re: Scariest plane experience

Aborted takeoff in Albequerque as we were about to go wheels up sucked hard.

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It was a 150 for me. Middle of the night

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Had a messy beach landing in a 150 that led to the aircraft being semi submerged by the tide.

Had a buddy that was more interested in spotting moose than he was terrain. Scariest flights I've been.

Crashing really isn't that scary in a small plane. Happens before you have a chance to process it.

Total stupid move on my part.

Was late, landed with 20%, and instead of resetting to 0 I went to full. (30 or 40% can't recall)

A mistake, a little hairy, but we all make stupid mistakes when training.

At least I didn't wreck the plane. I used to fly a Piper more, but a fellow student hit a fence with the wing and it was down while I finished training so I switched to the 172 with electric flaps when I was used to the pull handle of the piper.

Same reason why people land gear up. I didn't properly complete the checklist. I have improved as that was my scariest moment.

I met two pilots who landed gear up. I could never get how one could do that, but I never flew a plane with gear.

I was on final approach going in to the McComb, Mississippi, airport when a big gust of wind caused my plane to weather vane when I was about 100' off the ground. Before I knew it, my plane was in an unusual attitude and the stall warning horn was going off. I remember pushing the yoke and throttle forward to gain airspeed, barely clearing some pine trees that were next to I-55. I can still see a lady in a gold car looking up at me like I was fixing to crash. I got the plane straight-and-level and ended up making a perfect cross-wind landing. When I got out of the plane and in to the FSS, the guy inside had just cancelled the crash truck; he thought I was toast, so he called the local fire department to come scoop me up.

First time I ever flew somewhere, I had a connection in Denver. It was like 4 degrees and we had to go through the de-icing process. I understand now that's it's routine, but at the time I was like what the frick is this shite.

Another time I was thinking wtf was flying from San Pedro back to Belize City. They ferry you in a Cessna 210, and I'm riding in the co-pilots seat. We had to pick somebody up at Caye Caulker and I swear, on approach, that little air strip looks like the shittiest county road in the Deep South and feels like it's the length of a football field. Wasn't really scared, was just really interesting for a few minutes there.

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Piper Cub

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It's amazing how much modern-day incarnations of these planes cost, particularly those made by Cub Crafters.

I was in a little POS turboprop flying into Johnson City, TN. We were going through a terrible storm.

There was this sweet little lady in the seat across from me. She looked like a Mennonite or something. You could tell that she was super religious. And one of our 60-year old SVP's was in front of her.

We hit some major turbulence from a bad storm and we dropped like a stone for about 3 seconds and then started bouncing up 15 feet and down 15 feet for like 10-15 seconds.

I was terrified when it happened, but now, all I can remember is:

1. That 60-year old SVP's head repeatedly slamming against the luggage compartments because he was a dumbass and didn't buckle his seat belt.

AND

2. That sweet little old lady screaming "OH, shite!!!" (Poor little old lady appologized like 8 times to me for "using that kind of language around me."