13 years and still alive

January marked the 13th anniversary of my very first training flight in a small aircraft.  Cessna 172 out of the Downtown airport in Shreveport.  I immediately got hooked and never looked back.  I went to a 4 year college and majored in aviation, got my private license, my instrument rating, my commercial license, a multi-engine rating on top of that, then high-tailed it to Florida to work on my flight instructor certificates.  None of my training came naturally to me- I had to work very hard and fortunately I'm very stubborn, else I know I would have quit.  It took a long time for me to pick things up and understand concepts (a lot of the time I didn't understand most of it anyway) and I went through so many different flight instructors and got so many different points of view and opinions that no one ever sat me down and explained WHY I needed to know certain things.  Just- here, memorize this.  Why can't you?  It's easy!  (Uh, no it ain't buddy.)  I decided that when I became a flight instructor, I'd never forget what it was like to NOT know anything about flying, and to always explain the reasons behind the maneuvers and procedures we do to my students.  I admit, sometimes I get a little frustrated with a student but then I sit back and think about something I know absolutely diddly squat about- sailing and boats.  If someone put me out in a sailboat and tried to explain what all those damn ropes were for in a half-assed sort of way, I'd be hanging on to the tail (or whatever the back of the boat is called- see my point?)  

The thing with flying is, during training we always drill emergencies- what to do, where to go, what to say, memorize memorize memorize!  The idea is that, when the shit hits the fan, you react quickly and automatically as you were trained.  But you never really know how you're going to handle something until it happens.  So, for your reading pleasure, I've listed some crazy shit that's happened to me while flying, and I've detailed a few incidents below that stand out:

Oct 31, 2008
My first big incident.  I managed to get away with 8 years of little drama (a few scary night flights with bad weather, but nothing to write home about.)  I remember this because it was on my birthday- the basic story is I was with a student practicing landings at the Deland airport north of Orlando and the nose gear of our retractable-gear Cessna 182 folded up on us after landing.  The airplane went ass-up and skidded down the runway while the propeller continued to force its way around a few more times, making a screeching, thumping, grating metal on concrete noise for about 500 feet before coming to a stop.  It only took a few seconds, but I remember clearly what I was thinking- holyshitthisisnotreallyhappeningisit?  It was totally surreal.  When the aircraft came to a stop, my student and I sat very still, then silently and calmly cut off the fuel and electrical systems, unbuckled our seat restraints, and (very awkwardly) crawled out of the aircraft.  The ambulances and firetrucks showed up a few minutes later, I had to make some phone calls to the FAA and fill out some paperwork.  No one told me how to handle this situation or the aftermath of legal crap, but I managed it okay.  I had to keep myself together and project confidence because it would be a disservice to my customer for me to be rattled or to pass any feelings of discomfort onto her.  I had responsibilities to take and to this day I don't think I could have handled any of it better.

August 2012
This incident happened on a Sunday- I remember because my boss is off on that day.  I was doing a rental checkout for a customer in a brand-new aircraft we'd gotten on the flight line...a light sport Cessna 162 Skycatcher.  I had maybe 4 or 5 hours in this aircraft and thought it was one of the most fun little airplanes to fly.  I still do!  It's so light weight, about 1,200-1,300 lbs when loaded up and has large doors that raise up under the wing on pneumatic arms so that you can taxi it around on the ground and still get a nice breeze with them open.  It was my customer's first flight ever in this little airplane, so we took it nice and slow and easy getting it started up, practicing the taxiing, and I explained some of the differences on this aircraft as opposed to the Cessna 172 he was used to flying.  We got cleared for takeoff in Orlando from runway 7 with instructions to do a left-hand turn to the west afterwards.  We shut the doors and headed out and up.  Everything was showing normal after takeoff when we leveled off at 1,100 feet on our westbound heading when BAM!!!  I felt a scrape on my arm and a big rush of air and the loudest bang I've ever heard.  Immediately, my hand went to pull the tightening strap on my shoulder restraint.  I looked over and at first thought the window had blown out.  My hair was blowing about and it was windy in the cabin.  And then I noticed that the WHOLE DOOR was missing!  I was able to look straight down to the ground and that view made my stomach turn.  I don't remember my exact words but they were probably along the lines of "what the fuck?!?"  I then noticed that my door wasn't missing but had blown open from the front latch only and had peeled backward and was now bent out at a 90 degree angle- the plexiglass window had shattered and pieces had blown into the cabin and were sitting on the dash- they had scraped my arm when they blew out.  I took control of the airplane from my customer immediately, reduced the power, and called the tower and told them I was landing immediately on the crossing runway, which we were perpendicular to at the time.  The airplane handled, as best as I can describe it, really wonky.  When the airflow is different from one side to another because you have a giant drag element sticking out of the right side, it tends to make things a bit unstable.  I managed to limp the aircraft down onto the runway and get it back to the flight school, where several people had heard my distress radio conversation with the air traffic control tower and had to come check out the damage.  The door was eventually repaired, and a secondary latching mechanism was installed to prevent this from happening again.  After it was all over- again, it happened so fast and my reaction was so immediate- I couldn't think of a better outcome.  This was reaffirmed by the approval of how I handled everyhing from my coworkers and boss.  Of course, more paperwork!

Yesterday:
Yeah, yesterday.  I was with a student again in the Skycatcher (a different one this time) and we'd been doing landings at Orlando for almost an hour.  After our 6th takeoff at about 800 feet, just as he was making a right turn perpendicular to the runway and still climbing, the engine started shaking, sputtering, and vibrating so badly it sounded like it was about to rattle completely apart.  His first words were "wait, I didn't do that what'sgoingon?" and I knew something was majorly wrong.  I reduced the power, started to make a u-turn, and again radioed the tower that we were landing immediately on the crossing runway.  The same one I'd made my door-less landing on.  The engine vibration stopped when I pulled the power out, but got much worse when I played with the throttle and tried to add it back in.  I figured I didn't want to damage the engine so I completely cut the fuel supply and shut the whole thing down.  We were now gliding with zero power toward the runway.  There was no doubt in my mind that we'd make it just fine, but the thought that was going through my head was "Dammit this is my favorite airplane and now it's going to be down for maintenance for a really long time!"  The propeller completely stopped moving before we touched down, but I managed to glide in, execute a perfect landing, and roll down the runway, through the intersection of the main runway, and coast to a stop.  The entire experience from the initial vibration to the aircraft coming to a stop safely on the runway was probably about a minute.  Again, when we came to a stop and I assured the tower controller we were okay and requested assistance to tow us back to our tie-down spot, I shut everything down and turned my main concern to my student, who was in complete shock.  He turned to me and said "That was awesome, thank you!!!  You...you saved us!"  Once my leg stopped shaking a bit, I gave him a calm smile and said "Well, it's my job to keep your ass alive."  (More paperwork ensued, but I think it was an amazing lesson for my student)

Yesterday's incident got to me the most out of everything for a few reasons- if we hadn't been as close to the airport as we were when this happened, we could have literally had to land in a swamp, a golf course, a lake...our options would have been a lot worse than runway 13.  And there's no telling the outcome of any of those scenarios.  Also, it could have been ANYONE else in that airplane- a solo student pilot, a renter...anyone!  I'm not saying I'm Super Pilot (although I sure as hell felt like it), I just don't know how anyone else would have handled this situation and we're very fortunate no one was in any real danger of being killed.  I've known people who have been in aircraft accidents, I've known people who have been killed in aircraft accidents.  It's part of this industry- if you don't know someone personally, you know someone who does.  I've been very lucky to have been doing what I do for the amount of time that I've been doing it.  As I get older, I do become more aware of my own mortality, but not so much as to have it scare me out of the skies.  I admit I was a little nervous when I went up in the air today, but doing that is the only way to move past this.  

For anyone who's doing flight training though- LEARN your emergency procedures!  Memorize them.  Train for them, take them seriously.  Do some research, read up on some accident reports- see what has worked for others, see what hasn't.  Hopefully you never ever have to experience anything like what I have, or worse, but if you do you'll be glad you worked so hard for your privilege to fly.