{"id":3603,"date":"2015-10-30T12:40:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T19:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=3603"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:55","slug":"141-everyone-can-screw-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/141-everyone-can-screw-up\/","title":{"rendered":"#141 Everyone can screw up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think I may have given away the point of this little story with the title I chose to put on it.\u00a0 That\u2019s okay.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it will detract from the importance of the message.<\/h3>\n

Dale Masters flew for me at Sunriver Soaring for a couple of years.\u00a0 One of the many things I learned from this gifted soaring pilot and instructor was how effective it was to share one\u2019s own screwups.\u00a0 After all, if an accomplished pilot like Dale could make a mistake, anyone could.\u00a0 And we could learn from his mistake without making it ourselves.\u00a0 I recently made a doozy.\u00a0 I\u2019m just waiting for a bit of time to erase the pain before sharing it!<\/h3>\n

This little story concerns one of the best, most natural pilots I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure of flying with.\u00a0 In fact, I have never written a tailwheel endorsement for someone in less time than I did for this pilot. \u00a0\u00a0To this day, I have immense confidence in this aviator\u2019s ability and intelligence.\u00a0 So it was with confidence that I asked the flier to hook the glider up one day with no other wing runners around.\u00a0 \u201cSo what\u201d, I figured, if this person had never hooked the glider to the towplane before.<\/h3>\n
\"DSC03030\"<\/a>
The Pawnee’s tow hitch with the glider tow line properly attached, it’s small ring inserted in the releasable hitch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My new assistant grabbed the tow rope and headed to the tail of my Pawnee.\u00a0 Once there, all that needed to be done was to release the tow hook, place the small ring inside the jaws and put them together.<\/h3>\n

I waited to see my new \u201chooker-upper\u201d scamper away from the tail so I could take the slack out.\u00a0 No joy.\u00a0 I waited and waited, feeling a bit antsy because I was on the runway and had always prided our crew on quick hookups with minimal time on the runway.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t understand why it was taking so long, but I was strapped in and cranked down in the cool aerobatic harness I\u2019d been given by Tommy Jones.\u00a0 Even with the Pawnee\u2019s mirrors, I couldn\u2019t really see anything.\u00a0 Finally, my assistant emerged from behind the glider and waved me off.\u00a0 I took the slack out and waited for the glider pilot to ask to start.\u00a0 He did and we launched down the runway.\u00a0 The tow was uneventful.\u00a0 We got up to altitude and the glider released.\u00a0 I banked left and cleared away, re-formed for the usual photo pass, then continued to slowly reduce power.\u00a0 I banked to 80 degrees or so with flaps and loaded the airplane up to about 3 Gs in order to keep the power up as well as the drag so we could race for the earth without shock cooling the engine.<\/h3>\n

Our technique was to release the rope in a low pass so it would land at the launch point.\u00a0 Then we\u2019d make a tight 360 degree turn and land, thus avoiding dragging the rope.\u00a0 It was on rope release that it got interesting.\u00a0 I guess that some might not notice how much drag 200 feet of tow rope creates on the towplane.\u00a0 It\u2019s really not much, but if you have an operation like ours and make a low pass to release the rope at the launch site, you just might notice that there was no subtle decrease in drag when the release was pulled.\u00a0 I had a hunch that the rope had not released.\u00a0 I made a tight turn to return to a short final and landed, taking extra pains not to snag the rope on runway lights or any other projection.\u00a0 As I took the first turnoff, I looked to the inside of my turn.\u00a0 Sure enough, there was that rope, snaking behind me and following my turning course.\u00a0 I dragged it back up the parallel taxiway and pulled into my parking spot.\u00a0 \u201cNow, why in the hell is that thing still on the towhook?\u201d I was wondering as I shut the Pawnee down and hopped out.\u00a0 I made my way to the tail to<\/h3>\n
\"DSC03029\"<\/a>
The hitch as I found it after landing. The ring which serves to connect the Tost ring to the rope is dangling, unused, while the lockable link is attached to the guide ring. It is impossible to release.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

see what the problem was.\u00a0 I was amazed.\u00a0 We would attach our Tost ring to a lockable link, which was, in turn, secured to the spliced eye in the end of the tow hook.\u00a0 But that link had been opened, then attached to the guide ring of the hitch, then locked securely.\u00a0 The little Tost ring which should have been inserted inside the guide ring and used to secure the rope to the hitch was simply dangling there, doing nothing.\u00a0 There was absolutely no way I could have released it.\u00a0 If my engine had failed I couldn\u2019t have released the glider and until the glider pilot had realized that there was a problem and released, we would have been joined in a high drag, power off descent.<\/h3>\n

I once wrote how dangerous assumptions could be.\u00a0 I guess that could be one of the lessons of this little story.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not the main one.\u00a0 The main lesson behind this little story is that anyone can make a mistake.\u00a0 ANYONE.\u00a0 You, me, or any other airman, no matter how skilled.<\/h3>\n

And it also taught me about my own involvement in this little misadventure.\u00a0 A wag once said, “The road to a mistake is paved with warning signs ignored.”\u00a0 I certainly did my share of ignoring the warning signs!<\/h3>\n

So the next time you assume that \u201cWell, I\u2019d never do THAT\u201d, remember that it only takes one mistake to have some pretty bad repercussions.\u00a0 Remember, this mistake was made by someone for whom I had (and still have) immense respect.\u00a0 Any of us can make that mistake.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made some huge ones.\u00a0 Some have cost me nothing.\u00a0 I\u2019m still paying for others.<\/h3>\n

I wonder what I\u2019ll screw up next!<\/h3>\n

Happy Swooping!<\/h3>\n

Brian<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I once wrote how dangerous assumptions could be. I guess that could be one of the lessons of this little story. But it\u2019s not the main one. The main lesson behind this little story is that anyone can make a mistake. ANYONE. You, me, or any other airman, no matter how skilled. “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,173,174,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}