I think he missed me by less than 20 feet. It was incredibly close. Then I rejoined final, and went around. As I went around I saw the offending 172 landing in front of me. I vehemently asked for an explanation, as I was very shaken by what had happened. The 172 pilot finally replied and stated: “This is an uncontrolled airport, I don’t have to make radio calls.”
Aircraft
Distracted pilot takes off with ladder hanging from landing gear
After retrieving the fuel hose and grounding wire back to the pump area, I was walking back to the plane to retrieve the ladder in front of the right wing, but was distracted by a small piece of paper – a fuel receipt from a prior pilot – which I picked up and walked over to the trash can, which was behind and to the left of the aircraft at an approximately 8 o’clock position. As I walked back to the plane, my view of the ladder was blocked by the fuselage and I forgot about the ladder.
Loose screw leads to engine quitting
I attempted to change fuel tanks from left to right. While passing the off position the valve stuck in the off position. It would not budge. The engine on my Mooney M-20 E Super 21 quit and I made an uneventful landing in a pasture.
An extremely dangerous situation
Pilot and controllers need to be able to talk to each other, especially during an approach or departure stage when the dangers of flying increase. There is a lot of flight activity at KVPZ and the surrounding airports. There are a lot of agricultural planes that fly around, as well as skydiving operations. The area that we fly in is also on the STAR for arriving Chicago Midway International Airport (KMDW) traffic, which is handled by the same Approach Controller that I could not communicate with.
Pilot has trouble turning on runway lights at KSQL
Our aircraft was not able to turn the lights on after multiple attempts. Another C172 entered the pattern shortly after initiating the go-around. That aircraft was able to get the lights to come on.
‘Made up’ arrival points a safety issue
There are two VFR arrival points being used at Tulsa Riverside Airport (KRVS) in Oklahoma called “Turnpike Split” and “Cross Creek Warehouse.” Neither of these arrival points are charted and neither are readily located by any normal level of flight planning before being directed to one of them by ATC. The only place I have found written reference to them is buried three pages deep on the airport association website.
And I walked away from the plane
In the middle of landing the engine cuts out. After assessing the situation, the pilot elects to put the airplane down in a field.
Mechanic’s error leads to MayDay call
At about 7 nm out and 3,000 feet the propeller RPM began climbing sharply well beyond 2,600 RPM. I tried to change the prop and throttle settings to get the prop RPMs back under control and I had no success getting the RPMs out of the red. This continued for a short time (well under a minute) and I distinctly remember a bang, and then smoke began to fill the cabin. I opened the small window to my left in an attempt to clear the smoke and I continued to fly the plane.
Deviation from normal operations results in engine losing power
“It is striking to me that there were three separate events deviating from my normal habits of operation: Inspect fuel immediately after fueling, do not re-start a pre-flight in the middle, never take off without dipping all four fillers. Had I conformed to my normal habits on any of the three, this would not have happened.”