by Joseph Standley | Nov 27, 2012 | All Pilots
Here’s a situation that could have been much worse!
This is another story that I thought you guys would enjoy and hopefully learn from. It was submitted by someone who was making all his calls, and doing the right things, but it wasn’t good enough because the other person involved wasn’t doing the same. Keep your eyes open because you never know what may surprise you!
Article written by Rich Wegener
I was landing for a fuel stop at a uncontrolled airport, a long ways from my home base. The airport was in Northeastern NM, and was pretty deserted.
I had called “The 45”, Downwind, Base and then final.
As I was on short final, I heard a 182 call downwind for the same runway. As I landed and starting to brake, and was slowing down, almost ready to turn off the runway, but still on the center-line, I see the 182 not more than 20 feet above my windshield, and he touched down not more than 100 yards in front of me.
I was in my Cessna 170, so when he called “down-wind” he was already well into my “blind-side” I have no visibility up and aft. I heard the downwind call, but assumed he would, at the very least call base and final (he didn’t). As soon as he touched down, I said (sic)
“Cessna that just landed, do you know you landed right over the top of me???!!!”
(slight pause) “Where are you?”
“I’m about 100 yards behind you” at which point, I can see his wife and daughter (That’s how close he was) look out the back window at me. I was just slow enough at that point to turn off the runway.
“Oh, geez, I’m really sorry, I didn’t see you!”
I taxied to the fuel pump, and by the time I shut down, he and his family had secured his airplane and were on their way into the FBO. He came over to me, and took complete responsibility. It turned out that the guy was the owner of the FBO, and told me that “(he) always lands long, because the FBO was at the end of the (longish) runway.”
I did not think then, or now, that I needed to take it any further. He knew he screwed up, and we talked about flying the proper procedures. And I’m sure his wife let him have it also…. But…. the site of the oil-stained belly of that 182 not more than 20 ft above my windscreen will always be in my memory.
Easily the closest that I’ve ever come to being in a serious aviation accident. Oh, and one last thing… I did get a free top-off from him…
by Joseph Standley | Nov 20, 2012 | All Pilots
Around 20 years ago I was on a cross country flight with a pilot friend. We were in a rented 172 RG from Illinois on our way to North Carolina or Virginia ( I don’t remember which). We had been this way a couple of times before. I had friends there and he had family there so we would split the cost to fly there and take turns flying.
We were both VFR only pilots at the time but we made sure that when we did those long cross country flights that we took off a couple of extra days from work in case we got stranded due to weather. Weather was not a problem this day. The visibility was a little hazy and we were using pilotage to find our way there, trying to keep track of where we were on the sectional chart.
About 20 miles before reaching the Smoky Mountains I happened to notice that it was slightly wet around the mixture control shaft where it went into the firewall. It was barely wet so I assumed it was just lubricated so that it would be easier to move. We were admiring the view as we approached the mountains flying about 2000′ above them. I was looking at the chart trying to figure out exactly where we were going to cross so we could figure out where we’d go in an emergency if the engine failed over the mountains. According to the chart we should have been just 2 or 3 miles from an airport right below us. There was another about 10 miles from that one.
Just as we finished looking at the chart, we were about to reach the mountains so I did a quick scan of the instruments to be sure everything looked good. I glanced at the mixture control and noticed liquid running down the firewall where the mixture control went into it. It no longer seemed to be lubrication. I reached over and rubbed my finger in it and smelled it. It was fuel! We had fuel leaking into the airplane!
I immediately powered to idle and went into a steep spiraling turn to get the ground as soon as possible. I was not going to burn today! I yelled to my friend to look for the airport and said there should be one below us somewhere. On the way down we spotted an airport about 5 miles away and flew well into the yellow arc (it was a smooth air day) to get to it as fast as possible. By the time we were over the top we spiraled onto base, watching for traffic but not talking on the radio. We just wanted to get it on the gournd before it caught on fire. I continued to roll into a tight turn to final, got it on the ground and started rolling down the runway to the first exit.
As I looked over toward the taxiway my stomach flipped around and I got a huge sinking feeling in my gut. I was looking at a Control Tower! We were a little off course and in the rush to get down we spotted the wrong airport. We thought it was the uncontrolled airport we were landing at but instead, we spiraled down at 1500′ per minute right over and into a Class D airport and landed without talking to anyone! As we taxied to the ramp, someone was walking out to meet us.
When we got out, the guy said that the tower wants us to call him. We explained what happened and apologized. He said to just let the tower know, he’ll understand. In the meantime, the guy (who was a mechanic), looked under the cowling after taking it off and said the whole firewall was soaked in fuel. The mixture control cable had been rubbing on the electric fuel pump and over time, it rubbed a hole into it and started spraying fuel all over. He said if the fuel had sprayed forward instead of backwards, then we would have caught on fire. He said we were really lucky!
We went inside, and explained to the tower controller what had happened. We told him how we thought we were at the other airport and we were scared to death that the plane was going to start on fire and our only thought was to get it on the ground. We would have called him if we knew. He said that we did a good job looking out for traffic because we came right down between someone on downwind and someone on short final. Someone was looking out for us because we never saw them!
I hope you enjoyed reading this! Please email me if you’d like me to put your story here too. It’s hard to keep thinking of things to write for you guys and I think people would enjoy a good story now and then. Make sure to let me know if you want your name kept private. Please leave a comment below and LIKE or TWEET this to help spread the word about our site.
Take care!
by Joseph Standley | Nov 18, 2012 | All Pilots
Hey guys! You have to let me know what you want to learn about. The more feedback you can give me the more I can write for you. I’ve had a lot going on lately and it’s making it difficult to come up with flight training tips for you! Comment below and let me know what kind of flight training information you’d like to read about. For those of you that have bought any of the e-lessons, can you offer a testimonial as to how it may have helped you or your students if you’re an instructor?
Sorry for not writing much lately. I’ve been battling more hackers trying to ruin my site. It gets pretty frustrating when you’re trying to help people and do good things and someone tries to destroy everything you’ve done. It’s such a waste of time. Sigh. If anyone ever notices anything funny going on with my site, please send me an email as soon as possible and let me know. I’m trying to stay on top of it to keep things running smooth but the sooner I see things happening, the sooner I can fix them! There’s someone from the Ukraine that has tried to guess my password 273 times in just a few days. I blocked him from even being able to see my site anymore.
Please write your suggestions, comments or testimonials below. Any little bit will help! Thanks and have a great one!
by Joseph Standley | Nov 7, 2012 | All Pilots
Is it just a coincidence that the gloomy area happens to be EXACTLY where the presidential TFR is?
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by Joseph Standley | Oct 19, 2012 | All Pilots
Do I need glasses to fly?
Many people have come to me in the past and said they never followed through with getting their pilot license because when they went to the military to become a pilot they were told that they needed 20/20 vision. Just because of this, they gave up on their dream to fly. The private pilot vision requirement is 20/40. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that you can’t fly if your vision is worse. You just need to be able to correct your vision to 20/40 to do so. If you need glasses to correct your vision to 20/40 then you will have a restriction on your medical certificate saying that you must wear corrective lenses.
Lasik eye surgery
Some people get surgery to correct their vision which is allowed too but the last I heard, if you’ve had the surgery to correct your vision then you will have to wait 6 months for your eyes to stabilize before you can fly. Check with the FAA Medical Examiner to be sure. I personally have had RK done many years ago before Lasik came out. My vision was corrected to 20/20 and has stayed that way for many years. I can tell though that my eyes are starting to get a little worse as time passes. This is normal with eye surgery, your eyes will always get worse with age. It’s been over 20 years since I had mine done. At the time, it cost me about $1500 per eye, but it was new technology back then and I think prices have come down. Over time you will eventually need reading glasses or bifocals. If you choose to correct for this problem then the only way to do it with lasik is to do one eye for close vision and one eye for distant vision. It will take awhile to get used to it and eventually you won’t notice it much. The requirements with the FAA may be different though so I would check into that before you decide.
Natural eye exercises
Since I’m getting to the point where I may need reading glasses, I have considered this a million times. I just don’t know if it really works or if it doesn’t. This is one of those things that I’ve heard two sides on. Some people swear it works and some say it doesn’t. Just like some people love Chiropractors and some say they don’t do anything. This one is for you to decide. I have attached a link at the bottom of this article for you to read more about it. I see ads for this all the time and every single time I am tempted to spend the money for the chance that it will work and I won’t need to wear glasses. After all, I got eye surgery so I wouldn’t have to wear glasses! If anyone decides to try it and buys it through the link below, please let me know if it really works because I’ve been dying to try it and I don’t have the money to spend right now!
Can you really eliminate your glasses and improve your vision with simple eye exercises?
by Joseph Standley | Sep 24, 2012 | All Pilots
So, now that you’re learning to fly, you will eventually need to know about FBO’s. Chances are, you already know what they are but just in case you don’t, it stands for “fixed base operator”. This is the place at the airport you fly into that supplies your fuel. As you will soon see, they are so much more than that.
When choosing a destination airport it is better to choose one that has an FBO. While looking through the airport facility directory and checking out your airport destination information, check out to see if there’s an FBO on the field. They usually put a phone number and hours in there. Check to see what their fuel prices are, their hours, any fees, etc. You want as much information as you can to decide if what they have will meet your needs.
I would prefer an FBO to be open when I arrive. I would want fuel, a place to tie down the plane or even hangar it, if I plan on staying for awhile to make sure it starts good and keeps the snow or frost off the wings. Most nicer fixed base operators have bathrooms, vending machines, flight planning rooms to check the weather for your flights and complimentary coffee, etc. They also have pilot lounges or sleeping rooms and showers in case you need to rest for awhile or clean up. If you buy fuel, most will not charge you to leave your plane there for the day or overnight unless you want it in a hangar.
When you get there, they can even call a cab for you. You can plan for the cab in advance by calling them ahead on the radio too. If you’re staying overnight, most hotels will send a shuttle to the airport to get you for no charge, but you should tip them. If you are just stopping for fuel and possibly to grab something to eat then FBO’s usually have a courtesy car they will lend you to run into town for an hour or so to get something to eat. They don’t charge for the use of the cars but some expect you to replace whatever gas you use. You are treated much better at a local FBO than you would be at an airline.
If there are several fixed base operators on the field, then compare fuel prices and tie down fees to see which you want to use. They are usually very helpful to any pilots that fly in. When it’s time to leave, if your plane is in a hangar, you can call ahead and they will pull it out for you and have it ready when you want it. If it’s been sitting on the ramp overnight and has snow or frost on it, you can call them a couple of hours before and ask them to put it in a hangar for awhile to melt off the frost and warm it up. Some won’t charge for this and some will charge a small fee. So, do your homework and it will make your traveling much more enjoyable!
