Funny Incident @ the field!

[ConRadical]

So.. Today there were lots of new pilots needing to be taken up on the buddy box. I being one of the clubs 3 flight instructors was helping out a guy who could be soloed but was waiting on his dad to allow the plane’s fate to be in his son’s hands…

The plane was landed and since the dad was going to refuel the plane for another flight the son and I just stood in the pilot station watching another person fly. While the father was fueling up the aircraft the president of our club walked over and was talking with me. Though I didn’t realize, he thought we were still flight.

I asked the boy if he was ready to solo, he replied “yes” so I looked back at the father and asked him and he said it was fine. I asked our president who was talking to me and he said “why not”. So I said lets do it, I unplugged the buddy box and turned around. At the same time the son turned around. Our president thought there was some sort of miscommunication and we both thought the other was flying the plane.

Our Pres. Started yelling saying who has the plane.. who has the plane. I turned around to see what he was talking about. He was pointing to a plane that was in a gentle descent towards the ground. He started jumping up and down shouting “there it is, do you see it” “There it is!”

All of the sudden he realized the plane was right beside him, still on the ground where the kids father had just fueled her up….. It was a great laugh!

[Edge540T_Flyer]

ummm... did someone have "the other" plane?
or did it continue downward descent?

[3D-Seth]

Conrad,

That is seriously funny stuff!!!

Your club president will never live that one down! LOL!

I bet everyone was busting their gut, laughing!

[ConRadical]

Yes someone had the other plane... though our pres didn't know. LOL



It was really funny everyone laughing for 10 min or so.. and while we were all still laughing the son did Solo'd and landed. While his plane taxiing he raised one hand up and shook it... BUT HE FORGOT TO STEER THE PLANE!!! He relized what he was doing and turned the plane just in time where the wing barely skint the pilot station!!!

[3D-Seth]

How old was the boy you were training?

I remember my first solo with no "Buddy Box". My dad told me if I could do ten successful take offs and landings, in a row, he'd let me solo. Well, I did it so he unhooked me and I landed a little hot and took out the nose gear of the trainer.

Knock on wood, I was 13 then, and that was the last time I've damaged a plane due to "dumb thumbs"! I know I was sure proud. I am sure that young man you trained today was on cloud 9. You become so overjoyed you forget what you are doing!

[Big J]

The first time I soloed a full-sized plane was pretty memorable. Our home field was typically pretty busy on weekends, so my instructor and I flew about twenty miles to a quieter field. There, we worked on touch-and-goes and full-stop landings for an hour or so, and when my instructor felt I was ready, he asked me how I felt. I told him that I felt ready, willing, and able. He took his hand-held transceiver, stepped out of the cockpit, and told me he wanted to see four good, solid, touch and gos, smiled, and closed the door. Now, up to this moment, my whole 25 or so hours had been with this instructor only. We each weighed in at about 250 pounds - certainly not too much for the Cessna 172 Skyhawk's abilities, but enough so that we were always shoulder-to-shoulder in the cockpit. I confidently turned the plane around and back taxied to the takeoff end of the runway, radioed my intentions to my instructor standing by the side of the runway, and to the local traffic, and began to open the throttle, just like always. With that, the Skyhawk rocketed down the runway, at least 250 pounds lighter than usual, reached rotation speed way faster than usual, and when I pulled back on the yoke, it was if I had hitched a ride on the space shuttle! "Holy Crap", I almost screamed to myself, "This damned thing has never flown like this before". By the time it began to sink into my sensory-boggled mind, I was at least 300 feet higher than usual in the pattern, and at least a thousand feet further down range, not to mention a good 20-knots faster. I made my first turn in the pattern, and by the time I began to search my not-too-considerable bank of flying experiences to figure out how to make the proper adjustments, I was halfway through the downwind leg to my first touch and go, and way too high. As reason began to creep back through the panicky fog I found myself in, I suddenly realized that rather than easing back on the throttle to slow myself down, I had both feet solidly pressing down on the tops of the rudder pedals, trying desparately to put on the brakes! The mere realization that I was doing something so stupid caused me to roar with laughter, and it was this, as much as anything that served to break up up the fear that had gripped me for that first minute or so of flight. I radioed my instructor and told him that I was going to make one circuit of the field before making my first touch and go, to which the fellow replied, "Well okay, but throttle back a little. I'd hate for you to use up all the brakes getting the plane stopped". I've thought about it a lot in the years since then, and I can't believe he could have guessed that I really was "locking 'em up" up there, but I never mentioned it to him after that. Everything went like clockwork after I calmed down, but I'll remember those couple of minutes for a long, long time.

[ConRadical]

Great Story Big J... anyone else have a story like this??

[GremlinX]

Thats a classic! Hahaha

[Boulder]

That's some funny stuff BigJ,

I'm sure your instructor know exactly what the tendencies are on your first solo!

Not unlike an R/C instructor, after he hears the story his former student tells him about his first landing gear removal. "You let it get too slow on final, didn't you?"

[Jerry G]

I cannot tell a lie-- it was me. I promised I would go straight home and get back on my prescribed drugs.

[ConRadical]

Glad you made it here Jerry, Did anyone twist your arm?

[StevL]

The kid (we call A) just turned 15, he received a kadet 40 as a birthday present. He is on plane number two now (UCD).... dad is still on the trainer, but it is in one piece so far