Here’s a story with an interesting twist. Flying reader Maurice Cabirac shares his run-in with an unexpected aircraft in the sky. For a midair collision, the incident had a rather unexpected ending.
My student, a 70-year-old friend, and I were shooting touch-and-gos when on one of our takeoffs our airspeed indicator went completely to zero. We immediately transitioned to using other instruments as well as outside references for determining safe speed. It was great practice. We were at a loss as to why this had occurred, as our suction pressure was good. We got the airplane safely on the ground, and my friend got out, went to the pitot tube and said, “You are going to have to see this to believe it!”
I went and looked. It was a true midair collision. We had overtaken a tiny, helicopter-like insect from the rear — actually a mosquito hawk. His tail went directly up the pitot tube, with his wings remaining intact. Poor guy. What a way to go!
Take a look at these photos. The first is of me and my Mooney M10 Cadet, and the second is the unfortunate victim of our midair collision. I still feel kind of sorry for him.
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