Sunday 27th October was a perfect day for flying. My preflight complete and everything being normal, I taxied out, which was uneventful. I made my radio calls and proceeded to take off. However, as I was trundling down the runway and at about 50-55kts, the nose wheel just starting to lift, I got showered in live hornets that had decided to make a winter home deep in the air vent on the pilot-in-command side. Training kicked in (Aviate / Navigate / Communicate) so I pulled the throttle, gently applied brakes, kept straight and announced my intentions. Having cleared the runway and very calmly taxied in (with my new friends on my lap), I shut down.
Then I ran like the clappers doing a little dance as I went. Never been so scared in my life, but grateful it all happened on the ground (ish) !!!
After satisfying myself that the hornets had vacated the cockpit (some with gentle persuasion), I inspected the barrel vent and looked in the air vent entrance point; on a C152 this is located in the leading edge of the wing. Whilst I couldn’t inspect the entire system, I decided that I would keep the cockpit vent shut to be on the safe side and continued with my planned flight to an airfield in Lincolnshire. However, whilst transiting the Wash (Norfolk into Lincolnshire) I just happened to look at the vent and noticed that it had worked itself ever so slightly open, just a crack. To my surprise there was, what can only be described as, dozens of hornet legs poking through the crack. I jammed the vent shut with force, completely re-sealing the vent and then observed as many as 4 to 5 hornets falling from the wing vent entrance point in close succession.
At my destination, I re-checked the vent system and again satisfied myself that this time there were no further hornets in the systems and departed for my return flight to my base in Suffolk. On this occasion with the vent jammed shut and periodically checked, I saw no further hornets falling from the wing and no evidence of the hornets back at my base field.
What did I learn from this unnerving experience? Firstly, undertake better winterisation mitigations, particularly when the aircraft is kept outside, noting to start this earlier in the season and prior to the time that insects and animals start to hibernate. Additionally, have the system inspected before further flight and don’t just assume that it will be ok.
[Aside: I am currently investigating if there are any non-corrosive insecticides that can be used in the vents that are not toxic to humans and actively seeking advice from my maintenance organisation, since I am not sure how best to approach this situation, considering the potential violent nature of hornets to both myself and that of the maintenance people.]
CHIRP Comment:
The above was a report recently submitted to CHIRP and, with the reporter’s consent, we decided to include it in the ILAHFFT section. The whole event must have been quite terrifying and we applaud the reporter for keeping their composure during the take-off and calmly aborting it to taxy back in. The absolute priority when something unexpected occurs is to keep ‘flying’ the aircraft and the reporter did a great job of that, even remembering to get out a call to let others know what was occurring. It was probably a bit brave to then have another go without a more detailed investigation of the vent system though, although hindsight is a wonderful thing! As the reporter says, it probably would have been better to have had the whole system inspected first before trying to get airborne again. We all know the old adage:
‘it’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground’.
There are plenty of lessons here for everyone about how we prepare our aircraft for over-wintering using bungs etc – we’ve seen incidents with mice, flies, snakes and even a racoon in the past, but hornets are a new one. Aircraft present a lovely warm shelter with access holes for curious animals who just don’t understand about flight safety. The last thing we need to contend with in the air, especially if we’re a bit rusty ourself, is an angry swam of stinging insects who’ve been rudely awoken from their slumbers. Remove temptation from their way if you possibly can and whenever you fly, especially when the aircraft has been on the ground for an extended period, always expect the unexpected.