"Old Guys Rule!"

[Christian Van H]

Speaking of cheating death... A couple of years ago I was taking lessons in a 172. I took off, and we flew to our normal practice area, no problem. I started with turns around a point, the went to figure eights. Went I banked into the first eight, the plane slowly returned to level flight. The instructor spoke up...right around the same time I announced we had a slight problem. NO aileron control at all. The cable linkage had broken, thanks to crappy maintenance (found out later). We made it back to the airport, and because it was a calm day, my instructor decided to try an approach (rudder and elevator only). we got down and lined up OK, so we went for it, and made a beautiful landing, if I do say so myself. That was the first time I ever felt my knees knock. Cheating death indeed!

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Christian Van H

That was the first time I ever felt my knees knock. Cheating death indeed!

I hear you, Chris - isn't adrenaline an amazing substance? In my opinion, lousy A&Ps have the same advantage lousy doctors have (bad doctors bury their mistakes), but with A&Ps, their mistakes are tangled up in the virtually unrecognizable wreckage. And when the accident investigators can't find any evidence to the contrary, they just check the box that reads "Pilot error."

TaoJones

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by MoonlightShadow

6 stone more than I was when I left school -

We both lost weight cruising. Their ain't no Maccas at sea and the constant motion of the boat keeps you counter balancing... the pounds/kilos just melt off

Originally Posted by TaoJones

Chris, but I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

I jumped with the army years ago, but also I recently did a free fall tandem jump and it was quite a long fall... 30 seconds aprox.

It was a most remarkable... the sensation of the fall is quite utterly indescribable. When I was falling I thought that even if I were given a pen and paper the moment I hit the ground I would not be able to write words to express the feelings and thoughts experienced.

If you get a chance to do it go ahead its really something you could never do in any other way... if that makes sense...

[jkd]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

I hear you, Chris - isn't adrenaline an amazing substance? In my opinion, lousy A&Ps have the same advantage lousy doctors have (bad doctors bury their mistakes), but with A&Ps, their mistakes are tangled up in the virtually unrecognizable wreckage. And when the accident investigators can't find any evidence to the contrary, they just check the box that reads "Pilot error."

TaoJones

I'll have you know I have a perfect record as a mechanic...... I haven't left one up there yet! I do admit that we have a secret club that keeps moving those mountains into those clouds for pilots to find.

John

[Tom and Maje]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

I like my odds, Moonie, but should everyone live as I do? No, most people probably wouldn't like it for very long, and, anyway, each one of us has to find what works best for him/her.

I like that one, Chris. My old flying instructor had several funny items like that, but adapted to flying. He would say:

"I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming and crying hysterically like his passengers."

"Any landing you walk away from is a good landing."

"There are three useless things in flying: Altitude above you, runway behind you and fuel in the truck."

Good stuff!

TaoJones

Good One.

During my last tour at Ft Bragg, we had several "older gentlemen" that work with us as Freefall Instructors on the HALO Committee. All of them were Veitman Vets and their running joke was that if anything went wrong during the jump "just role over and enjoy the best freefall of you life".

Tom