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Huge Phuckups

HackerF15E

Retired Strike Pig Driver
None
took off, went to the moa, completed the hop, got back into the landing pattern and after a few landings I noticed that I hadn't connected my upper koch fittings.

I made that same wonderful discovery after a combat mission in OIF in 2003. I'd dodged some AAA and a SA-2 launch...and after landing 6 hours later I reached up to disconnect 'em and they were all ready undone.

Good thing it was a good threat reaction out there.
 

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
I made that same wonderful discovery after a combat mission in OIF in 2003. I'd dodged some AAA and a SA-2 launch...and after landing 6 hours later I reached up to disconnect 'em and they were all ready undone.

Good thing it was a good threat reaction out there.

When I was in the Gulf on my last deployment, we were scheduled for an all day pax/mail/cargo/toilet paper/cigarettes/ back and forth with the entire battle group. When it's hot outside, I always fly with the doors open in the 60. After a few hours of landing, getting out, getting in, taking off...repeat, I was sitting in the door at about 500 ft. I looked to my left to clear traffic for a turn and noticed my gunner's belt lying on the deck next to me. :eek:
 

SteveG75

Retired and starting that second career
None
4 RAG instructors in jet. Take the runway and realize that ejection seats aren't armed. Back to hold short to redo the takeoff checklist from the beginning.
 

Ektar

Brewing Pilot
pilot
My mea culpa...along the ground safety lines...

After my first flight in Primary at Whiting field I was walking back in to the line shack. I was a bit overloaded after my first flight and not paying to much attention to the world around me, I was just heading toward the line shack. As I was crossing an active taxi line in the ramp, I pulled my head out of my ass, and realized I was walking straight towards a turning a prop! Now, I never came closer than 30 feet to this prop, but it was close enough to make me realize that I HAVE to keep my head on a swivle in the line and look around me so I don't kill myself. This is a lesson I'm glad I learned and one that has stuck with me to this day...
 

ryan1234

Well-Known Member
Here's some of my stupidity... first getting a mulit-add on.....

at about 3000' my instructor discreetly shut off the fuel valve to the right engine during training... ok no problem.... "mix, props, throttle, gear up, flaps up, etc...." ...ok "identify, verify...etc" ...simulate trouble shooting doesn't "fix" it... feather RIGHT engine .... right engine shuts down goes to feather...
next step... securing the bad engine... ok "throttle close, mix closed, fuel valve off.... mags off"....

now the airplane gets really quiet.... oh crap I turned the LEFT mags off (the mags are on my side panel and you can't really reach or see them from the right seat unless you lean over) !! Now it's just a really heavy glider... with a lotta luck we got the left engine started with only about a 1000' loss...

now it's "identify, verify, REMEMBER (and THINK about what I'm going)......"
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Coming back from an early phase division form flight, crappy summertime wx prevented us from doing the RTB as a 4 plane, so we split into two sections, with lead and a classmate of mine in the first and -3 and I (solo) as the second section. They kiss us off for the recovery, we break out, hit the initial and lead breaks at the numbers. Feeling pretty cool (this being my 4th solo in the jet or something :p) I decide to try my hands at the loud break. Count 4 potatoes, MRT, boards out, roll and pull. Easy right? Well unfortunately I didn't account for the fact that 1) we were already at 330-340 KIAS when lead broke, 2) he broke at the numbers, 3) my potatoes were more like "pota", 4) if you are going to do this, you really need more than a 4 second interval anyway...even if you are counting legitimate seconds.

Roll out of the break turn with my pitot tube just about up my lead's tailpipe and closing. I do some casual S-turns (didn't want to do anything TOO obvious and give myself away...) to gain some interval. Of course we broke at the numbers so I basically have no time to do this. Lead calls abeam and I kind of split the difference between the abeam and the 90 for my abeam call so that I don't have to sound like a retard on the radio (we were basically abeam at the same time). I extend, get my interval, am retarded LIG and land uneventfully. I felt like a big dumbass as I was unstrapping, but figured that it had probably gone unnoticed. Silly me....

Get into the debrief and lead goes through the card, eventually coming to the RTB. Asks me "dude, what was up with that break? Did you count 4 seconds or what?" Unknown to me (probably head too far up my ass at that point to hear them call numbers for the break), his section came overhead right as all of this nonesense was happening, and they got a nice view of the show. I say "well sir, I think I got a solid 4 seconds, but I kind of went the wrong way with my left hand for the break.....like mil instead of idle". After some good laughs he just basically says "whatever, don't do stupid shit in the pattern man". Already feeling like a full retard, one of the LSO's (who was apparently out in the shack at the time) comes in, says "dude, who was 14?" I raise my hand sheepishly.....he says "wtf was up with that break?" after some more laughing, I just say "sir, I'm a retard"

I think learning was done that day :)

Another one was on the El Centro weps det, when I was the very deserving winner of the pink bomb. It was my first solo in the weps pattern, my head was still kind of a little bit on fire, and like most of weps I was still struggling to get a consistent roll-in point and sight picture. Anyway I had made a few inexplicably poor passes (pipper pretty much where I wanted it at release altitude, with long ass hits) and I was getting pretty frustrated....as in banging the canopy and yelling every time they called out my hit. So lets just say that I was pissed, wanted to get rid of my bombs, and just go the f home for the day. Rolled in, looked bad (looked way worse in the tape debrief), and I just kind of gave it my best schwag for when to release....mind you I have about 3 flights under my belt so my schwag is basically a blind man with a stick. I pickle, immediately regret the decision and think....damn, thats gonna be another long one. I pull abeam, and the range dude comes over the radio....."3 your hit was seven nine (I'm thinking here please don't read a third number) four and 12 oclock" AHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH. For those of you who aren't familiar with the T-45 weps pattern, 200+ ft is pretty freaking crappy, 300 normally in the range for the pink bomb, and I think the doc dropping from the back seat got at least within 500 ft. So I was the big winner that day......go big or go home right? Well the story didn't quite end there. We get into the tape debrief, and find that my HUD was caged almost the entire time......being uncaged is the only way you can get good hits on a day with any wind. I had pressed the cage button instead of the pickle button on my first pass, and was then off to the races. So in hindsight all the crappy passes made sense, but the real gem was my 794' pass. When we froze the tape at my release point, I was already pulling out and my pipper was somewhere between El Centro and the horizon (we were looking west). You don't really need any advanced experience in manual bombing to know that one was going to be in the next area code. Anyway, long story short, it was a good learning experience. Oh yeah, the XO was in lead's trunk for that one too, apparently he got a REAL good laugh out of it. :)
 

bob88899

Member
hmm well one day in the pattern practicing my landings in the 172 (i just started soloing)... im all set up for touchdown... perfect flare and touchdown in the centerline... and instead of holding the yoke back and bleeding all my energy... i eased up...i guess since i just started soloing i was happy and relieved i got this sucker on the ground, and must of relaxed... well anywho i ended up balancing on the nosegear.. and had to fight it to get it back on the back two wheels... i was all over the runway, almost ending in the grass trying not to flip the plane... classic moment is there was a truck on the taxi way waiting for me to land and clear the runway to check for debri (does it about every hr)... he saw the whole thing, could see his bug eyes... needless to say i almost shat myself... and called it a day! Now i make for damn sure i bleed all the energy out of the aircraft, and hold back that yoke!
 

OscarMyers

Well-Known Member
None
hmm well one day in the pattern practicing my landings in the 172 (i just started soloing)... im all set up for touchdown... perfect flare and touchdown in the centerline... and instead of holding the yoke back and bleeding all my energy... i eased up...i guess since i just started soloing i was happy and relieved i got this sucker on the ground, and must of relaxed... well anywho i ended up balancing on the nosegear.. and had to fight it to get it back on the back two wheels... i was all over the runway, almost ending in the grass trying not to flip the plane... classic moment is there was a truck on the taxi way waiting for me to land and clear the runway to check for debri (does it about every hr)... he saw the whole thing, could see his bug eyes... needless to say i almost shat myself... and called it a day! Now i make for damn sure i bleed all the energy out of the aircraft, and hold back that yoke!

Sounds like my first few landings in the nose heavy T41 we have here at pax. Finally had to switch to the 152 to be able to grasp the concept of bleeding off airspeed. I felt sorry for my instructor with all my bouncing.
 

bob88899

Member
Sounds like my first few landings in the nose heavy T41 we have here at pax. Finally had to switch to the 152 to be able to grasp the concept of bleeding off airspeed. I felt sorry for my instructor with all my bouncing.

As a matter of fact it WAS a T-41C!... they have some at the flying club i belong to out of tipton.
 

Kycntryboy

Registered User
pilot
One of my solo's back in the T-34 at Whiting (aerobatic solo), uneventful out in the area, RTB back home. Going from points B to D, I was following traffic ahead of me, but was unable to turn in on time because the tower has not clear me. After a little delay and heading south past D I turned in toward the field and have runway 24 staring me right in the face...Sweet. Looked in the mirror, visor's down, yeah I look awesome with my boom-mike. Call tower to report break...Cleared to break. Broke left. [intermission] To those of you unfamiliar with the Whiting field layout..
whiting.jpg


Ohhh you thought I was done. SA is left somewhere in Area 2. Sooo I'm in the break, looking down, thinking to myself "when did we get helo pads? hmmm (no helos were on the deck at the time that would have been a BIG clue)", anyway on downwind get configured, look up no RDO shack (no shit), "Where the hell is he, they must be changing runways"... Tower comes up telling me to go Missed Approach. Power up, turn, and climb. It's climbing slow....real slow. Eventually I get to 2000? or 3000? I forget the alt., anyway approach clears me back to B... now I can't pick up any speed as I push over, "WTF?", ... the gear is still down, raised it, probably overstressed it, didn't look, stupid on my part. So I went back around turned in toward 24.. Tower comes up...
Tower "24 shooter solo are you lining up for 32?"
Me "negative 24 Shooter solo lined up for 24"
Tower "24 go Missed your lined up for South Field"
So went back around and they had me follow traffic, which I stayed behind, I mean right behind and landed.

Take aways, getting fixing and losing SA will kill you. You can sweat all the little things and get them right but if you jack up the big picture, you're all jacked up. Like MB says... there is only so much room on an iceberg for penguins.

Best part is I flew over my squadron on the way to South Field and the only person that saw was one of my friends in the parking lot and he wondered "Where the hell is that guy going?" Still a funny story between us.
 

bunk22

Super *********
pilot
Super Moderator
I've got many but one stands out, back from the fly-off in 2005. We had just wrapped up a 5 month deployment and the tsunami relief. Because of that effort, we had 4 COD's onboard. We were to launch together but would do the fly-by at him in two sections. VRC-30 was using a temporary hangar at the time, on the east side of the field so our fly-by would be from west to east, turn right down the channel, set-up for runway 29. We briefed and it seemed easy enough.

So the day comes, we launch, no issues until closing into San Diego, there was some weather. For COD's we are not to fly formation through clouds and technically not with any passengers onboard either. So we broke into two flight of two and I headed down for the fly-by...you know 500' and 300KIAS :icon_wink So of course us COD guys are outstanding formation flyers :eek: and as I push over, my number two gets way sucked. I pass the crowd in a slight right turn and as I look up, I didn't realize how short the distance is between NAS North Island and downtown San Diego. I still think my number two is in position on my wing as he never said anything. So now I pull up to gain altitude but I'm afraid to pull COD hard to the right. Next thing I know, I'm right over downtown at 1000' looking right down into the buildings. I tell my co-pilot to help me out but that was bad verbage as I meant for him to look outside and let me/them know that I had to turn pretty hard. Instead, he grabbed my controls...my fault of course. So I pull hard, put some g (COD g so not so much) on the aircraft. We roll out level and I realize the rudder is jammed. The plane has a hard time turning right, it's shaking quite a bit and the rudder pedal is stuck half-way down. I inform my co-pilot of the situation, all the while tower is giving us some instructions. I declare an emergency and inform tower we need to make left turns, jammed rudder direction. We ended up landing without issue and the rudder unjammed itself on touchdown. Maint never found anything.

End result was my number two got sucked and was never an issue. I was supposed to land first but landed last. My co-pilot was angry with me and I was angry with myself for such a freshman performance.
 

exhelodrvr

Well-Known Member
pilot
Make sure you double-check the nav bag for all the appropriate pubs before you (still an H2P) go flying for the first time with your brand-new XO, or you might find that the approach plates are missing when he wants to do some practice TACANs.

And when you are manning the alert backup, even if the squadron SOP is for the scheduled crew to take the helo for the flight if the primary goes down before takeoff, make sure you have everything you need for the flight, including checking out a camera. Because if the primary alert helo goes down on the spot, you might get launched to take pictures of a surfaced Soviet (I guess now Russian) sub (even when no one else in the airwing is flying because no ops are scheduled that day). And then, even if you talk to one of the "small boys" in the vicinity and arrange to pick up a camera from them, to be returned the next day, someone in CIC might be listening in on that frequency, and might report it to the Air Boss, who will make you come back to the carrier to pick up the camera, even though that requires a course change because of the winds. And the CO and XO might be waiting for you in the Ready Room when you get back.

Or so I've been told.
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Supplemented with a Google Earth image, even! You know how I know you hang out with a bunch of NFOs? :D

I inadvertantly tried to kill my roommate and myself the day before T-45 CQ. We launched with an IP as a light division to Whitehouse OLF to bounce, and they were landing to the west. To those who don't know, the initial for that runway is to the SOUTH of the field, and you make a 270 degree right turn for the break.

I briefed as -3 and he was -2. For reasons I can't remember, this was switched on the taxi outbound or joinup. Mistake #1 in retrospect, with all else that was going on in my young skull full of cottage cheese. Unfamiliar fields and working area, upcoming first trip to Das Boot, etc. etc. So I end up as -2 for the transit outbound.

I remember that there was a very short interval between the rollout of the 270 degree turn and the break itself. So we briefed to make the turn in cruise, and then begin to tighten up into parade echelon. I scan over at my roommate, and he looks to be in loose cruise as we finish up the turn. I give him some time to tighten up so I can crossunder (keep in mind, he is on the right side of the formation and thus I am looking through him at the ground as well. Comforting thoughts about having to crossunder all the way down there at low altitude).

I then see that he is not tightening up, and time is running out. The lightbulb (I thought, actually a misfired synapse) went off in my head that he is "making a hole" thinking he is still -3. Seeing the break coming up and our formation not where it needed to be, I decide to cross under lead into said hole. WRONG.

I get a chill up my spine as I then hear over Tac a laconic "3, you are now 2." So I just gave roommate a face full of my jet as I crossed under into what was, after all, HIS position. All I could say at that point was "Roger," break, FCLP, and RTB as a single like we briefed.

I thought I stood an even money chance of getting my ass kicked when we touched down. Thankfully, my roommate (though not at all pleased at my buffoonery) shook it off when I apologized, and figured that he might be the one returning the favor someday. And we went on to CQ.

Lesson learned. As always in aviation, never never NEVER ASSume anything! Also, be wary of last minute changes to the brief, especially when dealing with studs. They/you may roger it up, and then subconsciously flex back to the original plan without realizing it.
 
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