Low-level Desert Departure!
By: —Chuck Miller, Lt. Col. USAF (Ret)
av8or@eos.net
The great thing about any kind of flying is that you are constantly being challenged,
and constantly learning new lessons
(if you want to survive, anyway!).
In one of my earliest days in the C-47 — while I was only co-pilot rated —
our unit had a mission to take one of our three aircraft in to a depot facility
for an IRAN (inspect and repair as needed) depot overhaul.
The contractor that had been selected by headquarters was located in Hondo, TX
in the west Texas desert. We departed Chicago mid-week with two airplanes —
the one for depot input, and the second to bring the other crew home.
After dodging weather and flying over seven hours we arrived in Hondo in late afternoon.
After signing over the aircraft to the contractor, the “boss” had decided
there was nothing worth visiting in Hondo and we were going to fly over to El Paso for the overnight.
Since I was still in training for the left seat, and we had two instructor pilots between the two crews,
it had been decided that I would fly the left seat as an instructional ride on this next leg.
Since there was a sense of hurry to get to our fun destination, as we walked across the ramp
to our waiting aircraft, my instructor pilot divided up the exterior preflight saying
that I should do the aft portion of the exterior inspection,
the other instructor would check the front half, and he would do the preliminary cockpit preflight.
Then once I arrived on the flight deck, we would run the Before Engine Start checklist
and those following.
As I performed my aft half of the exterior preflight,
I noted that the in the landing and shutdown haste, the elevator trim had not been neutralized.
When I arrived on the flight deck, I was rushed to get the engines started for departure.
At the point that the checklist challenge on “Elevator Trim”was made,
I didn’t quite hear what was asked and, my response was, “Say again”.
The instructor, assuming the correct reply, advanced to the next checklist item.
(That’s the second procedural deviation)!
Completing all the rest of the items we taxied for take-off and began our take-off roll.
At this point I had only performed a handful of left seat take-offs, but something seemed strange.
Normally, shortly after starting the take-off roll, the tail of the C-47 automatically starts to fly
at about 30 knots, bringing the fuselage deck angle close to horizontal.
Then once reaching flying speed (at about 80 knots) the aircraft becomes airborne
with little elevator input from the pilot, even from the beginning of the roll.
In this situation, however, the aircraft accelerated normally, but the tail never came up,
and suddenly we were airborne at about 50 knots just above the stall speed.
Almost instantly the miss-trimmed elevator observation flashed into my mind
and I began pushing the controls forward with my left hand as a struggled to roll the trim
forward with my right. Simultaneously, the instructor pilot started yelling
“I have the aircraft”, and also reaching for the trim wheel with his left hand.
Murphy (of “Murphy’s Law) was quick to jump into the fray,
because as the instructor in the right seat became preoccupied with the elevator trim wheel,
he let go of the throttles that he was guarding in the take-off power position.
The throttle friction, being tired and worn on these 20 year old aircraft,
was not operating up to par and the right throttle slid back to about 65% power.
Here we are with excessive nose up trim, flying in a nose high attitude barely above the stall
only a few feet off the ground
and in an asymmetric power-induced right turn off the runway heading.
Thank God for the vast empty desert at Hondo, Texas!
The lesson:
Use the checklist,
and never let yourself be rushed into complacent attention to details!
So called “Get-home-itis” can occur in many ways,
and invariably can set up the chain of events that can cause an accident.
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