Airhoss

There I was flat on my back in a flat spin headed out to sea!!

Oh wait did that really happen?

USMCFLYR

I was in an inverted spin, 20,000' over the USS America at sea - but it was on purpose so not really the definition of harrowing until I got back on the deck and up-chucked!

USMCFLYR

CaptainCarl

There we were at 9,000 feet on the KORRY arrival (northbound) into LGA, cap'n says, "Man, check out this flock of geese over here." So I lean over and take a look out his window, sure enough, big ol' flock of geese about 1000 feet below in V-formation headed southbound. Settle back into my seat, look out the front windscreen and "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" That flock was just a small contingent of a much larger (hundreds) of other geese that were at our altitude. By the time either on of us had time to grab the controls, we're were staring at the bellies of a half dozen of these enormous birds in our flight path as they're diving to get hell out of dodge (or dodge a one way trip to hell, depending on how you look at it). Anyway, we miss our feathered friends by tens of feet and thank our lucky stars we didn't have to re-enact the Miracle on the Hudson.

Hawk 285

Those stories are generally told in person, and will usually cost you the price of a cold beer.

N9373M

The spin talk reminded me of when I was practicing power on stalls at 3,000 feet and got a little aggressive and uncoordinated in an a/c probably not approved for spins.

Power to idle, simultaneous yoke forward and what I thought was the correct rudder input. Still spinning.

The stuff that went thru my brain was scary. Wife, obit, friends, plane, THIS IS HOW I'M GOING TO DIE? Where did I ask to be buried? Did I leave the oven on?

Yoke forward and the correct rudder this time and she popped right out. Must have only lasted a few seconds as I had plenty of altitude left, but I really thought I was a goner.

This was my third spin. Once in a 152 during dual, once in a Citabria, again dual. This one I was all alone.

HAWK - beer's on me if you're ever in CAE.

AirGunner

Losing a probe on a HH-60G due to excessive vibrations/oscillations while it was being extended...definitely had to accomplish a clean underwear checklist when we landed it outside Wind Mesa @ KABQ.

KC10 FATboy

Getting called out from short call reserve to fly a one leg trip with a Captain that admitted when he was hired he had only Cessna time except for some light twin time he rented for ME requirements. He gave me a dissertation during the entire flight (2.5 hours) about how dangerous and confusing he thought it was for the 757 navigation display to be presented in track up instead of heading up and how this led to him S-turning on the ILS! And then he explained a technique he developed to prevent the S-turns. After explaining the technique, he gave the landing to me so I could demonstrate his technique. Personally, I had no idea what the heck he was trying to teach. I flew the ILS as I normally would, on centerline with no S-turns.

When we were finished, he asked me how that technique worked. I just looked at him like he was nuts and he kept talking to me like I had taken him all serious.

NOTE: for you SNAPs, please save the mil vs. civ and vice versa rants. Although a true story, this was meant to provide some comic relief between all of the "there I was" stories.

JohnBurke

I landed an airplane that was on fire, some years ago, but it paled in comparison to having forgotten my anniversary one year. My wife was ****ed beyond measure.

Roll Inverted and Pull

Oh, I guess the time back in the early 60`s, before most of you were born. I had to do a manual bail out of a burning fighter and the damned `chute didn`t open. Lucky ( I guess) it was over water and I didn`t get killed, but did get pretty banged up...16 broken bones, a collapsed lung and a few other things. 13 weeks aboard a hospital ship. Got well, and my reward was a trip to Viet Nam for a year.

Red Forman

Ok, you win.