Instructors, what’s the dumbest mistake you’ve made in front of a student?

[-]

Catkii@reddit

Despite teaching on the twin for some time, that day I went rogue and decided to do the full engine shutdown demo at the start of the lesson, rather than the end.

It did not restart.

[-]

vicious_delicious_77@reddit

Yikes. I bet that was an intense flight back to landing.

[-]

One of my first disco flights as a CFI, took this lady up and everything was going really well for about 30 minutes. Then she looked over and just said “I’m going to throw up” I start looking around and realize I do not have sick bags in the airplane. So I reach over and open her window, kindly asking her to throw up out the window….

Well, she did. She also lost her glasses in the process and painted the whole side of the 172, im just glad we were in a 172 and not a Cherokee. So anyway I carried sick bags in my bag from that day onward. And she continued to take lessons.

[-]

Buildintotrains@reddit

Better the outside than the inside I suppose

[-]

GoodDomino@reddit

Oh man, I went up with my brand new CFI for my first flight lesson after disco. Not knowing any better, I of course hadn't checked winds or weather conditions. It was so windy up there we had gusting 50 knot winds and my head bounced off the ceiling twice from the sudden drops (172). Was sick and then queasy for a good 6 hours after, but I've had 0 issues being airsick since. My instructor apologized profusely for months afterward, but honestly in the end I consider it a blessing to get over any sort of sickness or fear about turbulence.

[-]

UNSC-Swordbreaker@reddit

One of my second disco flight, I couldn’t even fly 30 minutes withour feeling queasy. I remember the entire time from entering the downwind from a teardrop all the way to final i clutched a puke bag by my side, praying I wouldn’t have to quickdraw it to my face

[-]

No-Airport-797@reddit

This reminds me of an almost 5 hour glider flight. Around the 2 hour mark I felt the same as this lady. I did not have a bag either but fortuntely I had a hat on my head. Gliding is intense for some on the stomack, myself included, that was not my only time I threw up but I always made sure to have bags after that

[-]

Slim_Jim722@reddit

Trusted a students preflight too much, tried to taxi out with rear tie down once. Never skip a preflight even as a cfi. On the other hand I also pointed it to other instructors and saved them the embarrassment.

[-]

0O00OO0OO0O0O00O0O0O@reddit

I would have been so annoyed if my CFI doublechecked all my preflights.

[-]

biggy-cheese03@reddit

So much shit in this career is double checking someone else’s work. ATC instructions, sumping fuel after the line guy is done, more examples than I feel like listing.

[-]

psilocyan@reddit

Yeah getting annoyed at someone with more experience than you double-checking your work is pretty much a textbook hazardous attitude. Fragile egos and flying planes aren't a good mix.

Even when getting ready for my checkride with 50-something hours, my CFI was still spot-checking stuff (feel the edge of the prop, kick the tires, move the rudder kind of stuff) and if anything it made me feel more safe in case he caught something I missed.

[-]

Minute-Psychology101@reddit

Want to check? I insist!!!

[-]

0O00OO0OO0O0O00O0O0O@reddit

Y’all are just reading too far into my comment and making up stuff I didn’t say or intend to say.

I’m talking about preflighting a C150. Nothing more, nothing less. Something I was taught how to do, then trusted to do it. Like flying. I got an occasional question about an item on the preflight, cool, no problem.

If my CFI did a preflight after every preflight I did, that would be ridiculous. It’s plenty common to trust students to learn how to properly preflight an aircraft then trust them to do so.

[-]

WhiteoutDota@reddit

Why? Especially if you're a student pilot it's the PICs responsibility to ensure the aircraft is airworthy

[-]

0O00OO0OO0O0O00O0O0O@reddit

Because I was taught how to do it and he checked up on the process to make sure I had it down, and then I could do them on my own no problem.

Much in the same way I was taught how to literally fly and land the plane and hey, turns out at some point the instructor isn’t there to back you up on that either.

[-]

WhiteoutDota@reddit

Doesn't mean that while they are there they shouldn't be checking basic things. What if, you as a new pilot, missed something because it wasn't a part of your usual check. Or, from another angle, maybe instructors check all their students because one day a bad student will kill them.

For example, recently at my school a student was trusted to do a preflight. They missed that there was soot on the carburetor, which indicated that there had been an engine fire that was not reported. The instructor didn't do their own preflight and fortunately they found out when the plane failed the carburetor check on the run up. Maybe, if the instructor had done their own check, that would have been avoided, because it's unlikely a student would know to check for that or what it indicated.

[-]

scul86@reddit

At the airlines, both pilots "always" double check the other pilots FMS preflight inputs, doing with the challenge/response checklists to verify what each pilot has done.

Get used to being double checked... it's nothing against you. It's to catch errors that everyone makes.

[-]

0O00OO0OO0O0O00O0O0O@reddit

Talking about preflighting a C150 here, don’t read too much into my comment as others clearly have.

[-]

Mispelled-This@reddit

Sometime around when I soloed, my CFIs stopped doing the full preflight, but they still checked the fuel and oil every time, even during IR training. Didn’t bother me at all.

[-]

gromm93@reddit

No you didn't. You gave them the freedom to make their own mistakes, so they could learn from them in a visceral manner.

Your response isn't "Oops, I trusted you too much", it's "And what did we just learn? ;)"

[-]

mittsh@reddit

“I knew you didn’t remove the tie down, but I wanted to let you experience it and learn by yourself”

[-]

Gulag_For_Brits@reddit

I always do a quick walk around and check fuel tanks, oil, and cowling door at a minimum. Checks all the boxes and keeps your students confident!

[-]

MichaelOfShannon@reddit

It’s not even that you trusted a student, it’s that you and your student are both way too complacent. How do you walk out to a plane you’re about to fly and not see that the plane is still tied down.

[-]

rckid13@reddit

I took off with an oil cap loose because I trusted the student and didn't check it. Lesson learned. It didn't cause any major issues but we lost some oil before we got back to the field.

[-]

Special-Air-4706@reddit

I made that mistake, but I didn't leave the oil cap unscrewed. I just didn't close the lid on Cowl of c152, and it kept opening mid flight.

[-]

grizzleeadam@reddit

On a demo flight as a brand new CFI, I tried to taxi out with one wing still tied down.

[-]

Minute-Psychology101@reddit

Winner!

[-]

Sharp_Meat2721@reddit

Well some CFIs have killed their students so don’t feel too bad 😂

[-]

PM_MeYour_pitot_tube@reddit

I was literally about to comment the same exact thing. Luckily it was the client’s first time on any kind of aircraft, so when the ramper came jogging over to undo the tie down, he thought it was normal.

[-]

ILS_Pilot@reddit

"Wow, instructors are treated like royalty!"

[-]

brucebrowde@reddit

I mean we have King Schools after all.

[-]

ajcaca@reddit

It's just like the guys on the aircraft carrier deck in Top Gun, right? Did the line guy salute you?

[-]

PM_MeYour_pitot_tube@reddit

He gave me a big double thumbs up and a shit eating grin lol

[-]

aftcg@reddit

I never understood this fraze. Every time I eat shit, I'm not smiling, and sucking air through clenched teeth. Never smiling.

[-]

Picklemerick23@reddit

Too many stories to tell. But was with a client and flying south along the West Coast of Florida. We’re south of Tampa cruising along and since I’m teaching him PPL, I was trying to think of things to discuss. My SA was pretty good up until this point when I look left and see an aircraft barreling right towards us. I look at the map and I didn’t even think to talk about what you should do when you transition near uncontrolled airports. I quickly jump to Unicom and the whole airport is talking about me being a cowboy, not talking, being in the way, etc. So that lesson became a lesson of why proper flight planning and communication is important… and humility.

[-]

Mispelled-This@reddit

Good job turning those mistakes into teachable moments, at least.

[-]

Picklemerick23@reddit

What else can you do to hide the embarrassment?

[-]

KeyOfGSharp@reddit

Personally I just jump out of the plane

[-]

TheBurningTankman@reddit

Without the parachute

[-]

kingdrew2007@reddit

Was that ever an option?

[-]

KeyOfGSharp@reddit

I don't see any other way

[-]

Zealousideal_Card446@reddit

I’m gonna guess KVNC was the airport

[-]

Picklemerick23@reddit

Yeah. lol. Not much options south of Tampa lol. We were off-shore, around 500ft but the GA traffic was taking off NW into us.

[-]

dmspilot00@reddit

Not a student but a planeload of skydivers. Took off with the oil cap missing. This was in a old 182 where the filler cap and dipstick are in completely different compartments. Not only did I have to return but it took forever to clean the Exxon Valdez off the windshield after.

[-]

TypeAncient5997@reddit

I'm not a CFI. But the sketchiest thing I've seen my CFI do was put us into a full stall less than 300 feet above the ground...

Story: this was during my PPL training, the first or second day practicing engine out procedures. I trained in a very rural area with nothing but wheat fields for miles around. So it was practical to fly those engine failure scenarios until pretty low over your target field, to see if you'd really make it. My CFI noticed how whenever we got below about 500 feet I started to get really nervous. He was an Alaska guy used to doing all sorts of low altitude flying near terrain. So on the next practice engine failure, we briefed that I would fly the plane down to about 300 feet and then exchange controls so he could fly us around a bit lower over the fields so I could get more comfortable without the mental overload of actually flying.

We did so, and when he took the controls he added power right away. Well, I had trimmed for best glide, which in our 172 with no flaps out, happens to be about full nose up trim. When he added power and took the controls we immediately pitched up into an elevator trim stall, full break, wing drop. He pitched down, picked up the wing, and recovered at about 200 feet.

I didn't realize til later just how close that was to game over. To his credit, he turned it into a teaching moment about reducing AoA immediately in a stall and not reflexively trying to pull the nose up before you have enough airspeed, when you get scared by the ground rushing up. But that was surely not his finest moment.

[-]

3nurk@reddit

I got pretty nervous just reading that. Wouldn’t want to be in a similar situation

[-]

SaltyFriesOG@reddit

When I was a CFI, my schools inauguration usually involved having new students play around with the SIM a little as a sort of “welcome”, as well as giving them “free” sim time.. when I booted up the SIM to showcase it to my student, I flew and crashed immediately since the SIM wasn’t calibrated my student was eyeing me and I had to convince him I was an actual pilot…….

[-]

barrisunn@reddit

Forgot to check the pitot cover after the solo student preflight. Of course, it was on = aborted take-off.

[-]

SpanishYogaGinger@reddit

Student: does a power on stall, gets a hard wing drop.

Me: “no no no, if you’re looking at slip skid indicator, your reaction is delayed. You have to use the Lindbergh reference, and watch the ground. Watch this:” does power on stall, sees nose starting to skid right, kicks nose left way to hard, half rotation in incipient spin.

Me: “now you see, when I pulled the power to idle, the aircraft almost immediately recovered. Get it?”

Student: laughs his ass off at me

[-]

humboldtreign@reddit

I’m sure there were multiple instances, but the one that stands out:

We departed a class D airport where the flight was is based and headed to the practice area. Near that area are 2 uncontrolled fields that use the same CTAF frequency, so while we might not land at these airports, I’d typically make position reports near the area while doing maneuvers.

Except this time I guess I didn’t realize that: A) I actually didn’t swap frequencies from the Class D airport, and B) had turned the volume all the way down.

“(CTAF) traffic, Cessna 123AB is 3 miles to the E at 3000’ maneuvering.”

Probably 5-6 times over a 10 min period.

And then I realized…I hadn’t swapped frequencies and also the volume was turned all the way down.

So essentially I was making position reports to tower, all the while they were probably responding and I was ignoring them. Oooops.

[-]

Patri_L@reddit

Trying to prove a point to my student that she need not be afraid of holding the nose off the ground during a soft field takeoff and rightly planting the tail into the runway while demonstrating.

Happened twice.

[-]

PilotBurner44@reddit

Instructors don't make mistakes. We teach what not to do.

So I, as a brand new instructor, flying with my first student during patchy cumulus weather, did a go-around on the main runway after there was wind shear reported and I ran out of rudder in the crosswind. Tower said to make left traffic, but seeing as that was where the cumulus cells were, I said unable continuing straight out. Tower didn't respond and instead issued a clearance to a Lear jet being flown to the right parallel runway by the FAA (sneaky foreshadowing) for runway/instrument testing on the brand new runway. I continued straight ahead at pattern altitude until I had the choice of left into a very angry cumulus cloud, straight into IMC, or right to remain clear VMC. I called tower again to no response, so I chose right and told tower this. Tower, without responding to me, told the FAA flown Lear alternate missed instructions to make a hard right turn to avoid me, then promptly scored me saying "I told you left traffic", which was met with a voice (I assume from the Lear) that said "that's not helpful, give him proper direction", to which they gave me vectors back around. Spent another 5 minutes letting the wind die down before I made a rather stressful and Gusty landing, and quick taxi in. While tying the airplane down, it started to hail. I looked around and noticed I was the only idiot out, and it dawned on me that explaining this could be... Challenging. Cut to me walking inside with several people looking at me like I just murdered a herd of puppies, and on our dispatch board was a single sticky note over my flight block (and the only one left on the board) that said "See chief". Tail between legs, I slumped into the chiefs office and attempted to explain my actions, which in hindsight looked pretty poor. Got a good ass chewing, told to submit a NASA/ASRS report, and expect follow-up. Thinking my aviation career was over just as it started, I heard from an admin in the CPO that the FAA had reached out to them, but yet heard nothing from the CPO. Turns out, the FAA pilots heard the whole thing, including them keeping me out of the Delta for near 20 minutes during their testing, when the weather was actually good. They also ended up flying through the cell that tower tried to get me to make a left pattern around, and they got rocked. So instead of raking me over the coals, the Lear pilots actually commended me for making safe choices instead of blindly following ATCs instructions. They apparently reached out to my flight school to pass that on to me, and somehow the CPO seemed to have missed that. Tuned into a fantastic TMAAT story for interviews.

[-]

Emerghency@reddit

Sorta alluded to it into a comment already, and not in front of a student, but a dumb mistake as an instuctor either way.

While going for my CFI initial very few schools near me did spin training, so i had to schools i was unfamiliar with and in planes i had never been in. Found a school about an hour away that did it in an 80 year old piper cub. Me and the instructor talked a bit, did the weight calculations, and between the both of us would be fine with about half fuel. (Im a big, tall, guy.).

When i showed up, the OG instructor i was set to fly with was sick, and I was set to fly with someone else. A much larger guy, who I knew would set us over-weight. The Cherry on top was that he also had the plane at full-fuel.

We were 100% overweight. My guess was anywhere between 100-150 pounds overweight, but the cub didnt exactly have a POH i could access, and according to him it had a higher horsepower engine mod (i believe 95 HP).

Was the scariest flight of my life. I was desperate to get my CFI license, i needed to get my spin endorsement, I was out of money, had already showed up, and just went along with him because he had clearly been flying the plane for decades.

Long story short, we were obviously fine, it was still a terrifying hour long flight of spins that i never want to do again, but even after that flight i told myself I would never do something like that again. Would most definitely never recommend a student in those circumstances.

[-]

HarFangWon@reddit

Thank you for sharing this and the honestly about the decision making. Glad it didn’t go bad and got a lot from this

[-]

notagreatpilot@reddit

From my solo endorsement and onward I have not made any mistakes. Every flight was completed within regulatory standards as set forth by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Code of Federal Regulations Title 14.

[-]

Sharp_Meat2721@reddit

Lmao

[-]

veryrare_v3@reddit

User checks out

[-]

mittsh@reddit

Amen

[-]

Former-Primary-3186@reddit

Love the username here

[-]

Iceywolf6@reddit

Flooded an engine and it caught on fire…. To be fair, I wasn’t very current/proficient in small planes at the time lol

[-]

D_DJ_W@reddit

With my first student, I took controls and told him he was about to bust a Delta a few miles in front of us. I turned him left 20 degrees and gave him back the controls.

I realized 5 minutes later we were at 3500 feet and the delta extended to 2500... Student never said anything.

[-]

SlickBrisket@reddit

Was trying to get a student to keep his eyes outside during maneuvers, went to dim the brightness on the G3X and hit a bump of turbulence that made my finger slide and dim the screens too black. (There is no dedicated screen brightness knob). We had to fly the rest of the flight with no PFD or MFD. Not a huge deal and probably a good lesson on pitch and power in the end. But definitely felt like a dummy.

[-]

AffreuxPatyLex@reddit

Not an instructor but I am around them all day every day.

Second best (worst) mistake was the guy that took 3 potential students up in a 172. They did their little discovery flight, landed normally, and somehow had a runway excursion during the last part of the rollout. Hit my damn taxiway sign.

Absolute worst by a huge margin was the guy who took a student out for their first flight ever. Supposedly never even been on a commercial flight. The student walked into the FBO and said that he thinks something is wrong with his instructor. Where is his instructor? Rolling around in the grass with his shirt off. Airplane is sitting at the hold short line with the engine running and no one in it. The instructor was having a full blown diabetic meltdown. The kid didn't know what to do or how to operate anything so he walked down the taxiway to find someone. We shut down the aircraft and crammed cookies and sodas into the instructor while we waited for the ambulance. Oddly enough, the student never came back.

[-]

bobnuthead@reddit

Okay that’s insane

[-]

kytulu@reddit

We had a CFI fly up to our site from our main facility to swap out a plane. I watched him start the plane, walked three more steps, and saw that the tail was still tied down. I signaled for him to cut the engine. Unfortunately, he throttled up instead and changed the tricycle configuration from nose and main to main and tail. He shit down, I pushed the plane back a foot, and untied the tail.

I went to taxi a plane for a maintenance post-run. Engine cowling was off. Unfortunately, the air filter cover was also off. When I started the engine, unbeknownst to me, the air filter fell out of the intake and landed in front of the nose wheel. I throttled up to 1000rpm. The plane didn't move. I gave it the beans and felt the plane roll over the filter. I did not know that it was the filter until I got back from the run-up.

[-]

naterthepilot2@reddit

“A good friend of mine” left the fuel cap on the wing after fueling and took off and did the entire lesson with his student before landing and noticing that there was no fuel cap 🤦‍♂️ taught “my good friend” the importance of doing another walkaround/check before jumping back in the airplane, which he then passed on to his students :)

[-]

RemarkableScarcity8@reddit

My very first flight ever as an instructor, I was a nervous wreck. I had a student who I took up on his first flight ever. We did one lap in the pattern, along with 4 other planes in said pattern. Huge overload for me. I shit you not we did one lap and I was done. I had the audacity to ask this student what he learned.

This student ended up being a complete natural. Little to no stress ever, nailed every maneuver by the third try. Passed his private with me in 43 hours.

I seriously hope he becomes a delta captain before I can even land an interview at an airline.

[-]

brucebrowde@reddit

You're a good person. Keep it up!

[-]

Lost_Locksmith_4631@reddit

Sounds like you were a really good instructor :)

[-]

Prestigious_Try5135@reddit

First flight with a student- shot some practice approaches at night at a neighboring airport. Heading back home I could not find our home airport at all (DFW Bravo) and was 1,000 above TPA when I look off my right and see the runway numbers. Tower asked if we needed help before they closed and I said no, then proceeded to lose it again and flew a few miles north and tracked the localizer inbound lol. Thankfully nobody else was around to see the shit show

[-]

Mispelled-This@reddit

ADS? That place is invisible unless you’re on centerline.

[-]

Prestigious_Try5135@reddit

Yep that’s the airport. I had not flown at night in a while and approach denied us an approach back in leading to that situation lol

[-]

Mispelled-This@reddit

At night, I always found it by following Marsh SB or Trinity Mills EB for 15, and DNT NB or 635 WB for 33. You just have to trust the runway will magically appear at about a mile out.

[-]

daygloviking@reddit

I sometime trip over my tongue.

But then I just use “correction” as set out in the radio manual and set out the correct wording

[-]

UNSC-Swordbreaker@reddit

This is about as embarrassing as this one time I asked the CTAF at my uncontrolled airport if I could do a go around. Was talking and looking at my CFI with my thumb on the PTT

[-]

will98295@reddit

Corn fed kid came to do an intro flight. Looked about 215 honest to god. Knew we were good to go in a Cherokee 140. Tried to take off, nose wouldn’t come off the ground, popped up into ground effect, aborted takeoff, asked how much he weighed -265. I always ask people their weight now. I don’t eye ball their weight anymore

[-]

burnheartmusic@reddit

Utility category…..for steep turns?

[-]

will98295@reddit

Read the POH?

[-]

mkosmo@reddit

The Cherokee is an oddball with that limitation, so many probably aren't going to be familiar with it when practically every other airplane in the world allows them in the normal category.

[-]

WhiteoutDota@reddit

How early? I don't recall that limitation on my schools 1968 year. I'll have to check the placards I guess.

[-]

will98295@reddit

Ours is a 65 and has the limitation. Which is odd, as it has such a high VA

[-]

mkosmo@reddit

I found part number 69288-03, which is a placard that includes it in MPH, which is for serials 28-7325001 to 28-7625284, inclusive. What I can't tell is whether or not that's where it ended.

[-]

WhiteoutDota@reddit

Yeah, you're right. I see it in the AFM now. It looked similar to the Archer limitation so I must have glossed over it. Iirc the archer POH doesn't call a steep turn an acrobatic manuever, but this AFM does, as well as lazy eights and chandelles.

[-]

shadeland@reddit

One thing that I learned as a skydiving instructor is how to judge people's weight. The more you weigh, the faster you fall. The taller you are, the slower you fall. As an instructor, I need to either put on a weight belt to weigh more, or either I or the student need to put more baggy jumpsuits on to slow down.

Muscle is 5 times more dense than fat. So he might look lean, but if he's dense muscularly, he's going to weigh a lot more than he looks. This is especially true on women. They might be short and look lean, but if they've got good muscle density they're going to fall like a homesick anvil.

[-]

Vast_True@reddit

is this in pounds? you should have minimum 500 pounds with full tanks before hitting MTOW.
Unless you was taking off from >5000 feet or in very hot day and your weight is also ±200 lbs I would suspect mechanical problem with aircraft, not overweight issue. 50 pounds difference would be less noticeable than 60F difference in air temperature. If it is in kg though... I would do a proper W&B calculation before flight.

[-]

makgross@reddit

Oh man, taking off with -200 lb would be sweet!

[-]

will98295@reddit

Peep the edit- was CG issue

[-]

Emerghency@reddit

50 pounds really made that much of a difference?

Not saying i dont believe you, ive never flown a cherokee, but almost seems a bit hard to believe between "safe to take-off" and literally unable to take off,

[-]

will98295@reddit

No no, it wasn’t the weight and I probably should’ve clarified. That 50 lbs moved the CG well forward of the envelope. The tail didn’t have the authority to get the nose off the ground.

[-]

Rainebowraine123@reddit

Yeah, there's definitely more to the story.

[-]

Emerghency@reddit

Yeah, im not proud of it, and would never recommend a student to do it, but we were crazy overweight when i did my spin training in a piper cub, and honestly the plane flew perfectly fine. Desperation of a CFI applicant, limited options, and being fat will do that

[-]

PenHistorical@reddit

From the intro flight student side - the CFI I did my discovery flight with did ask my weight, but I think they either thought I was under-reporting, or just didn't account for increased performance from having less weight than they were used to. Busted the bravo by a good 1000 feet because they didn't think we'd climb as fast as we did (and I was distracting them with questions about whether the bumpy ride was just turbulence because it was my first time in anything smaller than what Southwest flies).

[-]

Ari179@reddit

Yeah your lack of weight isn’t gonna make that big a difference. They just busted it

[-]

PM_Me_Sequel_Memes@reddit

Trusted a student's preflight too much and when airspeed wouldn't come alive, looked out the window to see a big red "remove before flight" on the pitot. Aborted takeoff and had a good conversation about preflights

[-]

storyinmemo@reddit

I got done flying with a student... whole flight went fine, no issues, airspeed obviously working. He was so fast to put the cover on the pitot tube that I didn't notice him do it but saw it immediately on getting out of the plane and had a momentary panic.

[-]

redtildead1@reddit

I suspect this is why my school has the instructors do their own brief preflight after the student

[-]

PilotsNPause@reddit

Lol, "trusted a student's preflight too much" might be a little generous here. Should have spotted that while just walking to the plane. We all make mistakes though, probably got distracted by something else, shit happens.

[-]

Narrow_Abalone@reddit

I lined up with the wrong runway at our local field

[-]

LigmaUpDog_@reddit

One of my first lessons, teaching landings. The student made a mistake so I took controls and did a go around. There was about a 30 second period where I couldn’t gain any speed with the nose at the horizon and im going “what the fuck”

Then my brand new student pilot tells me the flaps are still down 😭

[-]

rckid13@reddit

I've flown a bit longer than I should have in a go around with the gear down before. I was swapping a lot from retractable planes to non retractable ones at the time and messed it up. Which I guess is a lot better than forgetting the gear on landing.

[-]

Own-Ice5231@reddit

At least the student didn’t go “flaps up” when you’re doing 50 knots lol

[-]

Cautious-Raisin-4321@reddit

Oh god😂😂

[-]

Unlucky_Geologist@reddit

I have a picture of a CFI trying to taxi a full plane with 3 tie downs and chocks. After running the engine hard for 30 seconds he figured it out.

[-]

sell_out69@reddit

A lesson was running late so I told my student Id preflight the exterior of the plane while he does the interior to save time. Well, I mixed up the tail numbers and started inspecting the propeller of the wrong airplane, whose occupants were about to start the engines. Thankfully my coworker saw me inspect the prop and stopped his student from cranking the engines.

I was completely embarrassed and asked the CFI and student if I could sit in on their debrief after and explain how I made such a stupid, dangerous mistake and thank them for their vigilance.

TLDR. Nearly got my head chopped off by prop. Exercise extreme caution around engines. Clear the area first before starting engines.

[-]

Majestic-Fall-9420@reddit

Student here. Taught my CFI how papis work. He thought they changed colors like some sort of switch from red to white, that’s just phak knowledge 😂

[-]

Intelligent_Plum_132@reddit

I went for an introductory flight lesson. Instructor showed me the plane, walked around, got into the cockpit, started the engine and then BAM. Oil cap went flying into the windscreen and far behind the plane. He forgot to put the cap back on.

[-]

Fauzyb125@reddit

Not me, but I caught one once, standing in my flight school watching a plane get ready to head out, student and instructor jumped in, started it up, wheels were still chocked. I told my instructor, and they promptly ran out to alert them. Would have had an interesting time trying to get that 150 to taxi out with the wheels still chocked.

[-]

Don’t want to talk about.

Rather crawl in a hole and die.

Give me your best/worst

Please downvote this comment until it collapses.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. If you have any questions, please contact the mods of this subreddit.