You may be right but the best rule of thumb is when conditions deteriorate, add additional time to do preflight & walkaround inspections. Never rush when conditions are less than ideal. That’s when it’s time to be extra vigilant.
@@josephroberts6865 Yeah but that doesn’t account for “get-warm-itis”. I’ve been there and it’s actually a part of why i dress in layers to fly in the winter (the other being that doofus “dress to egress” quote that drives me crazy). Having an extra layer with gloves, a hat and a hood on your jacket makes it such that you can still do everything you need outside with minimal impact. You might still be a little chilly by the time you take the controls but goddamn, the towbar will be stowed and the oil cap will be replaced…
This guy is going to be known to all his friends from now on as ‘Towbar’. He’s gonna get aviation themed gifts for his birthday, xmas, MLK jr day, all of which will have his new nickname on them. One of his friends will give him a hat with a tiny towbar hanging from the front of the brim. Someone will paint a little towbar on the side of his plane near the door. It will never end.
And he /she need to take it like a man, smile and thank people for the reminder of a lesson he SHOULD never be allowed to forget. im guessing -18 had something to do with there shortened pre-flight. just a guess.
Suggestion: As a rule, paint the towbars bright orange. Just an added measure towards avoiding "Dumbassery". White paintjob seems like a terrible idea, especially in winter. 😉
@@donnahdunthorn5207 Yes, something like that, but I'm thinking you could get a lot of bright flashes of light out of something powered by a simple and durable D-cell alkaline battery. I know they use 4 D-cell batteries in those flashing lights they put on top of the orange and white road work barrels, maybe something similar attached to the tow bar would help prevent this? The idea is that the batteries last literally months of continuous flashing so you don't even have to remember to turn it on, it's just constantly flashing no matter what, and since there's no switch to turn it off, there's no way to make it stop alerting you to it's presence.
Wow! Looking past the dumb error, he did a really excellent job of setting the plane down on two wheels, holding the nose up as long as possible, and getting the engine shut down to minimize damage. Juan, what is your saying, something about doing it correctly in the first place and then not having to demonstrate what a great pilot you are in an emergency? Seems to me that might apply here.
Was that initial 'touch & go' attempt to dislodge the bar a good idea? If the bar had come off & punched back up, it could've done some serious damage. Surely better off coming in for a landing?
@@mattgirgenti3595 and then there are human factors. Not that long ago a top naval aviator was either distracted or skipped the controls full and free check. No one is immune.
A few years back I found a tow bar sticking out of my lawn. It had dropped in vertically and penetrated about 6 inches. Back in the late 1960s I regularly few as a passenger in a Cessna 120 so recognised what it was. I popped round to the local flying school. An instructor knew by the tape markings which plain it belonged too. More than that who had been flying the plane when it went missing. He had flown with it attached. On a left hand circuit it would have been about 5 miles. 8 miles if on a right hand circuit.
I started my old Sierra with the towbar on in front of everyone at the fly in. ONLY ONE good Samaritan came a runnin' doing the head chop off motion. Thank you Frank at KORS! I got distracted - first time I've done such a thing in 41 years and 13k hours. ImMa prOFesHinAL!
Yours is the best post here: even a tremendously experienced and professional pilot can make a mistake. We need to help each other, we need to keep our minds fresh every flight, we need to offer some grace when you make that one mistake. And you need to tease each other to.
I have experienced an incident similar to this when I was working as a Fire Fighter at a regional airport in the UK. The problem was actually at the rear of the aircraft on this occasion, a Beech Barron of french registration who was a regular visitor to the airport After he landed, we noticed a concrete tie down block bouncing along the runway behind him , attached to his tail tie down point. We, the fire crew were on local standby for the arrival, because the pilot reported a problem trimming the aircraft. Not surprised!
ADA Advanced Dumb Assery love it! I've stopped on the taxiway and put fuel cap back on, was 14yo "co-pilot" when my bff cranked the 150 with towbar on (very loud, lucky it didn't start and his dad didn't see it), found tailwheel on rental Champ with no tailwheel bearings, copilot again when door popped open at gear up in Debonair, and had a magneto fall off of same rental Champ on takeoff. Lessons all with little consequence... by the grace of god go I! these things happened as long as 55 years ago, but never forgotten. I'm an A&P, and I've had an instructor accuse me of doing a 100 hr inspection on my pre-flight, but you can not be too careful. The brain is an imperfect computer! Keep reminding us all.
ADAer here. Really wanted to fly my Sonex even though my radio was out for repair. Wheeled the plane out of the hanger with the tow bar attached. Got in the cockpit to see if I could attach my hand held radio to the coax. Success, it worked well. Great,I get to fly. As I took off, my radio was yelling at me, it was Ron at the fbo. Radio was garbled but I did hear the word “nose” and I knew imediately what had happened. Made the smoothest pattern ever shutting the engine down after I had the runway made and made a very smooth landing. Zero damage. Ron was waiting at the end of the runway and would not let me out of the plane. He took off the tow bar and said goooo… DO NOT EVER skip any of your preflight EVER……..
I'm remain alive at 72 years old and drive my wife nuts about how careful I am with stuff that could kill us. One of the memorable lessons I learned back when I was 20 was, while doing ground maintenance on an SH-2D Seasprite, I casually reached up to turn OFF the battery switch and turned ON the fuel dump switch instead. I suppose they use that huge pipe to dump fuel to help keep the fuel out of the vortices. Possible engineering lesson too...Bonus!
Longtime Army aviator here. Very early on, an IP taught me that after the preflight and after a close walk-around, do a walk-around from outside the rotor disk; "you'll be surprised what you find". Indeed, a few times I have been.
I was a Blackhawk crew chief. One of our sister companies had a flight where somehow everyone missed an inlet cover and tried to start the engines! The affected engine had to be replaced. Very bad day for them! I saw apu covers get blown out a few times too. No damage, just a good laugh when it went screaming out at ludicrous speed and the crew chief had to do the walk of shame to go get it.
We have a joke in the GA community. Expensive airplanes and inexperienced owners. Years ago, on HOUSTON ATC, the TRACON controller asked an RJ to expedite descent. The pilot said "We're coming down faster than a Bonanza full of doctors" It's a funny joke.
" I don't think that one is in the manual" - " My sentiments exactly" - " A Dumbass Inspection To Prevent More Dumbassery" - 3 Blanco Statements Of The Year In 1 Video. Well done. Well done.
I was barely listening and was like "he did what???". Rewind a bit and indeed, he did just that. What a doofus :D Ngl, I did some dumb shit too, but mostly embarassing, not stupidly dangerous.
Did that once back in '95 while moving the plane from one ramp to another. No pre-flight or walkaround since I wasn't "flying" and the destination was just a short taxi away. Luckily no damage to the plane but my pride gets dinged every time I think about it, even today (I had an audience of course, and one of them got excited enough to come running after me with arms waiving). Can't take anything for granted.
I did this exact same thing. The deficiency in my pre=flight was in winter as I did my pre-flight in the hangar before. The cold and the scenario they went through probably has parallels to mine. The best kind of mistakes are the ones you get to learn from.
In the flying club hallway at Springbank airport (CYBW) near Calgary, there was a photo of a 172 in the air with its tow bar attached. A sobering reminder to all the students and renters.
Retired A&P here, That's eaisly half a $million in damage, prop, engine teardown, structural damage to the nose cowl and airframe and whatever broke when he slammed the nose gear down, (Drag link, over center mechanism, retract actuator and more)
I have a rule, my towbar is only attached to my plane when my hand is attached to the towbar. I only taxied maybe 100' before someone got my attention. Other than embarrassment, no damage was done. This rule was an immediate result and I'm pretty firm about it.
@CuratedPile In my 40 years of flying, I did it 3x. All within a 60 day time span. Twice I heard the scraping, grinding noise as I taxied and once someone flagged me down. I since have added to my preflight as a walk-around when I close my hangar.
My first instructor taught me that and that rule has served me well. Every once in a while I have to explain to someone why I'm taking it off just to put it back on 2 mins later, but that is no big deal
That's a good rule. Machinists tend to have a similar rule with lathe (and other) chuck keys: It's in the hand when in use. Risks are similar: Loud noises, possible damaged machinery, and possible no more user of machinery (or other nearby persons).
I’ve never seen JB so raw and unfiltered 😂. Caught me by surprise just a little bit lol
10 วันที่ผ่านมา +9
Years ago when I was working as an A&P at Cobb County Intl. Airport in GA (RYY), we used 5-gallon buckets full of concrete as temporary tie- downs. A client came in to pick up his Cirrus SR-22 we'd just annualed. He taxied away without untying the buckets, took off, and flew to Dekalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK...about 20 miles) before anybody noticed, where someone in the tower saw them dangling as he was on final.
@@syitiger9072 One would think so. I'd also think that anyone used to flying a Cirrus would immediately notice the sluggish takeoff performance and immediately request landing clearance, as the thing had just been annualed. Of course, how anyone can miss buckets tied to the wings and not notice the feel of something dragging while taxiing is pretty hard to comprehend too. Distraction? Total ineptitude? Who knows.
Dang! Easier done then said. I did it once with when picking up a T-206 from a shop after Annual. I did a very thorough pre-flight inspection with the A.I. to make sure they didn't foul-up or leave anything loose after tearing it apart, and as I was paying the bill one of the shop guy's pulled it out of the shop with the tail facing the office and the door open. I jumped in taxied out, departed and as I turned downwind and reduced power I heard a "Twang!" and saw a red blur go past the windshield and between the wing strut and wing and knew what happened. I returned to the shop and the shop owner came out and handed me the Cessna Aluminum tow-bar with the hand-hold bit sliced in half, and he said "We heard it hit the prop and it landed right where you were parked. We also found a pretty severe dent in the tip of one blade that had to be replaced. Something a old Air Force instructor told me when I was learning was: "After you do your pre-flight, and before you get into the cockpit, and after everybody is done mucking around with the aircraft, step back so you can see the entire aircraft, look over your preflight checklist one more time and walk a 360 to see if anything is not as it should be" I usually did that, but after my expensive towbar incident, I ALWAYS did the Air Force walk-around.
I was a crew chief in the USAF on F111's and F4's. Went on to become a private pilot and felt good about my pre and post flight inspection skills. But during my time as a private pilot did make a few dumb moves here and there to keep me humble.
We all do dumb stuff. I’m grateful I lived through all my dumb stuff. The way you develop good judgement is from experience. The way you get experience is from bad judgement! 😂
Man oh man I'm not even a pilot but I try and do things by the book- incase fatigue sets in I might have a chance of not missing the tow-bar on the nose wheel type thing.
My wife works at an insurance company. When eating lunch with her at the company cafeteria, my wife's coworkers were telling stories about some of the dumb insurance claims they have seen. Someone asked "Do we insure stupidity?" The person who had worked there the longest replied *"That's all we insure."* As long as a customer isn't fraudulent, the insurance covers all sorts of idiotic claims.
@kingseyes3717 certainly 'can't fix stupid' nor as a similar saying goes 'put brains in a statue'...and the unfortunate outcome of it all...is we all end up paying through increased insurance premiums!!!
Years ago a co-worker who was also a fireman said, "I don't understand why people commit insurance fraud by burning their own house down with accelerants, etc.....just load a pot of grease on the stove, turn the heat to max, boil it over and burn your house down. Perfectly legal and not subject to scrutiny."
Years ago we took off from Tracy (KTCY) and overheard a conversation from another local airport that shared the same frequency. It started with a guy on the ground asking "Hey Bob, ah... do you remember stowing your tow bar?" then after a lengthy pause Bob answered "um...I think so" to which the ground guy replied "Nope, I don't think so"
I flew for an older man who was too old to handle a twin. Years before he had a Cessna 310, the same model as yours, and he left the tow bar on the nose gear. The tow bar stayed on but it jammed in the nose wheel doors. The motor would not put the gear down so he told his passenger to get in the back and kick the handle. The man was afraid he was going to break the handle but the pilot told him to kick it until it was free or it broke off; he had nothing to loose if the handle broke off but everything to loose if he had to land on the belly. One really good kick and it was free. They landed and had to replace the tow bar and straighten the nose wheel doors. Now you know what to do if you forget the tow bar; kick the stuffing’s out of the handle.
As a student pilot I got into the habit of never letting go of the towbar while it was attached to the plane. If I was done towing even temporarily, it was getting unclipped.
So I've got a good bit of PC-12 time, one small tidbit I can add here about the PC-12, the individual landing/taxi lights on each gear are tied to the gear down switches. So you can see the light on the nose gear is off in each video (including the first pass) showing that isn't down and locked ever. Also, each time, EVERY time, do your preflight, take a break, and then do your final walkaround RIGHT before takeoff. You can do the most detailed preflight in the world in the hangar, then miss taking off the towbar or a fuel cap, etc if you don't do a final walk. My C's of walk-arounds: - Covers (ALL removed) - Caps (gas caps) - Cowlings (closed) - Cables (tie downs and/or grounding) - Cones (anything really, set around the aircraft) - Chocks (removed, check everything around wheels, like towbars!) - Control Locks (removed)
I've left my coffee mug on the roof of my car once. I once went scuba diving and forgot to turn my air on. Both times a distraction was the culprit. Had to wash the car, and as for the scuba diving, I turned the air on just before I got wet. We all screw up a bit in life, hopefully our screw ups don't cost us much money, or worse, our lives. This one was painful to watch. Cheers from Winnipeg.
I'm in the club; I recently drove away with my cell phone sitting on the nerf bar step of my truck. I went back and found it laying in the middle of main street about a half an hour later.
I made it a rule on scuba that I start breathing from the regulator before I stand up to walk to the back of the boat. When I started rebreather diving that became 5 minutes. That way any problems should show up before I hit the drink.
@@gasdive I made a trip to the east coast, for a boat dive. When I turned the scan four computer on, we were about to hit the water. Well, the battery was dead, and I said to my buddy, I'll be extra close to you, and away we went. That's when I learned to carry extra batteries.
Trying to take of with a towbar left on the wheel is not as unusual as many may think. Happened twice in my three years working on an airfield. Once the lead lead flight instructor did a full traffic pattern on a Cessna 172 (with the towbar on the nosewheel) without damaging anything. Second time, a Robin DR400 was taxiing with it to the runway, but I could stop it before anything happened. Made the cut throat gesture, he killed the engine and asked "What's up?" And I asked back "You sure you want to take off with your tow bar attached?" Never seen a pilot more embarrassed. P.S. I worked as a groundskeeper, so I was basically not allowed to meddle with flight operations.
@juliogonzo2718 Yeah, we had one pilot who regularly forgot to remove his pitot tube coverings from his Cessna 310. We made jokes, he should ty two red helium balloons with "Remove before flight" to his coverings. The Cessna 310 is a twin piston engine plane and has it's pitot tubes (speed sensors) under the nose out of sight of the pilot when sitting in his seat.
Speaking of tow bars. While the RCAF in WW2 was using multiple types of tow bars for different aircraft, my BIL's father designed 1 tow bar that could be used on multiple aircraft. Anson, Harvard, Blenheim. Good one Juan.
He is lucky he didn’t pole vault off the ground as he rotated. Have you ever seen a car loose the front universal joint on the drive shaft, that is one wild ride.
That happened to me in my 1960 Rambler American when I was 24. Makes a God awful noise beating the underside of the car. I was lucky and rolled into a gas station before it stopped. 😎
Was just joking about this too. One time I saw a rusty old van driving up and down main St and one of the times it came back, the muffler separated from manifold right in front of us and just broke the hell apart and the following car ran it over 😂 a vault would have been awesome 😂
I think the tail number of this plane is missing a "T". Here's my towbar incident: I went to open my T-hanger doors one day (three-panel hanging doors) and after getting them about halfway open I noticed that they seemed to be getting hung-up on something. Of course I just pushed harder for a while (and why not?) until it was clear they weren't going any further. I looked around and lo and behold, somehow, my towbar was jammed between 2 of the panels. I tried opening them again to see if it could be removed but no luck. Ultimately I just yanked on the towbar and was able to get it out but ended up knocking two of the panels out of their lower tracks. This necessitated a call to the port maintenance guy who brought over a long pry bar and we were able to get the doors back on again. He had never seen that before (and he didn't even thank me for providing him with a new experience). I have no idea how this happened. I do lean my bar against the right hand wall after pushing the plane back in and all I can think is that the vibration of opening and closing doors caused it to fall over. Just a word to the wise. I now leave it where it can't fall and do any damage.
My initial CFI tried to tell me that the walk around needed to be done in one comprehensive single walk around. I'm not sure if it was just my normal curiosity, or paranoia, but it never set right with me. An old crusty hanger bird once told me to always "step back and have a smoke break before you go fly" and even though I don't smoke it resonated with me. Taking a few extra laps around the plane, and then stepping away and looking at the whole picture has saved me a number of embarrassing, or even life threatening airfield blunders by just NOT RUSHING it. Everything from "hey I should double check that cowl latch" to "that wheel pant isnt looking just right, lets go see whats happening with those rivits" to "shit is the tow bar *actually properly stowed" I think people not using the actual tow bar stowage location as part of the checklist might be a factor here. In my Piper and 182 both of the POH always said it needed to be stowed and secured in the factory velcro attached position in the aircraft and was actually a part of the weight and balance. I have seen many a pilot just casually toss it in the hanger, or the back of the bird. Now the PC12 doesnt exactly have a tow bar stowage location like a little Cherokee or Skylane, but the sentiment of procedure is still the same. "Properly Stowed". After my PPL check ride and ever since then through IFR and Commercial including multiple aircraft ownership, I have done the walkaround in 3-4 complete laps every time with a little sit and look at the plane after, while looking over the flight plan and safety briefing. It's not hard, and takes only fractions of a % of the total excursion longer, to step back and assess the whole of the situations.
@@19127bh it’s easy to take a few minutes and explain safety briefings and aircraft systems to the passengers to fill the time. I’m not saying pull up a chair and stare, lmfao. When flying with the family use the time to get a sec to step back and make sure that you do a “kiddo preflight”, where you take them around too and let them get hands on with the bird.
That was great! As Juan said about the proposed landing "not exactly in the manual!" How the pilot could taxi to take off position without noticing something strange about the taxi feel, I have no idea. As we said in Naval Aviation, "whatever can happen, WILL happen!"
oh boy..let me tell you a story…yrs ago, usmc time, i landed to refuel at an AF base in Ark….while i base ops, we cd hear twr/grnd taking to a civilian inbound w/ an ‘emergency’…handling issues, low fuel…cleared to land we wondered out to watch this thing evolve…successfully on the ground, the Cherokee 140 taxied in and was directed to park…out jumped 4 guys at least 200+ plus…tied to the tail tie down, was 6ft of rope, with was left of a cinder block…let your imagination complete this story…..nvr will i forget….
Oh bugger me!!!! Touch and go with attached towbar "not in the manual"???? The understatement of the decade!! Love Blancolirio's non sequitur and chuckle!! 😂😂
Oh well! Glad he didn’t have the propeller hit the towbar. After 40 plus years of commercial flying, it’s always best to take a brief walk around the plane before departure to make sure everything is in order. Much like an Indian walking around his horse before he climbs onto it. The prop strike from the landing is still expensive but being a PT6A didn’t damage the rest of the engine, just the propeller and its gearbox still needs to be inspected. Probably about 100k for that job. Great Video Juan!!
Always best? Don’t you mean always required? If you are or were a commercial flyer, please tell me you followed checklists, not suggestion lists. Honestly and quite frankly, I don’t want to put my life in the hands of a pilot that doesn’t go through their checklists religiously.
I'm so glad you mentioned the 2nd walk around the aircraft, and for the great suggestion of doing so in the opposite direction. I've been doing this for decades, it has served me well.
As I was told. He did his preflight inside the hanger due to the weather. Line service and pushed it outside. Seven passengers got on board. Line service undid the tug and drove away. Nobody remembered to pull the towbar.
That's just smart thinking! Now he doesn't have to wait for the ground crew to go find a towbar and hook it up when he arrives at his destination -- he brought his own!
Great outcome after a dumb mistake. Way back in 1958 I flew a rented 172 about 100 miles to another airport to pick up a friend. As I was taxiing in to meet my friend, I noticed they were pointing to the my plane. It turned out that I had not untied the rope from the tail of my plane (it was parked outside on grass/dirt) and adding power to start to taxi had broken the rope. I flew 100 miles dragging that rope behind me. No damage to anyone or the plane😀
I remember years ago of a plane dragging the rear tie down with the cement block still attached. The pilot said he wondered why he had to use full nose-down trim 😂😂
I was a crew chief on the KC-135s. The engine covers are a red canvas. On the ground, they would be stuffed into the main landing gear doors during maintenance. Before flight, they are put up in the cargo deck. Somehow on one preflight, nobody noticed the covers stored in the landing gear doors, and the aircraft took off. The covers got caught in the doors, and the securing straps, with a metal buckle on the end, proceeded to beat up the sides of the aircraft, until it landed. So many mistakes by numerous individuals.
Oh, boy! Early in my career (1970) at 3AM, and very fatigued, I flew a 172 from Sky Ranch airport to Stapleton International airport with the tow bar attached and resting on the wheel paint. The Lineman at Combs Aircraft, my brother, martialed me to a stop all while shaking his head in disbelief at my ‘dumbass-iness’. It took years to shake the nick name ‘Towbar’. My two passengers, my business partner and our chief mechanic, teased me for years. Thanks, Juan, for reporting. PS Neither airport exists anymore!
I work at a capital city airport in Australia. Some years ago one of my work colleagues was on the ramp when he saw a Metroliner with its tail stand still attached. Fortunately the aircraft was notified before it took off.🤦
Recently, I was fortunate enough to afford a $2000 boat. Even at $2000, I do about 4 walk-arounds like an insane person every time the boat gets attached to the truck and before/after going in the water. And then at the airport in rentals, I do the same thing "like my life depends on it", haha. It would take me an hour every time to preflight an expensive plane like that
maybe though $2000 is more to you than however many grand the plane costs is to many of the pilots... more money then sense is a fairly common problem, but, the thing they don't understand is that unlike RPG credits do not give you extra lives...
When I go flying the "Might T-Hawk PA38" I separate the aircraft checking and servicing from the final Pre-Flight inspection. So 1. uncover and unlock all the ropes, cover, etc. 2. Check and service oil, fuel, air, etc.. 3. Final walk-around inspection. Thanks for sharing.
It happens to the best of us. Recently had a chief pilot forget to take it off the 502 air tractor. Pilot with 1,000’s of hours from broncos in columbia to business jets doing international flights. Painted it bright yellow and jokingly remind him about it from time to time
Friend of mine admitted to doing this years ago. He did his preflight long before the actual flight. In the dark, he forgot he never removed the towbar. To add insult to injury, he flew from an uncontrolled airport into an airport with a closed tower, making all his radio calls. But someone he knew was at the hold short yelling at him on the radio about the towbar, but he had the volume too low, so he never cut the engine. He learned some valuable lessons that day. Admitting to all of it tought me those same lessons, for free!
I used to fly the MU2 on East coast, cancelled checks night ops. Time was of the essence, 1 capt was always in hurry to make the best time, well he flew once with the GPU cable still attached and another time burned BOTH hot sections as he started both engines simultaneously. Didn't see him back after that one...
Saw a Piper Pawnee PA-25 picture with a very long power line dangling from the right wing external brace strut while it was coming in for a landing. This was long before photoshop.
Thank you Mr Juan Brown! Interesting I seem to recall a few lost gas caps on vehicles over the years. Wow I learn immensely important things from these helpful videos and comments are priceless
Thanks Juan. I live in GR, saw this on the local news today but of course they didn’t mention any details besides it was an emergency landing. Thanks again for your reporting, I was curious about the details.
Hello Juan !!! It sure is amazing how he could start taxing to begin with…maybe because it was so cold, the tow bar didn’t get apron, taxi way and runway friction. I’m so very glad they could land safely even though the nose gear collapsed. Your videos are always great !!! Thanks so much!!! Kind greetings from México.
I live off the east end of runway 26 here in Grand Rapids, good thing that the tow bar did not come off and fall through my roof, I never have thought about that before
Always a first for that. I remember back in early eighties the Flying Particles club had a member take off with a hand tow steering bar on a 172. Didn't realize it they had landed and opened the baggage and looked for to the towbar.
Us older pilots have many of these stories, tow bars, pitot covers, gas tank caps, doors open. You name it we saw it. At thr school on my field las week both a student and an instructor failed to notice the cowl latches on the archer were all unlatched . The cowl flew off while on the ramp ( they were lucky they weren’t in the air ) . Poor pre flight
Los Angeles Airways once took off with the Ground APU hanging below the S-61 and Another took off with the tail rotor installed backwards , not the 1st time & not the last
Watching the landing, and waiting for that inevitable prop strike... heard myself holler AAUUGGHHH and realized it was in unison with the guys who took the video. Weird how it felt like actual camaraderie. 😊
I recall seeing this happen with a Beagle Pup (or it might have been a Bulldog) years ago at Kemble airfield in the Cotswolds. Fortunately, being a fixed undercarriage aeroplane no harm was done... but it looked very scary.
This could happen to any distracted pilot - the way I combat my fallible human condition with respect to this particular situation is: 1.) disciplined use of the preflight checklist before starting the engine which includes the walk around (also designed to catch the cocks or the tie down ropes not removed) and 2.) NEVER letting go of the tow bar unless it’s to put it back into the baggage compartment (even “only for a moment”… as others have said - it’s an extension of my arm when it leaves the baggage compartment).
From my first lesson my instructor taught me, after the preflight, step back 20 feet from the plane and look at it and ask youself "Do you see anything that might prevent this plane from flying?" That catches towbar/chocks/tiedown issues.
Saw a guy starts a taxi with the jumper box connected dragging the little dolly along. I will say he did a pretty nice job keeping that nose up instead of just stuffing that prop
Despite the "dumbassery", have to say, he did a great job in getting that thing down, holding the nose up and minimising damage. That's impressive in itself, let alone how impressive it is to leave the tow bar on HA!
I'm guessing the towbar is white ... and the airplane took off from a runway covered with white snow ... *AND* the pilot was freezing his tush off while getting ready to get into the plane, start the engine and turn the cabin heater on maximum. That's no "excuse", but it does make a certain amount of sense.
I applaud PIC's initiative & time saving innovation of having tow bar ready... Well done. True men of genius. PS Checklist with gear pins, tow bar, gust locks and have eyeballs on them before lighting the fire.
Long ago I knew a USAF F-4 pilot stationed at Eglin AFB. Once I asked him what he'd been doing recently. "Watching planes land," he said, "to make sure they have their landing gear down."
Same in USN, wheel watch at the end of the runway. If the gear is up, a flare alerts the pilot and the wheel watcher gets a bottle of their favorite adult beverage.
A friend once pulled his plane out of the hangar and left the hand towbar on. I couldn't bear it so I spoke to him about why it's a bad practice - he understood. Another friend did the same, pulled the plane out, got distracted with passengers, got everyone in and hit the starter. I only heard that one, too far away to see and prevent.
I once had a prop of mine in an overhaul shop and while waiting for it to be completed i saw a prop off a PW1340 laying on the bench It looked like it had been used to crush rock. The owner pilot of the damaged prop was still in the shop. He loaded his AgCat cranked her up and taxied 1/4 mile down a gravel runway all the while thinking it was taking a little more power to taxi- then turned into the wind and proceeded to take off. The tail came up and when the 8ft long towbar dug into the dirt when the aircraft became airborne flipped around and came thru the floor of the Cat and right between the pilot seat and throttle quadrant. And yes this guy died of old age years later.
What's even worse is when your mechanic makes a dumb mistake, I was asked by a homeowner to wash his Cessna 172, as I washed under both wings I noticed the bolt holes holding the fuel tank didn't match, the left wing had nuts visible, the right wing just had empty holes, he just picked it up from the mechanic and was going to go from Oregon to Alaska, good thing his painter slash plane washer spotted it. 😊
Back in my single pilot bug smasher days I would always do a final walk around once everything was ready to go, regardless of how late I was or any other factor that was pushing me to hurry up. That last check of things where you concentrate on the exterior of the aircraft and nothing else helps alleviate that pit in your stomach feeling after you've taken off thinking "did I remember to check that?". No one's infallible to making mistakes, just the old adage there's them that have and there's them that will. Do what you must to make sure you don't become the latter.
Even the highway department gave us a 15 minute equipment precheck time. I was about the only one who did it just to break up the day a bit. However being a snow plow driver I can understand the pilots gaffe due to the cold.
The theme music “Weightless,” was back! And with the longest segment I have ever heard. We musicians look out for other musicians and their music! Thanks for the tune.
My older brother became a private pilot in 1972, when I was 11 years old. I clearly remember my brother telling me that his instructor (a UA 727 FE named Preston) would have him walk to the front of the C172 as the last step before getting into the airplane. This was to get the 'big picture' and make sure everything looked right around the plane... To this day, the last thing I do before flying my plane is walk to the front and take a good look. Thanks, Preston...If your still around. I think he would be about 90 years old!
After 38+ years of professional flying, and watching this channel for a few years, this one makes me chuckle quite a bit. It is hard to believe this can be done, but the old flying addage "If it can be done, it will be done" definitely applies here.
The tow bar on a pc 12 when not attached to a tug sits about 5 to 6 inches below the propeller, so there was plenty of room for it to move. I’m guessing as he retracted the gear it got jammed and wouldn’t close.
1. Put your phone in airplane mode.
2. Put yourself in airplane mode.
3. Put your airplane in airplane mode.
lololololololololololololololololololol
Excellent!
4. Put your towbar in airplane mode
😂😂😂
Best.
Something tells me with the frigid temps in the Midwest this week this pilot rushed his pre-flight and was in “get-warm-itus” mode.
Towbar painted white with the Michigan winters made for a visual easy to overlook.
how cold was it? cold enough to roll with tow rod on the nose (new version, for those non-nautical folks who don't understand brass monkeys)
You may be right but the best rule of thumb is when conditions deteriorate, add additional time to do preflight & walkaround inspections. Never rush when conditions are less than ideal. That’s when it’s time to be extra vigilant.
I believe Juan said it was -19F.
@@josephroberts6865
Yeah but that doesn’t account for “get-warm-itis”. I’ve been there and it’s actually a part of why i dress in layers to fly in the winter (the other being that doofus “dress to egress” quote that drives me crazy). Having an extra layer with gloves, a hat and a hood on your jacket makes it such that you can still do everything you need outside with minimal impact. You might still be a little chilly by the time you take the controls but goddamn, the towbar will be stowed and the oil cap will be replaced…
Being featured on the Blancolirio channel is rarely a good thing
It's far worse to make it onto Dan Gryder's TH-cam channel and show up on his list.
To paraphase @maplecocaine: Each day on blancolirio there is one main character. The goal is to never be it.
But being featured and surviving to face wisecracks-for-life sure beats the heck out of being featured and dying.
Unbelievable!!
Can we get Juan over a million subscribers?!!
In the Navy we'd have scored it:
Airmanship 4.0
Headwork 0.0
...and yes, his callsign would be changed to "Towbar."
That's what we Brownshirts were there for.
@@jeffkindrick6049 MANY enlisted people saved our asses!
Don't you mean "IS"? Involuntary Separation.
@@86FxBdyCpe Sadly, that might result from the other two.
This guy is going to be known to all his friends from now on as ‘Towbar’. He’s gonna get aviation themed gifts for his birthday, xmas, MLK jr day, all of which will have his new nickname on them. One of his friends will give him a hat with a tiny towbar hanging from the front of the brim. Someone will paint a little towbar on the side of his plane near the door. It will never end.
And he /she need to take it like a man, smile and thank people for the reminder of a lesson he SHOULD never be allowed to forget.
im guessing -18 had something to do with there shortened pre-flight. just a guess.
@@williamking1572-18? Damn lol.
Known as stupid.....
In terms of nicknames thats a good one, if the story involved for getting it wasn't so damn stupid and dangerous.
“I don’t think that’s exactly in the manual.” Now that is hilarious.
i wonder if there's a section in the manual for "took off with tow bar still attached" haha.
I LOLed.
Hysterical oops
And there DEFINITELY won't be about busting the nose gear trying to knock the towbar off. I'm pretty sure that won't be covered by the warranty...
I laughed out loud at that one!
Suggestion: As a rule, paint the towbars bright orange. Just an added measure towards avoiding "Dumbassery". White paintjob seems like a terrible idea, especially in winter. 😉
Like Pitot tube covers being red with a long streamer? ""Hey! Remove us before you fly!"
@@donnahdunthorn5207
Yes, something like that, but I'm thinking you could get a lot of bright flashes of light out of something powered by a simple and durable D-cell alkaline battery. I know they use 4 D-cell batteries in those flashing lights they put on top of the orange and white road work barrels, maybe something similar attached to the tow bar would help prevent this? The idea is that the batteries last literally months of continuous flashing so you don't even have to remember to turn it on, it's just constantly flashing no matter what, and since there's no switch to turn it off, there's no way to make it stop alerting you to it's presence.
Great idea
Don't blame the paint color.
Can't fix stupid
Wow! Looking past the dumb error, he did a really excellent job of setting the plane down on two wheels, holding the nose up as long as possible, and getting the engine shut down to minimize damage.
Juan, what is your saying, something about doing it correctly in the first place and then not having to demonstrate what a great pilot you are in an emergency? Seems to me that might apply here.
Superior pilots use their superior knowledge to avoid situations that require their superior skill
Exactly!!
@@mattgirgenti3595 That's a superior quote!
Was that initial 'touch & go' attempt to dislodge the bar a good idea?
If the bar had come off & punched back up, it could've done some serious damage.
Surely better off coming in for a landing?
@@mattgirgenti3595 and then there are human factors. Not that long ago a top naval aviator was either distracted or skipped the controls full and free check. No one is immune.
A few years back I found a tow bar sticking out of my lawn. It had dropped in vertically and penetrated about 6 inches. Back in the late 1960s I regularly few as a passenger in a Cessna 120 so recognised what it was. I popped round to the local flying school. An instructor knew by the tape markings which plain it belonged too. More than that who had been flying the plane when it went missing.
He had flown with it attached. On a left hand circuit it would have been about 5 miles. 8 miles if on a right hand circuit.
Juan really isn't struggling for content in 2025 is he. More pilots should watch this channel.
Seems like it's been a cluster ever since Thanksgiving or so. One thing after another after another until who knows when?
...and not end up ......
A number of pilots should watch the channel instead of flying.
@@PeopleAlreadyDidThis How about a part of ground school?
I’m not a pilot. Just an aviation enthusiast. Love his channel!
I started my old Sierra with the towbar on in front of everyone at the fly in. ONLY ONE good Samaritan came a runnin' doing the head chop off motion. Thank you Frank at KORS! I got distracted - first time I've done such a thing in 41 years and 13k hours. ImMa prOFesHinAL!
Best comment I’ve read in a while. Best wishes.
Yours is the best post here: even a tremendously experienced and professional pilot can make a mistake. We need to help each other, we need to keep our minds fresh every flight, we need to offer some grace when you make that one mistake.
And you need to tease each other to.
Thank you for telling your story.
Thank you for sharing this. We should all have humility as pilots even the more experienced ones.
I have experienced an incident similar to this when I was working as a Fire Fighter at a regional airport in the UK. The problem was actually at the rear of the aircraft on this occasion, a Beech Barron of french registration who was a regular visitor to the airport After he landed, we noticed a concrete tie down block bouncing along the runway behind him , attached to his tail tie down point. We, the fire crew were on local standby for the arrival, because the pilot reported a problem trimming the aircraft. Not surprised!
Juan? A "Down Gear is a Happy Gear".
I have 50 years' flying, never heard that!! Thank You for making me laugh.
ADA Advanced Dumb Assery love it! I've stopped on the taxiway and put fuel cap back on, was 14yo "co-pilot" when my bff cranked the 150 with towbar on (very loud, lucky it didn't start and his dad didn't see it), found tailwheel on rental Champ with no tailwheel bearings, copilot again when door popped open at gear up in Debonair, and had a magneto fall off of same rental Champ on takeoff. Lessons all with little consequence... by the grace of god go I! these things happened as long as 55 years ago, but never forgotten. I'm an A&P, and I've had an instructor accuse me of doing a 100 hr inspection on my pre-flight, but you can not be too careful. The brain is an imperfect computer! Keep reminding us all.
I have 11 emergencies on pistons. Twins and singles. 5 on take off. 2 feathered landings on twins. Landed them all. But unlucky at the casinos.. Good.
@@emergencylowmaneuvering7350your luck is the right way round
ADAer here. Really wanted to fly my Sonex even though my radio was out for repair. Wheeled the plane out of the hanger with the tow bar attached. Got in the cockpit to see if I could attach my hand held radio to the coax. Success, it worked well. Great,I get to fly. As I took off, my radio was yelling at me, it was Ron at the fbo. Radio was garbled but I did hear the word “nose” and I knew imediately what had happened. Made the smoothest pattern ever shutting the engine down after I had the runway made and made a very smooth landing. Zero damage. Ron was waiting at the end of the runway and would not let me out of the plane. He took off the tow bar and said goooo… DO NOT EVER skip any of your preflight EVER……..
I'm remain alive at 72 years old and drive my wife nuts about how careful I am with stuff that could kill us. One of the memorable lessons I learned back when I was 20 was, while doing ground maintenance on an SH-2D Seasprite, I casually reached up to turn OFF the battery switch and turned ON the fuel dump switch instead. I suppose they use that huge pipe to dump fuel to help keep the fuel out of the vortices. Possible engineering lesson too...Bonus!
Longtime Army aviator here. Very early on, an IP taught me that after the preflight and after a close walk-around, do a walk-around from outside the rotor disk; "you'll be surprised what you find". Indeed, a few times I have been.
I was a Blackhawk crew chief. One of our sister companies had a flight where somehow everyone missed an inlet cover and tried to start the engines! The affected engine had to be replaced. Very bad day for them! I saw apu covers get blown out a few times too. No damage, just a good laugh when it went screaming out at ludicrous speed and the crew chief had to do the walk of shame to go get it.
We have a joke in the GA community. Expensive airplanes and inexperienced owners.
Years ago, on HOUSTON ATC, the TRACON controller asked an RJ to expedite descent.
The pilot said "We're coming down faster than a Bonanza full of doctors"
It's a funny joke.
😂😂😂
I literally loled!
The fork tailed doctor killer.
Good one!!
Oooh that's savage
That tow bar is going to have a heck of a tale to tell its grandkids
Tough job being a tow bar.
😄😆🤣
Gather around you little towbars, grandpa has a story to tell ya...
Yeah, but no matter how epic the retelling, they'll all come to a conclusion that it's just a drag.
@@xxpoisonblxx:
"Kool Aid Kool Aid, tastes great
Wish we had some, can't wait"!
" I don't think that one is in the manual" - " My sentiments exactly" - " A Dumbass Inspection To Prevent More Dumbassery" - 3 Blanco Statements Of The Year In 1 Video. Well done. Well done.
At least he didn't take the towing vehicle along for the flight...
"I want to be myself, in Airplane Mode, when I go to the airport to go fly." is another classic.
I was barely listening and was like "he did what???". Rewind a bit and indeed, he did just that. What a doofus :D
Ngl, I did some dumb shit too, but mostly embarassing, not stupidly dangerous.
Did that once back in '95 while moving the plane from one ramp to another. No pre-flight or walkaround since I wasn't "flying" and the destination was just a short taxi away. Luckily no damage to the plane but my pride gets dinged every time I think about it, even today (I had an audience of course, and one of them got excited enough to come running after me with arms waiving). Can't take anything for granted.
I did this exact same thing. The deficiency in my pre=flight was in winter as I did my pre-flight in the hangar before. The cold and the scenario they went through probably has parallels to mine. The best kind of mistakes are the ones you get to learn from.
In the flying club hallway at Springbank airport (CYBW) near Calgary, there was a photo of a 172 in the air with its tow bar attached. A sobering reminder to all the students and renters.
I’m looking for Dumasseree on my map of Scotland, but can’t find it.
Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. Good video.
@@dennistucker9081 No wonder. It's called Dumbassery - about 5 miles south of Dumbarton. 😄
@@Fastvoice - The irony.
Engine and propeller teardown inspections and repairs are expensive. But a lifetime of aviation notoriety and embarrassment? Priceless!
Oh, you wait for the bill for replacing the entire nose gear, doors and sheet metal…….several hundred thousand
@@josephdreitler6546 At least, these days!
Retired A&P here, That's eaisly half a $million in damage, prop, engine teardown, structural damage to the nose cowl and airframe and whatever broke when he slammed the nose gear down, (Drag link, over center mechanism, retract actuator and more)
@@dennythomas8887 Easily!
I have a rule, my towbar is only attached to my plane when my hand is attached to the towbar. I only taxied maybe 100' before someone got my attention. Other than embarrassment, no damage was done. This rule was an immediate result and I'm pretty firm about it.
I always take a final walk around plane to check for open doors, gas caps and tow bar too.
@CuratedPile In my 40 years of flying, I did it 3x. All within a 60 day time span. Twice I heard the scraping, grinding noise as I taxied and once someone flagged me down. I since have added to my preflight as a walk-around when I close my hangar.
Yeah, I do the same. When the towbar is connected, I’m connected to the towbar, no exceptions.
My first instructor taught me that and that rule has served me well. Every once in a while I have to explain to someone why I'm taking it off just to put it back on 2 mins later, but that is no big deal
That's a good rule. Machinists tend to have a similar rule with lathe (and other) chuck keys: It's in the hand when in use. Risks are similar: Loud noises, possible damaged machinery, and possible no more user of machinery (or other nearby persons).
I’ve never seen JB so raw and unfiltered 😂. Caught me by surprise just a little bit lol
Years ago when I was working as an A&P at Cobb County Intl. Airport in GA (RYY), we used 5-gallon buckets full of concrete as temporary tie- downs. A client came in to pick up his Cirrus SR-22 we'd just annualed. He taxied away without untying the buckets, took off, and flew to Dekalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK...about 20 miles) before anybody noticed, where someone in the tower saw them dangling as he was on final.
😂 wouldn’t that cause alot of drag?
@@syitiger9072 One would think so. I'd also think that anyone used to flying a Cirrus would immediately notice the sluggish takeoff performance and immediately request landing clearance, as the thing had just been annualed. Of course, how anyone can miss buckets tied to the wings and not notice the feel of something dragging while taxiing is pretty hard to comprehend too. Distraction? Total ineptitude? Who knows.
That would explain needing 5,000 feet of runway to get airborne. 🤣
Holy shit. That is wild
Dang! Easier done then said. I did it once with when picking up a T-206 from a shop after Annual. I did a very thorough pre-flight inspection with the A.I. to make sure they didn't foul-up or leave anything loose after tearing it apart, and as I was paying the bill one of the shop guy's pulled it out of the shop with the tail facing the office and the door open. I jumped in taxied out, departed and as I turned downwind and reduced power I heard a "Twang!" and saw a red blur go past the windshield and between the wing strut and wing and knew what happened. I returned to the shop and the shop owner came out and handed me the Cessna Aluminum tow-bar with the hand-hold bit sliced in half, and he said "We heard it hit the prop and it landed right where you were parked. We also found a pretty severe dent in the tip of one blade that had to be replaced.
Something a old Air Force instructor told me when I was learning was: "After you do your pre-flight, and before you get into the cockpit, and after everybody is done mucking around with the aircraft, step back so you can see the entire aircraft, look over your preflight checklist one more time and walk a 360 to see if anything is not as it should be" I usually did that, but after my expensive towbar incident, I ALWAYS did the Air Force walk-around.
I was a crew chief in the USAF on F111's and F4's. Went on to become a private pilot and felt good about my pre and post flight inspection skills. But during my time as a private pilot did make a few dumb moves here and there to keep me humble.
We all do dumb stuff. I’m grateful I lived through all my dumb stuff. The way you develop good judgement is from experience. The way you get experience is from bad judgement! 😂
@@speedlever Experience is a nice name for someone who has made a lot of mistakes.
Man oh man I'm not even a pilot but I try and do things by the book- incase fatigue sets in I might have a chance of not missing the tow-bar on the nose wheel type thing.
I bet everyone of us fits that category
@@speedlever Experience is the thing that arrives just too late to help you.
My wife works at an insurance company. When eating lunch with her at the company cafeteria, my wife's coworkers were telling stories about some of the dumb insurance claims they have seen. Someone asked "Do we insure stupidity?" The person who had worked there the longest replied *"That's all we insure."*
As long as a customer isn't fraudulent, the insurance covers all sorts of idiotic claims.
I worked as an ER nurse… common theme: “can’t fix stupid”!
@kingseyes3717 certainly 'can't fix stupid' nor as a similar saying goes 'put brains in a statue'...and the unfortunate outcome of it all...is we all end up paying through increased insurance premiums!!!
Years ago a co-worker who was also a fireman said, "I don't understand why people commit insurance fraud by burning their own house down with accelerants, etc.....just load a pot of grease on the stove, turn the heat to max, boil it over and burn your house down. Perfectly legal and not subject to scrutiny."
@@jeffferguson4632Isn’t that now referred to as deep frying a frozen turkey indoors because it was too cold outside. 😂🤣
@@Zoe_B-18 Yes! Best done in January.
Years ago we took off from Tracy (KTCY) and overheard a conversation from another local airport that shared the same frequency. It started with a guy on the ground asking "Hey Bob, ah... do you remember stowing your tow bar?" then after a lengthy pause Bob answered "um...I think so" to which the ground guy replied "Nope, I don't think so"
In airline operations the ramp personnel show the cockpit crew the pins and streamers from gear lock pins and / or towing lock pins before dispatch.
I flew for an older man who was too old to handle a twin. Years before he had a Cessna 310, the same model as yours, and he left the tow bar on the nose gear. The tow bar stayed on but it jammed in the nose wheel doors. The motor would not put the gear down so he told his passenger to get in the back and kick the handle. The man was afraid he was going to break the handle but the pilot told him to kick it until it was free or it broke off; he had nothing to loose if the handle broke off but everything to loose if he had to land on the belly. One really good kick and it was free. They landed and had to replace the tow bar and straighten the nose wheel doors. Now you know what to do if you forget the tow bar; kick the stuffing’s out of the handle.
Wow!
@@blancolirio There’s been two DIVERTS for United (UA613) out of Nigeria this week. Suspicious or coincidental?
Still love the Japanese train driver strategy of "pointing and calling". Activates more of the brain.
Yes, that makes a lot of sense brainwise!
I've done that when flying - very effective!
I do my damndest to incorporate hand gestures into my checklists
@ excellent!!
Watch an ANA ground crew, they do the same.
As a student pilot I got into the habit of never letting go of the towbar while it was attached to the plane. If I was done towing even temporarily, it was getting unclipped.
This one was comedy gold, while still being incredibly informative, even for us weekenders. Thank you, Juan.
So I've got a good bit of PC-12 time, one small tidbit I can add here about the PC-12, the individual landing/taxi lights on each gear are tied to the gear down switches. So you can see the light on the nose gear is off in each video (including the first pass) showing that isn't down and locked ever.
Also, each time, EVERY time, do your preflight, take a break, and then do your final walkaround RIGHT before takeoff. You can do the most detailed preflight in the world in the hangar, then miss taking off the towbar or a fuel cap, etc if you don't do a final walk. My C's of walk-arounds:
- Covers (ALL removed)
- Caps (gas caps)
- Cowlings (closed)
- Cables (tie downs and/or grounding)
- Cones (anything really, set around the aircraft)
- Chocks (removed, check everything around wheels, like towbars!)
- Control Locks (removed)
Some years ago, here in the UK, I remember an AAIB report of a PA28 getting airborne with a concrete tie down block hanging from each wing……
Tie down fee was outrageous.
"I'm takin it with me"!
How??? I mean those things are meant to keep the aircraft on the ground surely???
no, just stop 40mph wind from lifting the wings, no flaps.
@@wim0104 Okay.
The load / drag was balanced .
Recall a plane that tried to take off with cinder block attached to the tail, crashed on the runway
I've left my coffee mug on the roof of my car once. I once went scuba diving and forgot to turn my air on. Both times a distraction was the culprit. Had to wash the car, and as for the scuba diving, I turned the air on just before I got wet. We all screw up a bit in life, hopefully our screw ups don't cost us much money, or worse, our lives. This one was painful to watch. Cheers from Winnipeg.
I'm in the club; I recently drove away with my cell phone sitting on the nerf bar step of my truck. I went back and
found it laying in the middle of main street about a half an hour later.
I made it a rule on scuba that I start breathing from the regulator before I stand up to walk to the back of the boat.
When I started rebreather diving that became 5 minutes. That way any problems should show up before I hit the drink.
@@gasdive I made a trip to the east coast, for a boat dive. When I turned the scan four computer on, we were about to hit the water. Well, the battery was dead, and I said to my buddy, I'll be extra close to you, and away we went. That's when I learned to carry extra batteries.
I left a coffee mug on my back bumper and it was still there when I got to work after a 20 minute drive. The mug base was quite narrow. 😅
@@challenger2aircraftadventures One time I got distracted and
Trying to take of with a towbar left on the wheel is not as unusual as many may think.
Happened twice in my three years working on an airfield.
Once the lead lead flight instructor did a full traffic pattern on a Cessna 172 (with the towbar on the nosewheel) without damaging anything.
Second time, a Robin DR400 was taxiing with it to the runway, but I could stop it before anything happened.
Made the cut throat gesture, he killed the engine and asked "What's up?" And I asked back "You sure you want to take off with your tow bar attached?"
Never seen a pilot more embarrassed.
P.S. I worked as a groundskeeper, so I was basically not allowed to meddle with flight operations.
Thank you for your service..
Never saw that but have seen paint covered in plastic residue from a remove before flight tag feverishly flapping
@juliogonzo2718 Yeah, we had one pilot who regularly forgot to remove his pitot tube coverings from his Cessna 310.
We made jokes, he should ty two red helium balloons with "Remove before flight" to his coverings.
The Cessna 310 is a twin piston engine plane and has it's pitot tubes (speed sensors) under the nose out of sight of the pilot when sitting in his seat.
Speaking of tow bars. While the RCAF in WW2 was using multiple types of tow bars for different aircraft, my BIL's father designed 1 tow bar that could be used on multiple aircraft. Anson, Harvard, Blenheim. Good one Juan.
Ground crew - “Anyone seen the tow bar?”
FBO manager - “Yeah, it’s in Grand Rapids”
Almost funny.
He is lucky he didn’t pole vault off the ground as he rotated. Have you ever seen a car loose the front universal joint on the drive shaft, that is one wild ride.
That happened to me in my 1960 Rambler American when I was 24. Makes a God awful noise beating the underside of the car. I was lucky and rolled into a gas station before it stopped. 😎
Was just joking about this too. One time I saw a rusty old van driving up and down main St and one of the times it came back, the muffler separated from manifold right in front of us and just broke the hell apart and the following car ran it over 😂 a vault would have been awesome 😂
Yeah, Mythbusters did that. It doesn't launch the car (airplane in this case)
My thoughts exactly, except I would have called it a kangaroo hop.
@@andrewahern3730 Myths persist because of ignorance.
I think the tail number of this plane is missing a "T". Here's my towbar incident: I went to open my T-hanger doors one day (three-panel hanging doors) and after getting them about halfway open I noticed that they seemed to be getting hung-up on something. Of course I just pushed harder for a while (and why not?) until it was clear they weren't going any further. I looked around and lo and behold, somehow, my towbar was jammed between 2 of the panels. I tried opening them again to see if it could be removed but no luck. Ultimately I just yanked on the towbar and was able to get it out but ended up knocking two of the panels out of their lower tracks. This necessitated a call to the port maintenance guy who brought over a long pry bar and we were able to get the doors back on again. He had never seen that before (and he didn't even thank me for providing him with a new experience). I have no idea how this happened. I do lean my bar against the right hand wall after pushing the plane back in and all I can think is that the vibration of opening and closing doors caused it to fall over. Just a word to the wise. I now leave it where it can't fall and do any damage.
My initial CFI tried to tell me that the walk around needed to be done in one comprehensive single walk around. I'm not sure if it was just my normal curiosity, or paranoia, but it never set right with me.
An old crusty hanger bird once told me to always "step back and have a smoke break before you go fly" and even though I don't smoke it resonated with me. Taking a few extra laps around the plane, and then stepping away and looking at the whole picture has saved me a number of embarrassing, or even life threatening airfield blunders by just NOT RUSHING it. Everything from "hey I should double check that cowl latch" to "that wheel pant isnt looking just right, lets go see whats happening with those rivits" to "shit is the tow bar *actually properly stowed"
I think people not using the actual tow bar stowage location as part of the checklist might be a factor here. In my Piper and 182 both of the POH always said it needed to be stowed and secured in the factory velcro attached position in the aircraft and was actually a part of the weight and balance. I have seen many a pilot just casually toss it in the hanger, or the back of the bird. Now the PC12 doesnt exactly have a tow bar stowage location like a little Cherokee or Skylane, but the sentiment of procedure is still the same. "Properly Stowed".
After my PPL check ride and ever since then through IFR and Commercial including multiple aircraft ownership, I have done the walkaround in 3-4 complete laps every time with a little sit and look at the plane after, while looking over the flight plan and safety briefing. It's not hard, and takes only fractions of a % of the total excursion longer, to step back and assess the whole of the situations.
I'm trying to imagine your passengers watching you while you stare at your aircraft for several minutes...
@@19127bhif they can't deal with it they shouldn't be passengers
A lot of pilots who smoke to this day, indeed do that
@@19127bh it’s easy to take a few minutes and explain safety briefings and aircraft systems to the passengers to fill the time. I’m not saying pull up a chair and stare, lmfao. When flying with the family use the time to get a sec to step back and make sure that you do a “kiddo preflight”, where you take them around too and let them get hands on with the bird.
I wonder whether the cold conditions had an impact on the duration of the walkround on this occasion. He’d have had to step over or around the towbar.
That was great! As Juan said about the proposed landing "not exactly in the manual!" How the pilot could taxi to take off position without noticing something strange about the taxi feel, I have no idea. As we said in Naval Aviation, "whatever can happen, WILL happen!"
oh boy..let me tell you a story…yrs ago, usmc time, i landed to refuel at an AF base in Ark….while i base ops, we cd hear twr/grnd taking to a civilian inbound w/ an ‘emergency’…handling issues, low fuel…cleared to land we wondered out to watch this thing evolve…successfully on the ground, the Cherokee 140 taxied in and was directed to park…out jumped 4 guys at least 200+ plus…tied to the tail tie down, was 6ft of rope, with was left of a cinder block…let your imagination complete this story…..nvr will i forget….
Pilot probably thinking: "I hope nobody's recording this."
And then there’s that guy in the right seat of the Cessna, who did not have his phone in airplane mode!!😂
-Aviate, Navigate, Communicate-
Worry about instagram, Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.
Oh bugger me!!!! Touch and go with attached towbar "not in the manual"???? The understatement of the decade!! Love Blancolirio's non sequitur and chuckle!! 😂😂
I'll pass on the eating "buggered" part.
Oh well! Glad he didn’t have the propeller hit the towbar. After 40 plus years of commercial flying, it’s always best to take a brief walk around the plane before departure to make sure everything is in order. Much like an Indian walking around his horse before he climbs onto it. The prop strike from the landing is still expensive but being a PT6A didn’t damage the rest of the engine, just the propeller and its gearbox still needs to be inspected. Probably about 100k for that job. Great Video Juan!!
Always best? Don’t you mean always required? If you are or were a commercial flyer, please tell me you followed checklists, not suggestion lists. Honestly and quite frankly, I don’t want to put my life in the hands of a pilot that doesn’t go through their checklists religiously.
I'm so glad you mentioned the 2nd walk around the aircraft, and for the great suggestion of doing so in the opposite direction. I've been doing this for decades, it has served me well.
As I was told. He did his preflight inside the hanger due to the weather.
Line service and pushed it outside. Seven passengers got on board. Line service undid the tug and drove away. Nobody remembered to pull the towbar.
Love the Harvey artwork!!!!
Yes! glad im not the only who noticed. Just awsome ❤
That's just smart thinking! Now he doesn't have to wait for the ground crew to go find a towbar and hook it up when he arrives at his destination -- he brought his own!
Great outcome after a dumb mistake. Way back in 1958 I flew a rented 172 about 100 miles to another airport to pick up a friend. As I was taxiing in to meet my friend, I noticed they were pointing to the my plane. It turned out that I had not untied the rope from the tail of my plane (it was parked outside on grass/dirt) and adding power to start to taxi had broken the rope. I flew 100 miles dragging that rope behind me. No damage to anyone or the plane😀
I remember years ago of a plane dragging the rear tie down with the cement block still attached. The pilot said he wondered why he had to use full nose-down trim 😂😂
I was a crew chief on the KC-135s. The engine covers are a red canvas. On the ground, they would be stuffed into the main landing gear doors during maintenance. Before flight, they are put up in the cargo deck. Somehow on one preflight, nobody noticed the covers stored in the landing gear doors, and the aircraft took off. The covers got caught in the doors, and the securing straps, with a metal buckle on the end, proceeded to beat up the sides of the aircraft, until it landed. So many mistakes by numerous individuals.
Yeah thats bad. Especially because someone had to go up there pretty close to launch to pull the gear pins and have a final look.
Oh, boy! Early in my career (1970) at 3AM, and very fatigued, I flew a 172 from Sky Ranch airport to Stapleton International airport with the tow bar attached and resting on the wheel paint. The Lineman at Combs Aircraft, my brother, martialed me to a stop all while shaking his head in disbelief at my ‘dumbass-iness’. It took years to shake the nick name ‘Towbar’. My two passengers, my business partner and our chief mechanic, teased me for years.
Thanks, Juan, for reporting. PS Neither airport exists anymore!
I like to call it " The circle of safety". Just walk all the way around and observe before you move. It works with any type of equipment too.
I work at a capital city airport in Australia. Some years ago one of my work colleagues was on the ramp when he saw a Metroliner with its tail stand still attached. Fortunately the aircraft was notified before it took off.🤦
Recently, I was fortunate enough to afford a $2000 boat. Even at $2000, I do about 4 walk-arounds like an insane person every time the boat gets attached to the truck and before/after going in the water.
And then at the airport in rentals, I do the same thing "like my life depends on it", haha.
It would take me an hour every time to preflight an expensive plane like that
And, carry an extra drain plug.
maybe though $2000 is more to you than however many grand the plane costs is to many of the pilots... more money then sense is a fairly common problem, but, the thing they don't understand is that unlike RPG credits do not give you extra lives...
@@richardkunkle9924 I keep 2 extras in my live well and one in my glove box haha 😬
When I go flying the "Might T-Hawk PA38" I separate the aircraft checking and servicing from the final Pre-Flight inspection. So 1. uncover and unlock all the ropes, cover, etc. 2. Check and service oil, fuel, air, etc.. 3. Final walk-around inspection. Thanks for sharing.
It happens to the best of us. Recently had a chief pilot forget to take it off the 502 air tractor. Pilot with 1,000’s of hours from broncos in columbia to business jets doing international flights. Painted it bright yellow and jokingly remind him about it from time to time
Friend of mine admitted to doing this years ago. He did his preflight long before the actual flight. In the dark, he forgot he never removed the towbar.
To add insult to injury, he flew from an uncontrolled airport into an airport with a closed tower, making all his radio calls. But someone he knew was at the hold short yelling at him on the radio about the towbar, but he had the volume too low, so he never cut the engine.
He learned some valuable lessons that day. Admitting to all of it tought me those same lessons, for free!
Yeah, a wise person learns from the mistakes of others!
The locking pin for my towbar is on my keyring. Should I forget to take the towbar off, I can't turn the mags on. Risk mitigated!
Friend of mine does that.
I have my own set of keys to a rental plane, so I can't.
I used to fly the MU2 on East coast, cancelled checks night ops.
Time was of the essence, 1 capt was always in hurry to make the best time, well he flew once with the GPU cable still attached and another time burned BOTH hot sections as he started both engines simultaneously. Didn't see him back after that one...
Saw a Piper Pawnee PA-25 picture with a very long power line dangling from the right wing external brace strut while it was coming in for a landing. This was long before photoshop.
Thank you Mr Juan Brown! Interesting I seem to recall a few lost gas caps on vehicles over the years. Wow I learn immensely important things from these helpful videos and comments are priceless
Thanks Juan. I live in GR, saw this on the local news today but of course they didn’t mention any details besides it was an emergency landing. Thanks again for your reporting, I was curious about the details.
Hello Juan !!! It sure is amazing how he could start taxing to begin with…maybe because it was so cold, the tow bar didn’t get apron, taxi way and runway friction. I’m so very glad they could land safely even though the nose gear collapsed.
Your videos are always great !!!
Thanks so much!!!
Kind greetings from México.
We've had enough snow in Michigan, good chance the taxi/runway surfaces were icy. It was -7 with 10-15 wind this morning.
I live off the east end of runway 26 here in Grand Rapids, good thing that the tow bar did not come off and fall through my roof, I never have thought about that before
Another thought to keep you awake at night. ;-)
Always a first for that. I remember back in early eighties the Flying Particles club had a member take off with a hand tow steering bar on a 172. Didn't realize it they had landed and opened the baggage and looked for to the towbar.
Us older pilots have many of these stories, tow bars, pitot covers, gas tank caps, doors open. You name it we saw it. At thr school on my field las week both a student and an instructor failed to notice the cowl latches on the archer were all unlatched . The cowl flew off while on the ramp ( they were lucky they weren’t in the air ) . Poor pre flight
Another addition to Pete's "kablamo" album.🥴
Thanks for sharing.
Los Angeles Airways once took off with the Ground APU hanging below the S-61 and Another took off with the tail rotor installed backwards , not the 1st time & not the last
Watching the landing, and waiting for that inevitable prop strike... heard myself holler AAUUGGHHH and realized it was in unison with the guys who took the video. Weird how it felt like actual camaraderie. 😊
I'm sure his fellow pilot buddies are never going to let him live this down!
We taxied by in a crj when they were about to haul it off the runway.. looked like all the props were straight somehow.
I recall seeing this happen with a Beagle Pup (or it might have been a Bulldog) years ago at Kemble airfield in the Cotswolds. Fortunately, being a fixed undercarriage aeroplane no harm was done... but it looked very scary.
The Plane's new ID is November 886 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot after that stunt..../s
There is a Phenom 300 in Canada with that WTF registration!
At 2:26 - “Well I don’t exactly think that’s in the manual”. Blahahaha 😂😂😂
This could happen to any distracted pilot - the way I combat my fallible human condition with respect to this particular situation is:
1.) disciplined use of the preflight checklist before starting the engine which includes the walk around (also designed to catch the cocks or the tie down ropes not removed) and
2.) NEVER letting go of the tow bar unless it’s to put it back into the baggage compartment (even “only for a moment”… as others have said - it’s an extension of my arm when it leaves the baggage compartment).
From my first lesson my instructor taught me, after the preflight, step back 20 feet from the plane and look at it and ask youself "Do you see anything that might prevent this plane from flying?" That catches towbar/chocks/tiedown issues.
'What's that noise? Ah screw I'll have enough time to check when i'm airborne.'
Saw a guy starts a taxi with the jumper box connected dragging the little dolly along. I will say he did a pretty nice job keeping that nose up instead of just stuffing that prop
Despite the "dumbassery", have to say, he did a great job in getting that thing down, holding the nose up and minimising damage. That's impressive in itself, let alone how impressive it is to leave the tow bar on HA!
Thats a great way to get yourself relieved of a good job. No to mention a really fun set of interviews trying to get new ones after
Orange paints a good idea. I keep my Reese trailer hitches on my trucks painted orange and it really saves my kneecaps.
I'm guessing the towbar is white ... and the airplane took off from a runway covered with white snow ... *AND* the pilot was freezing his tush off while getting ready to get into the plane, start the engine and turn the cabin heater on maximum. That's no "excuse", but it does make a certain amount of sense.
I applaud PIC's initiative & time saving innovation of having tow bar ready... Well done. True men of genius.
PS Checklist with gear pins, tow bar, gust locks and have eyeballs on them before lighting the fire.
Long ago I knew a USAF F-4 pilot stationed at Eglin AFB. Once I asked him what he'd been doing recently. "Watching planes land," he said, "to make sure they have their landing gear down."
Same in USN, wheel watch at the end of the runway. If the gear is up, a flare alerts the pilot and the wheel watcher gets a bottle of their favorite adult beverage.
A friend once pulled his plane out of the hangar and left the hand towbar on. I couldn't bear it so I spoke to him about why it's a bad practice - he understood. Another friend did the same, pulled the plane out, got distracted with passengers, got everyone in and hit the starter. I only heard that one, too far away to see and prevent.
I once had a prop of mine in an overhaul shop and while waiting for it to be completed i saw a prop off a PW1340 laying on the bench It looked like it had been used to crush rock. The owner pilot of the damaged prop was still in the shop. He loaded his AgCat cranked her up and taxied 1/4 mile down a gravel runway all the while thinking it was taking a little more power to taxi- then turned into the wind and proceeded to take off. The tail came up and when the 8ft long towbar dug into the dirt when the aircraft became airborne flipped around and came thru the floor of the Cat and right between the pilot seat and throttle quadrant. And yes this guy died of old age years later.
What's even worse is when your mechanic makes a dumb mistake, I was asked by a homeowner to wash his Cessna 172, as I washed under both wings I noticed the bolt holes holding the fuel tank didn't match, the left wing had nuts visible, the right wing just had empty holes, he just picked it up from the mechanic and was going to go from Oregon to Alaska, good thing his painter slash plane washer spotted it. 😊
Back in my single pilot bug smasher days I would always do a final walk around once everything was ready to go, regardless of how late I was or any other factor that was pushing me to hurry up. That last check of things where you concentrate on the exterior of the aircraft and nothing else helps alleviate that pit in your stomach feeling after you've taken off thinking "did I remember to check that?". No one's infallible to making mistakes, just the old adage there's them that have and there's them that will. Do what you must to make sure you don't become the latter.
I like the “dumbassery check” as a memorable reminder to do that last walk around.
Even the highway department gave us a 15 minute equipment precheck time. I was about the only one who did it just to break up the day a bit. However being a snow plow driver I can understand the pilots gaffe due to the cold.
The theme music “Weightless,” was back! And with the longest segment I have ever heard. We musicians look out for other musicians and their music! Thanks for the tune.
At least he didn't need to hook up a tow bar when he landed... after all, -17 degrees and it's cold outside.
🤣
-4 F, barely below zero.
My older brother became a private pilot in 1972, when I was 11 years old. I clearly remember my brother telling me that his instructor (a UA 727 FE named Preston) would have him walk to the front of the C172 as the last step before getting into the airplane. This was to get the 'big picture' and make sure everything looked right around the plane... To this day, the last thing I do before flying my plane is walk to the front and take a good look. Thanks, Preston...If your still around. I think he would be about 90 years old!
I learned a good lesson long ago. Do not be in a hurry to get off the ground! Take your time on preflight.
After 38+ years of professional flying, and watching this channel for a few years, this one makes me chuckle quite a bit. It is hard to believe this can be done, but the old flying addage "If it can be done, it will be done" definitely applies here.
The tow bar on a pc 12 when not attached to a tug sits about 5 to 6 inches below the propeller, so there was plenty of room for it to move. I’m guessing as he retracted the gear it got jammed and wouldn’t close.
So that's what I tripped over when I was doing the walk around!