Flying the Beechcraft Bonanza and got heavy icing and tried to change attitude to get out of icing but couldn’t. 10 miles before landing the engine failed and had to land which was a failure.
What is your worst in-flight disaster?
1 Like
Titled edited for clarity.
1 Like
I was in JF Arrow, flying over Russia in winter, and yep, got heavy icing. Can’t remember exactly, was it me not remembering to turn the heaters on, or they just were unable to cope with such amounts of ice. Blind crash into some forest after 20 minutes of desperate fight with controls and altitude.
Another one is the epitome of never drink and fly. Had a few beers, was flying the SP-30 over Friday Islands, everything seems OK, and next thing I remember the plane rolls on the wing and breaks into a irrecoverable tailspin.
5 Likes
Hmm, early days of the sim when I was learning how to do pretty much everything, I was flying the C208 in Bolivia to land at a high altitude airport. Poor weather, limited visibility. I decided to handle descent on my own, not respecting flight plan altitudes. Did not have relative terrain topo map up either.
Staring into the gray void on the way down until the mountain came into view about 2 seconds before I hit it. I haven’t forgotten that lesson since.
8 Likes
Maybe not the worst, but the most disappointing mistake I’ve made several times now is that I’m impatient on arrivals. A few times I went to small airports, visual approach only and I had to circle back because I had to land from the other side from when I arrived, and I usually did extremely sharp turns, resulting in stalls or spins which, at those altitudes are not recoverable.
At one time I had a beautiful and long (2+ hours) flight in the C172, which ended in a crash in a lake because I couldn’t properly line up with the runway, turned back and forth, not realizing the drop in speed. I ended up swimming.
4 Likes
A few days ago I was trying to get a feel for the Hughes Hercules/Spruce Goose around Honolulu. Did a few circuits, no problem. Then at one point I was being a bit risky and flying in low through a valley NE of the airport, aiming to set down on water runway 22W. Slowed down a little too much and stalled, but I was already too low to recover. That huge plane took out a lot of houses.
There I was, in a Beaver in southern Alaska. I was dumb enough to fly into a bad rainstorm. Zero visibility, strong winds, heavy rain. It was stupid to even get off the ground.
I was tossed around like crazy. Tried to climb above the clouds, no luck. Lost my orientation a million times.
I survived, getting out of the storm and regaining visuals just enough to put her down on the open water. I doubt very much that this positive outcome is realistic.
But here we are.
5 Likes
Flew the CRJ into the middle of a hurricane and tried landing at a major airport. Stalled it on short final …it was ugly
1 Like
Aside from a few failed takeoffs and landings I recently landed in Toronto while another plane was taking off, on the same runway. ATC yelling « you were not cleared to land! ». I slammed the rudders and veered the plane off the runway at the last second!
The transportation security board of Canada later read me the ATC transcript and it appears the plane they cleared for landing was another, and on different runway…
Tough day at the office for everyone involved. 
1 Like
When i randomly opened the side window of the Kodiak 100 at around 173GS during a 4 hour flight… “you overstressed the aircraft”
4 Likes
Recreated the trench run using the F/A-18E in Manhattan at close to Mach 1 - guess what? Houses come quickly at this speed.
Forgot to toggle the G-limiter on pull up and slammed into the photogrammetry. Maverick would have been proud.
1 Like
Really?? Good to know! LOL
1 Like
yeah. and I found the reason…
2 Likes
First time trying an airliner (and still only time), a 787, and a real airliner flight. I was doing a route that my mother-in-law had flown on to come visit us. KCLT to KDEN. With live weather (cloud cover most of the way. I landed a bit short (something like 5nm).
2 Likes
Classic stall-spin with the Seneca V in the Bahamas. Was pretty low on approach, probably about 1k AGL (or ASL, they’re pretty much the same where I was flying), slowed down too much. Stall horn came on, instinctively pulled back, and over it went. Maybe could have gotten out of it if I was in a light sport, but a fairly heavy twin prop like that? No chance, I was toast.
I don’t make those mistakes anymore. Trained to make sure I instinctively pitch down when I hear the stall horn instead of up. And whenever I fly a new plane, I make sure to do some low-speed flight and stalls at 6,000+ AGL to get a feel for how it acts, and where the actual stall speed is relative to what’s shown on the airspeed indicator. Some aircraft stall after the red, some before. The Seneca was definitely before… I know it depends on weight, but I only really fly with 170 lbs in PIC and 25 lbs of baggage, so I wanna know how it acts at those weights.
3 Likes
I was in one of the IRIS jabiru models at Chatanooga TN in a rainstorm and I knew that in FSX, no matter how ‘intense’ the storm was, it was always really quite easy to fly… and so I took off and immediately lost sight of all surroundings - surrounded by nothing but grey - watching a slowly spinning compass and an vertical speed indicator that looked like I was on a roller coaster…and I was I suppose. Fought it for ten mninutes just trying to hold a heading and gain some altitude before I slammed into the nearby mountains that I couldnt even see.
I finally just gave up and said “■■■■ this sim is cool!” and it is. wow cant say d to the a ng
1 Like
From what I’ve read about Alaskan aviators of 1970-90s, the whole situation is totally realistic.
1 Like
The Spitfire from Flying Iron. Probably should have taken more notice of the rated limits for the engine running at certain boost levels. She started to sputter and backfire on me. Eventually cut out. Got the gear down eventually (no hydraulics with engine dead) but it didn’t lock so it just collapsed on landing.
1 Like
I’ve had a few. Most embarrassing was one of my first longer IFR flights. Bonanza, on a grey approach everything lined up great… touch down and the engine and prop stop! I’m like what is going on!? NO GEAR DOWN! Belly up on the runway. Ugh! I’ve done that more time than I care to admit. But that first time really gave me a jolt! Gotta remember GUMPFLS check (Gas, Undercarrige, Mix, Prop, Flaps, Lights, Speed and safety belts!)
Scariest situation I had wasn’t necessarily anything crazy, just too real and too close to home. Flying Cirrus SR22 on approach with a decent crosswind, everything looked great. Apparently I wasn’t hitting the correct v speed with the wind I was encountering. The left wing dipped. Stall, spin crash from about 300ft AGL. Nothing I could do but say “this is it.” This really was impactful because this happens all the time in GA. You think you have it all dialed in, then stall, spin, crash. I remember just staring at the damage to aircraft reload screen for the longest time.
4 Likes
Was flying a Kodiak around the mountains and turned down a narrow valley I was expecting to find an airport. It turns out I made a wrong turn and I couldn’t climb fast enough or turn around.
2 Likes