Im doing a ferry flight for a mate of mine in a few weeks of his drifter. the plane hasnt flown for over a year, so this arvo I took 20 minutes to head down to the field its at, look it over and take it for a quick run to make sure it all checked out ok before taking it over the ranges.

the plane really is in immaculate condition (certainly puts mine to shame!), the sails there in great shape, checked all through the wings, all perfect. the one downfall though was a drifter in there is you cant get into the sealed pan area to have a look. Though there is plenty of inspection ports to stick your nose in to the important bits. After a thorough check over, some fresh fuel, a check of the control surfaces. I took to the skys.

as I was climbing and turning, I went to make one turn, and the controls suddenly didn't want to budge? after a quick hit of nerves I tried again. they worked fine, no hassles. how strange? I must have been imagining things. Anyway I climbed to 3000 over the field, and just started to put it through a few gentle turns. However my heart just about stopped when starting to do a few steep turns, my controls locked again, turns out I wasn't imagining it. I fought it for a bit, till they suddenly freed up again, so I leveled out, all seemed ok again, so I pointed the nose down, and started to head back to the field. I went to bank again to head the right direction, but once again, no controls. This locking and freeing of the controls kept happening so I made sure I headed back to the field with minor movements so as if they where to lock, they wouldn't be at a stage that I would end up upside down!

the controls finally freed up reliably, so I stuck my head around again to see if I could see what was going on, and I had a fair guess it could have been something to do with the 2 foot of snake that was hanging out the back of the pan of which a number of the control cables run through....but hey, its just a wild guess. A dam juvenile Diamond python must have made camp in the pan area while the plane has been in storage and I didn't see it!

anyway the snake couldnt find much to get a grip on at the rear of the plane, so it started heading forward toward me, wrapping itself around the engine mounting post, rear seat, rear control stick.......it was now only a foot or so away from me. Now I know its only a python, and not venomous, but from the crap they eat, rats ect, there bite is known to do more damage than many venomous snakes through infection. Besides, either way I didnt really fancy a kiss and a cuddle with a snake over 2 m long while trying to land a plane!.

Thankfully the snake ended up turning around and heading back for the tail. I saw it go under the engine and start to wrap around the rear tube. On final now I noticed him getting very close to the prop. I had plenty of room on my glide approach, so I shut the engine off just incase of contact, and low and behold on short final, my passenger got a bit shorter. just before the prop wound to a halt, y passenger got his head a wee bit to close to the prop, and well put it this way, I don't think my customer feed back will be very positive.

after some major nerve reactions what was left of the snake fell to earth and I came in for a safe and sound landing. ill let someone have a good look over the prop and engine but the plane seems fine and I should be fine for my ferry flight. but I certainly now know how Samuel L Jackson felt!

Oh boy, that would have creeped me out. I hate snakes of any kind, I'd rather have a fire on board.

Poor guy was just trying to get an airplane ride and got decapitated. Bad deal for him.

I'm wondering how much your "friend" might have already known about your passenger...

Good job getting it back on the ground in one piece! (The Drifter, I mean) I notice there's no video of this event - couldn't figure out how to edit out the "little girl screaming", eh?

How did you not have four GoPro's set up at all angles to capture such an event!!!!!

My imagination works... but god damn would I have loved to see this!

It was meant to be a very quick 10 minute burn on my way home so i didnt even have a camera to take a photo of him!
Not even my phone!

I tryed to act all brave about it when i got back down, blow it off like nothing, but if im not going to lie, a little bit of poo may have gotten out.......

Sorry Mate but, I am going to SAY;

Bloody do a better pre-flight (next time you get a storage bird)!

Carry on...

Haha i couldnt agree more. If im honest i really thought i had done a very thorough one, the problem with that pan design is there really is places you genuinely cant get, but it does go to show that your preflight can never be detailed enough.

The lesson learnt is that if you think your done but there is a square inch of the plane you havnt run your hands or eyes over, then you havnt finished!

Other lesson taken from this is the owner said he stuck my inspection cam i lent him up in there to have a look, of which i really do think he did. Though after landing he confessed it didnt do much good as he didnt realise it had a torch. So if your flying it, plain and simple, you check it!

I must confess ted, you where a much better passanger!

DrifterDriver wrote:Haha i couldnt agree more. If im honest i really thought i had done a very thorough one, the problem with that pan design is there really is places you genuinely cant get, but it does go to show that your preflight can never be detailed enough.

The lesson learnt is that if you think your done but there is a square inch of the plane you havnt run your hands or eyes over, then you havnt finished!

Other lesson taken from this is the owner said he stuck my inspection cam i lent him up in there to have a look, of which i really do think he did. Though after landing he confessed it didnt do much good as he didnt realise it had a torch. So if your flying it, plain and simple, you check it!

I must confess ted, you where a much better passanger!

I have been called a "$hi+ head" but, never a "Snake"!

Well, anyway I learned what may happen in the bush! Never thought about fighting a snake for the primary controls? Better eat my Vegemite!

Haha what a shock that would have been

It reminds me of a story of an ag pilot I know who did a beat up over an irrigator years ago and frightened him so bad he jumped in the channel. The irrigator was determined to get his revenge so he grabbed a big brown snake he had killed earlier in the day and coiled him up under the seat of the air tractor when the pilot went home. You can imagine the fright the pilot got the next day when he was poling forward over some trees and snake came flying out from under the seat!

Thats just crultey! I love it!

I was driving from tiboburra to inaminka a couple of years ago and pulled over to transfer a bit more diesel into the truck. Pulled over in a little convinient pull over bay, got out and put my foot and something a bit squishy, looked down and there was a fricking fear snake curled up. Only the deadliest snake in the world of which a bite renders you dead in 9 minutes and i was 5 hours from any form of building and 15 hours from a hospital. Turns out the bugger was dead! (Clearly or i wouldnt be typing this!) i think i fell victim to a practical joke intended for somone else! I can assure you that pair of pants and jocks where unsavable......

Great story, DrifterDriver. I have to ask, though, when you first realized that there was a snake in the plane, did you take the opportunity to yell 'Somebody get this motherf***ing snake off my motherf***ing plane!' in your best Samuel L. Jackson voice?

well there was certainly alot of mother f#$king's coming out and other profound langauge but not necessarily in that order!