Would anybody like to share my humble pie?

Today I did a cross country in an airplane I just got checked out in. Clearances, taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, all unremarkable. About 25 miles outside of a Charlie airspace I started calling the posted approach frequency. No response. Ok, they are busy and it says call at 20 miles. I call back. Again....no response. "Cherokee blah blah radio check" Nothing. I keep this up until I am just outside of the airspace where I started a shallow turn. At this point I switched radios and tried again. They answered and cleared me for a touch and go. I did a touch and go then continued on my way using com 2. When I got home and cleared the runway the tower ask me my destination. I told them and waited...and waited. They ask me my destination again. I replied. They ask again... I switched back to com 1 and tried to contact them. No luck. The tower flashed the green at me and I taxied to the hanger trying to contact ground several times along the way. No response.

When I got home and downloaded the video from my GoPro camera I noticed that I had been pushing the autopilot disengage. Doh! The PPT was located 90 degrees from where it was on the airplane that I did all my training in. When I got busy I reverted to "What I always had done". How embarrassing.

But Wait! There is more! It had been a few months since I have done any cross countries. My flight planning was so good that my count down timer went off just as turned final. "What the hell is that beeping?" RPM good, Fuel pressure good, oil pressure good.....what could it be? When the timer went off I still had my hand on the fuel selector from setting the fullest tank. I set the fuel back to the original tank. It beeped for 20 seconds. I called the tower and told them I would be full stop. The beeping stopped just over the threshold. Doh! Only then did I realize what was beeping.

Doh!

Cheers,

David

David
How could you have done that!!
I din't think anyone else on this blog has ever done anything like that at all!!
Well maybe I had the volume turned down on the radio for the first ten calls, but never did I ever push the wrong button
GT

yeah I did the volume knob, calling and calling approach with no answer.

i knew a guy during ifr training got discombobulated on the radio and lost contact with atc for 2 minutes. i hear that atc gets a little testy when you don't answer.

David:

This didn't happen to me. It was a friend.

Flew to Denver for a long day of meetings and arrived back at the airport late for flight back. Was anxious to get going as my kids had a game that night.

Did a hurried preflight and added a quart of oil. As I was hurrying through the paces, FBO agent came out and handed me a book I had left on the counter. Jumped in the plane, called Tower and after quick runup, poured the coals to it for liftoff. Didn't get more than about 100 feet off the runway and oil started streaming up the windscreen. Called tower in and diverted back around and landed.

You figured it, had got distracted when the agent came out and had left the oil cap off.

We all have been there (or at least our friends have). By the grace of God, we are around to laugh about it.

Regards, Larry

I've heard that leaves a mess to clean up Larry.

One time ready to taxi in a sport cub I called ground several times without hearing a reply. My instructor in the back seat then said, "That's not the transmit button you're pushing, it's the trim button".

Many years ago, after a long day and night, I was flying from Pittsburgh back to DC at about 3 am. I even remarked to my copilot what a good job I was doing of keeping the VOR needle centered. Heck, it was spot on. Wasn't until I went to switch to the localizer frequency that I realized it was centered because the radio was turned off! Guess there wasn't much wind that night because we stayed pretty much on course.

Best,
O-2

I know a guy who put on a prop backwards. Due to the slope of his mt. strip he even got the ultralight airborne. With the engine sounding great, lots of rpms (no tach, earballed it) he couldn't understand why he wasn't climbing out and was in fact sinking out.
After the dust cleared (minor damage, just 4 bent spars, 3 sheared axles/ broken wheels, and stretched top rigging, he was back in the air the next day) a rancher who had see the"landing" came over and spotted the backwards prop before the pilot did! He has never hung a prop backwards since.

courierguy wrote:I know a guy who put on a prop backwards. Due to the slope of his mt. strip he even got the ultralight airborne. With the engine sounding great, lots of rpms (no tach, earballed it) he couldn't understand why he wasn't climbing out and was in fact sinking out.
After the dust cleared (minor damage, just 4 bent spars, 3 sheared axles/ broken wheels, and stretched top rigging, he was back in the air the next day) a rancher who had see the"landing" came over and spotted the backwards prop before the pilot did! He has never hung a prop backwards since.

Oh man, what a dufus!

I'll bet after he learned his lesson he went on to be a great explorer pilot who would show up to local fly-ins just to take the spot landing prize and run!

I was leaving KJAC this Summer with the boys fighting and yelling in the back seat while I was trying to get a clearance. Being a little flustered, I keyed the mic and yelled "you guys need to shut up when I'm trying to talk on the radio!" Instantly realizing my mistake and debating what I should say next, the tower let me off the hook with amusement in his voice-"aircaft calling tower, say again?"

Yeah... I was pushing harder and harder on the A/P disconnect one time. No answer on the radio.. so I just pushed harder. Idiot.

related thread
Stupid flying stuff my buddy did

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4382

"39X, Denver Tower, cleared to land."
"39X, cleared to land."
"39X, you just landed on a taxiway."

I think I deserve a piece of the humble pie.

Cary

i know a guy who left a 1" box end wrench between the cylinders after an oil change. he flew around and there was this little sound. well come time for next oil change he looks all over for the 1" wrench. then he remembers the little noise and says no way. yep

Cary wrote: "39X, Denver Tower, cleared to land."
"39X, cleared to land."
"39X, you just landed on a taxiway."..........

"39Xray, roger". If you say it just like nothing's wrong, you can make it work.

After a looong hiatus in my flying, I checked out in a 172 at Livermore, CA. My bro rented a Citabria and we both flew up to Columbia in the Sierra foothills. We picked a random freq for air2air on the way up. Approaching the airport, I tuned in the ATIS, wind was little or nothing but out of the north. I set up for a landing to the north and made the appropriate transmissions as I entered the pattern and turned base to final. Nobody else in the pattern. Just about on short final I saw the other plane ALSO on short final, but coming head on. I radioed that I was braking left and applied full power and got out of the pattern. Clear of the airport I started looking at stuff in the almost ancient Cessna radio stack. It didn't have any push buttons. It had one of those twisty knobs to switch from Com1 to Com2 and the f*%$ twisty knob was almost exactly halfway between Com1 and Com2. I had been talking to myself and been reasonably impressed with my calm demeanor and professional tone. (Note:) the calm wind runway for Columbia is to the south.

That incident actually helped me a lot when I started my IFR training. "Trust but confirm" was the order of the day.

YB

I know a guy left a gas cap on the wing at Tonopah on the way back from Idaho.... flew his plane all the way to San Diego ,with no draining of gas incidentally, and discovered the missing cap... He called Tonopah and asked them to check and it was found at the departure end of the runway.. they mailed it to him...DOH!!!!

Don't ever take off with out removing the cowl plugs, could be very expensive.

I've even watched soneone take off without the oilcap on ...it does leave a mess.