butchlambert
Site $$ Sponsor
And how would I find it?
A very eventful day! Up date on the plane
- Thread starter butchlambert
- Start date
snert
Silver $$ Contributor
DILLON: A Memoir | The Mike Dillon Story
A Life of Warbirds, Reloaders & Machine Guns By Michael John Dillon, with Carol McCoy Dillon Imagine living a daily life full of high flying and explosive adventure. In Mike Dillon’s memoir, you’ll experience dogfighting in rare, historic warbirds. Then on this same day, go from pulling Gs to...
www.dillonprecision.com
Geronimo Jim
Gold $$ Contributor
Dillon magazine that they mail free each month. All their products
plus a number of interesting articles. Also just google dillon precision
for their web site. Butch....here is the deal....if you buy it and read it
and don't think it was worth the money, call me and I will reimburse you
your money!
plus a number of interesting articles. Also just google dillon precision
for their web site. Butch....here is the deal....if you buy it and read it
and don't think it was worth the money, call me and I will reimburse you
your money!
butchlambert
Site $$ Sponsor
Just bought it on Kindle. I need to finish Pete Hegseth's new book first.
Thanks
butchlambert
Site $$ Sponsor
He will get a compression check before doing anything else.
20 hours into Flight School I was solo heading out to the practice area. Weather was good, pre-flight was good, had plenty of fuel for my 1 hour flight with required reserves. Bad weather rolled in going from VFR to IFR. I had a cockpit fire and one of the fuel drain had sprung a leak and with everything going on I did not notice it until after the cockpit fire.
I had been doing slow flight, turns about a point, pylon eights, standard rate turns and had not rest my DG at all. Weather started to look bad but by the time I noticed it was really bad it had gone frm VFR to IFR in the blink of an eye! I had a cockpit fire and by the time that was cleared out I was not in a good place mentaly. I was a bit panicked. I looked at my DG and set my course for home but it was way off. In what I had thought was 15 minute had been more like 30 and I could not see anything bellow me let alone the airportnothing but low level fog.
Only about half of my instruments where working. I noticed my fuel guages where not reading the amount of fuel I thought I should have. I thought it was due to the fire than I look out my right window as I was closing them now that the fire was out and just leaving the vents open. I see liquid flowing out the drain valve ont he tank that is reading empty. My Nav/Com is working so I dial some VOR's and do cross radials and I can not believe what it is telling me since it puts me way further from home than I should be. I do it 2 more times and get the same results. I panic for a few seconds and then training kicks in because I am not going to die in a Cessna 152. I assume my VOR cross radials are right and that my fuel is low and that I am not where I think I should be. I dial my transponder and then get on the radio to the nearest airport that has a tower and radar and declare an emergency. Then once talking to people they give me a DX steer and altitude confirmation and then various trafic and airports give me signal strength infoemation to give me an idea of where they think I am. A flight instructor get's on the radio and confirms me situation and walks through my data confirming what I think I know and if I have done things right.
I made it back to what should have been my home airport. I could see the top of a tree near one of the runways and I could see a resturant sign that was at most 40 feet above the ground. I lighed up using my compass to the runway heading for the longest runway. I put 10° of flap down but not more since I was not flying the pattern and could not see the runway.
The engine died on final. As I cleared the tree I remember saying that sucks! Then I entered a sea of gray. I was watching my altimiter and airspeed and had started to flair even though I could not see the runway yet I new it had to be there. I did not want to stall but did not want to kiss the ground at 45° either! I did not see the runway until about 20 feet above it. I knew I had plenty of runway even at my tiny local airport for my tiny Cessna 152. All I had to do was keep the nose higher than the rear wheels and not stall and it would all work out! With the engine dead all you could hear was the wheel bearing spin up letting you know you had touched down. Even on the ground I could barley see the taxi way and turn off. I managed to make it to the fueling area coasting.
My Flight Instructor grilled the heck out of me for about 30 minutes confirming that I did everything right. Handed me a cup of coffee and a plate of stale donuts and told me to I had to heat them and drink the coffee before I could drive back to the dorms! Told me we would debrief some more before tomorrows flight and told me to be their at 06:30.
Next day I get in and debrief some more. I get in another Cessna 152 and we go out the practice area and I replicate everything. I go back to the airport thinking I am done for the day and my instructor tells me not to shut the engine off that he is getting out and he wants me to go back to the practice area and repeat everything and to stay int he pattern after wards and 3 three take offs and landing no touch and goes.
I land and by that time the A&P has fixed everything on the other plane. He tells me it took 4 more gallons of fuel than what Cessna listed for factory fill on brand new aircraft and tells me that I should not make that a habit and laughs. He hands me the keys and tells me I should take her for a spin.
I taxied to the appropiate runway holding short. I did a runup. I ligned up with the center line and took a deep breath because I noticed I had not taken a breath in a while. Fully power take off climb out. I stayed in pattern as the sun was setting and did 3 take offs and lanndings and brought her back in. All was good with the world and things went back to the normal grind. That said everything seemed easy after that serious but easy. I never paniced ever again! I trusted my aircraft, myself and my training!
Things happen faster in an aircraft but also slower. The faster they happen the more time seems to slow down or compress! You understand when you are doing it for a living that other people have their hopes and dreams and life in your hands and you understand why it is you train over and over and over again. If you are doing things correctly you should be mildly exhuasted after an 8 hour flight mentaly not physicaly. When you hear about tragic deaths almost always the pilots where rather caviler until SHTF and they where slow to react. Civil Aviation is full of people that treat flying about the same way they treat drivign which always equals a tragic outcome sooner or latter! I am so glad I learned to fly witht he idea of doing it as a profession rather than recreationaly! It can and often does make a huge difference in how things play out. When a professional messes in recreational flying you almost always see them ignore everything they where trained to do and everything their company requires them to do when flying commercialy! Same thing with miltary pilots when they mess up flying recreationaly you see they broke almost every single rule they learned from even basic flight school and even military aviation standards. When things go really bad you see the basics violated at every level because of hubris and the idea that ones skill will allow you to violate the basics.
I can assure you when a good outcome happens when things go sideways it is because the basics where followed and training and clear thinking ruled the day. Sometimes rules need to be broken but only after logical thought and sound judgment has been followed. The basics and procedure exist to allow you to have the time to think things through quickly and make good judgment.
When driving you should always be scanning the mirrors, the glass, the instrument cluster, traffic both close to you and far ahead. You should always be looking for an escape path. You should always be aware of your souroundings, your speed, your instruments, traction, weather and what other traffic is doing around you. If you are not doing this every second your driving your are F***ing up and not driving properly. The entire time youa re at a light you should be watching the light and the traffic around you! Saddly(sp) 90% of the people on the road are doing it all wrong. Even when braking you have to watch the car ahead of you and behind you! If you do not break faster than the car ahead of you you will rear end them and if you brake faster than the idiot behind you than even if your not at fault you could be killed all the same!
At the end of the day the you want to be the guy that get's to go home no matter what and have wild crazy s$x with the super model with the 180IQ! Men should be the master's of their world no matter what!
God Bless any landing you can walk away from and laugh about latter! Pilots and band geeks rule! LOL
I had been doing slow flight, turns about a point, pylon eights, standard rate turns and had not rest my DG at all. Weather started to look bad but by the time I noticed it was really bad it had gone frm VFR to IFR in the blink of an eye! I had a cockpit fire and by the time that was cleared out I was not in a good place mentaly. I was a bit panicked. I looked at my DG and set my course for home but it was way off. In what I had thought was 15 minute had been more like 30 and I could not see anything bellow me let alone the airportnothing but low level fog.
Only about half of my instruments where working. I noticed my fuel guages where not reading the amount of fuel I thought I should have. I thought it was due to the fire than I look out my right window as I was closing them now that the fire was out and just leaving the vents open. I see liquid flowing out the drain valve ont he tank that is reading empty. My Nav/Com is working so I dial some VOR's and do cross radials and I can not believe what it is telling me since it puts me way further from home than I should be. I do it 2 more times and get the same results. I panic for a few seconds and then training kicks in because I am not going to die in a Cessna 152. I assume my VOR cross radials are right and that my fuel is low and that I am not where I think I should be. I dial my transponder and then get on the radio to the nearest airport that has a tower and radar and declare an emergency. Then once talking to people they give me a DX steer and altitude confirmation and then various trafic and airports give me signal strength infoemation to give me an idea of where they think I am. A flight instructor get's on the radio and confirms me situation and walks through my data confirming what I think I know and if I have done things right.
I made it back to what should have been my home airport. I could see the top of a tree near one of the runways and I could see a resturant sign that was at most 40 feet above the ground. I lighed up using my compass to the runway heading for the longest runway. I put 10° of flap down but not more since I was not flying the pattern and could not see the runway.
The engine died on final. As I cleared the tree I remember saying that sucks! Then I entered a sea of gray. I was watching my altimiter and airspeed and had started to flair even though I could not see the runway yet I new it had to be there. I did not want to stall but did not want to kiss the ground at 45° either! I did not see the runway until about 20 feet above it. I knew I had plenty of runway even at my tiny local airport for my tiny Cessna 152. All I had to do was keep the nose higher than the rear wheels and not stall and it would all work out! With the engine dead all you could hear was the wheel bearing spin up letting you know you had touched down. Even on the ground I could barley see the taxi way and turn off. I managed to make it to the fueling area coasting.
My Flight Instructor grilled the heck out of me for about 30 minutes confirming that I did everything right. Handed me a cup of coffee and a plate of stale donuts and told me to I had to heat them and drink the coffee before I could drive back to the dorms! Told me we would debrief some more before tomorrows flight and told me to be their at 06:30.
Next day I get in and debrief some more. I get in another Cessna 152 and we go out the practice area and I replicate everything. I go back to the airport thinking I am done for the day and my instructor tells me not to shut the engine off that he is getting out and he wants me to go back to the practice area and repeat everything and to stay int he pattern after wards and 3 three take offs and landing no touch and goes.
I land and by that time the A&P has fixed everything on the other plane. He tells me it took 4 more gallons of fuel than what Cessna listed for factory fill on brand new aircraft and tells me that I should not make that a habit and laughs. He hands me the keys and tells me I should take her for a spin.
I taxied to the appropiate runway holding short. I did a runup. I ligned up with the center line and took a deep breath because I noticed I had not taken a breath in a while. Fully power take off climb out. I stayed in pattern as the sun was setting and did 3 take offs and lanndings and brought her back in. All was good with the world and things went back to the normal grind. That said everything seemed easy after that serious but easy. I never paniced ever again! I trusted my aircraft, myself and my training!
Things happen faster in an aircraft but also slower. The faster they happen the more time seems to slow down or compress! You understand when you are doing it for a living that other people have their hopes and dreams and life in your hands and you understand why it is you train over and over and over again. If you are doing things correctly you should be mildly exhuasted after an 8 hour flight mentaly not physicaly. When you hear about tragic deaths almost always the pilots where rather caviler until SHTF and they where slow to react. Civil Aviation is full of people that treat flying about the same way they treat drivign which always equals a tragic outcome sooner or latter! I am so glad I learned to fly witht he idea of doing it as a profession rather than recreationaly! It can and often does make a huge difference in how things play out. When a professional messes in recreational flying you almost always see them ignore everything they where trained to do and everything their company requires them to do when flying commercialy! Same thing with miltary pilots when they mess up flying recreationaly you see they broke almost every single rule they learned from even basic flight school and even military aviation standards. When things go really bad you see the basics violated at every level because of hubris and the idea that ones skill will allow you to violate the basics.
I can assure you when a good outcome happens when things go sideways it is because the basics where followed and training and clear thinking ruled the day. Sometimes rules need to be broken but only after logical thought and sound judgment has been followed. The basics and procedure exist to allow you to have the time to think things through quickly and make good judgment.
When driving you should always be scanning the mirrors, the glass, the instrument cluster, traffic both close to you and far ahead. You should always be looking for an escape path. You should always be aware of your souroundings, your speed, your instruments, traction, weather and what other traffic is doing around you. If you are not doing this every second your driving your are F***ing up and not driving properly. The entire time youa re at a light you should be watching the light and the traffic around you! Saddly(sp) 90% of the people on the road are doing it all wrong. Even when braking you have to watch the car ahead of you and behind you! If you do not break faster than the car ahead of you you will rear end them and if you brake faster than the idiot behind you than even if your not at fault you could be killed all the same!
At the end of the day the you want to be the guy that get's to go home no matter what and have wild crazy s$x with the super model with the 180IQ! Men should be the master's of their world no matter what!
God Bless any landing you can walk away from and laugh about latter! Pilots and band geeks rule! LOL
I pretty much do all that when driving, then my wife suddenly says "Look at that beautiful ......" or "Did you see that?". She never understands that I can't be sight seeing and driving at the same time. And if I want somebody to do something really stupid right in front of me all I have to do is try to look at something off the side of the road and it will happen guaranteed.
powderbrake
Gold $$ Contributor
SmokinJoe: Your wife learned that from my wife.
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