Comments on: Dumb things pilots have done, Part II

By: Jami Higdon

Jami Higdon — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 13:57:40 +0000

At a certain flight school I know they are very particular on how the 172RG is treated. First you are not allowed to do touch and goes (people tend to hit gear instead of flaps) and second you aren’t allowed to show students how the nose gear operates on the ground. Apparently a few years an instructor sat on the tail and had the student hit the gear up lever to show how it retracts. The instructor then slipped off of the tail and the nose subsequently hit the ramp. Stuff like this is why mattresses warn you that they aren’t edible.

By: Cary Alburn

Cary Alburn — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:41:55 +0000

Several years ago, I was attending an Angel Flight get together at Denver International. First time there, cleared to follow a Bonanza to land on 17R, while looking for the Bo and not at any markings, when I came to Taxiway M (goes from the numbers of 8 aligned with 17R for a mile before arriving at the numbers of 17R, then parallels 17R the full length of 17R), I landed. My only excuse was that that taxiway was larger than the airport I usually flew out of, both in length and width, so I mistook the taxiway for the runway. That was dumb enough.

But when I met with the FAA, which ultimately required me to have a proficiency ride with my instructor emphasizing large airport operations, I was told about a Bonanza pilot who was cleared to land at Front Range, which is 7 miles southeast of Denver International and has a similar layout but without the parallel runways, but instead landed at Denver International. When he realized what he’d done, he took off again immediately without any clearance and attempted to fly “under the radar” to an outlying airport. While tying down his airplane there, he was met by an FAA Inspector–apparently he didn’t fly quite low enough. The epilogue of his event wasn’t as pleasant as mine, though. Adding up all of his transgressions, the FAA suspended his certificate for a year–and worse for him, he had been a captain for a major airline!

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:00:33 +0000

Great Stories but i have heard of a few better.
Here is on…

While on an approach to the destination airport in the USA (wish i could remember what the airport name) the Captain reported to the tower that they had the runway. Tower replied “are you sure? you are still 25 miles out and you’re following a DC-10 5 mile on final”

The Captain confirmed he had the runway in site and was cleared to land. Upon touching down nothing about airport seemed right and that is when the captain gave a full throttle for a touch n go realizing he he just landed at a preceding airport that lined up exactly like the his destination airport. the Captain and SIC never mentioned it to anyone (until much later of course) and no one was the wiser. the irony of it is that the Captain was just talking to the SIC about how this airport can fool you into thinking you have the correct airport.