AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2015 - 92

P&E

NEVER AGAIN

The problem with
moonshine
Those weren't barbecue grills
B Y M AC K M C K I N N E Y

92 | AOPA PILOT February 2015

simultaneously-and even said it at the same time: bullet hole.
Somebody had shot at me! I had a fleeting image of a steely-eyed
fighter pilot (me) hearing the airplane take a round in the wing,
seeing where the shot originated on the ground, then rolling into
a steep dive and, in this case, opening the window of the 172 and
whipping out an M1911 .45 caliber pistol and returning fire. And I
might have done that (no, I wouldn't have. OK, I might have). But I
had no idea when the shot had occurred.
On the top skin of the wing, directly above this hole, there was a
bump raised up where the bullet lacked enough force to penetrate
the second sheet of aluminum. We tried to locate and retrieve the
bullet from within the wing (what a great trophy). We extended the
flaps and looked through holes stamped into the wing ribs, but we
could not locate that lump of lead.
Not sure if anyone should fly an airplane with a bullet rolling
around in the wing, my friend and I walked inside the clubhouse
to ask the three more senior pilots what they thought. One grizzled old gent walked with us back out to the airplane, examined
the wing, and, with a couple of hummms, said the bullet had probably rolled out of the wing.

PATRICK VALE

THE RUGGED MOUNTAINS of East Tennessee
are gorgeous, but also isolated and remote
in some places. As a student pilot on crosscountry flights, I often marveled at the
beauty of those hills, especially the wispy
fog rising from the valleys on cool days.
On an October morning at our flying
club near Knoxville, I did my standard
overly thorough preflight inspection on
an aging Cessna 172 and launched out to
the foothills of the Smoky Mountains on
a practice cross-country flight. I spent an
uneventful hour tracking VORs and calculating fuel consumption and groundspeeds.
The wind was calm, the air was cool, the
engine was humming along, and I had a
wonderful flight.
I landed back home and wondered if I
should top off the fuel tanks before tying
down. But the next renter, a friend of mine,
walked out to meet me and motioned me
toward the tiedown spot. As I shut down
the engine, he walked up and opened my
door with a cheery, "I'll fill her up. How's
she flyin' this mornin'?" (We talk like that in
the South.) This is a customary pilot-to-pilot
exchange, and the responder is expected to
mention any maintenance discrepancies
noted during the flight. You'll make extra
points with the other pilot if you add a summary of the weather where you flew, and
add details of any good on-airport cafés you
have found recently.
Before I could answer, something
caught his eye on the underside of the wing,
beside his head. Without a word he reached
up and buried his entire little finger in a hole
in the aluminum skin.
"Was that there before you left?" he
asked.
I replied that it most certainly was
not. We reached the same conclusion

AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2015

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