As a new 150 hour pilot I am at breakfast and there are 8 pilots present and one says to the other "Hey Jim how many planes you wreck?" Jim says about six. Then everyone else chimes in with the least being 1 and the average about 2. Then they look at me and I say zero. Now I am starting to think a wreck is in my future. Some 700 hours later I joined the club. Tipped a 170 over on the nose in a flood irrigated field. Key word is flood. No water on the low pass, water on landing. So how many planes you wreck? And I mean the type where you can't fly it away

C-120 bent prop in water pool in low ground on grass runway at Downtown Airport 1969. AH1-G Song Be Vietnam 1970, small arms fire. Pawnee in 1980 on takeoff in 1/4 mile with tall wet grass and 120 gal in hopper. Pawnee in 1991 engine failure coming out of cotton field. Callair in 1994 after engine failure spraying onions. Ultraflight Challenger in KC in 2009. Dumb old crop duster flying something not really an airplane which he knew nothing about.

I wrecked one my Pterodactyl ultralights so bad once, I hit so hard..... that all the top rigging got stretched, the thimbles elongated and every tube in the airframe bent/bowed. Less then 24 hrs later it was back in the air, as i was a dealer for them then so just stole some new spars from a kit I had in stock. The rear wheels sheared off, and I swear, landed, again, seconds after I did, they had shot up in the air that high. Due to a late night chipped prop repair, and I installed it ass backwards (a new reduction system changing the rotation may or may not have been part of my excuse, whatever) and what resulted in the very hard "landing" was the engine sounded GREAT, really roaring away, and that kind of confused things. This was at a time when I routinely landed dead stick every time so it was especially embarrassing to obviously had total stalled it in that bad with out realizing what was going on. I got a cut lip from my head slamming into my knees, I got hurt 10 times as bad crashing a mountain bike last year.

Since then, 1980, other then several trashed props, bent gear legs and other things that just mean I'm having fun and flying a lot, nothing.

Maybe I'm the odd man out, but even one crash seems like it should be a wake-up call.
More than one? Definitely a wake-up call.
Even if it's equipment failure-caused-- maybe better maintenance is in order?
If pilot error, maybe better decision-making?

hotrod 180,

Sure seems that way.

Contact

contactflying wrote:Dumb old crop duster flying something not really an airplane which he knew nothing about.

And here you are to provide opinion and advice on all manner of light aircraft to everyone daily. Maybe that ^^ should go in your signature.

I teach stuff that has kept me and my students alive, Zane. I have never tried to cover up my mistakes. I have always been controversial because I seek what works weather sanctioned or not. Some pilots are open to different ideas and some are not. I appreciate the opportunity to put my techniques out there and some appreciate the opportunity to read them. For this we are all indebted to you for the site. I am sorry you don't like me, but I don't take it personally. Lots of very good pilots don't like me.

contactflying wrote:I teach stuff that has kept me and my students alive, Zane. I have never tried to cover up my mistakes. I have always been controversial because I seek what works weather sanctioned or not. Some pilots are open to different ideas and some are not. I appreciate the opportunity to put my techniques out there and some appreciate the opportunity to read them. For this we are all indebted to you for the site. I am sorry you don't like me, but I don't take it personally. Lots of very good pilots don't like me.

Well, you know...everything in moderation. Nothing wrong with sharing ideas and experiences. We should all take everything written here with a grain of salt, even from the self-appointed critic of all things technique. If anyone reads my advice, they should remember that i'm a very low time pilot.

I've pranged twice. The first time was when I was flying the Mooney 231 some 37 years ago, and that was so very definitely my responsibility. I discovered during preflight that the steering linkage to the nose gear was broken, apparently from being turned too far by a power tug. Since I was going to fly the airplane to the mechanic for its annual, I chose to go anyway--dumb move. I might have been successful, had I not out of habit retracted the gear.

When I extended it again to land, the sound it made was different, and that was because it had bound up into a left turn. When I landed it pulled the airplane off the runway toward a large snow berm. I firewalled it and barely got over the snow berm, but it stalled into the soft snow beyond the berm and skidded up onto the parallel taxiway. The berm was hard enough that had I hit it, it would have been like hitting a brick wall; it tore off the antennas on the bottom of the airplane and the gear doors. Amazingly the most expensive damage was to the leading edge of one wing, when it hit a plastic pipe used as a taxiway delineator, because in addition to the sheet metal, a rib had to be replaced. Total cost to repair in 1985: $4,000. That's the equivalent of about $9,000 in today's money.

The second time was a few days and only 15 hours after I bought my current airplane in March 2004. I had been doing commercial maneuvers, getting comfortable with my newly purchased airplane. I had leveled off to head back to the airport for an appointment, when I saw the oil pressure dropping. I couldn't tell that the engine was overheating at all, but I decided to baby it as I headed for the airport. At about 1000' AGL, as I crossed over a country road, the engine suddenly sped up, indicating that the governor had lost oil pressure. I pulled all the knobs out all the way and looked for a place to set down. That was followed by a horrible clanking and shaking and oil smoke in the cabin. I turned a close downwind for the road I'd just crossed, but after lowering 20 flaps I realized that there were power poles very close to the road, which would probably grab a wingtip. I looked to the right, but the field I saw looked pretty soft. I looked to the left, and that field looked acceptable, so I turned toward it. But now I was so low that I was likely to hit the powerline. So I dropped the nose to gain airspeed, retracted the flaps, and popped over the powerline, pulled on full flaps and landed, probably the best soft field landing I'd ever done.

Somewhere in there, I called "mayday" on the airport's unicom frequency. A pilot above me answered, asked if I was the red-nosed Cessna; I said "yes", and he said that he would orbit to make sure I got down safely. After landing, I talked to him on my handheld, and he said for me to start walking north, he would fly back to the airport and get his truck and come get me. The new engine cost me $23,000 in 2004; that would be about $30,000 today. At the same time I had some updates done (converted from generator to alternator, wingtip strobes, etc.), so that my total bill came to right about $30,000, or about $39,000 in today's money.

The FAA suspended my certificate for 90 days after the Mooney incident, but they weren't at all interested in the later incident. Both were learning experiences for me. My "super pilot" image that I believed was me was really damaged by the Mooney incident, and in the years between it and the later incident, I'd become complacent about looking for places to set down if necessary. I'd really not like to ever prang another airplane, so I'm not likely to ignore airworthiness items ever again--and if something untoward happens anyway, I'm more likely to have a potential landing site already picked out.

Cary

1. Skidded into a fence with my 7GCBC. Kinked the tail over a bit. Got it fixed and continued to love that plane. Lesson learned and was more careful where I tried to take off with a load.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

Zzz wrote:

contactflying wrote:Dumb old crop duster flying something not really an airplane which he knew nothing about.

And here you are to provide opinion and advice on all manner of light aircraft to everyone daily. Maybe that ^^ should go in your signature.

We don't have many "old bold pilots" posting here anymore.

I don't think that because you have balled up an airplane or two that you don't want your family members flying with "that guy". Like motocross, you are constantly pushing the edge and you know your machine well. You have some wrecks under your belt if you are at the top of your class.
I think it's the same with our type of flying.
Hopping on your motorcycle once a month to get a six pack at the store, or flying pavement to pavement once a month is not always the guy you want hauling your family around.

I trailered one out, bone headed taxi maneuver.

Terry wrote:

Zzz wrote:

contactflying wrote:Dumb old crop duster flying something not really an airplane which he knew nothing about.

And here you are to provide opinion and advice on all manner of light aircraft to everyone daily. Maybe that ^^ should go in your signature.

We don't have many "old bold pilots" posting here anymore.

I don't think that because you have balled up an airplane or two that you don't want your family members flying with "that guy". Like motocross, you are constantly pushing the edge and you know your machine well. You have some wrecks under your belt if you are at the top of your class.
I think it's the same with our type of flying.
Hopping on your motorcycle once a month to get a six pack at the store, or flying pavement to pavement once a month is not always the guy you want hauling your family around.

I trailered one out, bone headed taxi maneuver.

Agree.


I have an old friend who wrecks better than anyone I know. I don't think he's had a medical in 20 years but I would fly with him tomorrow if I had the chance.

I have crashed once, and once is more than enough!

I was on short finals and got caught by a sudden lull in the wind, which had been a very steady 15kts all afternoon and on the four landings prior to that. Despite applying full power, the plane settled gradually onto water 30 feet short of my intended landing spot. It flipped upside down in the blink of an eye and a flurry of whitewater from the prop, the instant it touched the water. Then we found overselves exiting an inverted aircraft into the freezing water via the windows, quite a way from civilisation. No fun.

Qutie a few lessons were taken away from that experience, and it's not one I ever want to repeat. Mostly because it's a heck of a thing to do to a perfectly good aircraft! Luckily the damage was light and the plane will be in better shape for the repairs.

Having been lucky enough to walk away from it, the most important thing is to learn from it and avoid a repeat.

none

I've never hurt one so bad that a little duct tape wouldn't get me home. Boy have I been close a few times. I fly different now.

I asked this question because it brings to light many issues. The one thing that amazed me was how many pilots had wrecked planes and a good number of these pilots are well respected. Second thing I couldn't grasp was that you could wreck a plane or three and still be alive. Then there was the fact these pilots would get bucked off that horse and get back on. I thought if I was careful I would not wreck a plane but I learned a lot that day. I learned I like flying enough to get back on that horse and that flood irrigation water moves quickly across fields.

The mechanic I leased spray planes from gave me a hard time at first. "You've only crashed one?" he asked. "Meybe you don't have enough experience to fly my airplanes." There was humor, and truth in that point of view.

The points I want pilots to get from my crashes are that even ol Contact can screw up and that it is very difficult to die in an airplane so long as we don't come unglued.

For those of us who have crashed, the concern is that our luck will run out. For those who have not, the concern should be how do I prepare to mitigate coming unglued?

There are areas of aviation fraught with high incident/accident rates but low fatality rates. There are areas of aviation fraught with low incident/accident rates but a high fatality rate per accident.

The points I want pilots to get from my crashes are that even ol Contact can screw up and that it is very difficult to die in an airplane so long as we don't come unglued.

I always looked at it as learning how to function when absolutely terrified (and still sound cool on the radio), and get scared later when stopped moving and on the ground, and, when you have the time.

Do it enough and it's like becoming proficient and comfortable with attitude instrument flying (not just clicking on autopilot). The muscle movement is all subconscious, which frees the brain up for the important stuff.

Gump

I have crunched two. One a j3 on skis and an agwagon . I don't know a duster who has not had a wreck but most lived to fly again. If you dust for a living it is only a matter of time till a wreck. Those who haven't WILL.

2 on the backs. One wire strike. And 4 engine failures, 3- 1340's and one P&W -15. Mike