Been thinking...I love to read I Learned About Flying From That and AOPA's Never Again. I think it would be cool to have a few article submissions regarding tough learning experiences and pucker factor 5 situations. Whattya got?

Afterthought:

If you have a story, post it in your own topic rather than replying to another. It will keep em all nice and separate, with any replies pertaining only to that particular story, and make it easier for readers browsing the site. Come up with a tasty title, too. "Adventure With My Little John"

You can ask all you want, but you will have to provide some anonymity.
Zane! Where's my spell check!?

You spelled anonymity right.

That's probably better suited to the other AA site, not Aviation Anonymous. Or things you don't tell your partner until LONG after your married!
Thanks Doug! I got your back too!
On that note too Junior, I found a crack in my firewall from some long ago incident right at the edge of the floor board and on the far left side. (Isn't that where all the cracks are, low and left of center?) Found during the summer that a fair amount of heat was coming through there and reflected upon your encounter. I would imagine that there was ample opportunity for that to allow an exaust leak into the cockpit. Thanks for relaying that story, makes one think about little things differently.

Well here goes one of mine.
It all started innocently enough. I was scheduled to fly a bunch of boxes of material to a project in Susanville, Ca. The old 206 saying is " if it'll fit through the doors you can fly with it" . Well this stuff was pretty heavy and there was a lot of it. To the point I had to remove all the aft seats to get it all in. In addition I had one passenger (to help unload on the other end) We departed with about 1/2 fuel on board for the 1 hour flight. The take off run was really nothing special although I did let her stay in ground effect to build a bit o' speed before climbing out. Thank goodness for those 315 turbocharged ponies. Had to dial in a little more nose down trim than normal so I knew we were pretty far aft on CG. Upon arrival at Susanville, I got the plane configured for landing and noticed that I still had the yoke pushing even with full nose down trim. Adding another 10 kts to my approach speed, we made a successful landing. Taxied to our usual spot and hopped out to push her back and tie her down. Shortly after my feet hit the ground and much to my surprise, she sat right down on her tail. It took me on the tail cone and my passenger hanging on the prop to get her pushed back. In retrospect I really should have done a W/B and figured out how heavy and outta' CG the load actually was. I also should have taken into account the fuel burn and how that would effect the CG at arrival. Just by luck and with a lot of time in the 206 did I feel the problem and add the margin needed for successful landing. I can't even imagine the stall, that most certainly would have been unrecoverable, had I been too slow during that approach. It was my wake up call to W/B calcs. especially now that I fly lesser powered birds.

So come on now, I know there are other stories out there. Let's hear 'em...

N6EA, great story. You might have been looking at a tailstrike if you were a few cheesburgers lighter.

Copy this story into a new topic under Live to Tell in the Pilots section. That will make them easier to find for people browsing the site. If anybody else wants to post, make your own topic rather than replying to another. It will keep em all nice and separate, with any replies pertaining only to that particular story.

Off to a good start!

Z

Well there is this guy I know... we'll call him superdave. He went to the Copperstate airshow with his bro-in-law and another guy. Upon leaving, the line of planes at the fuel pump was about 25 deep so they departed for Chandler just a few miles away. SD told the line guy to fill 'er up and the boys went in and had lunch. At the time 9SD had Monarch long rangers (98gal) and 4 gas caps. Fill 'er up means different things to different people. To the line guy it means the mains only. To SD it means all. This was before the Aerospace Logic gas gage. The sun went down and SD found a nice tailwind at 13500. About 9 mi south of MEV the fire went out. The bro-in law was in the back seat and said very calmly "you ran out of gas didn't you". SD replied "apparantly". There was a couple in a Bonanza at the self serve pump and they looked at these clowns pushing this Cessna all the way up the taxi way to the pump. The Bonanza driver said "is there a problem?" and of course the answer was no. 9SD took 62 gal in the mains which are 60 gal according to Monarch. SD checked his fuel receipt from Chandler. 44 gallons.

zane wrote:N6EA, great story. You might have been looking at a tailstrike if you were a few cheesburgers lighter.

Copy this story into a new topic under Live to Tell in the Pilots section. That will make them easier to find for people browsing the site. If anybody else wants to post, make your own topic rather than replying to another. It will keep em all nice and separate, with any replies pertaining only to that particular story.

Off to a good start!

Z

Zane,

Tried but got "Sorry, but only users granted special access can post topics in this forum."

I'm not "special"

Mark N6EA

zane wrote:Copy this story into a new topic under Live to Tell in the Pilots section. That will make them easier to find for people browsing the site. If anybody else wants to post, make your own topic rather than replying to another. It will keep em all nice and separate, with any replies pertaining only to that particular story.

Off to a good start!

Z

It's not that I can't follow simple directions..... It's because I type so slow that you posted while I was still typing.
Dave

Sorry...it should be wide open now.