Stupid flying stuff my buddy did

[RanchPilot]

Taxied out to takeoff a couple months ago, ground tells me there will be a delay... somebody landing with a gear issue. So I get to watch the local FAA examiner's twin commanche make a couple passes with the towbar still firmly attached to the nose wheel. AFTER I pass my next checkride I'll ask him about it.

(this, of course, could NEVER happen to me)

Great story! How did it turn out? Did he eventually knock the towbar off with a low pass, or was he somehow able to land with it on?

Based on this thread, it sounds like "towbar incidents" could be an entire category of its own (he says sheepishly, quietly reassessing his own sloppy towbar protocols).

[M6RV6]

Yep
Iknow a guy( ) who pulled his Bo (a 350 turboed Machen) out of the hangar and because it was cold hurried and shut the doors, then fired it up to Taxi to get some fuel, Damn tow bars are hard on Q-tip props, only 2 out of 3 blades tho!
GT

[c170pete]

Taxied out to takeoff a couple months ago, ground tells me there will be a delay... somebody landing with a gear issue. So I get to watch the local FAA examiner's twin commanche make a couple passes with the towbar still firmly attached to the nose wheel. AFTER I pass my next checkride I'll ask him about it.

(this, of course, could NEVER happen to me)

Great story! How did it turn out? Did he eventually knock the towbar off with a low pass, or was he somehow able to land with it on?

Based on this thread, it sounds like "towbar incidents" could be an entire category of its own (he says sheepishly, quietly reassessing his own sloppy towbar protocols).

Landed with towbar in place, it was sticking straight forward from the wheel. Dont know if it came off when he landed, I took off on parallel runway as soon as he was clear.

I don't use a towbar. Got those cool BAS tail pull handles 10 years ago and haven't used the towbar since.

[oldtech]

I have learned over the years that most of the stupid stuff I have done happened before 8:00 am. I am not an early bird! Best one was attempting to pull plane out of hanger with the door only opened part way. Don't worry Rob, no damage.
My rule with tow bars - and you have to use one with a Cherokee because there is nothing you can push forward on - is to NEVER leave the front of the plane with it still attached. Even if I know I'll need it again in a minute I take it off and set it on the walkway on the wing. So far it's worked!

[robw56]

No worries Allan, I've almost done the same ting myself.

[skyjeep]

A buddy of mine proudly taxied for takeoff in his Luscombe in front of a homefield fly-in crowd, started take off only to see the oil door flapping wildly up and down. Pull throttle, taxi back, get out, latch the damn oil door, take off and fly the hell out of there, all to an enthusiastically appreciative audience. He now does a final walk around for that and other past offenses--gas caps, oil door, BAS handles. No tow bar yet

Why do those things happen in front of crowds and perfect landings are always solitary?!

[born2flyak]

Years ago a retired pilot buddy (with around 25,000 hours in a 207) was visiting home and borrowed my 182. My next flight in it, I was in a hurry during my preflight and untied it before climbing in. There was a Navajo or Conquest parked behind me with a group of people sitting in lawn chairs and a tent next to it as I fired up and tried to taxi away with the tail tied down. I didn't even know my parking spot had a rope in the ground to tie the tail down to! I shut it down and climbed out, untied it, smiled and waved, got in and left. About an hour later when I returned, they were all in the tent, probably still snickering.

As for fuel exhaustion experience, not long after my 18th birthday I planned a 5.5 hour, 6-stop flight. However, I forgot to add about 2 gallons for each taxi/takeoff phase. With 79 useable and a 12gph burn, I realized my mistake about 100 miles from everywhere. I think I landed at home with about a 2 minute reserve, and that was milking it home on the last leg at about 55% power. Since then I now refuel whenever it's available. A good friend and old-timer once gave me sage advice when I questioned the W&B of his airplane which had been loaded to the "useful load" limit before adding PLENTY fuel for the flight. "It flies better heavy than it does without gas!"

[M6RV6]

[quoteSince then I now refuel whenever it's available. A good friend and old-timer once gave me sage advice when I questioned the W&B of his airplane which had been loaded to the "useful load" limit before adding PLENTY fuel for the flight. "It flies better heavy than it does without gas!"][/quote]
OH HOW SO TRUE!!
GT

[GumpAir]

A good friend and old-timer once gave me sage advice when I questioned the W&B of his airplane which had been loaded to the "useful load" limit before adding PLENTY fuel for the flight. "It flies better heavy than it does without gas!"

My #1 Rule to live by up north.

Gump

[slowhawk]

A good friend and old-timer once gave me sage advice when I questioned the W&B of his airplane which had been loaded to the "useful load" limit before adding PLENTY fuel for the flight. "It flies better heavy than it does without gas!"

My #1 Rule to live by up north.

Gump

AMEN!

[Zzz]

Bump for a classic read. Why do our buddies do such stupid shit?!

[Cub271]

Flying out of Sitka Alaska in a Beaver on floats, looking to get over the island to Chatam Straight, it was common to take off in MVFR and fly up one of several fjords or bays to see if the valley/pass was open over to the corrisponding valley/fjord/bay that would take the plane out to the open water on the other side of the island and then on to intended destination. Summer weather was often MVFR and there was really no way to determine if a pass was open without just going and putting eyes on it and looking to see if you could see thru to the other side. So one day my buddy flys out of Sitka headed for Angoon, with ceilings somewhere between 500 and 1,500 feet.

Fly north to Nakwasina bay where there is a vally that takes you over to Kelp Bay on the East side of the island. Up the canyon, pass looks to be closed, canyon turn back west and no problam, we will just go up to Neva Straight and see if we can get across to Rodman Bay, or continue around the north end of the island along Peril Straight. Well, ceilings drop, drop some more, and somewhere along Peril Straight drop to about 200' and my buddy has to land.

Well, my buddy waits about an hour or three and the situation gets worse. Ceilings are now 50-100' with visibility about a mile. My buddy has a very HOT Date that night back in Sitka, and gets impatient. There aren't that many good looking gals in Sitka to start with, even fewer that are single, and he has been working on getting this one to go on a date for a long time. If he stiffs her, it might be a long time again. There is NO way he is sleeping in the back of a smelly Beaver out in the booneys overnight.

So.... 4 hours of step-taxing and slow ground effect flying later, the Beaver runs out of fuel in Sitka Sound about 5 miles short of the seaplane base. My buddy then found out that being towed into the dock by a helpful fisherman in a small town kinda doesn't impress the locals. Especially when the beaver has buzzed several other very susprised fishing boats at rock throwing distances under a 50' ceiling during the step taxi / ground effect 'flight' back to Sitka. Everybody knows everbody else, fishign boats have radios too, and the story of the dumb stunt had pretty much beat him back to the dock.

To top it off... it turns out the hot gal that he wanted to go on the date with was the daughter of the fisherman that towed his sorry ass back to the dock.

Oh well.

[OregonMaule]

[patrol guy]

I always thought that leaving the tow bar on Cessna's helped with those bad shimmy dampers by acting like a sea anchor, ie the wheel stays straighter on landing?? I am not sure how it helps take offs though. It may get you into that climbing attitude quicker.

[8GCBC]

The N number is gone?

[BRD]

I know someone who did that in a Super Cub, seeing the shadow of a new "tail hook" as they departed... The guy landed on a frozen lake just to the north and rectified the situation...

[hpux735]

During my first dual cross-country in a Cessna 162 (with sight gauges for fuel), we flew from Corvallis to Mulino then Salem. At Mulino we filled up (yes, with him and me we can only take an hour and a half of fuel), and at Salem we decided to check the fuel there, also. I check the tank on my side and he checked his. We decided that we had plenty to get back to Corvallis, so we took off, flew home and put the plane away. The next day, I got a phone call at work from the instructor asking whether I remember what happened to the fuel cap, because one of them was missing. Of course I panic because I was really new at this. I recounted all the details of the trip and finally ask "Was it on my side or yours?" He has to admit that it was on his side. The interesting thing is that no fuel was apparently syphoned out. Also, we flew through rain on the way back from Salem and the tank sumped free of water. We were pretty lucky. Now, it's almost an OCD tick with us, we constantly check the fuel caps.

[8GCBC]

I left a tow bar on an AZTEC. Luckly, a friend saw it on the ramp. Learned a lesson on per-flight distraction! Don't talk to people when preflighting. To this day I am silent and keep my head out of the "dark".

[Flyhound]

I've got a buddy that flew a Mooney all the way from Watsonville, CA to Eureka with the gust lock still on the rudder. I guess the Mooney really isn't a rudder flyer...

[Oregon180]

I once ran after a guy who taxied by me with the aileron gust locks still on. "Remove Before Flight" thingies streaming behind it...