That's gonna leave mark...on the wallet.

[tombogan03884]

Sailboats scare me. Small planes scare me a lot. I don't say this as a wimp, but as an intelligent man. When you get 15 or 20 miles off shore in hundreds of feet of water, or five thousand feet up in a kit built piece of glass, you realize exactly how precarious a position you've put yourself in. I think this pilot got a grade A reality check. Gravity, its the law.
FQ13

Sniveling Luddite 

[fightingquaker13]

Sniveling Luddite 

Find yourself 15 miles off shore in 10 foot seas, or in a Cessna over the Cascades in a thunderstorm. You ever want to realize how inadequate man made tools are to  the force of nature? Try dropping 5 feet off the top of a 12 foot wave in a  24' boat, or taking a 15 foot drop due to turbulence in a Cessna. You learn three things.
1 God is in charge, not you.
2 Fiberglass isn't as cool as you thought it was three hours ago.
3 Human life is cheap ad fragile. We used to know this instinctively. Now we need to be reminded. It is a valuable lesson.
FQ13

[tombogan03884]

 Try diving    Sky or Scuba.  I can think of nothing that has ever made me more aware of being alive than having 3000 feet of nothing between my nuts and the ground. Especially when the canopy collapsed at about 500 feet .   
As for scuba ? How much do you trust one mechanical device ?
Gives a whole new meaning to "Trust, but verify. "  
How can you truly appreciate being alive if there is no chance of not being alive ?

[Pathfinder]

Sniveling Luddite Pansy!!!!!

FIFY

And for the record, I have been in a very large boat, the kind that semi's just drive on and off, in very rough seas. So rough, the boat shuddered and wallowed every time it hit a trough. And not in a Cessna, but a small twin over the Rockies in a storm, so bad my traveling partner (business trip) went through about 42 shades of yellow and green.

I have also watched as a black squall with hail and tornadic potential moved in on my ranch, been in the middle of a herd of bucking bulls as they moved into the corral for food, walked up on a very large black bear less than 50 feet away, and hung from a rock wall by a single thread - and my hands and feet.

Point being, FQ, you may have to be reminded that God is in charge, or that Momma Nature is a bitch. I dare say a good many of the rest of us don't.

[Solus]

Life is a vicious, snarling beast prowling just outside the flimsy stockade crated by our society and technology, searching for the slightest breach thorough which to strike.

The human race survived because it became the most vicious, cunning, determined and deadly life form on the planet.  Don't forget our heritage.

[Sponsor]

[jnevis]

Find yourself 15 miles off shore in 10 foot seas, or in a Cessna over the Cascades in a thunderstorm. You ever want to realize how inadequate man made tools are to  the force of nature? Try dropping 5 feet off the top of a 12 foot wave in a  24' boat, or taking a 15 foot drop due to turbulence in a Cessna. You learn three things.

Been there, done that, went back for seconds thank you.

Took an AVR (63ft PT boat) from Oakland to Ensenada and back and  blew an oil line off Big Sur.  Limped to Moro Bay and headed back out the next day.  Then hit a wave that dismounted the generator and blew the bridge windows out in almost the same place.  That was high school.

Was on an aircraft carrier skirting the edge of a hurricane a couple years later.  Luckily only white water over the bow that trip.

Flew 1500 hours, over 700 from a carrier, in Navy aircraft in and around thunderstorms and other crappy weather, some of them blue water at night.  No divert, you either get it on the postage stamp or you swim.  Flaps locked and landing hot were almost non-events after a while.  Shoulders hurt anyway.  Damn near ejected, low and slow in Fallon when a C-130 tried to tip us over on take off.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat, not because I'm particularly brave, or stupid, but because I felt ALIVE!!!!!
There are two types of pilots.  Those that HAVE crashed and those that WILL.

[deepwater]

Sailboats scare me. Small planes scare me a lot. I don't say this as a wimp, but as an intelligent man. When you get 15 or 20 miles off shore in hundreds of feet of water, or five thousand feet up in a kit built piece of glass, you realize exactly how precarious a position you've put yourself in. I think this pilot got a grade A reality check. Gravity, its the law.
FQ13

I think what you're saying is you lack the ability to trouble shoot a dangerous situation under pressure.. I have been in some VERY hairy sits. both on sailboats and commercial vessels. the only thing that saves you sometimes is a clear head and not PANICKING like a little school girl. 

returning to the states with my folks on our sailboat, chased by bad weather the whole way. we were dis-masted (that's the stick thingy you tie the sails to FQ) on a lee shore (wind blowing in the direction of rocks/not good) and our fuel filters clogged due to the low level in the tanks and all the crap on the bottom getting stirred up from heavy seas. panic? no way, cut away the old mast and get to work cleaning fuel lines and changing filters. nobody within reach if we needed help. real life experiences, they build character.

deepwater

[JC5123]

Life is a vicious, snarling beast prowling just outside the flimsy stockade crated by our society and technology, searching for the slightest breach thorough which to strike.

The human race survived because it became the most vicious, cunning, determined and deadly life form on the planet.  Don't forget our heritage.

I like that! Hope you don't mind me stealing it to make a point. And BTW that fact about our species is not a bad thing.

[fightingquaker13]

I think what you're saying is you lack the ability to trouble shoot a dangerous situation under pressure.. I have been in some VERY hairy sits. both on sailboats and commercial vessels. the only thing that saves you sometimes is a clear head and not PANICKING like a little school girl. 

returning to the states with my folks on our sailboat, chased by bad weather the whole way. we were dis-masted (that's the stick thingy you tie the sails to FQ) on a lee shore (wind blowing in the direction of rocks/not good) and our fuel filters clogged due to the low level in the tanks and all the crap on the bottom getting stirred up from heavy seas. panic? no way, cut away the old mast and get to work cleaning fuel lines and changing filters. nobody within reach if we needed help. real life experiences, they build character.

deepwater

Never said I don't fly or sail, just that I have been scared. Fear is good. It demonstrates two imporant things. You are still alive, and you're not a moron. Both are  good things.
FQ13

[PegLeg45]

New prop, new crank, likely need to replace a piston head or three, top wing fabric repairs, vertical stab repairs, structural inspections.

Ouch.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/08/wwii.biplane.flips/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

"Tis merely a scratch........