET THE ENGINE STARTED ,(NO GO) THEN I DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AIRPORT HEADING 050 10 MILE ,(TO FAR ) TOLD PASSENGER TO FIND A FIELD ROAD SOMETHING WE FOUND A FIELD THAT LOOKED GOOD, FULL FLAPS LANDING GEAR DOWN ,WHATS THAT IN THE FIELD! (COWS) 80 KTS AND TRY TO FLAIR OVER THEM ( WORKED) :lol: NOW WERE IN A FIELD WITH THE COWS AND CAN HEAR THE SIRENS COMING , DIDN'T NEED THEM THANK GOD .
NO THE FAA IS CALLING THE CELL PHONE INSPECTOR ON THE WAY NO THE LAND OWNER IS DRIVING UP AND I'M THINKING THIS IS GOING TO COST ME FOR HARASSING THE COWS
NOW HE WALKS UP AND ASK IF I CAN GET RID OF THIS COP SO HE CAN GET HIS BEER OUT OF THE TRUCK. SO I DID AND HE BRINGS ME TO TOWN AND I GOT A RENTAL CAR AND HIS ADDRESS TO GO SPEAK WITH HIM ABOUT OUR SITUATION OF MY PLANE IN HIS PASTEUR . WHEN I ARRIVED IT LOOKED LIKE THE GOVERNORS MANSION THE TRIPLE S RANCH AND CARS ALL OVER THE PLACE IT WAS A PARTY AND I WAS THE STAR FOR CRASHING IN THE PASTURE DRANK BEER WITH EARL CAMPBELL, WILLIE NELSON AND A FEW MORE THAT I DIDN'T KNOW . WELL THE NEXT MORNING HE PICKED ME UP AT THE HOTEL WITH A 18 WHEELER AND A CHERRY PICKER GOT THE PLANE ON THE TRUCK POLICE ESCORT TO THE AIRPORT AND NEW FUEL TO THE RACE I WENT , NOW THE CAUSE WAS THAT THE TANKS WERE FULL OF WATER ??? I DIDN'T SUMP THEM (STUPID ) AND THE VENT WAS STOP ED UP FROM DIRT STOP-ED THAT TURNED TO MUD IT THE FLIGHT THROUGH THE RAIN (STUPID DON'T FLY IN THE WEATHER JUST TO SEE CARS GO AROUND IN A CIRCLE) DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO TELL THE FAA STORY ON THIS INCIDENT

 

[articfox]

Yep, the things we do and then ask ourselves why we did them...

This story involves a j3, a date and a root-beer. Of course I would never do this myself, right?

Anyhow, this guy I know had a date a ways away from the house. Luckily the j3 had some gas in it and it was 80 degrees outside. Nice day for a fly out visit. So, a shower was taken, the nicest set of jeans/t-shirt, some sandals were put on and then out to the airport. A rootbeer was taken as it was only a short flight. So, into the plane everything went and then a short taxi later the pilot was airborne. It was too bad that it was getting into the evening as it would of been fun to take a relaxed route to the destination, but direct the pilot went. Climbing through 6,0 it was time to open that nice cold root beer. That is when all hell broke loose.

The pilot in his wisdom was looking at the beautiful mountains when he reached down and opened the bottle. The next thing he knew, there was a volcano of cola, spewing itself all over, not caring where it went, not caring if it stopped. Luckily the window was open so the liquid could spray itself all over like a unruly solvent gun. Geez, that sucked. So what would you do??

Well the answer was simply to dry out and keep going. Why go home when you can simply take your pants off and hold them out the window to dry them, right? (actually that part worked o.k.) What didn't work out too well is trying to get them back on while descending and turning. The pants were snagged, the mags were somehow clicked off, the window broke in the haste to get the mags back on and the mood had slackened.

It is hard to explain why you look like you wet your pants, your shoeless and sticky, all the dirt in the aircraft is now stuck to you and your barefoot. Your plane smells like rootbeer which smells like garbage and frankly all you want to do is go home.

Luckily, this particular date night was the first of many and eventually led to marriage.

 

[Skip]

Cale Yarborough was given a black bear cub by Junior Johnson and tried to fly home to Timmonsville with the bear in a box. About half way home the bear got out of the box inside the plane. The rest is history

 

[Grizzly 1]

Smooth Landing, but . . . . .

A few years ago, I was flying a Super Cub on 25 x 11 x 4 tundra tires. Typical of Alaska Cubs, this one had a Borer high performance prop. In the back, was a German hunting client, a former tank commander from WWII.

I knew where a really huge bull moose was hanging out, but the old fella was still up there too high (about 6,000 feet) trying to stay out of the summer flies. Finally, while scouting the old boy's stomping grounds, we saw him coming down a narrow valley toward the Stony River below.

I began searching for a suitable place to park the Cub while we were setting up a temporary camp for tomorrow's hunt (no flying and shooting the same day, that's the law!), and finally found a bumpy ridge that I thought the Cub could handle. I advised my back seat passenger to make sure his harness was tight, and told him what we were going to do.

I dragged the ridge several times in rather flat light, and decided it would do, so I set up for the landing. This called for flying directly toward the mountain, rolling into a very steep 180-degree turn, pulling full flaps in the turn, and shutting 'er down for the uphill landing. All went well, and we were soon taxiing - now with full power - uphill.

Rather than stop on the uphill grade, I decided to simply power on up to the top of the ridge where the ground leveled out a bit. Just as I rolled over to the top, I realized there was a "hole" in the ground. The hole was several hundred feet across, and probably ten feet deep. Into the hole we went.

Nose on the ground, tail in the air, prop bent, fight wing buckled up about thirty degrees just outboard of the flaps - - - - and other minor stuff.

A passing twin otter talked to us, and we soon were in contact with a helicopter that had just finished his work a few miles west of us. He was then on his way back to a place called Cairn Mountain, which we all called Sparrevohn.

Later, got the moose, of course, but lifting that Cub to a Stony River sandbar and giving it some bush repairs was not a happy thing.

Honest, guys, I really did look before I lept. It was still a poor decision, that's all.

Mort Mason

 

[Sbrookfield]

Just prior to my commercial checkride, Piper arrow, New Instructor. This instructor had recently been "let go" from a better flying job and returned to his old place of work to instruct (Should have been a clue.) He asked me to demonstrate a cross-controlled stall at 2,000 agl. That immediatly set off a light as we usually do this at atleast 4000. I remember thinking, I do these all the time and he's the instructor, hes got the experience, Ill follow his lead. Well to make a long story short I performed my first spin in the Arrow and saw a windscreen of nothing but green. I remember actually seeing the individual trees. We made it back that day and I don't blame him it was my decision in the end, But i learned a good lesson that time out, never let your self get talked into something you know better than, regardless of who advises it. Ill never let myself be put in that situation again......