Have you ever been told to brace or told passengers to brace if you're a pilot?

Irish Steve wrote: »

Memories of PPL flying a long time ago over South West England in a Rallye 110 and an instructor. We were returning to home base, an old USAF/RAF airfield in the Blackdown hills some 850 Ft above sea level, but found ourselves in the uncomfortable position of being on full power, with climb attitude set, and best climb speed, but still descending towards the high ground that was rising in front of us, due to the massive downdraught that we were in. Fortunately, it wasn't turbulent air, we ended up having to turn away from the route home, and let the airspeed build for a while running downwind, away from the worst of the downdraught, and then climb considerably higher in order to get above the worst of the downdraught, before turning back towards the airfield. Fortunately, the cloudbase was high enough to allow us to do it, if we'd been height restricted by cloud, there would have been no way to get back to home base that day, we'd have had to go somewhere else to land.

A number of years later, both myself and the instructor braced instinctively for impact when a controller error at Gatwick resulted in us having 100 Ft vertical separation from an opposite direction Dan Air BAC 1-11 that was on the base of the TMA at 2500 Ft, and we were (legitimately) operating at 2400 Ft with a different ATC unit. Gatwick had non Gatwick squawks suppressed, so didn't know we were there, and used the base of the TMA in error as a result. Brown trouser moment!

At least the lovely Rallye aircraft was a real beauty for managing comfortable steep approaches from on high. And so easy to get rid of excess height with side-slips.

Was watching Arthur Williams (the paraplegic ex-marine Pilot) flying his cub onto Blackdown in tricky winds. Again the Rallye was good in some awkward winds(used to keep the power on a bit) to have authority against the low wing dropping one side in turbulence, but climbing power wasn’t a strong point to say the least. Always best to err on high a bit of altitude to play with in that aircraft.

smurfjed wrote: »

@Von.Bosch. Sometimes its easier just to go home (or destination) as you are all set up for it, briefed for it, and expected. Plus there shall be additional crews to take the aircraft out again. Diverting to somewhere else causes all sorts of confusion and general chaos. But each case must be analysed as they will be all different, if this Captain was having a heart attack, then it would require an immediate landing, but if he was just feeling like crap, then it's up to him.

Yeah but food poisoning/norovirus will totally incapacitate a pilot and render them unfit to participate in flying for the hours and days it affects them. I did PPL years ago, my instructor from Weston later being a 747 pilot on board a BA flight from Australia. He and another pilot on board had dined together before flight and got struck down with food poisoning, and the end result was great distraction in the cockpit at a critical landing phase and the aircraft came in close proximity of a Heathrow hotel, I think during a go around.

Back in the 80s, during flying lessons time I got to go on board a light commercial freight flight overnight Dublin-Bonn/Cologne-Southend-Dublin. The lone freight pilots liked a bit of trusted company on board, and most often it would be in the form of a might-be/trainee commercial pilot seeing what the actual job was like. It was a Cessna Titan, boarded through a rear door.

After arriving in Bonn/Cologne we retreated to the portacabin when rudimentary beds were placed in rows, rather army-barracks-fashion, for pilots to have a few hours kip. My pilot asked me to waken him (told him I wasn’t much of a sleeper) when I heard the UPS DC8 come in from the States as there’d bevan exchange of cargo, and he wanted to get the engines started before they’d get too cold overnight and be hard to start.

After boarding the freight was piled to capacity behind our seats, preventing any possible egress through the door. We taxied out and we’re rolling along the runway when a red light flashed on and we braked to a halt. Cargo door open indication, could have meant medical equipment being strewn all over the local cities and the Germans wouldn’t like that at all. Pilot asked to pull onto taxiway and stop briefly to close door, permission granted by ATC. He left engines running, and proceeded to climb out the emergency window beside him, whilst I asked him which were the fuel condition levers and exactly how to pull them off in case of emergency. I winced as he passed close to running propellers to access the door externally. All for the fear of not being able to start them, even when they had showed zero reluctance to fire into life.

We set out again, headed for Southend to unload some of our freight, arriving at break of dawn. Tbe fuellers came along and asked me what we needed. BTW I was there under pretence of being a legit pilot, and referred them to the captain rather than say “fill her up”! The pilot sat on a kitchen sink drinking his coffee, in a rather basic outhouse of the terminal, reminding me of a garden shed. One of the other freight pilots, in from Vienna, had seen a Dakota arrive and somehow made the assumption I was its pilot, and asked me would it be possible for me to give him a flight on board as it had been a long-standing ambition to sit up front in one. “Sorry, mine is the Titan, not so interesting.”

After pilot had finished his coffee we walked back out to the aircraft and took off into lovely sunny skies. Glancing down my side over Burnham on Crouch by the Essex Coast my eye was sharply drawn to a hole in the wing where the fuel cap should be. Actually it was flying off in the slipstream, caught on precariously by the end of a chain which had caught in the port, but was not attached to it. I informed pilot, whilst glancing at the fuel levels. He turned white as a sheet and declared Pan Pan on the radio requesting immediate return to Southend. I said “don’t worry, fuel levels are good and stable”, but of course I didn’t know how the dynamic of a gaping hole in the wing would actually work out, and neither did he except to fear it would all vapourise quickly through the low pressure over wing. He said it was a good thing I was there as he wouldn’t have seen it from his vantage point, and blamed himself for failing to do the walk around, as well as the fuel people. One thing he did ask was for me to keep my eye closely on that fuel cap and note exactly the location if it fell off so that we might retrieve it by land as a replacement part could take over a day to get from USA. I had to get into work later that day and was most anxious not to have a detachment which might delay me!

We got going again, fuel cap properly in place, closely overtaking the Dakota which had just departed ahead of us, and waving out to its pilot. Flying over semi-cloudy Snowdonia I insisted on a full 1000 feet separation between us and Mount Snowden as we had tempted fate twice already in the last few hours. He wanted a closer-up view on this beautiful day, but conceded to my request to climb 500 feet higher for a safety margin as the cloud was hanging around the tops of the mountains. I got back barelyy in time to sign on the attendance book at my mundane public service job in Dublin. The boss said I looked flustered, but I didn’t dare tell my tale as she would have admonished me for doing such an irresponsible thing as taking that flight.