Flying is not for everybody. There is no such thing as a perfect flight. As a passenger we're not privy to the truth of the journey every plane takes. But our Captains are aware. And they know some things and have some stories we probably don't want to know but can't help but need to hear.
Redditor corrosive_elements wanted the Captains of the Sky to share some secrets.... they asked... Pilots of Reddit: what was your "Oh no this is not good" moment that turned out to be okay without the passengers knowing about it? If you have flying issues, go take a pill before you read.
Just kidding....
GiphyPrivate pilot here. Flying a small 4 seater about a year after getting my license at 17 to take may parents to lunch at Harris Ranch in BFE central California. There's a small runway next to a monsterous cattle farm that has a delicious restaurant that I swear they must walk the cow straight into the kitchen and out on a platter.
When we left Sacramento the seating configuration was my small framed mother and myself up front, and my 275 lb dad in the back. This led to a center of gravity to the rear situation that required me to set the trim forward to stay level our the nose would keep drifting up.
Flight to HR was uneventful and we had a wonderful lunch but for the return trip we decided that my dad would sit up front and my mom would move to the back. Stupid 18 year old me didn't follow every step of the preflight checklist and I forgot to retrain the controls to neutral before taking off.
Started down the runway for takeoff and as soon as I hit speed I realized my mistake that with the new weight distribution the CG shifted forward, as well as the controls trimmed forward, I pulled back on the yoke to rotate and it didn't budge. Never in my life has 1000ft of remaining runway suddenly appeared to reduce to nothing. To make things worse the end of the runway was an elevated road leading to an overpass with cars on it.
I literately wrapped both arms around the yoke and pulled back with all my strength to get the nose wheel to slightly lift off the runway and the plane slowly inches off the ground. The embankment to the road got closer and closer and I had visions of emergency crews having to scrape us off the surface, leftovers and all.
As we approached it became clear that we were going to just clear the road but I saw a pickup approaching the road and I wasn't sure we weren't going to collide. He saw us coming and slowed to a stop and I swear I was able to look straight in his eyes as we cleared the road.
When we were safely clear of trees and obstructions I was able to let go with one arm and reach down to turn the wheel that trims the controls.
As I was thanking my lucky stars to have survived the day my dad was muttering at me something like, "very funny. I didn't eat that much."
Both he and my mom assumed I was making a joke because my dad ate a huge lunch and thought I was acting like the plane couldn't take off.
I never told them the truth about how close a call that it actually was, nor did I ever forget to reset the trim before takeoff.
In flight training, we were practicing stalls. While doing a power on stall, pulling back to lose airspeed, I notice another plane coming at us, probably 100 yards away. I immediately throw the nose down to avoid death and my instructor looks at me with a weird look. He didn't see the other guy. He tells me that not even close to the stall speed and I tell him about the other airplane. He says "oh yeah, good call." On the way back to the airport I ask him if he's had any experiences like that. He said he's come so close that he could see the whites in the other pilots eyes. Flying VFR can be fun.
Know your skills...
So had just recently gotten my private pilot license - no instrument rating. Decide to fly the wife out to Ocracoke in the Outer Banks for a little get away weekend. Checked the weather very carefully, prepped for the flight the best I could. Just as we get to the Carolina coastline the sky starts turning a wierd Brown. Very light drop in visibility but I get a little unsettled. I turn back overland and check in with flight service and get weather for several points on the Outer Banks - which all checks out good. I think about it then decide to turn back toward Ocracoke - which means flying about 20 miles over water.
About half way across visibility has gone to complete shit. Sky all around me is brown and I can't see a clear horizon I can barely make out the water below me. I am on course according to the GPS and I keep thinking about the clear weather reports ahead. I know I'm approaching the island, but I can still barely see the water below me from 3500 feet. I know from my prep that the highest obstacle in the area is about 500 feet so I decide to descend to 1500 feet. As soon as I crossed the beach it got worse - the color of the sand below matched the brown of the sky and I started to get disoriented. It was like being wrapped in a brown cotton ball. I focused on staying on course, wings level and holding 1500 feet. Suddenly below I got a glimpse of the runway as I flew over it. I f**ked up here and decided I was not going to fly away where I couldn't see the runway. I flew a tight pattern descending keeping my eyes locked on the runway and not on the instruments. I didn't realize how disoriented I was getting till I saw I was below 500 feet, I thought I was level but was in fact in a bank. I got it straightened out and reset my brain a little, got lined up for the runway - airspeed and attitude ok. Right at touch down I realized that since I couldn't really make out details of the ground that my visual clues were all shot and didn't understand just how low to the runway I was - my normal sight picture was f**ked, basically I almost drove it right into the runway but fortunately recovered and make a reasonably smooth landing. I had been making some radio calls but couldn't see the opposite end of the runway. Finally got parked under a completely obscured sky. When I parked I found another guy chilling next to his Cirrus. Turns out the whole area was under smoke from a peat bog fire and visibility was below limits- not VFR at all but apparently flight service didn't know that. He congratulated me on my skills - not knowing that my hands were shaking.
My wife thought the whole thing was great :)
Once More with feeling...
GiphyYes I am a pilot and CFI. Scariest moment was when on intro flight and coming back into land. Student is doing super well everything cool. We were cleared to land, number one, from 4 miles out. On short finals (less than a mile out) another plane appears over to top of us and lands on our runway. Trying to keep cool, I take the controls, ask tower what's going on, start a go around, simultaneously side stepping to get out of their wake. Turn to my student and say, so shall we try that again?
A rumble in the sky...
CFI (Certified Flight instructor) here. While teaching my student how to do a cross country, we got blindsided by two pop-up thunderstorms. There was a 20 mile wide corridor to fly down back to base, according to flight service, so we cut our trip short and headed home. Played it off cool, said "This is a great time to practice diversion and good decision making" but I was terrified.
Flew tourists and odd jobs in Phoenix for a couple years in an R44. Going in for a landing at a remote site in the middle of the desert. Just as I was about to drop into a hover, drain my speed, I noticed just above my feet a trike motor paraglider just cruising under me only a couple feet above the ground and maybe 5 feet under me. Very cool like, did a 180 and told pax I was worried about the landing spot, so I went pretty far in a different direction while watching that little idiot in my skid mirror. I quick flipped to a couple open channels to try to raise him and didn't get a reply so Im assuming he was without a radio. Still to this day Im wondering how in the hell did he get in behind and under me so fast when I was probably cruising at 80mph? How in the hell did he keep that thing solid under my rotorwash? And why in the hell would it be a good idea to fly under a helicopter when it is about to land. A couple people Ive talked to have said he probably didn't even notice me. Im just gonna go to the grave believing some people wanna live on a razors edge...
Low, low, low, low...
I'm a pilot but I don't have passengers normally. A few years ago I was flying pretty high in the clouds (36000 feet or so) around some very high mountains, (about 26,000 feet) and our GPWS (ground proximity warning system) started having an electronic seizure. "TOO LOW TERRAIN, TOO LOW GEAR, TOO LOW FLAPS, TOO LOW TERRAIN" After freaking out for a few moments, we remembered we were higher than the tallest mountains in the world let alone in the area and released the seat cushions from our butt cheeks. I then told one of the crew to pull the circuit breaker for the GPWS to turn it off.
Dad to the rescue...
GiphyOh I got one! When I was a teenager my dad was earning his pilots license, it was the best we always got to go on lessons. We all liked his instructor and had him around for dinner often and he and my dad would make sports bets. Well instructor Chris lost and the payment was a ride with him on this twin engine just for fun. It's a clear night so we go and Chris and dad are flying, and my mom, baby sis, and I for in the back. My sister fell asleep before we even get to the runway.
We take off and immediately something is very wrong, suddenly loud bangs all over the plane like metal is hitting it and the plan pitches crazy. My mom had a headset so I reached over and grabbed one side so I could hear. Chris is freaked out but I heard my dad say calm, "we fly the plane first and panic later" then start radioing others we are circling back for emergency landing. At this point my mom grabs the headset back and I just sat still. They landed the plane perfectly. Turns out there was an outside compartment on the nose of the plane that was open so on take off it flew open and a bunch of stuff hit the plane. We got out, all of us shaken, and then my Lil sis pipes up, "daddy are we going to fly now?" we all just lost it laughing.
My dad can't fly now, but I'm saving up. Next time he comes to visit, I'm going to make sure I've had a few lessons and I'll take him flying this time. Those flying lessons were some of the best moments of my childhood.
Fly High!
I'm a helicopter pilot. I was doing a tourist flight and was flying low (~ 50 ft) in between rock formations to impress my passengers and give them a nice time. I've done this flight multiple times, everyone always love that low pass and I usually love it too, except this time I saw a prey bird flying higher than us right over our flight path and I was unable to diverge as I was lower than the walls around me. You have to know that most birds usually try to avoid big noisy thing flying near them, they do so by swerving left, right or down. Prey birds are also known to sometimes attack big noisy flying things by diving at them. It all went pretty fast and thankfully the bird didn't do anything stupid like throwing itself into the main rotor. We landed safely a few minutes later and my passengers went on their way without suspecting anything. I'm more careful now when I make this flight.
Miscommunication is dangerous...
GiphyThe first time I flew a plane, I nearly crashed into a helicopter I went heli skiing on the day before. For some reason they only operate on their own frequency so we didn't know they were there, and they didn't know we were there. The flight instructor took over and it ended up being fine. Quite a shock though.
Redditor littleallred008 wanted to compare notes on all the degraded quality in the world of retail.
"What has simultaneously gotten worse and more expensive?"
Fast food in general. Wendy's? Your potatoes are shriveled and sad. They used to make me happy.
Ronald?
big mac 80s GIFGiphy"Big Macs. That burger 'patty' is a stones throw away from being a slice of roast beef."
badmangoodguy
Read Closer
"Cable/ Internet providers. Oh yes sorry your trial period was over, your bill went up 200 dollars. Oh no we didn't promise you 200mb/s download speed constantly, we said UP TO. read the fine print."
demonardvark
"In the US, if you’re lucky enough to live in a place with more than one option, call and threaten to cancel (speak with retentions) at the end of your contract."
"You should be able to renew at a better rate (maybe not as good as the trial offer). I actually just switch every year between Comcast and AT&T. I just set a calendar reminder for the following year once I sign a new contract. It’s a small hassle but worth it to save hundreds per year."
sameoldtexans
Skin
"I swear that Reese's peanut butter cups have gotten shi**ier over the years. the peanut butter seems chalkier and the chocolate tastes blander.
Plus I can't ever seem to pry them out of that little cup wrapper without leaving the bottom chocolate 'skin' stuck to it...
"I think the push to put them in the freezer and eat them chilled is a ploy to cover the declining quality."
thatstupidthing
No place like no home...
"As someone shopping for a house, I have to say homes. Not only has the real estate market been ridiculously inflated (especially in NYC, my residence), I'm finding that the actual quality of a lot of these homes are absolute crap. Due to the ability to find and source cheap materials and labor, developers are able to make huge profits off high prices and low costs. It's making me really rethink if I want buy a house, or just use all that money to aggressively invest."
orange_cuse
Not so Wild
I Hate You Wings GIF by The BachelorGiphy"Buffalo Wild Wings. I don’t know if it’s just me, but their prices have gone up and the quality has gone down."
ChongerHonger333
From my reviews, wings in general have just taken a hit.
Never Lasting
Show Off Renee Zellweger GIF by Working TitleGiphy"Clothes, very few companies make clothes to last and fast fashion is rising while the cost of items continue to increase!"
Longest_YeahBoi_Ever
Yuck
"Scented candles, Yankee Candle in particular used to be the candle that was considered premium. But while they've never been cheap at least a while ago it was worth the money. But now they're just exorbitant in price, they don't smell like they used to, and they are not worth the money."
llcucf80
Use an IPhone...
"Photo booths! Oh the old ones were so cool! Four different real photos for 1 dollar. - Now you pay $ 7 for four identical bad laser prints."
aSadGirlsTongue
"This is why we bought all the supplies and just made one ourselves, super easily. Literally bought a backdrop & frame, all the fancy lighting, props, tablet, tablet stand, color printer, and even the little clicker thing to press when to take the photo."
"All of that off of Amazon, for less than 1/3 the price we were quoted to rent one from a company. And now we have a photo booth... lol. We can be that cool couple that can bring a whole photo booth setup anytime we're invited to our friend's weddings, parties, events, etc."
Rachelalala
Ruined
"The Cadbury Egg is honestly the most disappointing to me, because nearly every one of the food products mentioned has plenty of viable alternatives that haven't been ruined. You can find a thousand high-quality chocolate bars or ice creams or whatever."
"But the Cadbury Egg is a singularly unique product. There's nothing else like it on Earth, so once Cadbury ruined the recipe, it was a treat lost forever."
KlaatuBrute
Learning
Robin Williams Movie GIFGiphy"My university education, specifically this year. They are raising tuition AND fall semester has no in-person sessions."
BlueKnightBrownHorse
I feel like life itself has degraded and become too expensive in general.
Redditor LBE wanted to hear about the times in life we've all been left with unease and shivers down the spine.
"What is the Creepiest or most Unexplained thing that’s happened to you that you still think about to this day?"
Noises. My creepiest enemy is simple noises. I've wasted hours hunting small noises that could be someone hiding. I'm always on guard.
Vanished...
"To this day, there was a kid in my class that no one else remembers. I distinctly remember playing with this kid in kindergarten, and we were pretty much inseparable. About a month past Christmas break he disappeared. No one remembered him."
GIF by VPROGiphy"Not the teachers, or the others in my class. No one. I even asked the school counselor if he was okay, and she humored me by going through records to see if he’d transferred. She couldn’t find a thing. I think about it at least once a month."
CrippledUnironically
Deliverance
"Was delivering newspapers on my paper route when a longtime customer pulled his car next to me and asked me to just give him his daily newspaper now because he was going on a long trip. I handed him his newspaper then skipped his house as I continued my route."
"The next day I was collecting the weekly fees (you used to have to go collect the money back then, no internet payment yet) and I went to his house to collect my fee. His wife answers and promptly complains that I missed her house on my deliveries the day before."
"I explained to her that her husband pulled up next to me, I told her what he said and that I gave him the paper. She started crying, told me that he had died a couple weeks ago and it was obviously not possible that I spoke with her husband the day before."
"I know what I saw and nearly 30 years later I still think about that situation. I have no way to logically explain what happened and it still give me the creeps."
avionchef
All Black...
"I have a weird memory that's not mine; I'm a small boy with a suit and tie, I'm at a party in a huge ceremonial church or something and there's lots of men and women wearing fancy black clothes, they all get in a circle its the middle of the day light was brightly coming in through the windows and there are old-ish couple dancing in the middle of the circle with some very classy/fancy music."
"And I was trying to look at them through people's legs, suddenly the man falls, no gunshots no one did anything to him and then the second he falls everyone starts screaming, people were running away but the men were running towards him, I think I was trampled because I was lying on the floor and then everything goes black."
"That's all I can remember. This is a clear memory that has stuck with me since I can remember, I'm really creeped out because I know that memory isn't mine, I've never gone to a fancy party in a church when I was little and I don't know what happened to that man because I fell over."
waterbottleman8000
Spooked
"Driving home from work late one night I was followed and it was weird. I left the hospital and turned off the main road to a bunch of side streets I would take. At one point I noticed a car behind me that made the same left turn as me. They sped up to get behind me. I thought nothing of it. Then I briefly thought about running to 7-11 to grab some food and turned on my right signal."
"But I realized I had food at home, so I turned my signal off. The car behind me turned on their right signal and turned it off as well exactly as I had. At that point I got a bit spooked. So I turned my right signal on and they did as well. Instead at the next intersection I turned left even though my right signal was on. They did as well. They proceeded to follow me through a series of odd turns."
"Eventually I turned onto a cul-de-sac I knew about and figured I could turn around there and look at the driver to see who was following me. As I approached the end of the road they figured out what I was doing. They stopped and did a fast k-turn and sped off. It was weird. Still don’t know who it was."
BiologyJ
Bad Vibes
"This didn't exactly happen to me, but I got some backlash and bad vibes from it. My best friend and his mom were moving out of their house (they were the only ones living in the house) and he went to take one last selfie in his room. When he showed the picture to his mom, she goes 'Who is that?"
"Upon further inspection he notices there was a straight up white face almost like a mask looking over his shoulder from the attic hatch above his room. He always heard things from the attic but never saw anything. A few weeks later we went on a wrestling trip and stayed in a hotel. He showed the pic around to everyone in our room, and then some spooky things started happening."
"In our room we began hearing knocks on our door when nobody was there. We also saw flashes or glimpses of a figure in the mirror in our room. Everyone was a little freaked out about it and thought it could be the demon from the picture, and my friend who took it became so paranoid he played bible verses to ward any demons off all night. He said ever since he took that picture he has had weird things happen to him."
Xander20021
Always listen to your bad vibes. They know all...
The Grunt
"I would cut weight/train for wrestling in high school, which meant a lot of dark-night runs at the middle school track. It was an old gravel one close to the woods with no lights. I didn't like running at the high school track for some reason so I'd just go there. I'd hold my phone to time my laps and one night while I was looking down at it, someone tackled me out of nowhere."
"We rolled around on the ground and he never said a word. Just grunted. Luckily, I got up and ran towards the middle school. I ran into some people and they called the cops. I left all of my stuff behind and he didn't take any of it. It was pretty strange."
Dragoevsky
3:21
"Driving from Northern California to Southern California through the middle of the night about a decade ago. I was tired, and the scenery along the freeway through the central valley isn't very interesting. I remember passing an old silo, looking at my car clock and it was 3:17 in the morning."
"Drove some more, passed a powerline, and it was 3:21."
"I blinked, shuffled in my seat, and passed that same old silo, and it was back to 3:17. I was in disbelief. I just stared at my clock for a few moments."
"Drove a little bit more, passed the same powerline, 3:21. Don't know why or how, but I went backwards about 4 minutes. Never experienced anything similar or since."
haysus25
Meow...
"A random cat on the street once protected me from a man who I didn't realize was following me."
"I was (stupidly) talking on my phone while walking home at night. I saw a man who was talking to himself near a park and I deliberately chose to walk down another street to avoid him. In the middle of my phone conversation, this orange cat comes up beside me and starts walking next to me."
"We walk in tandem for about three blocks, me telling the person I was talking to how funny this was."
"Suddenly, the cat starts to turn around and head back the other way. I look and see that same man I'd seen earlier, who had changed his original direction and had been following me for a few blocks. The cat got in between us and howled at him until he turned around and went the other way."
"Then the cat and I walked another block together, at which point he peeled off into a yard. I double-checked and the man was had disappeared. I can't be sure that the man wished me harm, but I know I wouldn't have noticed him if it weren't for that cat. I never believed in guardian angels or anything of that sort until I had that experience."
Mgnolry
Prints
"You know on cold days inside your car you can breath on the window and draw on the glass? I got in my car, and as I look at the windshield I see a few small baby hands. I thought it was strange someone would let a baby play on my cars windshield. I had an urge to touch the baby prints and as I touched it, I wiped away the hand prints. The hand prints were made from inside of my locked car. This is probably the strangest creepiest unexplained phenomena that’s ever happened to me."
ScootyPufff
Sucking lIfe
"I had a recurring nightmare of a pitch black parasite sucking the life it of me. Sometimes it waited for me in dark corners to go to bed. My cats always slept on my bed during that time. For me it was a very stressful time, a got an itch at the place of my chest where I dreamed the parasite was sucking my life out of me."
"I got sick and felt a pea sized lump. I went to my doc and they ordered a biopsy of that lump. As it turned out I had male breast cancer at the age of 28. After I got well again the dream never came back and my cats slept in their places again and not on my bed."
Teething Mental Health GIF by PBS Digital StudiosGiphy"The dream was creepy enough what it made for me were my cats protecting me."
Mechanic84
How do any of us sleep at might?
Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.