On this day the winds have a slightly gusty cross wind component. Some work to remain on runway heading. Initial climb out, positive rate, gear up. Power back to 24" of manifold pressure. Prop back to 2400 RPM. Establish Vy plus 5 climb to 3000'. Turn heading 270 at 800 MSL. Radar contact. Climb to 4,000'. Check.
Upon reaching 4.000' lean out for economy cruise. 21" manifold, 2100 RPM. Close cowl flaps. Mixture 10 degrees lean of peak (LOP). Check. Perform instrument scan. All green. Situation normal. Awaiting radar vector back to Seal Beach (SLI) and resume own navigation. Expand checks. Anything overlooked?
And then it hits me. Oh SNAP! NO PAX!
I had failed to hit the "start flight" button to load the FSE PAX and set the fuel.OK. What to do? Continue the flight and try again another day? Well since one of the goals of FSE is to simulate flight operations, would a real pilot likely waste fuel/Hobbs meter flying no load without a reason? No. So I decided to go back to Long Beach. However not wanting to announce over an open frequency the full extent of my stupidity, settled on a "white lie".
"Departure, call from home office requesting return to Long Beach. Seems a PAX missed the flight." <note the part about not mentioning that all PAX missed the flight>
Vectored turn back towards airport, descend 3,000'. Since below the clouds, easy visual to Long Beach. Cleared visual runway 30. Check.
Winds still very gusty. Alternating between making no head way to being blown off runway heading. Looking to expand piloting technique, attempt to adopt a low wing into the wind with a slight crab. Alternating from a little opposite rudder to at times a ton of opposite rudder. Getting just a little over controlled but maybe reasonable......
Manage to touch down one wheel low in the zip code of the center line with the nose pointing down the center line!
Life is good today! First time ever to pull off an up wind wheel low landing!Well what happened next was interesting. Decent rate just a "little too high". Pogo stick bounce on one wheel to the other wheel followed by a prop strike and single motor shut down. A few more bounces using rudder fighting to stay down the center line it eventually settles down enough to exit the runway with one motor running the other shut down.
Clear the runway. Landing lights off. Strobe off. Taxi lights on. Attempt restart. No joy. Shouldn't be an issue taxing on one engine right? Call the tower for taxi instructions. Shouldn't really be a need to report the prop strike.
Attempt to taxi is a disaster. The combination of single engine, low speed, high winds is too much for the available rudder authority. After a few minutes of trying it's time to call the tower to request a tow. Before I can key the mic, the tower asks if I need assistance. Nothing left to do but to report unable to taxi. High winds blowing me off the runway. Request call to FBO for a tow. To which tower responded tow on it's way (thank-you).
At this point there's no point in wasting any more of PilotEdge network resources. Disconnected before my embarrassment turns fatal.
On the FSE forums there's a similar thread for "Worst Pilot ever!". The usual posts involve leaving without any PAX aboard. However conducting FSE operations online has sooooooo many more opportunities to screw up. So have you ever "forgotten" to load your PAX? How about flown to the wrong airport? Stranded your PAX halfway through their flight? Over ran the end of the run way? Your piloting skills (or lack there of) made your PAX sick? Ran out of fuel mid flight? Crashed taking all souls on board with you?
For this thread, being stuck on the tarmac for 4 hours with an over flowing toilet doesn't even move the Richter scale!
Well here's your place to clear your conscience and maybe let others have a small chuckle at your expense.
