John and Martha share their Homer Simpson doh flying moment - Whats yours? Our “Doh” moment in flying came very early in our flying career when we had just purchased our second airplane and first complex airplane, a Piper Comanche. We were thrilled to have all those extra knobs, levers and dials and very much enjoying our feeling of being more “sophisticated” pilots. The “doh” moment came on our takeoff from Reno after having been to the Reno air races. We were a little concerned about the density altitude because Reno was a relatively high altitude airport and it was a warm day. We did not expect much performance, but were startled to find our rate of climb was only about 200 ft. per minute. We repeatedly checked for full throttle and proper manifold pressure, full prop and proper RPM, and mixture properly leaned for the altitude, but still our rate of climb did not improve. We thought about the wind and the possibility of downdrafts—the wind was calm. As we were about to start a turn back to the airport one of us happened to notice that the landing gear was still down. When we pulled the gear up, the airplane climbed just fine. “Doh!”
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 17:51:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015