Has anybody had a mechanical problem during mid-flight?

Question

I had an engine shut down-What was yours

Answer 1

Mm.... 8 engine failures in one year,  I don't know how many total. I had one deadstick in a twin turbo-prop. 3 Off airport landings (unplanned) inflight fire (cabin) inflight fire engine,  smoke in the cockpit (twice)  and one more takeoff than landing due to complete destruction of the airframe of a homebuilt I was testing for the first flight which got me my one and only parachute jump. A bunch of annoying things such as loss of cabin, bird strikes, bat strikes,   I had one uncontained engine failure that was really nasty,  and one gross weight V-1  failure coming out of El Paso TX that was hairy... hot 100+ and high (field at 4000' MSL) and  MGTOW,   we barely broke ground and lost #2, started to Vmc roll when I shot the water to it (manual) and we went between the hangar and the tail of the FedEx 727 because we were not climbing yet...  thankfully the highest obstruction was telephone wires and we barely cleared them and finally began to eeek out about 50 fpm climb rate. The tower did a great job,  saw the problem and calmly called it on the freq that there was an emergency in process and turned out all in bound traffic, but it didn't take that long because we just made a  3/4 circle and came back and landed without getting more than 100 of altitude.  Hit by lighting dozens of times, usually didn't do anything...sometimes burned holes in the skin...  blew out my radar once, it hit behind the radome and travelled forward. Stuck nose gear on a Navajo once,  so I landed it hard on the mains and bounced it back in the air and shook the nose gear loose, the owner gave me a bonus for that one. All kinds of returns for maintenance problems, particularly taking aircraft out of Mx for test flights to see if they are properly repaired... and you are on salary so you don't get paid extra. Then I go sit on a jumpseat going home and talk with a 15,000 hour MD-80 captain, flew 30 years, never had even a light bulb burnout. You never know what you are going to get.

I have been a first responder on 3 fatal crash sites (airshows), and it really makes you think.

Answer 2

i have had a throttle cable break and stick at full throttle but it happened while I was in the pattern so it was pretty uneventful. Still scared me a little just because it was out of the ordinary

Answer 3

Had an engine flame out in a single engine jet. The height was 25000 feet and miles away from any runway where to dead stick the aircraft. I declared an emergency and sent out an SOS call. I had to jettison all external stores and establish a glide. In the meantime, with height on my side, I tried a normal re-light, which did not work. Second time, tried the emergency restart which worked. Guided the jet back to base, landed safely and was greeted by a lot of fanfare. It was scary yet thrilling, especially saving the aircraft.

Answer 4

woah im freaked....

i get scared  on planes

sorry not answering ur question

Answer 5

Lost power on final and flew through a 20 foot snowbank at the end of the runway once in a Cessna 152 trainer. That got the landing gear vibrating pretty good. I'll never forget the sound that made; or the new word that I learned from the pilot.

Answer 6

Ive had a belly landing in a 172rg, the casing that keeps the gears in contact broke, so even though the motor and the hand pump were still working I couldn't put them down. It wasnt too bad, and it was a school plane so I didnt have to pay thank god.

I also had my brakes lock up on landing one time because of severe cold, not really a bad one but It took a h**l of a lot of people to get it in the hanger lol.

I think the worst thing that happened to me was December of two years ago durinf a VFR flight. A solar flare hit the earth (No NOTAM about it, thanks Lansing Radio) and older gps units couldnt work through the interference, so I had no gps from the start, and the first call I made after takeoff the radio started going apesht, and so was the VOR, and on top of that there was a (unpredicted) 65kt wind and only 5 miles visibility. I was flying through the middle of nowhere, I couldnt see my checkpoints, but I eventually came across something I recognized from the sectional and used it to determine the real wind component, which I then used to point me toward the nearest landmarks I knew I would be able to find, and from there headed toward the nearest airfield. It really pushed me to my limits at the time, and showed me that I really had a ways to go before I was a professional. I have a h**l of alot more respect for mother nature and aircraft safety now.

Answer 7

I had a magneto fail in flight. Switched bad mag off and landed at the nearest airport. I had the landing gear fail to retract due to ice in the squat switch. Also had the fuel gauges fail in flight. Not a good feeling when you are over the great salt lake in february and see both tanks showing empty.