I saw a high wing aircraft within 100 feet of me at the same altitude! He was so close I thought we were going to collide! I had little time to react and the aircraft passed within a few feet behind me. I pressed the PTT switch and said, “that was close!” to which the (presumably) pilot of the other aircraft responded, “was that on purpose?” I responded “of course not!”
Guilty of confirmation bias
We entered the pattern and got no gear down in the annunciator panel. I pointed this out to the owner and he said the gear is down and didn’t seem surprised. We verified this with a small window on the floor between the front seats.
‘This is an uncontrolled airport, I don’t have to make radio calls’
I think he missed me by less than 20 feet. It was incredibly close. Then I rejoined final, and went around. As I went around I saw the offending 172 landing in front of me. I vehemently asked for an explanation, as I was very shaken by what had happened. The 172 pilot finally replied and stated: “This is an uncontrolled airport, I don’t have to make radio calls.”
Distracted pilot takes off with ladder hanging from landing gear
After retrieving the fuel hose and grounding wire back to the pump area, I was walking back to the plane to retrieve the ladder in front of the right wing, but was distracted by a small piece of paper – a fuel receipt from a prior pilot – which I picked up and walked over to the trash can, which was behind and to the left of the aircraft at an approximately 8 o’clock position. As I walked back to the plane, my view of the ladder was blocked by the fuselage and I forgot about the ladder.
Loose screw leads to engine quitting
I attempted to change fuel tanks from left to right. While passing the off position the valve stuck in the off position. It would not budge. The engine on my Mooney M-20 E Super 21 quit and I made an uneventful landing in a pasture.
An extremely dangerous situation
Pilot and controllers need to be able to talk to each other, especially during an approach or departure stage when the dangers of flying increase. There is a lot of flight activity at KVPZ and the surrounding airports. There are a lot of agricultural planes that fly around, as well as skydiving operations. The area that we fly in is also on the STAR for arriving Chicago Midway International Airport (KMDW) traffic, which is handled by the same Approach Controller that I could not communicate with.
Pilot has trouble turning on runway lights at KSQL
Our aircraft was not able to turn the lights on after multiple attempts. Another C172 entered the pattern shortly after initiating the go-around. That aircraft was able to get the lights to come on.
‘Made up’ arrival points a safety issue
There are two VFR arrival points being used at Tulsa Riverside Airport (KRVS) in Oklahoma called “Turnpike Split” and “Cross Creek Warehouse.” Neither of these arrival points are charted and neither are readily located by any normal level of flight planning before being directed to one of them by ATC. The only place I have found written reference to them is buried three pages deep on the airport association website.
And I walked away from the plane
In the middle of landing the engine cuts out. After assessing the situation, the pilot elects to put the airplane down in a field.