Question for you pilots
Posted by SRX311@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 38 comments
Many videos online shows heavy rain and storms where pilots land without much problems, everyone in the comments says it's scary but the pilots say it's easy and not very horrifying at all. So my question is... What exactly is scary for you pilots and have you had any horrifying experiences where you actually got scared?
jjamesr539@reddit
Things get scary when backup options start to exhaust themselves.
Flying in bad weather? Not that scary in a normal situation, I’ve got alternate fuel, sometimes contingency fuel on top, and I’ve got an alternate and sometimes a second alternate. Start taking those things away and things start to pucker.
Say holdups at the deice line burn the contingency, no biggie we still have legal reserve and alternate fuel. After takeoff though, say that alternate has a plane slide off the runway when we’re 15 minutes from the destination, so now it’s not an option with emergency vehicles etc out there and the runway closed. Well, we’re too far to turn back and that’s not our destination anyway, so we start talking to the dispatcher and guess what? That was the only alternate within fuel range. And the destination weather is right at minimums and now it’s the only place we can go.
Then it drops below minimums. Now what?
That’s when things get scary. In reality it’s incredibly unlikely for it to pile on to that extreme and it’s just an example, but it’s the real reason we get paid what we do.
Designer_Buy_1650@reddit
Absolutely. If anyone with a lot of flight time says otherwise, they might not be totally honest. Aviation has so many variables, engine problems and weather, to me, top the list.
JPAV8R@reddit
I’m going to answer from the standpoint of commercial FAA 121 pilots. Not talking private pilots or inexperienced aviators.
I think the most scary thing would be smoke (especially of unknown origin) in the flight deck/cabin that’s the kind of thing that can take you out quickly without being able to put the plane on the ground.
We train extensively for abnormalities so when something breaks we kick into training. No professional pilot should have a feeling of horror or resignation when the chips are down or a component breaks. We run the checklist, evaluate the consequences of continued flight and make a decision on how to proceed.
As for flying in turbulence and rain is part of the job so it’s not really an issue. Extreme crosswinds can be tricky but if you’re within the limits of the plane then it should be within the limits of you.
The most concerned I’ve ever been in a jet was after a severe icing encounter where we ingested what must have been a large chunk of ice into an engine. The aircraft made a sickening grinding noise and the passengers ran up to say it smelled of smoke in the cabin. We were instrument conditions on approach in the mountains of Colorado.
But in the moment we heard the noise, started scanning instruments evaluating what we could do… whole thing was probably 15 seconds of WTF are we dealing with followed by a normal approach to landing. We had an engineer evaluate the engines on landing and flew it out of there 2 days later.
I wouldn’t say we were horrified. We were just very concerned that we couldn’t immediately diagnose what had happened and we were aware that we didn’t have many options that low to the ground in the clouds.
kenzo99k@reddit
Exactly. Cockpit fire is the nightmare scenario.
D_Brandt@reddit
Pardon my ignorance; what's the “121” for?
JPAV8R@reddit
121 means airline pilot.
D_Brandt@reddit
Thanks! And why, if you don't mind explaining?
JPAV8R@reddit
Why does 121 mean airline pilot? In the US airlines are governed by the FAA under a regulation that’s called 14 CFR Part 121. So airline pilots shorten it to part 121 pilots.
Vs part 91 pilots that are owner operators. Or not for hire.
It was just jargon to explain my answer was from the standpoint of an airline pilot.
SRX311@reddit (OP)
Interesting, seems there's always training to fallback on Incase of concern
JPAV8R@reddit
Yeah. Pilots should never be resigned to a fate. It’s considered a hazardous attitude.
I’ve heard others say and I agree, “fly it until the last part stops moving”
velosnow@reddit
Also, never stop reacting. A lesson I instilled into a student teaching PPL many years ago. During a touch & go he bounced the landing hard and we ballooned up powerless above the runway. He conveniently decided to give up in that instant and just looked over at me. I quickly grabbed the controls and got us flying again.
Probably only time I lost my cool with a student (he was a bit of work overall) but I think it sunk in that he’d better not ever stop flying the aircraft again. Until it’s parked at least.
Icy_Huckleberry_8049@reddit
you train for weather all the time and fly in it all the time, too. Just another day.
Outtheregator@reddit
Scud running in the Alaskan bush and having the shit close in around me. Can't climb up and out of it. I was new to the game back then. Now I'm way more comfortable with it and always make sure I've got an out. Don't push too hard where you can't turn back out.
anactualspacecadet@reddit
Getting shot at can be rough, low levels in general have everyone on edge a bit too
More-Objective-594@reddit
A fire, besides a contained engine fire, is the scariest scenario that I think about.
Hydroplaning at night in a rainstorm is worst thing I’ve actually encountered. That’s the closest I’ve come to ejecting.
Battlemanager@reddit
Refueling 60 miles off the coast of South Carolina (E-3 with KC-46) during a naval exercise at FL240 in the soup with some icing. Just got off the boom and climbing to FL300 and we get three compressor stalls on two different engines in the span of a few minutes. I was thinking "Fudge...fuel contamination". Checked the guages, engines smoothed out and we attributed it to some chunks of ice going down the intake. For a few minutes though, it was a little concerning. I thought, "Hey, at least there's a carrier group right under us to pick up our carcasses."
punkslaot@reddit
You should be worried about rain and storms and wind. Reference Southwest and their continued runway overruns
nopal_blanco@reddit
Wild that you specifically name Southwest “and their continued runway overruns” when they haven’t run a jet off the end of a runway in 7 years.
punkslaot@reddit
Thats such a long time!
nopal_blanco@reddit
Every other major US airline has had runway incidents more recent than Southwests last one. And I certainly wouldn’t define something that hasn’t happened in almost a decade as “continued”.
delcielo2002@reddit
From a general aviation perspective, it still starts with fire and ice. I have no extinguishers, and often only one engine, and none of the airplanes I fly have deicing equipment, and I'm by myself. It's also easier to get suckered into bad weather in a small plane. We just don't have the resources or performance that you see in 121 ops. We also don't have the training, both initial and recurrent that 121 pilots get, though it can be easy to overblame that. Even Scott Crossfield, professional rival to Chuck Yeager, died after entering a thunderstorm in his 182.
So, fire, ice, and other bad weather are my top 3.
Grimol1@reddit
True story. Flying a Cessna into a small class delta towered airport in South Florida. There’s a thunderstorm of my right wing but right in front of me is clear. I’m about 8 miles out so I contract the tower in my cool pilot voice. But as I’m in the radio, just off the right wing at around the 1:00 position, I see this huge bolt of lightning form, it came together and then zipped down to the ground and hit a transformer causing a huge blue explosion. So the radio call went like this “Tamiami tower, Cessna 1234 Alpha with information Charlie inbHOLY SHIT! LIGHTNING! I’M NOT HANDING HERE MAN!”
SRX311@reddit (OP)
Wait I got downvoted for a simple question?
BigBob1000@reddit
Yes, there are a-holes on all subReddits that do that. Not sure why, since your loss is no one’s gain. Hence my conclusion they are just a-holes.
ThrowAwaAlpaca@reddit
3y old account that still cares about downvotes? Now that's something.
HungryCommittee3547@reddit
First day on Reddit?
BizarroMax@reddit
As a passenger I have always taken my cues from the flight crew. If they’re not worried, I’m not worried. Was in some heavy turbulence once Ana the attendants were just laughing and telling jokes and seemed more annoyed at the bumps disrupting their talk.
UnhingedCorgi@reddit
Low fuel scenarios involving bad weather.
Prof_Slappopotamus@reddit
Smoke and fire are the only things that scare me.
You can literally blow a panel out of the side of the plane and subsequently have an engine fail over the middle of the Atlantic at 2am, and it'll fucking suck, but the plane will still be controllable all the way to Keff or Lajes, where we'll safely land and enjoy a couple days on the beach or daring each other to eat Hakarl.
We won't discuss an uncontained fire.
SuperSaint77x@reddit
In an emergency situation your training and procedures kicks in. The workload also increases dramatically, so there’s not any room for fear.
VileInventor@reddit
I fear being called a retard by the plane :((
FlapsupGearup@reddit
Making small talk in the FBO and answering yes when the DPE cocks their head and says “are you sure?”
Ok-Skill8583@reddit
3 least favorite words
_Yellow_13@reddit
Smoke fire IS actually scary.
We had a passenger out a cigarette out in the bin once. 🤦♂️ Was only noticed by a crew member after the event. Passanger not identified.
Any fire requires prompt action from everyone as it can very easily become dangerous.
Aside from that not much.
Crosswinds and rain are actually quite to fly. Had good one a few days ago. Best part of my day probably week actually.
I’ll have a think for you.
Thunderstorms also. But I avoid them as best as. ITCZ can be interesting. . But someone’s dropped the ball if they fly into something particularly nasty. .
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
Landing in heavy rain or gusy winds only looks scary, if you don’t have experience or you haven’t been trained to land in that kind of weather. It does raise our heart rate a little bit, but a bit of adrenaline helps with the performance anyway.
The only thing that I’m personally really afraid of, is smoke/fire in flight, as that can go from “hm, that smells a bit strange” to aircraft essentially disintegrating due to fire melting everything in less than 20 minutes.
Epimolophant@reddit
If the landing is getting too difficult because of the weather, you go around. It happens all the time.
It's easy because you only land when it's easy. So, it should never really be scary.
Beckoll@reddit
The worst landing was at VTSP, when visibility in the rain drop till minima.
KCPilot17@reddit
In my military life? All the time.
Civilian airline life? Never, you have so many tools at your disposal to make the best decision. It's really a non-factor.