If you have been around aviation long near misses are too common. Often at non-controlled airports, but this is a story about when Bobby had a near-miss less than 100' at a controlled airport.
This week Bobby tells his near-miss story. While these are more common than they should be some are closer than others! We won't give it away here, but Bobby comes VERY CLOSE to the big one and shares what he thinks saved him and his passenger from the "BIG ONE". This near-miss story could happen to each of us and both Bobby and Wally hope the show helps everyone be a little safe. Fly safe everyone!
00:00:01 - 00:05:08
Welcome to behind the prop podcast where each week we will bring you stories lessons and some tips from behind the prop. Please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Pre-show checklist microphones, check out check complete recording all channels checked and verified pre-show checklist complete tower, Bravo Tango papa is holding short ready for departure Bravo Tango Papa, you are clear for takeoff. Have a great show your clear for takeoff and Wilco Bravo Tango Papa. What's up, Wally? Hey Bobby. How are you? I'm good episode four this has been pretty exciting. We've got to see some statistics and analytics from around the country people listening to our show. This is your first podcast. What are your thoughts so far Wiley, you know, I'm having a good time. I've listened to obviously the podcasts that are back online and I'm happy with what we're doing and I just hope that the listeners enjoy it. I hope they come back. I hope they tell their friends and I hope we can hope we can make a difference. All right, me too. So today is a story about making a difference. This is a near-miss story. If you saw it, you know the title but is one that's very near and dear to my heart. I think as we talked about before we started recording while if you're an aviation, you've either heard of or had your own near-miss true or false absolutely. Absolutely. So if you're out there and you student pilot or you're a pilot, you've heard these stories. This one was one that I was involved with and as I still replay it today many years later. I don't know. I don't know why I'm still here. I really think that that should have been the big one and we'll talk more about it. But I think I'll start with just kind of telling the story about that day and let you ask some questions Wally about maybe what was happening or what I was thinking and we'll tell the story and hopefully will prevent someone from having a very similar near-miss. Okay, that sounds good. So was actually September 26th 2017 and I had just finished my instrument rating earlier in the year had been taking some pretty decent trips with family and friends. Meaning I was normally flying over a hundred nautical miles to go do something whether it was I think I took my family back to back to school clothes shopping in San Marcos and we flew there and took an Uber and bought a bunch of clothes and flew home So I was taking advantage of my pilot's license at this point and having a lot of fun and a friend of mine who happens to be the partner of mine at this flight school. Now, his name's Matt. We jumped in a plane. He has his wife had just bought him some time at the flight school and a flight bag. His birthday was in August. So again, this is late September. This is probably only his second or third flight where I'm going out to kind of show him some of the Maneuvers the plan for this flight was for me to show some of the Maneuvers that he would be doing in his Private Pilot training and he just wanted to see how well he would do. He has a I will call it a weak stomach but gets a little motion sickness They want to see some of things things that he'd be doing. So we're at the flight at the airport. We get in the plane all things normal weather that day was pretty calm I remember clearly there was no crosswind. There wasn't anything really out of the ordinary. It was starting to get cool. So the air was pretty good that day and we taxi out and one of my instructors was always adamant. That way you should never get on a Runway or taxi out on runway without being able to have a clear view of final and I don't know what airport you might come from. But if you're in an airport and you don't have a you may have to taxi back you obviously have a clear view of final some run up areas don't provide the best angle or View and some uncontrolled airports Wally I'll do a full 360 if I'm going to go to make sure I can see the the the entire final and base both sides. This day we did the same thing. I'm talking to Matt. I'm telling them. Look we're turning back to get a real good view of final there's nothing coming down on Final the instructor that I flew with through my instrument training would always say look you can you can choose to not look and they can clear you to go. But if you get hit and die, the controller's going home you're not you have to control the situation. So we look we talk about it. We've been cleared for takeoff. We line up on the Centerline the throttle goes in and we're air speeds coming alive, normal things are happening and we get to 55 knots in a 172. We rotate back the front wheel comes up. And literally I remember clear as day that the wheels came off the ground and a helicopter came down right in front of us. The people that were behind us said no more than a hundred feet. We had no more than a hundred feet wheels two inches off the ground at 55/60 knots with a helicopter right in front of us.
00:05:08 - 00:10:07
And if you didn't know it helicopters have big yellow stripes on the top of their on the top of their props that you can see when you're above them. You know, I didn't know that I I guess I always see the rotors from the bottom, but that's that's nice to know. You don't want to see that . So what what was your initial reaction all of a sudden you just realize you just about hit a helicopter. What was your reaction? My reaction was to to take a guess all the training that I did have. I remember very clearly like not letting myself pull up on the yolk. Like I just knew through all my stall training through everything. I'd ever been taught. Everybody talks about the pattern. Everybody talks about the airport complex. You do not want to be slow and low that's when people get really hurt. So while I was worried about running into the helicopter something instinctually took over and said well if I get low and slow here, I'm going to get hurt anyway, so I'm just going to make sure I keep flying the aircraft. And if the airport that I was at has some buildings pretty close to the left side of that Runway and there's another Runway to the right of that. So I just took and put a little slight Left Bank in to the to the controls so that I would hopefully miss the helicopter. Luckily, Obviously I'm sitting here today. So we missed the helicopter probably didn't miss the buildings by much and was shocked. I mean we've all been in a surprising situation. The shock is an understatement you you don't expect to see anything on a Runway like if you see a bird you probably freak out a little bit Yeah Birds probably going to lose. I think I could have very easily lost to that helicopter. So what you know, once you got the airplane under control and and and got it in a decent flying State, what was your when y ou push that push to talk button what was your first communication to ATC? Well, I might inject it in this track somewhere if I can but it was that was way too freaking close and I wanted to a a lot of other words, but I knew that I was on a public radio, right? So I didn't use the the other F-word that I probably wanted to use. Yeah, but I didn't I wanted to make sure they there was a tower and they cleared me to take off and they cleared him to land I say him. I'm ninety-nine percent sure was a him. But it was not it wasn't out of it wasn't out the the ordinary right you at an airport has six seven eight planes in the pattern, maybe some helicopters. There's people being cleared to land all the time. I've gone back and listened to that tape over and over and of course, I hold myself accountable and I can't find anything. I really did wrong. But at the same time did I did I hesitate at all that I hesitated by teaching this friend of mine to make sure looks back but I have the runway until I'm clear. They didn't have the right to clear the other person but they did it was almost exactly what my instructor said. And of course. I've stayed up many at night thinking what if I would have pushed that throttle in one second later one second later. I would be dead. There's no way one second at 55 knots I would not have just plowed right into the side of that helicopter. Right one. Second is a is either a miracle or luck or something because that's all that was one more second. We would have been right into each other's in the each other spinning things. So continue to tell us about the rest of the flight. What now, did you go out and do the Maneuvers and then come back or did you just turn around and come back? You know here you are at a hundred feet. You've recovered the airplanes flying again. What what happened next? Well, I think I think my heart was racing. I know we climbed on out. I've looked at the track lock today before we record. We we appeared to this climb out and head West like normal. I remember talking to Matt who we were Partners and still really close friends today. I remember that day. It's talking to Matt and and him not realizing anything was abnormal. Remember this is his third trip to a Runway. He's never been on a runway . So he's like well, what's the big deal and I'm like dude helicopters don't land in front of you when you're on the go like this is not normal he's a passenger riding on this, this is cool We're just going to come right next to each other when we come and go and I'm like that's completely wrong. He had already taken one lesson in his instructor was next in line behind us and he's the one who when we came back said " I saw it." I knew y'all were going to die. I saw it happening. You were no more than a hundred feet apart. So his instructor had a lot to teach him about what was coming in the future but we we keep flying out and I remember talking to Matt about him being so calm like it was no big deal.
00:10:08 - 00:15:09
I'm like freaking out going Matt. That's not normal don't ever take off when there's a helicopter on the runway, right? But I also was so mad that I knew if she came back I would have probably stopped on the runway got out of my plane and walked right up to the tower and started started throwing punches. I was so frustrated and then I calmed down I think I really so we did go fly off. We did some Maneuvers. I I thought that was the best thing for me to do was to just let some of my energy out in the west practice area and deal with it by by doing what I wanted to do that day and not just coming back which probably in some respects might have saved my flying career because I don't know. I don't know what it would be like to come back close and then get right out of the aircraft, right? So to only have people trying to talk you get get back in and maybe when you didn't want to so so when we hear the term road rage we think of driving a car, but I guess it could happen in an airplane a little bit too. Runway road rage. We were outraged real that day because I also remember what the helicopter said to the tower, you know, once I clicked my mic and said whoa, that was way too freaking close. The helicopter also said what was that about we're done for the day, you know, and you can imagine that a helicopter that has been cleared to land has a Cessna almost hit them their perspectives very different than mine. I my perspective. They have a perspective. We're cleared to land. This guy almost hit us, right they too know their true story of all the clearings that happened. But I mean they they quit for the day for sure. I know it and I know a couple of other heli copter Pilots. I'm not a helicopter pilot. So if you're listening and you have a different version, please let me know but I heard that cuz they were doing Auto rotations. That's the only reason we probably lived. They didn't have any any power in that helicopter. They were doing practice engine out Landings coming straight down and so I've been told by other helicopter Pilots had they been full, you know, full power to land that the downwash from those rotors probably would have flipped that little Cessna we would have been killed not even hitting them maybe but because of the downwash from there the rotors but I don't know. I I think I flew I came back we were at the at the school everybody wanted to talk about it. It was the buzz on the airport that day how close it was and I just kept thinking man. I was I was really lucky and I went home and hugged my family and I could I could just keep daydreaming about being all those parts being spread out on the runway and just kept thinking what would be what would have been one more second? Yeah so that have you talked to the helicopter pilot . I did. I never made contact with them. I think I spent a lot more time trying to talk to Chief Pilots here right other friends in my network. I remember calling my instructor Justin Meeks that day going This is what happened. What do you think? What should I do? How should I handle it? Some people thought that I should should have filed some some paperwork filed a complaint done things. Some didn't think I should should and at the end of the day, I weigh all those things out called the whole bunch of people and I didn't I didn't pursue it as as if I wanted to get a bunch of people in trouble, but I wanted a bunch of people to learn from it . That's why I tell the story today. It's it's embarrassing. You almost hit a helicopter, but I really don't think I could have done much to change it. Right right, the thing that I hear you've told me the whole story and this happened three three years ago. So in theory, you've you slept over a thousand times since this happened, but what I hear is I hear this this passion in your your voice. Um, and this this sounds like something that happened about four days ago. This doesn't sound like something that happened over a thousand days ago three years ago. So why am I you you talk about it I you know, I get a little emotional thinking about it as well. I mean we've all if you fly long enough, you're going to be in these these situations where where human factors come into play and this does sound like, you know as a human factor thing, but for the grace of God, you you're here to talk about it and we can all learn about it. I just be curious to know, you know, if if the helicopter even saw you yeah every one from the perspective from the majority of people that I talked to were like why why didn't he see you? You know, those most those trainers have clear floors or some some Viewpoint view whole out the bottom but I if I again if I put myself in their shoes, they're teaching and training they've been cleared to land at at a towered airport. Yes they're supposed to be looking but if they're teaching I can see them getting along fixated on what's going inside and and on inside of that cockpit as well.
00:15:09 - 00:20:11
Yeah. I I'm not a helicopter pilot as well. But I would think the biggie the big thing for helicopters would be Auto rotation s. That's probably the most risky maneuver they do I guess and you know, your your focus is elsewhere. I mean, it should be looking out as well . As well, but I could see I could see not because that is a big deal to auto rotate a helicopter. No doubt, and I I think I would have loved to and if he's listening to this someday, let's talk as I would have loved to have caught up cuz that was kind of my view walking back into the flight school that day was you know, I didn't have the big one and we should all talk about it and learn about it and really be thankful for each other that we all missed by such a small margin and have have the opportunity to go and be with our families. I think there are some lessons that whether I whether I knew them then I'd like to make sure people know them now and it was the ingraining that my instructor did for me to look right? So I did look now. I've Incorporated other things that I do before I take an active Runway and Technology helps provide that I'm a Avid Stratus user. I won't I won't start a day without turning my Stratus on even in my G 1000 with traffic. I make sure I have my Stratus on just in case it picks up traffic that maybe it's not on my screen. Yet, you know, right and two different systems two different traffic sources. I want to make sure I'm seeing what I can see but now I think I would see something, you know, right above the runway. I would know off and I would at least click it before I took the active Runway. It might not have prevented it or avoided at 100% But I also say I don't just look on that final I think while I thought that was a great tip and something I share with everyone. I do more looking everywhere than just on the final. You know, you you think at a controlled airport with an active Runway that is landing a certain direction that no one else would be coming a different direction, but it could it really could so I look both final. I look on the final of the wrong runway in case someone's happens becoming the wrong way. I look up I look around I make sure that nothing's nothing's in my airspace of that Runway. The other thing I think that's changed for me more because of experience and you probably hear better than a 10 hour pilot hears it but I am much more situationally aware of things. Once my run-ups complete like I get into full-on situational awareness mode, right every tail number they're calling out. I'm thinking and visualizing them in the air space, you know, if they say November one-two-three-four your your clear for closed traffic squawk such-and-such. I listen for their next call to know where they're coming from and how far they are. So then I have this little almost the radar blip in my brain if somebody coming in from the North West five miles four miles. Am I going to get out or they going to be here with me? Yeah. If I'm leaving in my cross paths with them, you know, I start pipeline so-and-so coming in transitioning through your Air Space. I'm thinking about that guy or girl. I'm thinking about that that person somebody picking up a banner. I'm thinking about what are they doing? Where's their what's their position on the field, you know life flights leaving sometimes. Where they going, what altitude will they be at . They be I just really start putting all these bugs in my brain to think about what's going on because I think that's the one thing I could have done better, but I'm not sure a 120 hour pilot is supposed to be there yet. Right right would be great if they could be but I do think one of those big lessons is now looking in a lot of different places. Number one number two creating that situational awareness map in your brain, especially at an uncontrolled airport. If it's only three dots you should be able to keep up with that kind of know where they're at . And then I think what we learned throughout our private training is so very true. I I think if I would have pulled up we would have got hurt really really bad if not killed because I know you'll have stalled the aircraft. There's just no way that that plane could have held altitude if we were in a 20 degree pitch. I mean it's going to stall and I'm going to hit the ground pretty hard maybe not miss the helicopter, but I would have stalled the aircraft right never mind if I would have put any Rudder into that thing and so I think all that training that we might get a little bored with maybe it's not the right word. But what I'm thinking the bored with in the in the practice area where we keep doing power on stalls power on stalls you like. Oh, this is never going to happen to me. Well, not intentionally I can assure you it probably won't ever happen to you intentionally at six feet off the ground, but man that's a that's an ideal situation where that could have happened.
00:20:11 - 00:25:12
Yeah. And I don't know. I don't know if I could have recovered. I can recover from three thousand feet. Yeah, pretty regularly, but I don't know if I can recover from 20, right, you know, I had a incident and and quite honestly, I don't even have it written down in my notes. I it it totally gone out of my thought process, but just about a week ago. I was administering a check ride and we ended up at a uncontrolled airport about twenty miles from here and we're doing The Landings over there and I am waiting only airplane in the pattern. So it's very convenient. And we called that we were on a left base for Runway three-five. I should say. Another airplane had called in and said that they were coming in they were going to land Runway 35 and so they they they said they were about a six mile final and then we called that we were on a left base for 35 and then they they made a call that they were on a one-mile file for Runway three-five. And here we are in a left left base I estimated. We're on about a three quarter mile left base for runway three five and they're on a one mile final for three five and the applicant at this point. I just said let's get out of here and we both just climbed and we announced that we're just going to leave the traffic pattern to the East and we're going to try to find out where that other airplane was. Well as we turned around And headed back to airplane. airplane. I down and I saw the airplane rolling out and Runway one-seven. So the air plane had landed on Runway one-seven and had we kept doing what we were doing. We were going to land Runway three-five. They were going to land land 17 the were calm. So you really either Runway was appropriate from a wind standpoint, but there is a a situation where you know, we didn't see the person so our our our thought process was just let's just get out of here regroup and come back and try it again. But I really totally forgotten about that a lot a lot of things going on since then, but that's that's the idea of situational awareness. And when that airplane did call in they said they were on Final for runway three five and so they were just they had gotten things turned around and so that's an excellent point not don't just look at final four the active Runway. Look at final four the other runway , especially at uncontrolled airports. No doubt. I mean, we all make mistakes that could have been a really big one. I've had a an experience similar to that where you're coming in opposite of another another on a calm day. Obviously those probably don't get talked about I thought about in such a way but that's going to be really painful if those two to end up hitting each other for sure and it's avoidable it truly is and in that case not judgmental, but it sounds like that person was in the wrong by calling the wrong Runway, but I don't think he probably meant it. I don't think they were trying to do it. They weren't trying to be wrong and with covid-19. The FAA towers are closing early. I've heard some crazy radio traffic around here late in the day where there's literally at this airport. There's three runways that can be active at any one time when the tower is closed a water Runway a short runway and a big Runway and if people are Landing the wrong way that could be six runways. Yeah dozens of planes in it going, you know, it could be really crazy. So I think there's there's reasons also to maybe make the decision that today is not the day. I'm going practice practice in the pattern right? There's there's I'd rather be here tomorrow to practice on a day that might not be so busy so that could be a really good take away as well. So long story short look both ways look up and down. Also if you have the opportunity or capabilities of using a traffic Source, make sure you can take advantage of that and see the traffic situation so that you you may be my see something that you can visually see with your eyes are seeing with the tool and then that situational awareness kind of that map in your brain of the radar of what's going on around that airport both taxing on the ground and in the air so you can keep it up and if you can't keep up with it, maybe you take pause and don't go that day right? It's just it's just too much . So while it is near and dear to my heart and why I am very lucky to be here today and I'm glad my wife didn't prove me right that it was that this thing is dangerous. I don't think it's dangerous. I think it's just a day that all things came together and I came real close to hitting something else and I I lived through that day and hopefully you learned something from that anything to add Wally as we wrap up today.
00:25:13 - 00:26:13
No, just just keep your ears open. You know. One thing I see on check rides is applicants feel the need to talk all the time. And and I always tell them we got two years. We've got one mouth. So maybe just maybe listening is more important than talking. So that might be a subject for another day. But we hope you're enjoying the Podcast . Come back next week. We're going to talk about paper versus plastic paper versus plastic. Oh, but you get asked that a lot as a DPE all the time until next week. Thanks for listening to Behind the Prop share with your friends. Bravo Tango Papa, we are clear the active Runway and would like to taxi to parking. Bravo Tango Papa taxi to park, great show. Have a nice day. Taxi to park, thanks you too. too, Bravo Tango Papa. Thanks for listening to behind the prop. Please follow us on social media at behind the prop or visit our website www.behindtheprop.com until next week. Fly safe, everyone.