I Learned About Flying From That: It Couldn’t Happen to Me

Bob Tymczyszyn

Tuesday, July 02, 2013 at 10:12 PM ET

Verified

** To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go
to barryrossart.com.**

Key Takeaways:

A highly experienced pilot with decades of flight time in his antique Buhl Bull Pup nearly crashed due to complacency and over-reliance on his vast experience.
The near-disaster stemmed from compounding errors, including over-controlling the plane's sensitive rudder, improper use of its difficult brakes, and conflicting muscle memory from recent helicopter training.
The pilot admits to ignoring crucial warning signs and the necessity of recent practice flights in the specific aircraft, highlighting the danger of believing "it couldn't happen to me."

See a mistake? Contact us.

My family has owned a 1931 Buhl Bull Pup single-place, open-cockpit “flying bathtub” since 1969. I was 16 when I won the youngest-pilot award at Merced’s Antique Fly-In in 1970.

I’ve been flying this little antique airplane all my life. A few weekends ago, I came as close as you can to rolling it (and myself) up into a ball right in front of about 2,000 people (and 2,000 cameras) at the FlaBob Flying Circus — as close as you can come, that is, without finally doing so. The little Buhl, thankfully, is unscathed. Not so my ego.