http://www.aopa.org/neveragain AOPA presents the "Never Again" series in AOPA Pilot magazine and online to allow pilots to learn from the experiences of others. Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:31:31 GMT ListGarden Program 1.3.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en-us AOPA Ben Roberts Ben.Roberts@aopa.org A Centurion pilot on a dull cross-country flight learns how easy it is to fall asleep at the yoke. Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:30:51 GMT More than 25 years ago I bought a used Beech Baron 58. Within a week of my purchase, a longtime mechanic friend phoned: "I don’t mean to meddle. Be leery of Beech fuel gauges. Know your fuel by time and fuel burn." Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:24:43 GMT A Saturday pleasure flight in flawless weather lulls a pilot into meteorological complacency with stress-causing results. Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:21:03 GMT A Skyhawk pilot and musician listens to the music of his engine, and doesn't like what he hears. Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:37:58 GMT A Cardinal pilot confronts a failed elevator trim and the attitude that pilots with more hours and experience always make better decisions. Find out what happens in "A Loud Bang". Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:31:29 GMT It's not unusual for a pilot who flies regularly at night to suffer an optical illusion concerning lights. The most common one is seeing Venus low on the horizon and thinking that it is an oncoming landing light. There is an infinite variety of other visual traps. I have had two experiences, one as a pilot, and one as an air traffic controller. Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:16:50 GMT My friend glenn co-owned a 1968 Cherokee 180 and wanted to visit a mutual friend who was staying at a cabin in Happy Camp, California. He was slowly taking lessons, so we flew together a lot. The little Cherokee was a basic VFR airplane with questionable VOR reliability, but everything else worked fine. <br> <br>I was confident as a 100-hour-plus pilot and looked forward to the trip from Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose to Northern California. The weather forecast called for some clouds, but I knew there was VFR weather inland a little over the Central Valley and along Interstate 5. This was long before GPS or even Loran, so it was going to be pilotage and dead reckoning all the way. Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:57:36 GMT In 1985 I had purchased a low-time creampuff 1955 Cessna 180. N9370C was based at Camarillo Airport, roughly halfway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California. The 180 Skywagon is slightly bigger than its counterpart, the Cessna 170, but flies as well with no bad habits. The big 225-horsepower Continental up front provides great performance, and I suspect it will lift just about anything you can stuff in its cabin. Mon, 02 Jul 2012 20:57:11 GMT A Malibu pilot learns to respect a new and different kind of cloud on a bumpy entry into Reno... Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:12:20 GMT For months I had been planning a dive trip at Cayman Brac, one of the Cayman Islands. My nonpilot “co-pilot” Lynn and I have gone on many dive trips in my Piper PA–32-260 Cherokee Six. (Please note that Lynn is a male. For some reason, my wife of 25 years won’t let me go on flying/diving trips with single females.) Tue, 15 May 2012 18:25:12 GMT At 10:25 on Easter morning in 2010 I held up my hand to shield the sun as I searched for the traffic at my two o’clock, 1,000 feet above. The air was smooth at 11,500 feet, above solid clouds and the rugged Washington Cascade mountains below. My family—parents, wife, kids, spouses, grandchildren—had gathered for the holiday that weekend, and now I was getting everyone home. Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:16:06 GMT It was a typical overcast winter morning at Portland International Airport in Oregon, with ceilings running around 1,400 feet agl and reported tops at about 7,000 feet msl. Ground control had just rattled off our clearance to Rogue Valley International in Medford, Oregon, clearing us to 10,000 feet. There had been no pilot reports of icing. The briefing called for conditions to remain overcast with ceilings around 1,200 feet. Deteriorating conditions and possible snow were forecast for later in the day, but well after our estimated arrival time. Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:44:59 GMT "I was a freshly minted private pilot, and I was nearing that ego-boosting 100-hour mark. I was itching for a 'real' mission--a long and exciting cross-country flight." Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:21:57 GMT A student pilot on a night cross-country solo, encounters a closed airport and ... cows ... Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:18:15 GMT Thwack! My friend David smarted as I slapped his hand with the admonishment to never touch "my" radios... Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:32:33 GMT A sailplane pilot unintentionally transitions to an open cockpit. Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:29:22 GMT "A low time VFR pilot on a long cross-country flys into IMC and learns to appreciate thorough training and helpful controllers..." Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:52:33 GMT A mid-air encounter with a plastic grocery bag initiates a chain of maintenance headaches for a 2001 Cessna Skylane 182T pilot. <br> <br>"About 50 feet above the runway a large white plastic bag. The prop immediately shredded the bag with seemingly no ill effects. However, at 400 feet, there was the unmistakable smell of burning plastic..." Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:38:51 GMT I was returning to Frederick, Maryland, from Winter Haven, Florida. My Velocity’s Lycoming IO-360 had been unusually hard to start in Winter Haven, almost causing me to miss my IFR departure window. After a quick break and fuel stop in Waycross, Georgia, the Velocity was again very hard to start. Approximately halfway between Waycross and Lumberton, North Carolina, the engine shuddered, and then returned to normal. Scanning the instruments, I found nothing unusual. The engine then began a vibration that was anything but normal... Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:50:30 GMT A Piper Archer pilot finds out that opening a door in-flight is no big deal...until you fly into a cloud... Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:18:56 GMT With the Hawaiian islands as a backdrop, a Beechcraft pilot logs some single-engine time...in a twin... Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:31:39 GMT "Get-there-itis," maintenance issues, and an inaccurate forecast conspire against a cross-country Cessna pilot. "I was a disoriented, low-time VFR pilot in IMC, without a working radio, in Class C airspace, near a large airport. I knew this was often how accident reports began - or ended..." Wed, 18 May 2011 20:22:28 GMT Inadvertent flight into unreported IMC causes a VFR pilot to reflect on the value of effective flight instruction... Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:01:25 GMT A birdstrike in a 1960 Focke-Wulf P.149D over Palm Beach brings home lessons of "just fly the airplane" and keep everyone calm... Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:48:53 GMT Although it seems ridiculous to an outsider, operating in less than marginal VFR weather is common in the Louisiana oil field. I was in a Cessna 185 amphibian, engine idling, pointed into the 30-plus-knot wind, holding position in the ship channel southeast of New Orleans. Unfortunately, in the chaos that led up to this point, I forgot about the fist-sized hole in the right float... Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:26:45 GMT I had read many times that pilots must fully understand and master their autopilots, but I didn’t fully appreciate the accuracy of those warnings until, at 1,000 feet agl I clicked off the autopilot on the yoke-mounted switch and turned to enter a left base leg to Runway 8... Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:11:45 GMT The air was smooth in the clouds and our airplane was running great at first, but soon the rpm started to drop and we were losing altitude. We suspected carburetor ice and tried to combat it with carburetor heat and full power, yet we still couldn’t maintain altitude. ... There was no radar coverage in our area and no VORs to cross-check our position. We were getting scared... Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:13:51 GMT The airport I landed at was out of fuel so there was no way I could top off my tank for the remainder of my long flight. I could either abort my plans and return...try again another day, or press on...more than 100 miles away, a long way for a little Cub on skis... Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:02:23 GMT Juan soon let me know all was not well. He said our airplane’s flight controls weren’t responding in a normal manner and he shouted over the laboring engine noise, “Estamos en peril!” (“We’re in peril!”). The stall warning alarm blared out imminent danger as our Cessna 150 neared impact with the rough ground... Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:35:04 GMT A glider pilot runs out of altitude on the worst kind of day... Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:56:04 GMT A turbo-charged Cessna talks and a pilot listens, something just wasn't right... Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:32:19 GMT A student pilot learns that a GPS screen is a valuable tool...but can also be a dangerous distraction... Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:40:30 GMT A hard rain and strangely-behaving communication equipment result in an interesting approach for the AOPA Let's Go Flying Cirrus SR22... Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:33:21 GMT Sever clear air turbulence over mountainous terrain does visible damage to a Malibu... Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:13:50 GMT A pleasant summer flight turns into a fuel emergency... Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:12:37 GMT The pain began anew. This time, I was sure it really was a heart attack. I called Greenwood unicom and said I had a medical emergency... I was less than 10 minutes out and the pain continued to grow... Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:14:04 GMT A new pilot takes a warm summer night practice flight at a vacant but familiar airport, but the pilot finds difficulty with his approaches. Climbing out for the fourth time, he began to worry landing before running out of fuel...and botched the next two approaches as well... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:56:14 GMT Jacksonville Center handed me off to Orlando Approach and I dialed in and activated the new frequency. I keyed the mike and reported my altitude and receipt of ATIS. Then, just as the controller acknowledged my transmission and began to provide my next clearance, the cockpit suddenly went dark. The transition from a fully functioning airplane to being totally void of electricity had taken less than 60 seconds... Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:29:06 GMT The worst flight I ever made was an attempt to do a favor for a friend. My friend&amp;rsquo;s grandfather had recently passed away, and his family thought spreading his ashes over his ranch in Oklahoma would be a memorable and fitting tribute. I had been flying for almost 20 years and was honored to be able to fulfill this simple request. I turned the jar sideways and pushed the open end into the open window, hoping the slipstream would carry the ashes away. The slipstream took hold all right, but not in the way I intended... Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:35:46 GMT On a clear winter day, I departed Burlington, North Carolina, for Jackson County Airport at the western edge of the state for a visit with my fiancé. I had just reached cruising altitude at 6,500 feet, established flight following with Greensboro Approach and engaged the autopilot for what I thought would be a smooth, comfortable, VFR flight. Then I felt a slight tremor in my A-36 Bonanza and glanced at the instrument panel. To my astonishment, it was completely dark. There wasn’t a single light or flicker anywhere. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:08:06 GMT I’m a knowledgeable, careful, cautious pilot, right? Unfortunately, no, I’m not. And here’s why: A few years ago I took a cross-country trip during which I made so many mistakes and errors of judgment it’s a wonder I am still here to write about it. Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:49:17 GMT The air was smooth as glass, and I had the traffic pattern to myself. It couldn’t have been better—right up until the time I retracted the landing gear. As soon as the gear was up, the Baron began to violently shake and shudder. I noticed that it wasn’t just the aircraft that was shaking; the control yoke itself was oscillating in my hand, separate from the rest of the aircraft. My attention shifted to the control surfaces, and I swiveled around in my seat to give them a close look. Then I saw it... Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:42:33 GMT Suddenly I could see a light spray of fuel pouring a mist of avgas on my leg. As I was looking for the grass strips, I spotted what looked like a hard-surface runway. … A guy drove up … walked up to me, sort of got in my face, and said, “Do you know you just landed inside a prison?” Yikes! Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:52:48 GMT Although some minor variation in the fuel gauges was common in our previous plane, I was somewhat disconcerted to see that the fuel gauges in the new plane were fluctuating wildly...when I landed, I had 3.4 gallons of usable fuel left! Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:04 GMT Something felt strange...I looked outside and finally discovered the problem: I had snagged the loop with my right main landing gear instead of the hook. Uh-Oh! Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:58:59 GMT The chicken sandwiches were great. But were they worth braving a 45-knot crosswind? Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:28:01 GMT A Mooney pilot encounters a crosswind that nearly overpowers his aircraft on takeoff. Find out how the pilot salvaged a bad situation in "Never Again: Almost Gone With The Wind" by Bill Keathley, read by AOPA Senior Editor Thomas B. Haines. Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:41:34 GMT A taxiing Kitfox nearly becomes a tumbleweed when a powerful turboprop runs up its engines. Find out how the Kitfox pilot avoided serious damage in "Never Again: Propwash" by Guy Buchanan, read by AOPA editor-in-chief Thomas Haines. Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:37:06 GMT A float plane adventure ends early and nearly in disaster, for two brothers in a Cessna 180. Find out what stopped them in "Never Again: Lost Dances" by Loren Bauman, read by AOPA senior editor Alton Marsh. Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:42:42 GMT A highly experienced pilot runs out of fuel despite careful calculations. Find out what went wrong--and what went right--on "Never Again: Fuel Gauge on Empty" by Ren Hart, read by AOPA senior editor Alton Marsh. Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:09:25 GMT A flight instructor and instrument student are confronted with jammed controls and low visibility on a training flight. Find out how they escape in "Never Again: Overlooking the Obvious" by Jud Phillips, read by AOPA's senior editor Dave Hirschmann. Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:17:14 GMT neveragain-2008-09-08-16-01-51 An air force fighter pilot attempts to land despite a strong tailwind. Find out how he pulls it off in "Never Again: F-16 Cross-Country to Korea" by Jeffrey Stambaugh, read by AOPA's senior editor Dave Hirschmann. Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:15:56 GMT neveragain-2008-09-08-16-01-57 AOPA Pilot Never Again: A Mooney pilot over Lake Michigan faces an IFR descent and forced landing. Find out what went wrong in "Never Again: Dead-Stick into Muscegon" by Ed Haines, read by AOPA senior editor Paul Richfield. Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:14:50 GMT neveragain-2008-09-08-16-02-06 AOPA Pilot Never Again: A former Vietnam pilot faces a series of critical decisions in what was supposed to be a simple cross-country flight in an R22. Find out about his harrowing flight in "Never Again: R22 Night Cross Country," by Roger Daisley, read by AOPA's senior editor Paul Richfield. Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:11:48 GMT neveragain-2008-09-08-16-02-01 AOPA Pilot Never Again: A Bonanza on a night flight to Atlanta encounters severe turbulence in a fast-moving weather system. Find out how the pilot escaped in "Never Again: New Year's Resolution," by David Howe and read by AOPA senior editor Dave Hirschman. Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:39:28 GMT neveragain-2008-09-08-16-02-16 AOPA Pilot Never Again: An electrical failure on a private pilot's first trip with his wife brings some tense moments in the sky over a busy California airport. How did the pilot get the Piper Arrow's landing gear down? Find out in "Never Again: Stress Changes Everything," by Thomas W. Shalhoub, read by AOPA's senior editor Dave Hirschman. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:46:53 GMT neveragain-2008-09-08-16-02-22 AOPA Pilot Never Again: A heavily loaded Piper Archer faces deteriorating weather and coastal fog in Maine. How did the pilot react? AOPA's senior editor Dave Hirschman reads for you Never Again: No Shortage of Challenges, by Bill Feinstein. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:32:36 GMT neveragain-2008-09-08-16-02-28