Today, I was doing some airborne tests and, wanting to set -900fpm for the autopilot VS at a particular waypoint, instead of using the two up/down buttons, I used the knob
Then I was amazed that the lowest VS value I could get was zero!
I realised this when watching the video of me doing it…
I once switched off the engine during runup checks.
A checklist item is to manually swap ECU Auto to ECU-B and back.
Close to this switch is the Engine Master switch.
I still don’t understand how it actually happened. The Engine Master is secured and you need to pull the rocker before it can be switched.
Guess it was a combination of “automation” and not paying enough attention.
lenthamen, excuses for making you look less awkward, but I think the ECU swap switch is secured the same way as the engine master. I guess your fingers know that so they just pulled and tipped the wrong switch. Not that unlikely. I’ll probably do that next time I run out of other clever things to do. How about pulling the mixture instead of the carb heat on final (AG-5B Tiger), or turning the fuel selector to OFF instead of BOTH on a final approach at night (C177R).
I’ve had an occasion where I reversed my sense of control on the throttle and pitch during final. A bit like the left/right confusion that is very common. Was very disorientating for a moment until I managed to “reset my brain”.
Nowadays not many of those any more, but I see lots of new guys doing lots of brain farts… ah the joys.
Switched magnetos back ON once prop stops turning instead of switching main OFF. Was on m-337 engine which is to be killed by magnetos, not mixture as you guys are used to. Master is close to magnetos on the left. http://www.planes.cz/cs/photo/1111852/z226m-om-llx-aeroclub-partizanske-lzpt
Bringing mixture (red lever) back 3 times during power checks, instead of RPM (blue lever), and taking at least 30 seconds to understand why the rpm drop, oil pressure drop and engine noise changes were not at all what I expected.
Not only when flying, I’m afraid……..
I have to add another one…
After taxying to refuel, I didn’t succeed in restarting the engine (injected high HP ones get tricky, especially when it’s hot and humid, you need to get the priming just right and I didn’t this time) and depleted my battery doing it. After 45min on a booster, I managed to locate an external startup unit with the correct voltage. I’d never done that before, so I read the POH religiously, agreed hand signs with the guy who was helping me. POH says Battery Main off, Alternator off, all Electrics off, proceed with Normal Start – which itself reads Battery Main On, Alternator On, so you need to skip a few lines.
We try, once, twice, three times. The prop rotates ok, albeit a bit slowly, but there’s clearly nothing else happening. Check fuel, check priming, try again, once, twice, thrice. I give up, get out of the plane, start thinking about how I’m going to get my family and luggage back to the UK, unplug the cables. The helper then asks: “You turned the mags on, obviously?”
Obviously, not.
I felt very, very stupid.
Years ago, in my Piper Warrior I pulled the mixer to idle cut-off instead of switching on Carb-heat … in the traffic pattern ;-)
I’ll take the 5th amendment on this one.
