The Tree-

[rudymantel]

It was the summer of 1956 and I was on summer break from Georgia Tech, crop-dusting in northern Louisiana.
It was the first flight of the day and as dawn broke I opened the throttle of my cut-back J-3, taking off to kill some boll weevils. I had dusted that field several times before and began making swaths. The windshield was dirty and on half of the swaths I was flying directly into the sun. As I was motoring along, about a foot on top of the cotton and into the sun, I suddenly had a thought- the tree! I yanked back and turned and there it was- I would have flown right into it. I don’t know what caused me to think of it at that moment. I certainly didn’t see it- Farmers usually cut down trees in the middle of their fields, but for some reason this guy left that tree standing- I knew about it but forgot on that long-ago morning. Fate is the hunter…?
Rudy

[cessna170bdriver]

I suddenly had a thought- the tree! ...

I heard a similar story where the pilot's next thought was "where the h--- am I, and why am I in traction?"
Miles

[GAHorn]

A very similar thing happened to me back in the early '70's while flying pipeline patrol along the Sabine river near Beaumont, Tx.
I'd only flown that line one other time, as it normally was flown by another pilot. But he was out of touch and Gulf Oil Co. needed it flown. I was flying along looking down along the right-of-way (ROW) and saw a group of men and some trucks on the ROW working on something ...when it suddenly occurred to me that I'd forgotten a tall radio tower in this very location! I violently pulled up and rolled to the right hoping to miss the guy-wires and horribly realizing I was already too late and expected to hear ripping metal-crashing sounds..... when.... nothing happened.
The men on the ground were disassembling the tower they'd lowered earlier that day.

[rudymantel]

George, that's even scarier than the tree-
Rudy

[voorheesh]

Its the wires you dont see.