Twice I have done this. Once 23 years ago and once yesterday. The plane drifted forward a few metres…
Could be super expensive!
Our club had 2 wing strikes in 1 week somewhere this year.
At least one of them was the while looking at the pilots ipad and hitting the fuel pump.
Gosh I did that, too, last week. First flight after 10 weeks and I was checking some things. Doesn’t matter what I was checking, I wanted the new NAV data installed on the GTN and the SD card wasn’t recognised at first attempt, so I took out the fuses of the GTN unit to switch it off and on again. Sometimes it needs a second run to recognise the new data on the SD card, in particular when the unit is cold. Anyway, it took me a while and I did not set the park brake for not going after the checklist.
I always do these things when I have plenty of room ahead, it’s not the first time that it happened and, tbh, I fear it won’t be the last. Rolled maybe 2 to 3 meters. I try not to do these things when I have obstacles ahead. It’s an incident waiting to happen (better know yourself and your defects!!)
By the way: I have the iPad mounted up on the roof above, which I find very convenient, and which avoids much if not most of the “looking down”. In principal you could even change the iPad’s position (it’s a RAM mount placed in some aluminum bars that I installed), flip it down so that it is placed right in front of the windshield, which is OK when flying IFR. But I never did that, I love looking out, and it’s ok above.
For planning I use Skydemon on an iPad. But in flight (VFR, C182), the iPad just serves as a backup device. The primary device running Skydemon is a yoke-mounted iPhone Pro Max directly in front of me, with a screen surface large enough for viewing and manipulating SD and other Apps. Particularly TopMetSat weather maps by Topmeteo, updating precipitation, ceilings, cloud tops, lightning, etc. every 15 minutes (cellphone reception required, hence max. 5000 ft). The RAM-mount is of the clamp-type, enabling quickly removing and re-attaching the iPhone for photo shooting.
This concept has minimized my ‚looking down‘ time quite considerably.
I managed to do this couple of times too, not happy about it.
Could be costly.. and dangerous too.
Hopefully we all can learn a lesson here!
Same here. My SOP: I religiously use chocks, and they are not removed/touched before the park brake is set. During engine start and until taxi, brakes are held additionally.
