Let's see...
One time we were over Ft. Worth in a V tail bonanza at 8000 and the engine decided to quit, I was a student then near the end of my training, so I got my first lesson in emergency landings.
Then I was flying to JWY just south of Ft. Worth on another flight when we got a warning about waterfowl in the area. As the FSS was finishing the sentence, we saw two large black balls of death and heard a loud boom as we destroyed two ducks, which broke the prop, went through the intake and blew out the cowl flaps. I was flying with a CFI friend in a 210 and it took both of us to get it on the ground at JWY. I was not PIC, no heat on me, and my friend was classed as "no fault" after the investigation by Dallas FSDO.
One time, around midnight, I was coming in early in my flying career onto a runway that's only 40' x 3000' in a 182, winds 180 at 17 gusting to 28, which was not predicted in the briefing, freak storm cell out of nowhere. I made two go-arounds, the second one I was at 20 flaps and we came over 30' trees at 40' AGL, I was scared sh*tless. Finally, nailed it on the third try after some prayer and careful consideration as to whether or not I was diverting or jumping out so I could fall to my death instead of crashing, it was one of my softest landings ever.
Then there was today. Flying with a passenger on her first ever flight in a GA aircraft, my 182 Skylane, winds were 50 at 7 gusting to 19, which wasn't the case when we took off for some sightseeing. We were landing on the runway mentioned above at 7F7, taking off and landing on 32. The incident above was on 14. We enter the pattern, catching some turbulence after a pretty decent flight, she got a lot of pictures, and the Cracker Barrel food she ate earlier became Cessna Barrel's new menu item. Puke on the right seat yoke, puke on the MP and RPM, then she said "I'm ok," as she turned to me and decorated my yoke and AS indicator. So, I had to use my shirt to clean the MP, RPM and AS, during a shifting wind that got ugly in ground effect. The landing was smooth as glass with a solid crosswind correction, and she is now set on getting her VFR license.
Then there was a passenger friend that was flying with me at KOZA, Ozona, TX. It was July 2 of this year, can't forget. First, we flew out to SJT without incident, a little bumpy. On the way back from the short trip we caught some of the famous West Texas unseen downdraft and lost 200', it happens and it's not lethal. He drank a lot of tea at SJT and proceeded to pee on the right seat during the panic of the downdraft. We were at 8500, roughly 6200 AGL, so 200' is nothing to write home about. Then, we get into the pattern for 34 at KOZA, which takes us over the town of 4000, where I am originally from. Some jackass kids on the ground decided that it would be hilarious to shoot off large bottle rockets at a low-flying plane. My passenger was a county commissioner, no less. Fortunately we were just about to enter the downwind so I had some speed behind me, and a 182 is very stable in a tight spot, so I yanked it into a steep turn, called for traffic on the unicom, then called unicom on the ground to make sure we were all on the same page, and entered a right pattern on a standard-pattern runway and got it down. We then got in his truck and met the Sherriff at the intersection where the kids were, and I am happy to report that they are clearing trash and mowing the grass around a 75' x 6000' runway every Saturday until March 1, 2010. The Justice of the Peace who sentenced them is also a pilot, his wife is the airport manager, and he was a good friend of my grandfather, who was also a pilot. That's all I can remember offhand, gonna check my logs to see any other interesting notes.
|