Emergencies??

[Northern Girl]

Northern Girl has insomnia. She is lying in bed going through some aviation experiences in her head. Remembering one she suddenly wonders if anyone else has come across something similar in their a/c types.

Have you had an emergency which is not in your QRH/emergencychecklist?? I had a complete Hydraulic failure in one twin turbine with no hydraulic failure checklist to be had. YES there was a checklist for blowing the gear, yes there was one for pumping the flaps - however nothing that put it all together in one place including the fact that I had lost my nosewheel steering/normal brakes/windshield wipers and airstair door etc etc. All went well in my case but I would love to hear some other experiences regarding this. I am sure there are plenty of stories out there that we can all learn from.

Have a GREAT day wontcha??

[Northern Skies]

Not a mechanical emergency, but a close call nonetheless: on a very busy day, a controller vectored me onto right base while another aircraft was doing crosswind circuits on a perpendicular runway. Near head-on midair, about 200 feet separation.

[Driving Rain]

I've had bullets rip into the plane a couple of times, One shot traveled along the prop blade and blew the spinner off, caused a violent shake before it departed. Was 2500' up between Brampton and Buttonville on that one. Scared the shyte out of me! Another went through the tail of a 206, near YAG, found the hole on landing. Don't know who fired them, maybe jealous husbands. Cops were called on both and they told me the calibre and how lucky I was.
Had a left wing fuel tank panel depart from a PA 20 at 100' in a steep turn to the left it bent the rudder horn and broke the top attachment. I had a battery hatch cover lift up 90 degrees and act like a wing spoiler on a D-18 on floats. Fortunately I was over a big lake at the time or I wouldn't be writing this. There was no time to consult check lists in any of the cases but keep flying the plane.

[hz2p]

I had a runaway Hobbs meter once. That really chilled the bone - I didn't know how I was going to pay the FBO the $104,568.34 I owed them - until it hit me that I had the tach number to back me up that I really hadn't flown 675 hours that trip. I was really sweating buckets in the cockpit on that one. Sucked up a seat cushion or two.

Turned out that a little guy called "Henri" had rented the aircraft before me, and had buggered with the Hobbs meter. Go figure.

[snoopy]

Pretty strange for a battery hatch cover on a Beech 18 to rear its head 90 degrees - every Beech I've ever flown had hatches done up by Zeus fasteners (around 10 of them). If you had a mod on the a/c you were flying, someone screwed up somewhere because hinges are always placed to orient the panel in trail on flying and other critical surfaces.
Would be interested to here more on this story....
Cheers,
Snoopy

[Driving Rain]

Bingo. Yes you are right. The Beech in question had a small step added to the fuselage side right above that panel so the gas boy wouldn't have to throw the gas hose nozzle over the top and smash out the co-pilot side window with it. When the hinge and side zeus fasteners tore loose the step stopped it's rearward progress and now you have a spoiler.
I learned later that this hatch was responsible for more than a few deaths after it flew off. When it popped it sounded like a bomb had gone off, the resulting immediate stall at cruise speed and the flare from the dive were something I don't ever want to relive. It took me ten minutes to put my heart back in my chest.
After that episode we inspected the remaining fleet and found that the heavy foot traffic in the left wing root area had weakened the panel hinge rivits and fasteners to the point of failure on a couple of other planes.
If your flying a Beech 18 have a close look at that panel every day.

[Elliot Moose]

Had a nose gear come off a 748 one time on the takeoff roll. Not our fault--a bad installation. Aircraft was fully stopped before things finally collapsed, and there we were in the middle of the rwy. About the third question the CP asked me (he didn't much fancy me or the Capt I was with) was "What memory items did you carry out?"

I had to say "Gee Bruce, my SOP didn't list any memory items for 'nose gear falls off the aircraft while stopped in the middle of the runway and props end up digging holes in the dirt.' I hollered at **** to shut the fucker down because we were digging holes in the runway though. Which ones should I have done?"

He was clearly not really happy with my answer, but then he couln't come up with any better suggestion either

[. .]

haha i would love to have been a fly on the wall for that one.

[Hiflyer2]

I was at Wasaya for that nose gear incident. Wow... that was a while ago. Remember (name rymes with Dial) in the left seat but can't remember the right seat guy. Send me a hint.

I had a small emergency in a Citation where an engine rolled back to idle on the climb out in the mountains. Which checklist do you complete for that one??? There certainly wasn't an obvious one to follow. Any thoughts on the matter.

[Elliot Moose]

I was the really tall FO who spent most of my time flying fuel with Howie. Ended up flying the 1900, PC12, 'van, etc. You have the Capt right for that fateful flight.

[Airtids]

Have had a few emergencies over the years, and all but one were handled smoothly, according to training and checklists, and to a thankfully anti-climatic conclusion. The one anomoly was after a front engine failure on a 337 (single engine driven hydraulic pump running off the front engine). Nursed the ship home, and while approaching the circuit, conducted the emergency gear extension procedure right up until the point that the friggin handle snapped clean off in my hand!!. No checklist for that one. No green light, gear doors still open, no visual indication of gear down and locked, lo-and-over got a definite "yeah, looks like it could be down" from the ground crew. Decided to land anyways, shut rear engine down on short final, and held our breath...
Gear held!! Bloody lucky. Left the airplane on the runway, and walked back to the hangar, let the boss tow his P.O.S. back in.