Be careful hot-shot

My best friend who happens to be a neurosurgeon (I still laugh when I say that, we have been buddies for about 30 years. In high school you would have never guessed his future occupation) called me at noon on Sat. and said he had nowhere to watch the NCAA final 4 games. I jokingly said, "Come watch them with me" and he said, "I'm going to do it, I'm leaving in 30 minutes if you think I can make it." I told him sure come on down. He jumped in his Cessna 182 and flew to Pensacola from NW Ark. We watched the games, our team, Texas lost.

Today he wanted to leave about lunch time but weather was calling for thunderstorms all day between here and Arkansas. I told him to stay but he reminded me he has 420 hours, has an instrument ticket and he would be fine. I again discouraged him but he said he was good to go.

The field he was departing from is a small private airfield here in P-Cola. It actually has a grass strip as well as a short asphalt strip. It is closed on Sundays but there is a back way in and you can take off and land unassisted, (No radio contact) He preflighted, made a cell phone call to activate his IFR flight plan and was ready to go. Winds were 160-180 degrees at 20 with gust to 35. He taxied out and I watched. "Wait a minute, why is he taxing out to runway 36?" I figure he will turn around at some point but no, he takes the runway and does his final checks. I am stunned. This is the most basic mistake. If he tries to depart with that much tailwind in his little 182 I may be picking up pieces. I whip out my cell phone and try to call him while at the same time I start heading for the runway. To my shock he hears it ringing and answers the phone with, "What do you want, I am busy?" I sarcastically say, "Just for fun why don't you taxi down to this end of the runway and take off into the wind." He's mumbles a couple of expletives and starts his full length of the runway taxi. After he took off I went home and watched all the weather bulletins about tornado watches, severe thunderstorms and the like.

He made it home fine but it just proves, no matter your IQ or experience stupidity and confidence can be a combination that kills.

PS: He never looked at the windsock. He knew he needed to go north so he was going to take off heading north. On most day here it wouldn't matter, winds are usually light. Today was not a normal day. I too have made that same mistake and many worse but I am not as smart as my buddy the Doc so it doesn't count. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

PSPS: To my dismay he has a Mag AA and a Mag 3C in his cockpit for emergency's. I sent him two L-1's and a Scorpion just for that purpose 6 months ago. Arrrrgh! You can lead a horse to water...

Q: You know what they call the person who graduates last in his med school class?

A: Doctor!


No, but seriously, we get complacent and we need to be reminded once in a while! Hopefully the reminders wont prove to be fatal.

There is no excuse for the lights though. Thats just... inexcusable.

Mag AA and 3C? That's a shame. Both sucks at photon output. Oh well, some people never ever listen.

I'm NOT a pilot. Nor do I play one on TV.

Nevertheless, you could not MAKE me take off into thunderstorms and such. And winds gusting to 35 in a 182? Eek!

Some of the most 'book learned' folks in the world are some with the least common sense! I don't know mostly very much from books, but do have a BUNCH of common sense!

And I agree about the lights. Unacceptable!!!

James - good one! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Dave...did he call you back and thank you? Good thing you were there!

Dave - you very well may have saved your buddy's bacon that day /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif !! I'd say he owes you some left seat time.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

There was a fellow I was aquainted with at the airport where I worked as a mechanic, who was a highly experienced military pilot and flight examiner. He was also an airshow performer, who did quite an amazing low-altitude aerobatic routine in a Cessna 152 Aerobat - beginning with a snap roll on take off, followed by the regular loops & rolls, extremely tight turns at low altitude, more snaps, etc..., and ending with a short field landing at the immediate conclusion of a few consecutive loops - all on relatively short runways (<4,000 ft).

Well, I was at the Oshkosh fly-in (mid 90's?) and it just so happened that he was up next to perform his act, so I snuggled up to the front of the crowd to watch. The acts so far had been taking off to the north on the 10'000+ ft. runway, but a storm just south of the field had produced a sudden gust front (from the south) as he was taxiing out. I was amazed to hear/see him begin his take-off roll (especially considering the limited performance reserve, if any, of the otherwise venerable 152), as by now the direct tailwind was quite strong (probably 10-20 knots), but figured, with 10,000+ ft. of runway, he might do OK. After a roll that seemed to take forever, and approaching the front of the crowd, he lifted a few feet off, gained a bit of speed in ground effect, and yanked the 152 into his signature snap-roll on take off. Well, it lazily came up and around, and mushed out of the bottom of the roll, pancaking hard onto the runway - in front of a stunned and silent 50,000 or so people. Wings tips folded, gear collapsed, tail twisted almost off, prop bouncing a hundred feet into the air, the plane ground to a spinning halt right in front of the announcers podium (who were also silent). After about 20 eerily silent seconds, he hopped out of the wreckage, walked towards the podium, raised his hands to show he was OK, and the crowd broke into a rousing applause!! He was, of course, very lucky to walk away, but from what rumours I heard later, EAA and FAA officials came down on him hard for the embarrassment, and the Feds pulled his CFI/FE ticket - took him a long, difficult fight to get them back (it was his livelihood, as he owned/operated a missionary flight school and FBO).

Anyway, yea - brains and experience don't nescessarily guarantee the elimination of error. And flying is extremely unforgiving of any error. ****-suredness' and psycological pressures (like "get-there-itis") often enter into the accident equation.

Bob

Flying is both exciting and unforgiving.

I flew for many years (ex Air Force), but one day a few years ago, practicing some aerobatics near Enumclaw, WA, I suddenly just didn't feel right about what I was doing. No errors or unexpected happenings, no mis-behavoir by the aircraft, just didn't feel right.

I leveled out and flew that little aerobatic Piper Tomahawk back to the 'port in Auburn, landed it and have not piloted since.

Sigman,
He called me in route to let me know he was OK. He didn't have to thank me, I knew and he knew. I was there because I was supposed to be there just like he has been there for me. We talk on the phone 3-4 times a week. He has helped me and others more than the CPF bandwidth will allow me to write. I will be there for him whenever I can which isn't very often. He is a super bright, well spoken, God fearing, father of 4 with a great wife. He spends 4 weeks a year volunteering as a doctor in South America. He sponsors kids from South America to go to college here in the US. One of the kids has been living with him and his family since last summer. He makes mega-bucks but if you met him you would think he was a high-school teacher or a LEO. He drives a diesel Silverado (of course he does, he's my friend) He isn't arrogant and doesn't give a hoot about the money. Today he was the absent-minded professor. The mistake he made today was so out of character it blew me away and made me think, if it can happen to him…


Bob,
"get-there-itis" is exactly what it was. I wasn't sure anyone else here was familiar with the term. It has made me do some dumb things in aviation. Like the time I had been gone from home seven months and was taking off on my last leg of the "TransPac" back to the states. We didn't have the line speeds we had computed so therefore we should have aborted the takeoff roll. But noooo, let's wait for the next board and see how it looks and again we were about 20-30 knots slower than what we should of been at that part of the takeoff roll. We made a split second decision to continue the takeoff. 2-3 seconds later the decision is made for you because you can't stop the jet. We rode a wheelie the last 2000' of the runway and had maybe 5 feet of altitude and way slow at the end of the concrete. We were blowing so much dust into the air the tower thought we were on fire and made a call to us. We slowly picked up speed and were able to climb. The rest of the flight was uneventful and I was able to make it home on time. That was the close brother to "get-there-itis", "get-home-itis". I had "get-there-itis", 3-4 times during my time in the service and I saw it again today.

Tom,
That's a shame but was the best decision for you and that's what matters. I have flown twice other than commercial since I go out in 96. It's just not the same and it is darn expensive.

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... He makes mega-bucks but if you met him you would think he was a high-school teacher or a LEO. ...

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Just wanted to say "thanks" Dave - that's actually a nice compliment to the two professions. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

-Jim

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DieselDave said:
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"get-there-itis" ...snip...

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Yep, I know what it is! I'm NOT a pilot, althought I have taken a couple of lessons (and the instructors said I was very good) but no cash...

I used to subscribe to Flying - ah, dreams

BTW It's what killed the latest Kennedy