Stupid pilot tricks

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Rich
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Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Rich »

Here's a tale of a recent (Saturday, 6/30) event.

Pilot ground looped a taildragger on the 5700x75 ft. runway here in Prineville. A bunch of us were standing around outside the airport office swapping tales and noticed the cloud of dust. But the event is over half a mile away and we didn't see that the plane had hit anything. The plane was taxiing around so we figure no big deal. But it turns out the plane took out one of the PAPI stanchions. This in turn has now taken the PAPI out of service until further notice.

OK, stuff happens. But here's where it gets interesting. The pilot took off and flew away. Made no report to anyone. The airport manager is now gathering information as to who the heck did this. Through various detective work and information from our fellow airport bums at Madras:

The airplane is a Cessna 120, somewhat recently purchased by an older guy who hadn't flown in years. No tailwheel endorsement. He departed from his home base at Madras, ground looping once before successfully getting it off the ground. Upon lifting off, observers say he nosed up at an angle they thought was the end of him, but somehow he got it under control and headed southeast to Prineville. Later on he returned and parked the airplane. So if he hit the PAPI, surely there would be evidence of some damage to the airplane. Of course there is, big dent in the side of the fuselage and the horizontal stabilizer all out of kilter. Pictures of the now-damaged plane were sent back to the Prineville airport manager. There is some video of the incident from Prineville security cameras. Too far away to make out the N number, but color scheme seems to match.
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Rich
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Rich »

Yet another one, a couple of months back. A guy ground-looped a Stinson such that it wound up standing on its nose on the edge of our 5700-ft. runway. Pilot jumped out and ran off. It was easy to track him down later. We assume by this time he had sobered up :thumbsd:
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Pascal
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Pascal »

Nordo float plane pilot flew right through a very active hang gliding area a few weeks ago. I have also witnessed several poor radio and traffic pattern integration woopsies at fly-ins from bush pilots who are neither used to radios nor busy airports.

Sadly, I just don't trust other pilots to do the right thing. And if they stumble in their radio communications, I watch them even more as imho they are also likely to have several lapses in airmanship as well.
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Colin
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Colin »

Watched at a popular local lunch spot (KCMA) as a solo pilot in a DA40 tried to get into a tie down spot and braaaaaaaapppp'ed along the doors of the hangars alongside. Dents along the corrugations of the doors, I didn't get a good look at the wingtip that did the damage. The pilot hopped out, glanced back at the doors and went inside for lunch. I checked the N-number and it was from the place I did a little training so I sent them an email when I got home. They appreciated it since the renter didn't report anything and upon inspection the wingtip light had been damaged. They said they'd get in touch with the airport about the hangar doors.
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Don
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Don »

Colin wrote:Watched at a popular local lunch spot (KCMA) as a solo pilot in a DA40 tried to get into a tie down spot and braaaaaaaapppp'ed along the doors of the hangars alongside. Dents along the corrugations of the doors, I didn't get a good look at the wingtip that did the damage. The pilot hopped out, glanced back at the doors and went inside for lunch. I checked the N-number and it was from the place I did a little training so I sent them an email when I got home. They appreciated it since the renter didn't report anything and upon inspection the wingtip light had been damaged. They said they'd get in touch with the airport about the hangar doors.
Hi Colin. The Waypoint Cafe at KCMA is one of my favorites for lunch. That said, there are a half dozen or so DA40's for rent at KEMT where I also go to lunch from time to time. I have walked up and inspected the DA 40's close up and the fleet is pretty ragged and worn. I guess the old sayin, "Nothing parties like a rental" applies to aircraft too.
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LTek1
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by LTek1 »

Colin wrote:Watched at a popular local lunch spot (KCMA) as a solo pilot in a DA40 tried to get into a tie down spot and braaaaaaaapppp'ed along the doors of the hangars alongside.
Sad to say, I did this, too. Not a hangar, but the fence along the side of the ramp. I was taxiing past a family loading in to their plane, keeping a close eye on them as they moved around, and not a close enough eye on the other side.

Got new LED wing tip strobes out of the ordeal, though, so I'm not beating myself up too badly. :oops:
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Localizer
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Localizer »

Hitting something with my wing is one thing I obsess about. To the point that I'm contemplating installation of cameras in wingtips of my RV-10 which I'm building very slowly.
Many-many years ago in an airplane which was probably 200 times larger than DA40 we hit a lamp post. That did not prevent us from flying (once back at the base it needed to be repaired, of course), but the post suffered full collapse. :)
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Colin
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Colin »

Not a hangar, but the fence along the side of the ramp.
My *own* most recent stupid pilot trick was to have this happen in the new A5 run up area at Santa Monica. It's vinyl. Very hard for me to track the depth perception to, since it is shiny. I was a little distracted by being IN the new run up area, which is part of the runway shortening at KSMO. So I was trying to figure out if I had made a mistake by doing a counter-clockwise 270 to point back at the take off end of 21 and bumped my wingtip. A vinyl fence is pretty forgiving. It slide the LED light out off its base, but I slid it back on. Still lit up. My passenger helped me push the plane back a little so I could continue my turn.

The very *first* stupid pilot trick was when I was taxiing at night to my tie down for the first time, *really* nervous about the long wings (even though the KSMO handbook promises 40' wingspan clearance if you are on the centerline of the taxiway, here I am between the hangar doors and the noses of the parked planes). I am dead on the centerline, maybe a little toward the hangars, watching the strobe and the position lights light up the propellors and the hangar's corrugated metal. It really looks like I am going to hit the Cardinal's nose. I slow to a really slow walk speed. I glide past. Seems like the Bonanza's nose is going to get whacked, so I slow down and I'm now at a quarter of a walk. I glide past. The Cessna 172 is definitely too far out... I inch past. I'm not sure why I didn't get out and just drag it, except it was sort of uphill and I didn't yet have much experience moving the DA40. The Grumman Tiger is coming up. Military guy (1/4 partner) parks it EXACTLY on the tie down markings. But it seems like it is more in the taxiway. Slowly. I move a little more toward the hangars and now they are painted by the position light. I think I'm right on them. My spot is JUST past the Tiger. I slow so that I am inching along. I get so that I am past the edge of the cowl and it just looks like the spinner is intersecting with my wingtip. I go two more inches and give up. I shut down, get out and go look. My wingtip is a quarter of an inch from touching the spinner. I imagine with the vibration of the engine it was tapping it. I had four inches on the hangar side. Backing up a little I was able to squeeze past. It was never like that again and it's possible my wingspan shrunk.
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TomJ
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by TomJ »

That was nail-bitingly exciting, Colin! Glad it had a happy ending.
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Re: Stupid pilot tricks

Post by Karl »

Some years ago in the UK, a (non Diamond) pilot lost control during a landing at a grass strip and hit a large bail of straw off the side of the runway.
He and his passenger were seen to push the aircraft back and later take off.
At some point in the following flight they called the tower and the transmission included a loud noise, followed by silence.
The wing spar had failed as a result of the contact with the straw bail. They did not survive.
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