I can just hear that speaker playing “Full speed ahead Mr Parker, full speed ahead. We all live in a yellow submarine. a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine”. I’ve never understood why people need the distraction of music while working on their airplane, the expensive enough distraction that airplanes are.
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And another insurance claim you get to subsidize. Perhaps the insurer will will contest this claim.
It is easy to poke fun at this one, but hands up for pilots that never left a chock in and then tried to taxi. Hmmmm I don’t see too many Hands Up and fundamentally what is the difference …
My last company flew transport category aircraft on aerial forest fire suppression missions. After a similar incident that almost ended very badly they instituted a policy that no matter what, a pilot did a “360” check, that is walked around the whole airplane before getting in it before every flight every time.
I now do that every time on every airplane I fly including my little Grumman AA1.
You can laugh at this incident or learn from it…
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To say the least, a very expensive distraction…
It happens…to all of us…I won’t mention mine. However, I picked up an Aeronca Chief to bring home. First time I removed the top cowling to look it over after I got it home, found a super sized industrial strength pair of pliers sitting on top of the cylinders. And, Reba McEntire’s Hawker was coming in one night at the last airport at which I worked (ATC). Pilot couldn’t get the nose gear to extend. Landed with a beautiful shower of sparks. When finally ground to a halt, the airport brought a lift truck out to see if the nose could be raised and the gear extended by hand. It could. And as it was being done, a super sized industrial strength flashlight dropped out of the gear mechanism. Among us, “there are those who have and those who will”.
Taxiing out to fly and had a nagging feeling that I had forgotten something about the aircraft. I realized that I wasn’t sure that I had closed the fuel cap one on of the the tanks after refueling. I stopped and yup, I hadn’t do so.
Like I tell my kids, some of life’s lessons are more painful than others ?
Amen to that.
Are people so conditioned to constant noise they can’t function without it?
I see the same thing with people walking on multi use paths and trails. I have to call out to them loudly when overtaking on my bicycle because they can’t hear me and are not paying attention to their surroundings.
Too much noise is distracting and dangerous and in this case, expensive. It’s also press Icon does not need.
Davids both, thanks for your well intentioned sanctimony about laughing or learning, but I’ll not accept this one from either you today. It’s not one or the other and you’re preaching to the choir. Having spent 10 of my 51 years in aviation as a safety officer encouraging my peers to learn from others’ mistakes, I also know when to and when not to point fingers. In this case I did and do point a finger with satire because of the very nature of the airplane these guys were washing and the mindset of mindless fun that this design has already proven to exude by its very singular purpose - fun. If there was ever a GA airplane around which to be mindful it is this one. Leaving a speaker in the wrong place because of having indulged in an unnecessarily created distraction while working on an airplane is not morally equivalent to inadvertently leaving a chock in place before starting an engine. The latter is excusable even in a mindful operation if taken seriously, the former not.
If you took out one, would the resulting imbalance/vibration be sufficient to loosen the other two? Or perhaps tear off the hub entirely? Just thinking.
“He and his passenger donned life jackets…” They should have been “donned” before they ever got into the plane. I always put on a PFD whether I intend on landing in the water or not in my Searey. It should be mandatory in any seaplane or amphib. I’ve noticed that in all the videos I’ve seen of the Icon that no one is wearing a PFD. A rather cavalier, and potentially deadly attitude in my opinion. Always expect the unexpected.
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Well said. There is the comforting but risky tendency to think that silly things can only happen to other people. Flying I treat like one step down from performing brain surgery (I hope), but I’ve made minor errors more than once. Humility ensued. And I will never forget the unique sound my nice tablet computer made as the truck ran over it. Crunch crunch. Now I scan my car every time I walk up to it. Being excited and distracted seem to be the common ones for me.
Best comment.
Remembering my SES check ride with a FED, (in '66) we didn’t even think of a PFD & did not have any on board.
Seems nobody ever thought that back then.