Veteran Pilot Warns About Recognizing the Hidden Danger

86-year-old recounts near-disastrous experience with weight and balance.

Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

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The author says that had he entered a stall spin, the water would have been gone during a postcrash inspection. [Image: Joel Kimmel]

Key Takeaways:

An unexplained aft center of gravity during a flight revealed the critical importance of meticulous pre-flight inspections, specifically checking for hidden issues like water accumulation in the tail cone due to a plugged drain.
The author's extensive flying career underscored the necessity of continuous learning, adapting piloting techniques (e.g., mastering full-stall landings), and not blindly trusting aircraft performance data, drawing lessons from personal experiences and club incidents related to terrain, weather, and pilot judgment.
Proficiency in instrument flight, including the ability to rely on backup instruments during critical failures, was highlighted as life-saving, emphasizing the importance of training for disorientation and unexpected equipment malfunctions.

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I obtained my private pilot certificate in 1970 in a Cessna 150. We all remember our first solo. During mine, a United Airlines flight came in and I needed to extend downwind. A little frightening.

My wife followed with her own solo a few years later, for safety for our little family of two children. Rules were different back then, and our first family flight was in that Cessna 150, with no seat belts for our 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.