We at CloudAhoy received over time a good number of links from pilots who had a malfunction and debriefed their handling of the situation after landing. Bob Wiseman probably had flown the shortest of them.
In his own words:
Last weekend my wife and I had the unfortunate opportunity to fly the shortest flight of my entire aviation career and/or hobby. My airborne trip was all of 4900′ on a 5000′ runway. It was all recorded to the second with Cloud Ahoy!
Flash back about a 2 months or so –
I found Cloud Ahoy via a random aviation app search. Since I am already spending my kid’s inheritance with aircraft ownership, that search string included the word “free”.
At first, Cloud Ahoy was nothing more than a novelty app to me. I’d replay take-offs and landings with its 3D map engine. “Yep, that pretty much what it looked like. Look! There’s the lake.”
A week later I was flying a GPS approach to my hometown airport. When I explored my flight in debrief mode I found I could load the unique approach parameters into Cloud Ahoy’s approach database (with Chuck’s prompt help) and watch myself fly the T, intercept the glide slope and watch my deviations in 3D all the way to touchdown. (minimal deviations don’t you know – because this is MY story). Very cool.
So here I am today thankfully, having survived the aforementioned 4900′ flight – an emergency landing after take off on the runway remaining having experience loss of RPM due to fuel-water contamination.
In debrief mode, I was able to do the post-flight analysis of the incident comparing the GPS position and altitude and the computed components: speed, vertical speed, and wind and compare the entire event with that of the real environment conditions and aircraft performance charts. From ‘take-off’ to ‘needing to replace two tires’ in less than 45 seconds, Cloud Ahoy accurately recorded the entire event.
The taxi back to the FBO was normal. By the time I pulled the mixture, my dear passenger was already in the car. “We’re driving now!”, she says. At our destination after 2-1/2 grueling hours up the Interstate, I immediately ran to a desktop computer to see the captured data. Wouldn’t you know it – Cloud Ahoy also recorded the entire road trip!