What do you mean, take over?
What do you mean, take over?
This next little story happened a few years back, when fuel was still cheap and I was fairly new in the instructor game. I was
working part-time for this chap who had a two plane flight school. One plane was a beat-up old 150 that must have had
several hundred hard landings on it, cause it really creaked and groaned when I instructed in it. The other bird was a brand
new 172 Skyhawk, which only the boss could use. This was in East Texas on a 2500' dirt strip. Anyway; I was working
evenings and weekends, and was just finishing for the day. I was in the office going over a student's log-book, when the
phone rang. The voice on the other end of the line sounded like a fairly mature man as he inquired about taking flying
lessons. I quoted him some figures which must have suited him because he made a date to be at the airport Sunday morning
bright and early. I told him the time to be there and to meet me on the flight line, as I had another student earlier. I should
have told him the color of the plane, but it slipped my mind. The boss was also instructing Sunday morning in the 172, and
had a another new student lined up for about the same time.
Well, every once in awhile things seem to go wrong, and Sunday was going to be one of those days. First off, I woke late
and even skipping coffee I was 30 minutes tardy for my student. Then, rushing around to make up lost time I forgot to check
the planes fuel, and 15 minutes into the flight I saw we were almost empty. I told the student to head for an airport about 4-5
miles ahead and we touched down without incident. Gassing up the old 150 put us even further behind schedule, so I had to
cut short this flight and head back for the demo flight. But, I didn't cut it short enough. Meanwhile; the boss had met his
student, who had about 5 hours of duel time, and it looked to him like it would be another 8 or 10 hours before soloing him.
He'd forgot to ask me if I'd fill in for him that morning, or I'd have told him about the demo ride I'd set up for the same time.
Well, he told this pilot-to-be to do a flight check and warm up the engine, and that he would be flying with another instructor
because he had to spend most of the day on paperwork for the FAA. The student did as told and had the plane idling when
my new fellow showed up for his first ever flight in a small plane. He was eager though and he walked right up to that shiny
new 172 like he was going to show it who was boss.
As it happened, the fellow had read a few flying magazines and seeing what he thought was me in the plane, wanted to impress me with his mature ways. He walked around the plane, staying well clear of the idling prop, and peeked at this and that, like he knew what he was doing. The pilot in the plane figured this was his new instructor and was impressed. Anyway; my man opened the right door and saying;
'Hi! I'm George, shall we get on with it?'
He climbed in, pitched his cowboy hat onto the back seat, and fumbled around as he buckled up. This done he folded his
arms and waited. This action signaled the other that he was to be in charge and to show what he had learned, so he gave a bit
of throttle and soon had the plane meandering towards the runway. Eager to impress this new instructor with what he had
learned in the past couple of weeks the pilot did a running run-up and as soon as he was lined up on the runway he poured
the coals to the bird. As is often the case in such hurried matters the novice pilot had overlooked one important detail; the
trim-tab. It was still set for landing. Despite this he managed to get airborne, although the bird pitched upward right away. It
wasn't long before the pilot had his hands full of airplane, because he was trying to get the nose down and turn off that
infernal racket the stall-warning-horn was making.
They bobbed along in ground effect for a few moments and finally the pilot managed to get the nose down enough to pick up
a bit of flying speed and start a gradual climb-out. He mentally scratched his head, racking his brain to figure why the plane
was behaving like it was. While all this pitching and bucking and horn squealing was going on the new-comer kept
swallowing hard, and quickly took the classic white-knuckle grip to the seat between his legs. Thinking to himself 'I guess
I'm going to have to get used to this sort of thing if I'm going to learn to fly', he tried his best to keep the sickness from
showing on his face.
Meanwhile; the pilot had quickly used up his knowledge of what he had learned in the past two weeks about flying and turned a pleading face towards his hapless instructor, saying
'You better take over!',
and released the controls. The new-comer was trying to hold his cookies in his stomach at the moment, and turned a pale
green color. However, with the release of the controls the bird used what little speed it had stored and climbed 2 or 3
hundred feet before nosing over and heading for the ground. The neo-pilot didn't like the terror shown on his companion's
face and thought it very unprofessional for an instructor. But, when the 172 stalled and screamed towards the ground he
reacted by grabbing the controls again and pulling power. This saved two souls that day.
And, while the initial take-off of this event was starting I was just arriving over the field with my other student. I was a bit startled to see the erratic take-off of the 172, but what really rattled me was seeing the boss running down the runway after it. Dang, if he didn't almost catch it. The first thought that occurred to me was, somebody was stealing it. But after watching the next two minutes unfold, I quickly changed my idea to a run-a-way airplane. That is, until I saw two stark-white faces through the windshield when it started that last short climb below us. Realizing what was about to happen I grabbed the mike and yelled
'Pull the throttle!'.
At the same time I took the controls away from my student and made a quick turn and dive to follow the 172. I was just in
time to see the little bird nose up at the last moment and pancake onto the grass a couple hundred yards from the end of the
runway. Well; I'll tell you, - - - ! I made a real hot landing and was rolling to a stop at the end of the runway, just as the boss
came staggering to a stop at the same time. Holding his sides and puffing 88 knots, he tried to talk, but only wheezes came
out. I had lit running from my bird and didn't need the bosses wild finger-pointing to know which way to run. But; I had a
couple of hundred feet to cover before I neared the crash scene.
As I approached I saw the dust settling and a very bent bird. Thinking; 'their probably dead', I was relieved to see two figures rolling around on the ground, arms and fists flying. Well now; I was pretty winded when I came up on this wild Donny-brook, and couldn't do anything but lean over and grab my knees, gasping for air. The sounds and actions coming from that melee was such that it shouldn't be printed, so I won't say them. But; one phrase came out that sort of summed up the situation;
'Take over? - - take over? - - why you *#%#'.
The two former companions of this episode finally spent themselves and collapsed in a bloody pile in the grass. It was kind of hard to tell if they were bleeding from the crash, or the fight. I quickly realized that if they were fit enough to fight, then they weren't all that hurt from the crash. Then the boss finally came staggering and gasping to the carnage, and seeing the two heaps of bloody meat laying there, he fell to his knees wringing his hands, saying
'Oh god! Their dead'.
I quickly told him they weren't dead, only winded, and explained what I'd just seen. After getting the two would-be-pilots to their feet we all headed for the office. On the way we learned of the mix-up that led to the events that had two prospective pilots vow never to get in an airplane again. And, when the boss remembered the twisted remains of his bran new 172 he quickly made a management decision and fired one of his employees that Sunday. That's when I decided to look for work here in West Texas. This way, I keep 1000 miles between me and several very upset people.