epopper
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2015
- Messages
- 703
- Reaction score
- 285
Today, I took off for a trip to DSM. On the climb out, I noticed an intermittent roaring sound, similar to the noise the Bose A20 makes when the battery is dying. I changed headsets and the noise continued. I couldn’t feel any vibration and almost rationalized it to be just not having flown in a few weeks and hearing things. When I leveled off and accelerated though the noise increased. At this point I looked around and saw the right side of the tail shaking. I have 15,000 hours and this freaked me out. The aircraft just had maintenance (on instruments) and my first thought is what the hell did the mechanic do to the tail?!??
I immediately pulled the power and turned around. I was careful to follow my normal landing procedure (GUMPS, etc) as I didn’t want to allow the distraction to cause me to land gear up. The landing was normal.
When I stopped the engine and got out, I immediately discovered the problem. The strap for my flight bag was hanging out of the door.
I always check seatbelts in sight when closing the door, but today I had put the flight bag on the pax seat and didn’t see the strap.
Flight then executed normally.
Takeaways:
1) if something doesn’t seem right don’t try to rationalize it
2) fly the airplane - number one priority. I was on the way to an insurance claim where it is likely that a distraction could be the cause of the accident.
3) check the door more carefully!
Eric
I immediately pulled the power and turned around. I was careful to follow my normal landing procedure (GUMPS, etc) as I didn’t want to allow the distraction to cause me to land gear up. The landing was normal.
When I stopped the engine and got out, I immediately discovered the problem. The strap for my flight bag was hanging out of the door.
I always check seatbelts in sight when closing the door, but today I had put the flight bag on the pax seat and didn’t see the strap.
Flight then executed normally.
Takeaways:
1) if something doesn’t seem right don’t try to rationalize it
2) fly the airplane - number one priority. I was on the way to an insurance claim where it is likely that a distraction could be the cause of the accident.
3) check the door more carefully!
Eric
