Airport stories - I survive an aerobatics-related accident

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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So I had an accident today. I was approaching the runway, my speed a little too high. I corrected too late and it got away from me. Ended up in a ditch.

This was in my car, near the icy entrance to the airport on the way to my first solo aerobatic flight. :smack: I’ve now conclusively proven the old adage that the most dangerous part of the flight is the drive to the airport.

Anyway, I’ve been taking aerobatic and tailwheel instruction and went solo for the first time today in a Decathlon.

I was a bit rattled from the car incident, so I taxied very slowly. Some jet blast from a Hawker nearly sent me off the taxiway. Then I line up to find only half the icy runway width useable, but I felt it was enough. As I took off I had the same thought that occured during my initial solo years ago: “OK, I’m up. Now I just better be able to get this goddam thing back down again.”

Off to the practice area for aileron rolls, slow rolls, inverted flight, loops, half-Cubans, and spins. It went well, although not up to competition standards. I’m not a natural at this, and right now I’m just proving to myself that I can do it safely at a basic level.

Back to the pattern, I flew the same careful sequence I teach my students. Nice and easy on final, making certain I had no side load whatsoever in the flare because of the ice. Sweet 3-pointer ride down the middle. Very careful taxi back - no relaxing in a tailwheel until it’s tied down.

Fun stuff. Can’t wait to do it again, but I’ll be more careful driving. :slight_smile:

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Though I suspect you’re aware of it, I’ll note that this is far from true.

Very commendable for your first solo aerobatic flight.

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Ice on the runway? Ouch! I’ve never had that problem here in sunny Sydney (looks outside to see grey CBs scudding by.)

What’s the best way to approach an icy runway? Apart from carefully, of course.

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Point your tail to it and go somewhere else, I suspect.

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Why?

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Great funGreat fun Mach Tuck… I’ll bet you had a blast.

Xema, why are you being so picky in a fun thread?

Winter flying and wet, snowy, or icy runways have all kinds of problems for all sorts of airplanes and sometimes the problems are a bit different.

Very seldom do you end up with a runway that is a slick as glass hockey rink. Unless it was very flat, the wind very steady in alignment with the runway, then yeah, going someplace else is a pretty good idea.

Dry is best.

Wet is not as good and even worse when the water has actual measurable depth.

Then you have nice dry snow less than an inch deep. If you just have to play in the winter and don’t have dry pavement, then dry shallow snow is not that bad. Next is wet slushy snow with maybe a bit of ice thrown in. This can be the worst. A lot of pilots are taught or are used to being in airplanes where the wheels vibrate a lot as they slow down after takeoff and so the pilots touch the brakes after lift off to prevent this or to stop them spinning before they are retracted, in the case of aircraft with retractable gear and no auto stop rubbing blocks or other such system before the wheels go in to the retracted position.

Not allowing the wheel to slow down gradually may leave enough moisture on the pad-rotor interface to freeze the wheel in position.

As Broomstick is want to say, “This is a bad thing.” Upon trying to land again you are in for a nasty surprise.

Let them wheels dry and stop on their own. Leave them brakes and gear switches alone for a minute.

Part dry and part icy runways.

Now you are going across different traction surfaces in a hurry and the plane can get away or slightly crossed up and then you are back on the dry and you and the wheels are not going the same direction and parts can break off if they don’t flip you over first. Some time all bad is better than part good and part bad if you can’t see or react to that difference fast enough.

The penalty for not paying attention in tail draggers has already been covered in various threads…

Mach Tuck did a masterful job and had a ball doing it.

Doing acrobatics in an under powered airplane is actually much harder than is an regular competition type aircraft. Wrestling an Decathlon around is a lot of work and hard to do well. they are also not just overloaded with rudder authority and a good landing in that type is not the same as doing it in a little Stinson 10-A.

More stories please. I am reliving a lot of flying reading these.

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Thank Og it’s not something I have to consider. More often I have to consider how I am going to keep cool taxying back to the flight line.

I second the flying stories stuff. Keep 'em coming.

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Ya got my attention with the title and first paragraph.

Reminds me of when I was headed to Palwaukee to work on engine-out drills and my car engine quit on the way there. First thing I did was pull back on the steering wheel - idiot, cars don’t have a “best glide”…

Very nice. I’m thinking about aerobatics next year. Husband has expressed some concerns. It’s sweet he cares so much.

Now, if only the weather, my health, and the mechanical aspects would cooperate so I could gat back into the air…

Meanwhile - more stories!

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Interesting stuff GusNSpot.

Mach Tuck, congratulations on your solo in the Decathlon, I hope that your future car trips are not as exciting, and that you keep to airborn aerobatic manoeuvres only!

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Because only commercial flying (as in being a passenger on a commercial airliner) is statistically safer than driving.

Private piloting is statistically riskier than driving by a fair margin. I’ve got the stats from a few years back at home if you want a cite later.

Of course, the risks of private flying are mitigated by intelligent decision making.

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Figaro is correct. Here’s a comparison:

Wikipedia says: “In 2001, general aviation had an accident rate of 6.56 accidents (including 1.22 fatal accidents) per 100,000 hours flown, while large air carriers had an accident rate of only 0.24 accidents (including 0.04 fatal accidents) per 100,000 hours flown.”

This site says that in 2001, motor vehicle fatalities happened a a rate of 1.51 per 100 million miles. If we assume an average speed of 50 mph, that gives a rate of 0.0755 per 100,000 hours. This means that general aviation’s fatal accident rate is about 16 times that of motor vehicles.

But this is a bit misleading because within general aviation, small single-engine aircraft have a disproportionately high accident rate. It’s probably correct to say that flying a small plane is at least 20 times as dangerous as driving a car.

The OP is correct in implying that “the most dangerous part of the flight is the drive to the airport” is an old and common adage. Unfortunately, it is also a seriously inaccurate one.

And note that I regularly fly small aircraft (including gliders, whose accident rate is also rather alarming) - I feel the risks are more than worthwhile. But I don’t feel they should be ignored.

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Good yarn, Mach Tuck and congrats on a successful solo turn.

Many, many years ago when I first soloed in an old Aeronca (now you know how old I am), was just gathering speed when a stupid dog ran across the runway. It was probably a quarter mile away, but in my sweaty, nervous state, it looked about the size of a moose at ten feet. For a split second thought of aborting, but did not react in time, which was fortunate for my reputation. :slight_smile:

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Also, no where more that General Aviation, small single engine private pilots in particular, is there a more pressing need for personal responsibility.

I do not know how many people are killed on the roads by the direct action of others with absolutely no fault of the victim. Quite a few in the unlucky cars on the other side of the divider.

Small aircraft that crash with a fatality that is the direct result of someone else’s airplane are pretty rare. Most are caused by real bad judgement and are single vehicle in nature.

I can pretty well insure my life with my own judgement in the air, where I can’t on the road. On the road I am too much in the hands of the other drivers.

If you get to throw out all safe airline miles, we should get to throw out all the trucker miles, bus miles, cab miles, limousine miles and all miles driven by a professional driver. All miles driven by CD and CDL license holders. That might make a fair comparison to just the single engine small plane drivers.

YMMV

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GusNSpot has it nailed. My take on general aviation is that it isn’t a bellc urve, but rather a barbell curve.

There are a lot of very low-risk operators, both professional and amatuer.

But then there are the 10% who are an accident just waiting to happen, those who compose 95% of the accidents.

Sadly, some of them are commercial operators, but the vast majority are amatuers who either don’t understand, won’t understand, or flat don’t care about the risks they run.

Others have said it more poetically, but aviation is merciless. Tease it regularly and it will kill you dead. Perhaps not today, but certainly soon enough.

Gus, are you retired now?