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Flight number 10. Very scary!


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I haven't flown for a little while and was really looking forward to getting into the air.

I arrived at my field just after sunrise this morning.There was hardly any breeze so was expecting a lovely smooth flight.Many failed launches followed,thought I had managed to nail these forward launches.

Eventually after 7 attempts, a bit of a rest and few cups of coffee I managed to get airborne,thats when my real troubles started!

I found that I was continually having to put in left brake.I thought this to be a little strange as my motor torques to the left.I looked down to find my right carbiner had caught up on my j bar,shit!So with much effort I was able to free it up,thank god for that .

So on I went cruising around in rather lumpy conditions enjoying the view.As I was over a mates place I decided to come in a bit lower and buzz his field.I was down to about 200 ft pulled a tight right hand turn and as I did so I inadvertently pushed the stop button,at that point I shat myself no time to try and restart [pull start]!Shit which direction is the wind coming from,I was going down wind so had to pull a quick 180.Thankfully its quite a big field, but as I came in to land on my arse my wing almost went into a barb wire, fence,all witnessed by my mate.

Thankfully nothing damaged just gave my left hip a bit of a bang.

So I can now tick off an engine out from my list.Very scary !!!! Thank god I was over a very large field.Everything happened so quickly from engine off to landing was about 15 seconds!!!! :explode:

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Outstanding post! We've all had flights like that. The key points are a) you're okay and b) you've acquired more knowledge.

When things go wrong it feels scary as hell but you probably weren't actually in that much danger - stiff drink, a bit of analysis and move on.. and if you can share on here, so much the better because it gives us all a laugh but also means we can learn from your mistake too.

I try and learn something from every flight and it's the dodgy flights that yield the most learning..

I think it was my very first 'solo' flight when I heard a 'thwack thwack thwack' coming from behind me, it was the strap from my reserve which had become loose, slipped through my cage and was bouncing off of my prop... mental pictures of my semi severed reserve getting deployed by mistake first time up.

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Glad you managed to control the situation and end up with a good result, not withstanding the bang to the hip.

I had a lowish level engine out and had a hard landing at the base of a hedge - trying for the next field when a much safer option would have been to do an S turn or two and land in the field I was over.

I love flying low level, 5 to 20 feet low level, but it always pays to have the thought in the back of your mind; what would I do if the engine suddenly stops?

When downwind at low level it concentrates the mind, which is why I will add more height if the wind is more than a gnats breath.

It all adds to the experience and makes you a safer pilot for subsequent flights, thanks for sharing,

Cheers, Alan

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I had an engine out on my previous but one flight but I was at 500 feet above familiar ground so it was okay - my spark plug cable had popped off.

This was my last flight - skip to the last 60 seconds, I nearly ploughed into my friends on landing! I was actually quite chuffed with the level of accuracy.. though next time I will pick a spot to the flank of where people are watching!

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