As you may know from my previous ‘mishaps’, I have my private pilots license. So one night while still in training in the early 1990’s, me and my flight instructor Blaine went out to practice night flying. Among many other requirements, you have to have a certain amount of hours of night flight before you can get your license. Well it was a nice clear evening and we flew out of my hometown of Madison, WI down to the airport in Rockford, IL to do some touch-and-goes and other air-work in the area.
After a couple hours it was time to head back to Madison. The airport there is a Class C airport, meaning it is relatively large, it has a tower, and you have to get permission to enter the airspace. Once you tell them your intentions (to land in our case) the tower directs you on where to go, how fast, etc. Well like at any large airport there are always several planes wanting to land at any given time, so it is the tower’s job to keep the planes away from each other and in line to land with enough separation so there are no mishaps and they can all get down in a safe, orderly fashion.
So we get our instructions to enter the airspace, go on a certain heading, follow a certain plane in the pattern and we will be #2 for landing behind that plane. We are following the assigned airplane and eventually he lands and then it is our turn and we are on the final to land. This is probably my 5th flight ever at most so I am still pretty green and did not know this fairly large airport that well yet. Also, we are a very small plane in a sea of planes ranging from 2-seaters like ours all the way up to jumbo jets flying in from all over the country.
So we’re drifting over the runway and I am lining it up as best as I can and I cut the power and get her on the ground with an okay landing. I am proudly rolling down the runway when all of a sudden all hell breaks loose! I did not slow the plane down fast enough in time to get off the runway and on to the normal taxiway to the right that all the small private planes use, so there I was still on the main runway with a HUGE Northwest airliner right on my ass! Blaine had assumed I was turning off on that taxiway so when I rolled past it he just said: “Uh oh.”
Our entire plane was enshrouded in an impossibly blinding white light that seemed like the bright lights from heaven itself as the jumbo jet that was landing right behind us was on us. Luckily the pilot realized in time that we were still on the runway and he aborted their landing and pulled up before hitting us. All the while this was happening the tower was frantically screaming through the radio at us to “Get off the runway!!”.
Our entire plane was enshrouded in an impossibly blinding white light that seemed like the bright lights from heaven itself as the jumbo jet that was landing right behind us was on us. Luckily the pilot realized in time that we were still on the runway and he aborted their landing and pulled up before hitting us. All the while this was happening the tower was frantically screaming through the radio at us to “Get off the runway!!”.
I looked back and in the middle of all that bright light I saw the wheels of the jet lifting up behind us as the plane swooped up and over us and took off again into the night. I almost caused a major airline disaster and definitely caused a lot of confused people on the plane to be wondering what the hell was happening. In addition to the scare, they were going to be late as they had to take off again, go around, re-enter the flight pattern and then land which can take 15 minutes for a large airplane.
Well, we got off on the next taxiway and headed back to our little hanger as it was dawning on me what had just happened. As me and Homer Simpson are apt to do, I cannot help but believe that it was everybody else’s fault but mine. The tower never should have left that small of a window for a little plane like ours to land in with that large plane right behind us…there should have been more separation. And my instructor should have been more aware of my inexperience and should have made sure our plane was braking enough (there are dual foot pedals on each side of the plane as well as dual steering wheels) so that we could have gotten off the runway in time. How was I to know we had to get off on that taxiway? Seriously though I was the pilot so of course it was my fault. But it was a lesson well learned…no jacking around, get off the runway as soon as possible.
Well, we got off on the next taxiway and headed back to our little hanger as it was dawning on me what had just happened. As me and Homer Simpson are apt to do, I cannot help but believe that it was everybody else’s fault but mine. The tower never should have left that small of a window for a little plane like ours to land in with that large plane right behind us…there should have been more separation. And my instructor should have been more aware of my inexperience and should have made sure our plane was braking enough (there are dual foot pedals on each side of the plane as well as dual steering wheels) so that we could have gotten off the runway in time. How was I to know we had to get off on that taxiway? Seriously though I was the pilot so of course it was my fault. But it was a lesson well learned…no jacking around, get off the runway as soon as possible.
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