Aviation BS and Photo Thread

Long live the Republic!

 

As a former ramp rat, I can't agree with this enough!

 

I like to yell “CONTACT” when the mags are hot, then “CLEAR THE PROP” scan the area, give it 5 seconds, and fire up. If my students don’t yell, I don’t let them start the plane. One student has made it his mission to make sure the whole airport can hear him. Love his enthusiasm. Safety is fun.

 

Face down ass up likely means a failure of the lift fan in the center of the plane

 

I was starting up a King Air at a Central CA FBO. I signaled the ramp rat in training to pull the chock. The trainee & trainer both signaled back they would pull the chock. My attention went elsewhere then waited for them to signal to me ready to start. I signaled starting #1 and fired it up.

Then a third ramp rat, out of nowhere, confidently starts walking towards the nose of the airplane. W inthe F? He doesn't make any eye contact. I reach over and kill the fuel to the #1 engine. There's no way it will stop spinning before he gets near it. The guy disappears from view under the nose ... then pops back up and walks away with a set of chocks from the nosewheel.

Safety: my first rule is everyone goes home for dinner. For some knuckleheads it's a stretch goal.

 

I’ve definitely popped a fireball out of the APU on someone when they walked up after I was in the cockpit and didn’t make themselves known or clear when I yelled out to clear the APU. Whoops.

It’s a fairly common joke when backing up the helicopter that if any idiot walked behind the big loud wind machine they probably deserve to take a ride in a tail rotor.

 

Man the clear prop talk is bringing back memories. I could crash this thread with all the stupid pilot and ramp rat stories as I worked the ramp at various FBOs for 12yrs and was a trainer/safety guy. I was guiding out a united airlines 737-800 sports team charter off our ramp at MDW one night a 2am, and the dumbass pilots instead of going forward out the ramp exit Infront of them, they did a hard 180* turn and damn near hit a fuel truck of our neighboring FBO parked on the property line, when I saw them start turn I sprinted the other way, somehow the wing cleared the truck and the cessna's parked on their ramp. It was the Atlantic aviation/millionaire ramp for those of you who have flown in there.

I had a trainee that I was telling to never sit indian style under a plane when dumping the lav, especially ones with a donut like a hawker 800. I was standing inside the line office watching him as he was competent enough to work by themself and I see him sit Indian style, pop the donut off and the entire lav dumped right in lap. I guess he wanted to learn that lesson the hard way.

I had a pilot of a falcon 900 yank the parking brake while we were towing him, it broke the winch on our lektro, and ended up totally destroying the nose gear and creasing the fuselage, he never did explain why he did that especially since we told him we were moving him and he acknowledged, I never saw a plane jump that high, scared the crap out of all us. Easily did 5 figures worth of damage to that plane.

And for the corporate pilots: please don't dump your coffee on the ramp, on hot days it smells disgusting. I also damn near took a pot of hot coffee to the face as I was bringing out a bag of ice to a falcon 50, and the button pusher just hucks a full pot of coffee out the door without looking. A swift air mechanic did the same thing with a lotion bottle that he dug out of the shitter and threw it onto our stair truck while I was walking up the stairs and I kicked it back in the plane, the captain made him come out and apologize

I kind of miss that job, it was fun, but damn was that physically hard work, especially since I worked at some BUSY airports!

 

Today I get to start finally being paid to try to be killed...or trying not to...teaching..yeah, thats it...I get to start teaching today... lol

Ease into 2 students then 4 after the holiday. See how things go!

 

Very nice! You’re going to learn a ton in a short amount of time!

 

You’re gonna have a blast! First few turns in the pattern will have ya perked up. You’ll figure out pretty quick who has it, and who might need a little more attention from you. Teaching at a school?

Amen to that. I’ve learned more teaching, than I ever did learning.

 

It was an interesting first day - I know I'll learn a lot. At a 141, so that's challenging to adhere to the lessons with students mid-stage/cert. We'll get there. Only two pucker moments today...Can't wait to find some more fun flights from folks I meet too!

 

141 is tough… especially getting students mid-stage/cert, like you said. It’ll get easier though. I get put with a different student every day… hard to get in a groove, and know what areas need attention.

what kinda pucker moments?! Are you mostly teaching PPL?

 

At least you’re teaching airplanes, they practically fly themselves.

 

Little photo dump from recent events. Last one is when Space X took off a few weeks ago

 

The 'new every day' is a challenge. Fortunately I have 2 solid students in CAX. One IR that is new to the program, so that's challenging. One PPL candidate was not so hot, so rough first lesson with the guy. It'll get better!

 

Low Level Fly Bys...

https://www.flixxy.com/low-pass-high-speed-fly-bys.htm

 

Isn't it a bit "demeaning"/"condescending" to call some who is working to get you flying a "ramp rat"?
Now I am not a pilot or have I ever worked in the civilian air industry. I do know, when I was flying as a crew member on RC-135M's while in the USAF, all of us flyers (officers as well as enlisted members) would never have used these such derogatory names on the ground crews that kept our planes flying day in and day out, and whom our lives depended on.! I also have a son-in law who has 3-4k hours flying multi engine jets for the private world.
Never have I ever heard him use this term to describe ground crews!

 

Excellent point….and many of the ground crew will eventually become pilot, or officers, or your boss.