I am an idiot

[Chasing28]

Sole cleansing moment[SUB].......

I the aviation world, "lessons learned" sometimes saved lives of others. This is not that!

That said, having the latitude to admit to stupid mistakes does three things:

1. Provides an eyerolling moment for those who read and will make you feel good about your own lot in life
2. Lessons the burden of embarrassment for me
3. May, and I do mean MAY, prevent someone from doing the same.

Last post, I was having trouble with my Air Conditioning System just after leaving the Bahamas. When we arrived (53 hours later) in Brunswick GA, I arranged for a tech to come and take a look. When he came aboard the boat and "TURNED THE FAN ON HI", from the OFF position, the system magically came on.

Yup.....turn the on/off switch to the on position and systems work better.

As I said in the title of this post..........

Feel free to judge [/SUB]

 

[cww]

Oh don't feel bad I've done waaaaaaaay dumber

 

[jap201]

no judgment here. we've all done things like that. no harm, no foul

years ago I read a great article written by Tred Barta with the same theme. my favorite story from that article was years ago he was running into Montauk in the fog. don't remember if he had radar, think this was in late 70's early 80's, so even if he had it, radar not like today's. wound up going in on the wrong side of the jetty and put his 31 Bert nicely up on the beach. or the time he loaded up and went to leave but forgot to undo the stern lines. his basic moral of the story was, we all put our pants on one leg at a time, and we all make mistakes. been there, done that, and will do something like that again

 

[jim rosenthal]

Hello from a guy who started to back his car out of the garage without disconnecting the battery tender. As another idiot, I salute you.

 

[Pascal]

Been there done that…

Dumb: 1999, Pikes Peak. Pulled the handbrake really hard in my E-type and triggered the kill switch which is hidden under the cubby above the handbrake. An hour later, car doesn’t start. Ended up going down the mountain on a flat bed which arrived at sunset. Mountain is closed after sunset so we got to enjoy the ride down with an incredible view. Next morning after an hour troubleshooting I realized it was the kill switch

And dumber: 2009 anchored off the Thimbles CT. Full moon, we take the tender for a moonlight cruise around the rocky islands. Came back, tied the line to the stern. 10’ later… oh s… where is the dinghy? Raised anchor and tracked it with the radar… luckily it was a (cold) northerly breeze which made it drift away from shore. Since that day I always have an eye at the end of the painter and I always use two pins!

Live and learn

 

[Dan Mapes]

Put the RV in gear and tried to drive away while it was on the jackstands with the power cord attached to shore power. I was wondering why it would not move until I had checked the gear selector twice. To make matters worse I ignored the alarm bell associated with the stands.

 

[52CMY]

Night Takeoff out of Oceana as a new Tomcat pilot fresh out of training.
I select full throttle and passing about 80knots the cockpit airflow comes on full hot and full blast as I accelerate down runway because I didn't notice on preflight the temp switches were left in the full hot position by maintenance. By the time I rotate and get airborne, the strong airflow is boiling hot for me and my RIO so I'm busy adjusting the 3 thumbwheels to midrange temp as I clean up the jet and start looking for the nav lights of my flight leader as my RIO can't lock him up on radar... It's a night flight that starts remarkably badly for me. I'm behind the jet, and I'm hating it.
Something seems not quite right as I climb into the operating area. The Noise isn't quite right. There's a bit of buffet. It's very dark and scary. I check that my speedbrakes aren't out, my wings are in AUTO, maneuvering flaps are up, hmmm. Must be my imagination? We start to accelerate and the noise and buffet are getting worse and then MASTER CAUTION LIGHT and right engine INLET and left RAMP lights illuminate brightly. Oh, could it be Flight Side Hydraulic failure! I start to slow down and MASTER CAUTION light is back on and now left engine INLET & RAMP Lights are on too! Total Hydr Failure?!?! I stow the ramps, check my hydraulics gauges and slow down. I tell my flight lead I've go some problems with the inlet ramps, my checklists are complete but don't know what's causing the issues. It's 11:45pm, I'm tired and not enjoying myself at all. We can't figure out what's wrong with the jet. Its sluggish, buffeting, and just not right. We talk to the flight lead, we talk to our squadron maintenance folks and the Operations Officer on the UHF. We can't figure out the issue so we abort the flight and head home. We think about declaring an emergency with Air Traffic Control but Tomcat crews hated to do that back in 1992 So we just came back into the overhead pattern at a relatively slow speed of about 280knots. When I slowed to landing gear speed of 250, I reached for the big landing gear lever with my left hand in the darkened cockpit to lower the gear and ....the gear lever was down already.

I'd never raised the gear!!!! I was so distracted with the boiling hot air on takeoff that I never raised the gear! But more impressively stupid, never in the 30 minute flight figured out that my gear were down the whole time. Despite the buffet, the noise, the drag, the warning lights (that come on when the gear is down above 0.5mach). So I landed with my tail between my legs, taxied in and shutdown, and reported to maintenance, where all the squadron experts were there eager to help me troubleshoot what happened and how to fix and whatever electronic boxes needed attention and replacement.
I told them they only needed to "Remove and Replace" the pilot and that would fix the problem...
So embarrassing.

 

[Pascal]

I mentioned cars and boats dumb and dumber but forgot dumbest… in the air.

Sometimes in the late 80s, took of from st Martin French side heading home to nearby st barths, both notoriously short runways. Twin engine Piper Aztec. Rotate, gear up and I get this awful banging noise on the right side. Engine seemed ok but as I climbed and accelerated noise got worst. Since I was alone and light I decided to shut down the right engine and feather the prop. Returned to the field and landed. Reached over to open the door on the passenger side and get some cool air only to find the passenger seat belt caught outside. It was the buckle making the noise. I never forgot to secure the passenger side belt since then

Probably as bad as leaving your gear down !

 

[Bob Bradley]

I was striper fishing the New Haven CT breakwaters one damp spring evening. Got our limit and headed in around midnight. Foggy as hell, with my eyes glued to the radar screen and listening to the Securite call from the freighter that was outbound. I was about a half mile from her and bitching about the fog and not being able to see the lights on the boat or anything else when my buddy says "what fog? It's been clear for the past 15 min." Only then did I realize that the inside of my windshield was completely fogged over on the inside and just needed to be wiped clear.

 

[Avenger]

Night Takeoff out of Oceana as a new Tomcat pilot fresh out of training.
I select full throttle and passing about 80knots the cockpit airflow comes on full hot and full blast as I accelerate down runway because I didn't notice on preflight the temp switches were left in the full hot position by maintenance. By the time I rotate and get airborne, the strong airflow is boiling hot for me and my RIO so I'm busy adjusting the 3 thumbwheels to midrange temp as I clean up the jet and start looking for the nav lights of my flight leader as my RIO can't lock him up on radar... It's a night flight that starts remarkably badly for me. I'm behind the jet, and I'm hating it.
Something seems not quite right as I climb into the operating area. The Noise isn't quite right. There's a bit of buffet. It's very dark and scary. I check that my speedbrakes aren't out, my wings are in AUTO, maneuvering flaps are up, hmmm. Must be my imagination? We start to accelerate and the noise and buffet are getting worse and then MASTER CAUTION LIGHT and right engine INLET and left RAMP lights illuminate brightly. Oh, could it be Flight Side Hydraulic failure! I start to slow down and MASTER CAUTION light is back on and now left engine INLET & RAMP Lights are on too! Total Hydr Failure?!?! I stow the ramps, check my hydraulics gauges and slow down. I tell my flight lead I've go some problems with the inlet ramps, my checklists are complete but don't know what's causing the issues. It's 11:45pm, I'm tired and not enjoying myself at all. We can't figure out what's wrong with the jet. Its sluggish, buffeting, and just not right. We talk to the flight lead, we talk to our squadron maintenance folks and the Operations Officer on the UHF. We can't figure out the issue so we abort the flight and head home. We think about declaring an emergency with Air Traffic Control but Tomcat crews hated to do that back in 1992 So we just came back into the overhead pattern at a relatively slow speed of about 280knots. When I slowed to landing gear speed of 250, I reached for the big landing gear lever with my left hand in the darkened cockpit to lower the gear and ....the gear lever was down already.

I'd never raised the gear!!!! I was so distracted with the boiling hot air on takeoff that I never raised the gear! But more impressively stupid, never in the 30 minute flight figured out that my gear were down the whole time. Despite the buffet, the noise, the drag, the warning lights (that come on when the gear is down above 0.5mach). So I landed with my tail between my legs, taxied in and shutdown, and reported to maintenance, where all the squadron experts were there eager to help me troubleshoot what happened and how to fix and whatever electronic boxes needed attention and replacement.
I told them they only needed to "Remove and Replace" the pilot and that would fix the problem...
So embarrassing.

If it makes you feel any better, Charles Lindbergh did the same thing in a P-38 in the Pacific during WWII. Only it was daytime and his squadron mates could see what was happening and pointed it out to him. Needless to say, with observations about how a Lightning was not the Spirit of St. Louis.

 

[Scarlett]

Is this a great forum or what, you guys did a great job of making the op not feel so bad, just one quick addition who here can admit that they have never left the dock with the power cord still plugged in, come on now be honest.

 

[jap201]

getting ready to leave with strong wind from the stern. wife released the bow lines, and has just tossed the spring lines, so I let the stern lines go. as I let the second stern line go, I tripped on the still plugged in power cord. hanging on for dear life to that one stern line I managed to get a loop on the cleat as the power cord was at full extension. embarrassing, but mistakes happen. as long as no one gets hurt, learn from the experience. make a list and double check.

 

[Chasing28]

Thank you all for the encouraging responses here. There are those that have and those that will. I guess we are in the "those that have" category.

52cmy - Eric....one of the most uncomfortable feelings in the world is knowing there is something wrong especially on the climbout but not knowing what it is, especially on a night hop.
Separate note, a winger of mine had a fire on #2 on the climb, E Handled # 1, said shit, cleaned up the fire on #2 which would have went out a minute later anyway when he successfully ditched.

 

[Sadey]

#1 Fire Switch confirm? confirm, Pull. Two is always better then one. Been there done that. Luckily mine was the dock water hose. Funny thing was as soon as I heard the “pop” I knew exactly what it was. Even luckier for me there were a number of dock neighbors to witness it.

 

[52CMY]

Probably as bad as leaving your gear down !

I always figured that if I'm going to make an error (which I no doubt will on occasion) accidentally leaving my gear down at the beginning of a flight is not as bad as the opposite--accidentally leaving my gear up at the end of a flight!

On my first at sea workups prior to my first deployment cruise, the best pilot in my squadron, our Squadron Ops Officer, came back after a good deal day ACM hop with one of the other new guys in the squadron on his wing. They came raging into the break overhead the ship (as we did back then before beancounters realized the jets were experiencing more fatigue life damage in those sh!thot breaks than anything else during the missions and tried to put an end to SHBs). Our illustrious Ops O came around the approach turn behind the boat expecting cut lights from the LSOs ("Cut lights" were the zip-lip comm-out signal for "Roger Ball" meaning "You're cleared to land") but he got no cut lights...a few moments later, he got on the radio and "called the ball" to prompt the landing clearance from the LSOs but instead got the waveoff lights...because his gear were up. Oh god, his gear were up! The whole ship had just watched him roll out in the groove with his gear up and then irritatedly call the ball to wake up those lousy LSOs.
But the great learning point for me was how he handled it- brilliantly, with humility and directness. And he shared with everyone he was so thankful that happened at the ship in front of everyone--where everyone saw it and the LSOs could fix it so he didn't land gear up. He bought beers for LSOs for a long time after that.

 

[Sadey]

Good skips with grace are the true professionals.

 

[Bob Bradley]

Here's one more for the list. I've been in a temporary slip all winter as my regular one was on the side of the river that was dredged over the winter. On Sat, I had to move it to meet a fuel truck anyway, so after fueling I ran it solo across to my regular slip. As I stopped to spin the boat and line it up I watched the current (my slip is perpendicular to the current) and it seemed to be fairly slow, as it was nearly low tide, so I lined up and backed in. Well, I guess with the freshly dredged depth, it was running faster below than up on the surface and quickly pinned my port side to the piling. No big deal, I dropped stbd into reverse to bend her around the piling and into the slip. The spreader bars on the outriggers looked to be clear of the piling. Unbeknownst to me, one of the tensioning wires on the rigger found its way into a split at the top of the piling. They had all been pulled and replaced during the dredging, and the cones were missing from the tops. Well, the wire managed to jam itself 3 or 4 inches down into the split in the pole. By the time I realized what was happening it was too late. I couldn't move the boat forward or backward. The wire had it locked into place. I tried to pry the wire out by hand but couldn't do so, so I had to leave the helm and go below for a pair of vise grips to pry the wire out of the crack. Here's the results...

 

[Bob Quinn]

I would call all these encounters "The adventures of Bob"
I told my life partner when we met that it's always an adventure with me.
I didn't get specific as to the details! HA!!

We all have these time, it's all good! If your not out trying then your not having any fun!

 

[madhatter1]

Bob is right. In motocross we say if you're not crashing you're not trying hard enough! We are not idiots (although sometimes especially in the moment is seems so), We are gaining experience and adding "character" to our boats. Hard part is the boat bucks to erase the unwanted character!

 

[Bob Bradley]

I got some good news this afternoon. The broken part is available and will only set me back $400. All things considered, I'll take that as a win.