When my friend let me take over the controls of Cessna. Lets just say I didn't have feel for flying a plane.
Similar experience 30 years ago on a flight from Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls coming back from leave. Blizzard conditions, near zero visibility, and the descent seemed to go on for a long time. I had given up looking out the window because I couldn't see anything, when suddenly we go full throttle and into a very steep ascent. When I looked out the window we were not over the runway, we were directly above the terminal building and the parking lot, and very low. After gaining altitude we circle around and the pilot calmly says:Three years ago landing in Atlanta from Jamaica. We got to a few hundred feet on the glide path and then all of a sudden full throttle and steep ascent. Circled once and landed. I was thrown down into my seat and jerked back. Worse than any turbulence I've been in.
I just posted a video of a large plane falling out of the sky and it got me thinking about a couple of my experiences that scared me while airborne.
https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...o_large_cargo_plane_crash_in_afghanistan.html
What experiences have you had on aircraft that scared the doo doo out of you? It can be civil aviation, military, experimental or even alien abduction.
Two experiences in my life stand out:
1. I was flying from Indy to Chicago on a prop aircraft, sitting in a window seat over the left wing. As we got to altitude, I noticed the left aileron flapping uncontrollably in airstream. It was the back flap on the wing and I'd estimate it was 8 to 10 feet long. It was flapping rapidly; up-down, up-down. I looked at the right side and everything was fine there.
The aircraft was not reacting to this flapping. I called a stewardess over and pointed out quietly what I was seeing. She said that was normal, that was what they were designed to do. I thought she was blowing smoke, as I asked her to look at the right side. When she saw that, she went up to the cockpit. She never talked to me again.
I never knew what it was. I made no fuss about it and sweated out the remainder of the flight.
For you pilots out there, what would you say happened, and was that normal.
sounds like the flap actuator sheared off allowing the flap to..........errr flap.
2. Another propeller aircraft flight from Dallas to Wichita Falls, TX. We got to altitude for the short flight (maybe 45 mins) and the service cart started up the aisle. We were flying in light chop (turbulence) when they gave me my drink.
As I reached for my drink and got it, we got into heavy chop as we were flying under a thunderstorm. The aircraft was tossed to and fro. I was still holding the drink (Diet Coke), as we were being tossed around. I couldn't put it down and I couldn't drink it. In hindsight, I should have dropped it.
wait til you have a coke can hovering in mid-air right in front of your face....thats chop!
Us passengers were looking wildly at each other scared witless. It was scary as heck. I never flew that route again, I always rented a car and drove there from the Dallas airport.
My scariest but yet coolest experience ever...
I Was dating a girl who had an uncle that owned his own plane. I had only been on a couple commercial flights in my life and I had mentioned that I'd like to go up in it someday. Finally things worked out and he took me up.
Took off and once we were in the air he moved the controls over to me and said "here ya go". Talk about white knuckling the controls. For a few minutes I wouldn't even budge the control an inch. After a few minutes I finally started loosening up a bit and actually started flying.
Definitely sparked enough interest that someday I'm gonna look into getting my pilots license.
I'm not sure it was scary because it happened so fast, more like bewilderment.
I was coming in for a landing on runway 050, the wind was 050 at 11 knots and it was a seemingly perfect day. I was about 2-3 feet above the surface at 70 mph when I suddenly encountered a 90 degree crosswind of 18 mph (it was recorded at the airport). My plane stops flying at 60 mph so it suddenly slammed down on the runway and I heard the landing gear break and it bounced back into the air nose up so I jammed the throttle forward and pushed the nose over to try to keep flying but it nosed in from about 30 feet up. All I saw was pavement and then it was quiet.
When my eyes opened there was nothing in front of me, the whole front of the plane was gone.
So fearing fire, I hit the seat belt release and rolled forward out onto the runway, they say I walked for about 20 feet before I collapsed onto the runway, I think I did walk but I had two broken ankles and my feet were on fire from the impact. My right eye socket was broken from hitting the compass and blood was pouring out of my nose. My left pinky finger was broken from the hitting the throttle arm and I just could not believe what had just happened. Took me more than three years to fully recover. I guess I'm lucky I didn't die.
So basically a good landing eh?
Took me more than three years to fully recover. I guess I'm lucky I didn't die.