Random Ramblings

So no exciting stories to tell in this post, sorry folks, but I do feel the need to write something. So far October has been one of my busiest months yet for flying, which means lots of money for me, as I partly get paid by the mile. I figure by the 28th I'll have blown by July's record number of trips. Not that its actually busier for the company now than it was in July, but our summer temp pilot went home at the end of September, so now I don't have to share.

I got the latest Aviation Safety Letter, which I always enjoy reading. I got the publication on the way to the airport for my first flight of the morning, so I tucked it into my flight bag for a little in-flight reading if I got a chance. I wonder what would happen if I got in an accident while reading the newsletter... I can imagine the accident report: Cherokee 6 loss of control and subsequent flight into terrain. Aircraft destroyed and pilot, sole occupant, received serious injuries. Findings as to cause: Pilot's attention was diverted while attempting to remain a safe pilot by reading about safety issues in the Aviation Safety Newsletter, which contributed to loss of control of aircraft. Wouldn't that be ironic, if not unlikely.

This quarter's issue was actually quite interesting, there were some good stories, as well as a number of interesting accident synopses. There was the usual student in a Cessna 150 accident, there seems to be one in every report. This time it was a first-time solo student ending up off the runway and dinging the prop. Pretty standard stuff. Some other ones make you shake your head and ask "what was he thinking?", like a Cessna 310 pilot who was demonstrating a single engine approach and landing, who actually shut the engine down. During the approach, he found out too late that the remaining engine operating at full power wasn't enough to reach the airfield, and he crashed in a field 1 mile short of the runway. What was he thinking? Who actually shuts an engine down like that so close to the ground just for the heck of it? The report doesn't seem to indicate that the pilot was an instructor and the passenger a student... so was he just showing off? Real smooth...

There was also a private Beech Bonanza that had a gear up landing due to being distracted by chatting away on the radio all the way down to touchdown. Thats why the "sterile cockpit" rule was invented (aka don't talk while you're landing/taking off). I can understand how sometimes there can be distractions and it would be easy to forget to extend the landing gear, but at the same time I can't understand how it still happens, especially to people who own the airplane they fly, and know they have to pay for stuff they break. Personally for me when I fly the Twin Comanche, I consciously maintain a healthy state of paranoia during my approach, and verify the landing gear is down probably 4 or 5 times before I cross the runway threshold.

Then there's the accidents that are just plain bad luck, or just cases where the pilot accepted the calculated risk and the cards weren't in his favour, like the private Maule who tried landing on a grass strip. He did a low level pass to inspect the field first, and it looked good, but then he flipped over after touchdown. Bummer. Sorry about your luck.

I also feel sorry for the helicopter pilot whose rotor wash blew a sign loose off of a building and sucked it into the tail rotor. He managed to land safely however.

There was also a accident that seemed to ring familiar with an experience I had back when I flew my old C-150. A Piper Super Cub on skiis tried to take off in too deep of snow, and couldn't get enough speed, so he aborted the takeoff, and kicked the passenger out to try again. Not only did he not get off the ground the second time, but he also crashed into a crevasse and overturned. My experience wasn't nearly as extreme, but I can relate to how the pilot must have felt. I landed at a grass strip (on wheels) just north of London to pick up my cousin and take him for a flight. The runway was plenty long enough, 3000 ft, but after I landed I realized that the grass was very thick, probably 6 inches high, it hadn't been mowed in a couple weeks I guess. You get that feeling like, "oh crap hopefully I can get off the ground". We decided to give the takeoff a try with the both of us, but I had set a spot on the runway that was my go/no-go spot, if I wasn't off the ground by then I'd abort. It ended up being no problem at all, it took a longer take-off than normal, but we still got off the ground before my no-go spot, so it all worked out in the end. Unfortunately the ski pilot in the accident report wasn't so lucky. Such is aviation I guess.

In other news, its cold enough now that we're back to putting the engine blanket and wing covers onto the airplane every night so we don't have to scrape frost off in the morning. Its not really a big deal, but for some reason I just hate doing it. When I come in from my last flight of the day I just don't feel like tucking the airplane into bed, I just want to go home and eat dinner. I know, I'm a whiner. At least its a low wing airplane and they're easy to put on.