Flying Upside Down

[eatingupblacktop]

The weather was clear. Visibility was 25 miles. Wind was NW at 25 knots. Temp: 72. Perfect day for hopping throught the clouds. I was going up in a single prop Cessna (Skyhawk I believe) with my buddy Paul who was a bush pilot now working for a cargo outfit. Brought my camera to take a few shots.

After a smooth takeoff, we cruised for a while when Paul noticed I was checking out the view through my lens. He said, wait a second I'll give you a better angle, and proceeded to turn the plane on it's side. We were flyin the plane on it's side! the wings were perpendicular to the ground! I didn't know planes could do that. My nose was up against the glass of the door and I was afraid of the door opening and falling out even though I was strapped in. So I immediately yelled out "OK GOT IT". We straightened out. I knew I was in for the ride of my life.

After leveling out for a few minutes, Paul must have gotten bored with flying in a straight line. He said "want to try a roll?" Before I could answer, were in a roll! At the bottom I must have pulled 2-3 G's. The he said "how about another?". This time it was an inverted roll. At the top of the roll all I could see was sky. At the bottom of the roll, all I could see was the ground while hanging from my belts. This time I was upside down. I was already looking for the barfbag.

Giving me a few minutes to recover, he said "I want to show you just one more thing". I had lost my voice back during one of those rolls, so I didn't respond but I was still looking for that bag. This time we went straight up, through the clouds, way up. Then what does he do? HE TURNS OFF THE ENGINE!!!

Now I wished I had two bags. One for each end. We stall going upwards and start falling down tail first! At this point I was barely maintaining my sanity, so I can't tell you how he turned the plane around at which point we started into what I think is called a death spiral. I thought this was it. No more me, no more parties, no more friends, family. He turned the engine back on, we pulled out of the dive with multiple G's again.

No I didn't use the bags after all but couldn't get off the plane for quite a while after landing, and when I did, couldn't walk very well. Never got a shot and never went up with him again. Now when I watch an air show, I can relate to the pilots in those planes, but have no idea how they can do these manouvers in jets travelling over 5 times faster and pulling 7-8 G's?

This is my story. Anyone else have an interesting flying experience whether on a private plane or commercial jet? How about some of our pilot members? Any wind shear stories?

PS: Sorry about the type, don't know what happened. Got caught up reliving the panic of that day I guess.

[Blayd]

No but I'm looking into going sky-diving in Atlanta. I HAVE to do it in beetween symesters so Ill have time, so Im trying to get it set up

[jcrome04]

After my near death experience flying into SLC to pickup my LS Dec 23rd, '07 I never want to fly again! :D haha

In all honesty though.... flying straight into the eye of the worst storm SLC has seen in years.... I'm shocked we didn't go down.

We diverted to Boise then headed back after being on ground for about 30min.

I think other flights after us got straight up canceled.

In the not even 6 hours I spent trying to sleep, (still scared $#!*less from the flight, and the excitement of my new car) the storm dropped on average 7" of snow. And the LS made the 950mi journey home through the frozen highways of UT and part of ID flawlessly :D

I will drive wherever I go next (in my LS) damn the expenses of gas! :D :D

[eatingupblacktop]

[Alexander the o.k.]

Wow!

If Paul did that to me, with NO warning, once we got back on the ground, I'd spray him with jet fuel, and then casually light a cigarette, and ask if he'd like one. Whew!

With friends like that, who needs..... well, you know.

The only thing similar I can relate is that as a kid growing up in SoCal. we went to a place called Lake Elsinor (sp?) and at age 8 or 9, I was talked into going up in a glider.

That was when I discovered my HUGE fear of heights. Well, not heights per se, but falling from them, or more specifically, landing....

Here I am, at about 4 or 5000 ft when they cut us loose from the tow plane. Once the sound of the tow plane's engine was gone it hit me--- we have no engine, no power, and it was almost completely silent. This is what it's like to be a bird. My knuckles went white from gripping the seat arms. I could almost see through the hull, as it was very thin, light fiberglass. I was basically just sitting in a seat in the air 5000 ft up. The pilot did a few moves that scared the !Removed! out of me, then he asked if I wanted to fly it !!! There was no answer. That's when he turned around to see a kid frozen with terror.

We landed shortly after that.

Not nearly as exciting as your story, but my level of sheer terror was probably close....