personal Acts of aviation stupidity, who has done one and is prepared to admit it? me

[watto]

Well guys, it started with a debate with my instructor and finished with me deciding to move schools but determined not to pay the leach another cent by having him move the aircraft.

I decided to have a crack at it myself in a moment of monumental stupidity and finished up with a few scratches and dents on my pride and joy and several deep lascerations to my ego, would not have felt so bad if I actually got the thing off the ground!!!

And to truly acknowledge what I had done I had to then pay from my own pocket to have the relatively minor damage repaired, but it was a cheap lesson to me and all new pilots out there to not think you are capable of more than you are!!!!!!!! and if you feel you are getting shafted by someone then do not punish your aircraft by getting XXXXed off and doing something foolish as I did.

I think it takes a clever man to learn from his mistakes but an even smarter one to learn from someone elses, so guys take it easy, take it slow, accept help from wherever you can get it and be patient as it will all happen in its own time, don't try to force the square peg into the round hole.

Watto

[motzartmerv]

Watto...wat the??.... just to clarify... you pranged your own acft while attempting to move it to a new school??.. do you mean Taxi it to a new school??or fly it??...what exactly happened??im intrigued beyond words...
cheers

[TOSGcentral]

Yeah and it takes a real person to admit their faux pas up front.

I would go a little further, but also down the middle.

Do not tolerate what you do not like but when backed into a corner take a few breaths and get someone who is capable of flying the machine out safely!

But on the other hand my standard advice is DO NOT BUY AN AIRCRAFT UNTIL YOU CAN LEGALLY FLY IT! That advice does tend to stop a lot of problems before they even become problems.

Go well,

Tony

[Yenn]

G'day Watto.
Now the questions are going to come at you I think, but it is a good start, and better that someone else learns from you than they do the same and not be so lucky.

[watto]

Yes fly, and well I did not get to that! thankfully and I guess it is a good wake up call.
But as with most people, when you feel and it is confirmed by many others that you are being taken advantage of then tempers do flare, and I now have to contend with my idiousy and that is all there is to it.

I'll bet there are not to many people prepared to admit to their mistake! many can and will judge but have a good look in the mirror, how does it go, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
The idea about talking about this is to help prevent anybody else from being as foolish as I was and to also promote people to also pass on other silly things that many of us do but keep to ourselves, but in dong so others do not get the message!

[watto]

Hi there Yenn, yes you are correct, but it is the right thing to do despite the potential embarrassment I want to help others.

[motzartmerv]

Watto.. good onya mate.. an open and honest post.. I won't go into the seriousness of what you attempted to do, it sounds like you realise it probably wasnt the wisest descision..
If you don't mind me asking, what went on between you and your instructor to get you so angry?? please don't use names, but just fill us in on how you were being shafted.. It must have been quite a heated argument to rev you up enough to consider doing what you did..
Thanx for the honest post, and like you say, perhaps others can learn from it..
cheers

ps.. ive done some flying out of Agnes, that strip aint for the squeemish.. is woody still alive, or has he augered in??

[watto]

That Agnes strip is a tunnel of trees alright and the wind above them is in no way indicated by the wind sock there either.

[motzartmerv]

Yep..permanent windshear zone.. Fantastic area to fly in though (once your up)..The surface isn't the best either from memory, and a $20 landing fee??
She looks bloody skinny from 1000 feet don't it...

[ahlocks]

Me with one hour on type, 15 hours total in a different aircraft and still a student. Took an unknown and self proclaimed instructor with zero hours on type, for a jolly around the circuit in the beer can.

While I didn't think it was probably the 'right thing to do' he was quite persistent and well, he is an instructor after all...The CFI tore both of us a new one.

Apart from that indiscretion, I never really had a desire to operate the aircraft without my instructor until I was fully trained and ticketed. I read an accident report about a bloke who tried a bit of 'self training' and pancaked in. That had always stuck in my mind as a reminder not to over estimate my own ability.

Watto, I do emphasis with what you were feeling and why you did it and I'm not posting here to condemn or endorse what happened, only to add another yarn to the learning pool.

Good on you for being so candid about it.

Cheers!
Steven B.

FN:
The circuit was uneventful, but neither of us was proficient on the aircraft and we both should have known better. Hence the reaming.

[motzartmerv]

Oh man.. i have been way stupider then that..
about 10 years ago when i was learning (attempt no 1 to get a licence), i was on my second solo flight.. total time about 8 hours.. My instructor told me to go for a lap around the outskirts of town and come back..
I blasted off.. My mates place was directly inline with the extended centerline, so once at 1000 feet i levelled out and saw his place sitting there infront of me looking like a target.. So stupid me, pulls the power and sets up as though im going to land in his back yard..his house was the only one for miles with paddocks all around.. So i just let down almost into his yard and at the last second fed the power on and climbed away.. i got down to about rooftop height..
But that wasn't enough...i climbed out, did a 180 and came back for a second go...this time i went lower then the house, trees where higher then me on both sides.....climbed out and went on my way...
I saw my mate in the yard standing there shrugging his shoulders..
When i got back to the AD my instructor had a steern look on his face...he said, i spose i should have told you, NO low flying.. He could see pretty well from the AD what i was doing...
I went to visit my mate later that day to bragg about my most exellent flying skills....he didnt smile...he just led me out to the yard...and pointed and said "did you see that wire??...Huh...what wire...and to my absolute horror, there was a single strain earth wire running loosley taught, right across where i had flown... to be honest, to this day, i don't know how i missed it.. i must have been within cm of hitting it and killing myself in my mates back yard....
I was white with fear...i started shaking...and slowly it dawned on me, just how stupid i was.. i coudnt believe i could be that dumb...
I rang my instructor and appolagised..he was cool...but man, i wasn't...
My hands shake even now retelling the story..

It was hands down, the dumbest thing ive ever done, in my life, let alone in an acft..

But, i did reslove never to be a wanka in an acft ever again... and to me, now, the rules are simply un questionable...
I survived my own stupidity.. bareley....

Ps.. I was only 19.. so don't be to hard on me...

[watto]

Good on you guys for relaying these indiscreetions, I hope other up and coming pilots are reading these and are also making the decision to be safer pilots and thats great.

I tell you what, its great to be alive, lets keep it that way.

[Ruprect]

Coulda been worse- check this guy out
YouTube - Rich Idiot and Helicopter

[facthunter]

He's very lucky he is not DEAD. Needs a few more lessons..Amazing that someone was there to film it.... Nev.

[Michael Coates]

When I was about 17 I decided I would learn how to fly an ultralight myself after only having a few hours in gliders.

The best thing to do I thought was take the wings off the aeroplane so I couldn't possibly fly and then spend a couple of tanks of fuel ripping up and down the runway to get the feel of everything on the ground.

The aircraft in question was a grasshopper.

It didn't matter that to simulate takeoff I kept dragging the tail and wearing out the tail skid and it didn't matter that I couldn't get used to the steering because the rudder pedals went the wrong way and were so unlike my old billy cart so out came the spanners and i changed everything over so when I pushed with my left foot the aircraft would turn right (I don't know how the previous owner would have got things so wrong! Why on earth would you push with your left foot and turn left ??)

Anyway, another hour all of this and I got bored so it was time to fit the wings and go flying.

Everything was connected correctly, the things on the end of the wings seem to move up and down when I moved the stick so that must be a good sign and the wind wasn't too strong only about 25 kn which would be perfect for sailing in my 14 foot catamaran so it must be great for flying with all that wind to keep you up.

To cut a long story short the taxi and takeoff was uneventful, about 1 m off the ground things didn't go too well, when I pressed my left foot forward to turn to the right the plane wanted to go to the left, thankfully the stick did something to control the aircraft. Regardless I pushed on, 20 feet, 30 feet, way up to 50 feet and taller than all the trees !! I can almost see the city from up here !!

Somehow I managed to make a small and slightly unorthodox circuit over a period of about 60 seconds. I then managed to land without too many problems.

After about 100 m ground role I decided that "I could fly" and I put in full throttle to go again... the engine spluttered to a halt because it ran out of fuel.

After about 30 minutes of pushing the aircraft back to the car I was fortunate to notice the two main bolts which were meant to hold the wing in position laying in the dirt, lucky I didn't lose those bolts!, didn't really need them anyway because the wing was held on by a couple of wires.

I never flew the old grasshopper again, because a couple of months later it actually fell off the trailer and got damaged on the way back to the airport for another go at learning to fly.

Seeing I had no plane to fly anymore I decided I'd better find an instructor so I could fly his plane instead.

[Maj Millard]

Hey check out my post on the previous "How not to start an aeroplane" that's one of my sillier moments......