Safety sucks

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Sundancer

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I am outside a bottle of Champagne now. . .it is nice. GA safety mavins are boring and confused; we've been slowly, slyly, infiltrated with these human speed bumps, these wrteched little imps, mini-effing vampires, who work to suck the soul from aviating. So, I resolve in 2018 to fly lightly dressed in extreme cold, pour the fuel drain fuel back in the tanks, rely soley on professional meteroligists (who will always be better at weather than me), continue to fly unstablized approaches, and snicker at that silly azz ORM nonsense.

I further resolve to scare the blue **** out of myself at least twice this year, either by pushing my minimums, or by sustaining my profound ignorance of Lycoming and Continental internal workings. . .I'm also gona take off, level off low, unload, accelerate, and then zoom climb, regularly. In the dark. Maybe naked. Let's see if the NTSB figures that one out. Or not - who gives a rats azz?

I've memorized the bold face (undue USAF influence in my youth) - but resolve to respond intuitively, instead, if/when the airplane bursts into flames or the mill stops. I never notice potential forced landing oppurtunities, either. For God's sake! It's a effing 172! Put it on an effing orphanage roof or in a McDonald's drive through. . .

Supposed to be fun, a little scary sometimes, and it will kill a few of us, now and then. Secret, secret, secret - that's how it should be, else buy a drone or a boat or kiss your sister. . .
 
Mouth is a bit dry, and will skip the gym today. But not bad, as it was just one bottle.
 
Yeah, when I was a kid I rode my tricycle, then bicycle without knee pads, or elbow pads, even without helmets. We rode up and down the street, threw rocks at each other, climbed trees, played on the jungle gym at the park without gravel under it and jumped off the swings after going as high as we could.

We petted stray dogs, talked to strangers and ate candy we found on the ground. We rode horses out of sight of adults, went camping by ourselves down by the river and played with fireworks without adult supervision.

We tried making parachutes out of bed sheets and jumped off the roof of the house. We went out and shot our .22s and 12 gauges. We walked to school on a road without side walks or even a crossing guard.

We ran outside all summer without sunscreen or sun glasses. But we were safe. Our mothers always made sure we waited 30 minutes after eating before going swimming.....
 
I like this thread!

@ Zeldman sounds like we had the same childhood. Good times.

This safety obsessed culture drives me nuts sometimes.
 
We would fill the back of a couple trucks with friends, then ride around town shooting bottle rockets at each other. We would stand next to our parents as we drove down the road most of the time driving as mom and dad watched from the drivers seat. On long road trips we would ride in the back window. When mom was cleaning the house we would be thrown out and told not to return until dark.
 
I and a friend played hooky from school one day and we hitchhiked to the next city, spent the day, hitched back in time for supper and our parents never found out.
 
Evil Knievel wannabes, we'd make ramps and jump our bikes, higher and higher, and the unspoken badge of honor was whoever got the biggest skinned knees and wipeouts.

Blowing up model cars, then pouring gas on em and lighting on fire when finished (or when we could not find fireworks).

Making arrangements to have a "rumble" when our group and another had disagreements. Met up, a short fist fight. No one ever brought a knife and no one was ever hospitalized.
 
1600vw said:
We would fill the back of a couple trucks with friends, then ride around town shooting bottle rockets at each other. We would stand next to our parents as we drove down the road most of the time driving as mom and dad watched from the drivers seat. On long road trips we would ride in the back window. When mom was cleaning the house we would be thrown out and told not to return until dark.
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I still did that with my kids down our driveway and private street in the 2000s.
 
Zeldman said:
Yeah, when I was a kid I rode my tricycle, then bicycle without knee pads, or elbow pads, even without helmets. We rode up and down the street, threw rocks at each other, climbed trees, played on the jungle gym at the park without gravel under it and jumped off the swings after going as high as we could.

We petted stray dogs, talked to strangers and ate candy we found on the ground. We rode horses out of sight of adults, went camping by ourselves down by the river and played with fireworks without adult supervision.

We tried making parachutes out of bed sheets and jumped off the roof of the house. We went out and shot our .22s and 12 gauges. We walked to school on a road without side walks or even a crossing guard.

We ran outside all summer without sunscreen or sun glasses. But we were safe. Our mothers always made sure we waited 30 minutes after eating before going swimming.....
Click to expand...

Yup that's about how I grew up too. Except I got busted in 10th grade taking Gramma's car for a joy ride, no license.
 
Rushie said:
I and a friend played hooky from school one day and we hitchhiked to the next city, spent the day, hitched back in time for supper and our parents never found out.
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You rebel you! :cheers:
 
Sling shots! Soap box derby type 'cars' we built. Built goal posts out of tree limbs. Drive in movies and girls. Condoms. Getting paddled in school. Mooning. Streaking. Acting tougher than we were. HS dances Fri n Sat nights. Throwing snowballs at cars. Drinking beer. What else.
 
Zeldman said:
Yeah, when I was a kid I rode my tricycle, then bicycle without knee pads, or elbow pads, even without helmets. We rode up and down the street, threw rocks at each other, climbed trees, played on the jungle gym at the park without gravel under it and jumped off the swings after going as high as we could.

We petted stray dogs, talked to strangers and ate candy we found on the ground. We rode horses out of sight of adults, went camping by ourselves down by the river and played with fireworks without adult supervision.

We tried making parachutes out of bed sheets and jumped off the roof of the house. We went out and shot our .22s and 12 gauges. We walked to school on a road without side walks or even a crossing guard.

We ran outside all summer without sunscreen or sun glasses. But we were safe. Our mothers always made sure we waited 30 minutes after eating before going swimming.....
Click to expand...

And walked to high school in the snow, up hill both ways (no, I am not kidding). Did all those things and survived just fine. We had a very happy childhood.
 
We concocted go-karts and mini-bikes out of whatever crap we could find. I recall a few of us assembling a kart from a frame we found in the junkyard and a motor we salvaged off a mower. No floorboard; we wired a 2-ft square piece of plywood across the frame rails for a place to sit, rested our feet on the front axle with nothing but pavement under our legs. No brakes; slowed by dragging our feet on the front tires. Gas pedal broke off, so we hooked some wire to the throttle and ran it over our shoulder. No clutch; push-started it, and when it caught you gassed it and went. Only place we could drive it was the street. Damn thing would do about 45mph. How we didn't get killed or arrested I'll never know.

Slingshots, pellet rifles, spoke guns, potato cannons, tennis ball cannons,... Then we graduated to .22s and shotguns. Don't recall any of us ever causing any problems or getting into any real trouble.

Still have scars from wiping out on a skateboard when I was 14. Pads?! Helmets?! Ha!

I remember the minibike I built with my dad. "Nah, you don't need a helmet for something this slow," said Dad. Then he took the governor off the motor. Bike would run about 50 on pavement. I don't think Dad liked me very much...
 
Rushie said:
I and a friend played hooky from school one day and we hitchhiked to the next city, spent the day, hitched back in time for supper and our parents never found out.
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When integration started, a couple other guys and me still rode our bikes to school all the way across town. After school we would head to the train tracks and there would be an empty flat car somewhere in the train. We would throw our bikes on the train and ride back across town. The guys in the caboose would yell at us... "Get offa da trane..... we gonna call da po-lice....get offa da trane..!!!" But they never called the "po-lice" and never got out of the caboose.

I guess we were lucky that the train didn't throttle up to 50 or so and take us to Mexico.....

A few years ago I told my mom what we did back then. She told me we knew. Someone saw you on the train and told us... And yet my parents did not tell me to stop.
 
Zeldman said:
Yeah, when I was a kid I rode my tricycle, then bicycle without knee pads, or elbow pads, even without helmets. We rode up and down the street, threw rocks at each other, climbed trees, played on the jungle gym at the park without gravel under it and jumped off the swings after going as high as we could.

We petted stray dogs, talked to strangers and ate candy we found on the ground. We rode horses out of sight of adults, went camping by ourselves down by the river and played with fireworks without adult supervision.

We tried making parachutes out of bed sheets and jumped off the roof of the house. We went out and shot our .22s and 12 gauges. We walked to school on a road without side walks or even a crossing guard.

We ran outside all summer without sunscreen or sun glasses. But we were safe. Our mothers always made sure we waited 30 minutes after eating before going swimming.....
Click to expand...

Did all that except for the parachute. Instead, made stilts that had my feet six feet off the ground. Later built an early hang-glider out of wooden dowelling and poly sheet, and flew it, sorta, until the crashes got severe enough to stop it. Rode bicycles a long way from home. Camping in the back yard, I dared my friend to run around the house naked. He did, and tore around the front as his folks were saying goodbye to their friends. Oops...
 
"Black Mirror" season 4 episode 2 "Arkangel" really nails this. The ultimate bubble wrapped child, never learns to deal with negative images or flirt with danger. Messes up the kid. Some exposure to those things is necessary for normal human development. Not to spoil it but naturally there is a big backlash for the overprotective parent. I hope this is a sign that we are beginning to see the folly of attempting to bring risk to absolute zero.
 
We even ate peanut butter, salt and sugar and didn't even know what gluten was. And washed it down with water from the hose outside.
 
Rushie said:
"Black Mirror" season 4 episode 2 "Arkangel" really nails this. The ultimate bubble wrapped child, never learns to deal with negative images or flirt with danger. Messes up the kid. Some exposure to those things is necessary for normal human development. Not to spoil it but naturally there is a big backlash for the overprotective parent. I hope this is a sign that we are beginning to see the folly of attempting to bring risk to absolute zero.
Click to expand...
Good episode.

I totally agree. I know someone who allowed their daughter to get a drivers license without ever driving outside the neighborhood or going more than 30 mph. That's just stupid.

My father in law said it well: You're not raising children, you're raising adults.
 
Ken Ibold said:
I totally agree. I know someone who allowed their daughter to get a drivers license without ever driving outside the neighborhood or going more than 30 mph. That's just stupid.
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Speaking of driving, my first experience behind the wheel, I was about 12 years old and we were visiting my aunt and uncle. My uncle, who had had a little too much to drink, took me out to his old black 1940s model Ford, put me behind the wheel and instructed me to start it up and drive around the block. Part of "the block" included a very busy city street. I knew nothing from clutches, gear shifting, etc. had never had any driving instruction at all, and of course had no learner's permit. Somehow miraculously I learned real quick, and managed to make it safely around the block, but the last leg was down hill and I mixed up the clutch pedal and brake and flew down that hill and into an empty lot across the street. No damage no harm.

Boy nowadays just think of the list of charges:
  • Kidnapping (he hadn't asked my parent's permission)
  • Public intoxication
  • No doubt some sort of DUI because he was the licensed PIC
  • Endangering the general public
  • Contributing to the delinquency of a minor
  • Probably emotional child abuse
  • Very likely accused of sexually molesting me
And as the child I'd be ticketed for operating a motor vehicle without a license but taken to a safe space to be counseled and given a doll and asked to point to where the bad uncle might have tried to touch me during my "ordeal".

To be fair I do admit that situation could have ended badly and for others often did. When my uncle was a child there was no such thing as driver's licenses in his state. Kids were taught to drive all sorts of vehicles as soon as they could reach the pedals. From his point of view he was doing his duty as an uncle, properly instructing me in a skill that I suspect he felt his brother - my father the bookworm - was failing to teach me.

It's amazing how context and perspective has warped so much, just in one lifetime. For the good and bad I guess, cars are far safer now than they were back then and today we have awareness about alcohol and driving. That's good, but on the other hand we raise children too sheltered and timid to attempt anything like what I did. It was like throwing me into the deep water, sink or swim, and I swam. Mostly. I kind of feel sorry for kids these days being denied that.
 
Man, we used to run around playing tag 16' feet up on my grandpa's barn rafters, bury ourselves chest deep in the quicksand down by the river, jump off the 15-20 foot high bank into the maybe 5 ft deep river, we shocked each other with the cattle prod, shot each other with bb guns, jumped of the house onto the trampoline and did 1 1/2 flips with a twist headfirst into a 3 ft deep swimming pool, built bike jumps out of anything we could find, rode bikes 2 miles to my buddy's house, 7 miles to town, or 11 miles to grandma's, we never wore seatbelts, preferred to ride in the bed of the truck, drove sitting on my dad's lap when I was little, learned to drive a stick at 10 or 12 years old in my grandpa's pasture, carried the .22 or 12 gauge around the woods safely and shot stuff, cut firewood with chainsaws and wielded axes when we were pretty young, etc, etc, etc. Never saw a kid wear a bike helmet or pads. That would be weird.

We acted like a bunch of wild hooligans at play, but we opened doors for people, gave ladies our seat, dressed in our Sunday best and served in the church, made good grades at school, and were known to be upstanding young people in the community, the school, and the church.

Many of us worked as hard as we played. Mowing grass, hauling hay, cutting firewood, taking care of farms, etc. We earned our playtime. I got my first summer job as a commercial roofer, spraying polyurethane foam and urethane coatings at 13 years old, and was running a crew at 16. Can you imagine a 13 year old working up on some industrial building roof in the sweltering summer sun these days? It was normal back then. Me and another buddy could haul 1000 bales of hay in a day at 14 years old. Nobody supervised us. We drove the hay trucks and operated the equipment ourselves.

I was blessed with a wonderful childhood full of play, joy, skinned knees, knots, work, and learning. Wouldn't change a thing.
This was the late 80s and mostly 90s. Not so long ago.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Man, we used to run around playing tag 16' feet up on my grandpa's barn rafters, bury ourselves chest deep in the quicksand down by the river, jump off the 15-20 foot high bank into the maybe 5 ft deep river, we shocked each other with the cattle prod, shot each other with bb guns, jumped of the house onto the trampoline and did 1 1/2 flips with a twist headfirst into a 3 ft deep swimming pool, built bike jumps out of anything we could find, rode bikes 2 miles to my buddy's house, 7 miles to town, or 11 miles to grandma's, we never wore seatbelts, preferred to ride in the bed of the truck, drove sitting on my dad's lap when I was little, learned to drive a stick at 10 or 12 years old in my grandpa's pasture, carried the .22 or 12 gauge around the woods safely and shot stuff, cut firewood with chainsaws and wielded axes when we were pretty young, etc, etc, etc. Never saw a kid wear a bike helmet or pads. That would be weird.

We acted like a bunch of wild hooligans at play, but we opened doors for people, gave ladies our seat, dressed in our Sunday best and served in the church, made good grades at school, and were known to be upstanding young people in the community, the school, and the church.

Many of us worked as hard as we played. Mowing grass, hauling hay, cutting firewood, taking care of farms, etc. We earned our playtime. I got my first summer job as a commercial roofer, spraying polyurethane foam and urethane coatings at 13 years old, and was running a crew at 16. Can you imagine a 13 year old working up on some industrial building roof in the sweltering summer sun these days? It was normal back then. Me and another buddy could haul 1000 bales of hay in a day at 14 years old. Nobody supervised us. We drove the hay trucks and operated the equipment ourselves.

I was blessed with a wonderful childhood full of play, joy, skinned knees, knots, work, and learning. Wouldn't change a thing.
This was the late 80s and mostly 90s. Not so long ago.
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Replace your 13 year old job with framing houses in the Georgia heat at the same age and you just described my childhood perfectly.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Man, we used to run around playing tag 16' feet up on my grandpa's barn rafters, bury ourselves chest deep in the quicksand down by the river, jump off the 15-20 foot high bank into the maybe 5 ft deep river, we shocked each other with the cattle prod, shot each other with bb guns, jumped of the house onto the trampoline and did 1 1/2 flips with a twist headfirst into a 3 ft deep swimming pool, built bike jumps out of anything we could find, rode bikes 2 miles to my buddy's house, 7 miles to town, or 11 miles to grandma's, we never wore seatbelts, preferred to ride in the bed of the truck, drove sitting on my dad's lap when I was little, learned to drive a stick at 10 or 12 years old in my grandpa's pasture, carried the .22 or 12 gauge around the woods safely and shot stuff, cut firewood with chainsaws and wielded axes when we were pretty young, etc, etc, etc. Never saw a kid wear a bike helmet or pads. That would be weird.

We acted like a bunch of wild hooligans at play, but we opened doors for people, gave ladies our seat, dressed in our Sunday best and served in the church, made good grades at school, and were known to be upstanding young people in the community, the school, and the church.

Many of us worked as hard as we played. Mowing grass, hauling hay, cutting firewood, taking care of farms, etc. We earned our playtime. I got my first summer job as a commercial roofer, spraying polyurethane foam and urethane coatings at 13 years old, and was running a crew at 16. Can you imagine a 13 year old working up on some industrial building roof in the sweltering summer sun these days? It was normal back then. Me and another buddy could haul 1000 bales of hay in a day at 14 years old. Nobody supervised us. We drove the hay trucks and operated the equipment ourselves.

I was blessed with a wonderful childhood full of play, joy, skinned knees, knots, work, and learning. Wouldn't change a thing.
This was the late 80s and mostly 90s. Not so long ago.
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I was a girl so wasn't quite that rough and tumble but we did ride our bikes all over town and I had my first babysitting job at age SIX (!!!) Was told to sit there and watch the sleeping baby while my mom and the baby's mom ran a short errand. I remember feeling the responsibility of it and kept my eyes glued to the kid. By age 13 I was babysitting long evenings for real money four or five nights every week. At age 16 got a job at the local cinema. Later I was a waitress, a janitor and even helped cut trees down, always had two or three part time jobs going all through high school and college. That was the 70s. I cannot imagine being a kid these days graduating college before ever earning your own money at a real job. Allowance from mommy and daddy for cleaning up your room doesn't count. But apparently these days it's nothing short of child abuse to have a kid lift a finger to do any real work, or require them to shoulder any actual responsibility.
 
Ken Ibold said:
I did a 4:30 am paper route 6 days a week starting when I was 9. No possibility of anything going wrong there!
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My brother did that too, and at age 17 was a school bus driver!

Edit to revert back to aviation, one of my girl friends at age 14 was already flight training with the Civil Air Patrol. I don't know if they still start that young, but there was no "sexism" back in the early 70s there.
 
Paper routes lol! Anyone remember Grit? I tried to get a route establish. As I recall I'm not sure I even had one subscriber, so that endeavor didn't last long. Worked in a bakery shop cleaning up in the mornings, huge pots and vats. Owner (neighbor a couple houses down) told me the first day not to get any of this (pointing to it) on your pecker. I didn't bite so he says, know why? No I said, he says because it's shortening.
 
Rushie said:
I and a friend played hooky from school one day and we hitchhiked to the next city, spent the day, hitched back in time for supper and our parents never found out.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the statute of limitations ain’t run out on my childhood yet.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Pretty sure the statute of limitations ain’t run out on my childhood yet.
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I heard that. I still see myself as a youngster at 34.

Case in point: My kids got a mini original Nintendo for Christmas. Yesterday I found myself sitting on a bean bag, deep into a game of Mario 3 for an amount of hours I'm not willing to admit to. Talk about going back in time. Just like it was 1990 again. It was awesome!
 
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mscard88 said:
Paper routes lol! Anyone remember Grit? I tried to get a route establish. As I recall I'm not sure I even had one subscriber, so that endeavor didn't last long.
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So, you didn't have enough grit for Grit..??? :lol::lol::lol:

A friend of mine works for Junior Achievement. He really enjoys it.
 
Zeldman said:
So, you didn't have enough grit for Grit..??? :lol::lol::lol:

A friend of mine works for Junior Achievement. He really enjoys it.
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Probably. I think I saw the ad for selling it in a magazine I guess.
 
mscard88 said:
Probably. I think I saw the ad for selling it in a magazine I guess.
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If I remember they offered all sorts of prizes for selling subscriptions.

I had a paper route for 5 years. Every so often they would have a subscription drive and offer so much money for bringing in a new subscription. Something like 5 bucks for every 10 new subscribers.

But, I was 10 years old clearing 30 bucks a month.... man, I was raking it in..!!!! Still, it was enough to buy my first vehicle. A 1970 C-10, 6 cylinder, granny gear 4 speed tranny, two windows, heater and no radio. A 4 year old vehicle for 700 bucks..!!!! All my friends first vehicles was usually grandpas old truck.
 
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