I'm searching for a video I saw about 12 years ago in A&P school. I'm hoping someone has seen it too, I've tried YouTube without luck (but ofcourse ran across a lot to watch).

It was one of the most interesting & funny things I've ever seen! The video must have been from the mid '70's judging from the quality. My instructor set up the basics of the story; A guy who I think was a DR, was going to take his girlfriend up for a ride. He got her straped into the back seat & found the battery was dead. It also could have not had an electrical system I don't remember. Anyway, he has to hand-prop the plane & gets the controls set & pulls it over. The engine starts & the throttle was set wayyyy to far forward & it starts to move right away before he can climb in. For some reason the left tire is locked & starts a left circle around the main gear. He is running around trying to hold back on the wing strut at first but it's circling faster & faster & before long his feet are starting to leave the ground! Eventually he looses he grip on the strut & falls down on the ramp. At that point he gets run over by the tailwheel once or twice & is pretty badly beaten up. The little taildrager continues to circle with the girl in the back seat freaking out!

Bystanders help the poor pilot who seems to be bleeding somewhat & they formulate a plan. They start to circle the plane with a VW mini-bus & try to match speed with it, hoping I guess to gently hit the right wing tip & stop it. Before they get the proper syncronised orbit to touch the wing the left brake finaly releases & in veered off into another plane tied down on the ramp. The panicked passenger is removed from the plane uninjured.

If you've seen this but don't know where to locate, let me know, atleast we can share a good laugh!

Jeff

Funny?
Don't get it.
Injured pilot, tramatized passenger?
Gotta be other sources for humor on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfRaWAtBVg&feature=player_embedded#

Humor like this maybe?

I think this is the one you mean...........



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeTM-paAXCo

Yea that's the one Avgas, thank you.

I agree there are funnier things on there, and I would have never made light of it had it ended tragicly. Sorry to offend.

This happened around 10-15 years ago in Urbana, Ohio (I74). That is about 100 miles west of my place. After filling with gas, this guy flooded his champ, and did the usual. He turned off the mags, set full throttle, and flipped it backwards 8-10 times. What he did wrong was not put the throttle back to idle when he turned the mags back to on and pulled it through forward.

It started right off at full throttle, narrowly missing killing the pilot. It then went across the ramp and took to the air with no one inside. I guess it flew around at low level almost hitting some hangars, but some how gradually gained altitude. I forget how high it got, but it went in some crazy circles, but moving east. There was a helicopter sent up and maybe the National Guard's F16. They were afraid to shoot it down. The helicopter tried to blow it down, but wasn't successful.

The champ somehow kept flying until it ran out of gas. It glided down and landed in a soybean field near my place (more then 100 miles away) and nosed over with very little damage.

I can't keep my planes trimmed for 30 minutes, I don't have any idea how this flew so long with changing CG's??

My buddy did something similar 30 years ago, he was hand propping a 150/150 glider tow plane after refueling and had the throttle too far in . Started with a lot of enthusiasm and took to running away! Luckily the tow rope was on the bird and he was able to wrap it around the gas pump and rein it in.

Never forgot that one.

Jim

Why is it always a Champ?
A Champ got away from a fellow up in Napa and flew around for a while before it crashed in a field. I owned a Champ for a while and just like someone has already mentioned, I was constantly tweaking the trim. Usually by leaning forward or backward.

I had seen this clip before and it still scares me. I don't think you could replicate that whole chain of events and have it unfold the same way twice...truly bizarre but a good lesson too. Thanks for sharing.