I recall an incident during glider training some 29 years ago.
I was happily watching the towing aircraft to do initiate a left turn, with me starting a right turn shortly afterwards.
The towing rope rectified that quickly.
I once almost killed my copilot and myself with a stunt that investigators would have never figured out.
We had extra fuel in jerry cans in the cabin and due to the weather, we had to climb to FL190. Back then I did not have a lot of experience with jerry cans and did not insist on them being filled completely up to the cap (you have to tilt them for that) so there was some air in it. This air expanded as we climbed and the jerry cans started to look like balloons and we got worried they would burst. So we had the fantastic idea of releasing the pressure at FL190. My friend opened the first and the air escaped quickly creating the perfect mixture in the cabin at which fuel ignites. I couldn’t have been better. One spark, the King display, the DME tubes etc. would have ignited and and the whole aircraft would have exploded and gone down over the Med as a fireball. Needless to say, there was plenty of pure oxygen flowing in the cabin via the builtin oxygen system and cannulas. I’ve immediately opened the window at 170KTAS and FL190 which could have cost us the window as well. Ever since then we celebrate this day as our 2nd birthday…
After that experience I made sure cabin fuel tanks are without air or properly vented. Switched to the Turtle Pack which has a vent that I can hold outside the window in any weather and flight situation but I try to squeeze all air out to not have to do it.
Snoopy wrote:
shut off an engine in a DA42 during the fuel selector crossfeed test
Did you need to have the fuel pumps inspected for damage afterwards?
