Three unique things...

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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3Green
I got this idea from a blog entry I read. List three things you've done/experienced/seen that you don't think anybody else on POA has done. If somebody also claims an item you've claimed, you both have to strike it off your list and add a new item. Can be aviation related, or not. It's not a "brag about yourself" thread, it's "just for fun", to get to know your fellow POA members better... and it's an interesting exercise to try and reminisce about what things "unique" you've done in your life.

I'll start, just to get the ball rolling.

  • I flew jumpseat in a 777 cockpit (British Airways) from FL410 to the gate in Gatwick, December 1999, at the captain's invitation.
  • I visited Lyme Park, a British estate near Disley in the county of Chesire. It was used as the location of the home ("Pemberley") of Mr. Darcy in BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
  • I met Mike Melville (SpaceShip One pilot) and obtained his autograph on the AOPA cap I was wearing.
 
Raced motocross inside Anaheim Stadium (hurt myself)
Ate off a vendor cart in India (umm, hurt myself)
Drove a '64 Chevy Pickup truck from California to Wisconsin for a car show (unhurt, btw)
 
I placed last in a 5K
Solo'd a New Holland combine when I was 4
Had my closest encounter with lightning in a Schweizer 2-22
 
Flybob37 said:
Ate off a vendor cart in India (umm, hurt myself)
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Did you get sick? The son of the doctors my wife works for is traveling the world, making videos for LonelyPlanet.com. He got REAL sick in India the same way, just last month. Fortunately, he's doing better, moved on to Ho Chi Minh city and put together this segment (I thought it was very well done, considering he did it all himself... he doesn't have a camera crew!):

http://www.lonelyplanet.tv/Clip.aspx?key=039C4E449CB775BE
 
Published a book on Origami airplanes (Stationery Flight)
Rode a motorcycle alone throughout Mexico
knocked out genes in mice
 
tonycondon said:
I placed last in a 5K
Solo'd a New Holland combine when I was 4
Had my closest encounter with lightning in a Schweizer 2-22
Click to expand...

I get the feeling this thread is going to turn into story fodder for the next Gaston's Saturday Night Flight Line Drinking Party.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
List three things you've done/experienced/seen that you don't think anybody else on POA has done.
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...partly because no one else on POA has been dumb enough to do these things (the first two).

1. Hopped a coal train from Denver to Pueblo (when I was about 22).
2. Took a Continental Trailways bus from San Francisco to New York City (when I was about 19).
3. Flew a jet with 5 hours on it while doing a conformity flight for delivery (last May).
 
Had an uzi poked in my chest in Sudan
Had an uzi poked in my chest in Haiti
Did not have an uzi poked in my chest in Venezuela

Edit: Shared a joint with the Monkees
 
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mari the hobo, awesome!

oh i guess i should edit mine to include:

Hitchiked home from Gastons.
 
Spent a few hours chatting with the staff biographer from scaled composites in the VIP section of the flight line during the Saturday air show at Oshkosh when White night flew.

Slept in Matt Chapman’s hotel room.

Paid My own way to space camp when I was 13. ('bout 2 years worth of saving on $2/hr babysitting)
 
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1. Sang in Carnegie Hall (part of choir performing Rutter's Requiem under the direction of John Rutter)
2. Performed (bassoon in concert band) at Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen)
3. Circumnavigated the big island of Hawaii as PIC in a C-172 (twice)
 
1. First flight ever (on a C-130) was delayed 24 hours because of engine problems. Repaired engine failed shortly after half-way point to Ireland from Nova Scotia. Continued the rest of the way to Ireland and stayed overnight while a new engine was flown from US and installed. Arrived in England 50 hours late from what was supposed to be a 17-hour flight.
2. Formally presented to the Earl of Oxford after turning 18. He gave me a silver compact which I still own.
3. Attended 25 schools before graduating from high school.

PS. Shook hands with Mike Melville and was photographed with him. He is obviously a very nice person.
 
1. Solo'd a Case IH 4-row cotton picker at age 5. (Tony beat me by a year - overachiever!)
2. Helped lead my Junior College basketball team to an 8th place finish in the National Tournament my sophomore year (I was the only person to start every game that season)
3. Narrowly escaped a stampede of spooked cattle as a 5-6 y/o only by another guy leaping from the ditch, grabbing me, and throwing me into the bed of a pickup a la western movie style.
 
now that i think about it, it was an IH combine, not New Holland
 
-Spent a week driving an Alfa Romeo around Swiss mountains and German Autobahns

-Had the Vice President of MT Propeller look at me carrying a HondaJet bag at Osh and say "Vas is das?! You need MT bag!" and subsequently remedy my problem

-Drove 4000 miles in 3 days during which time a truck caught on fire, I got a total of 6 hours sleep over 3 nights (divided up as 30 minutes, 5.5 hours, 0 minutes), drove through an area of tornados with a 28' enclosed trailer, and then promptly collapsed when I got on the plane for the flight back home at the end of it all

I would put that I flew right seat in Mike Mancuso's Beech 18, but he let Missa do that so it's obviously not anything special. ;)
 
Ghery said:
1. Sang in Carnegie Hall (part of choir performing Rutter's Requiem under the direction of John Rutter)
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I sang at Carnegie hall about 11 years ago, but I was there singing a Mahler symphony. :)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I sang at Carnegie hall about 11 years ago, but I was there singing a Mahler symphony. :)
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Quite a trip to sing there, isn't it? Oh, and John Rutter is as wonderful a person as the music he writes.

Missa said:
So what are the rules? Is this close enough that Ghery has to find something else?
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Probably. Here's a new one...

1. Survived a cyclone and an earthquake on the same day.
 
1. Stood at the back gate of Area 51 at midnight and had my picture taken by the men in black (I could hear them all around me but couldn't see them) - this is of course true IF there is an area 51.

2. Flew jumpseat on a DC10 from Aviano Italy to Shannon Ireland as a guest (I was an air traffic controller at the time)

3. Climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower Of Pisa
 
1. I used to be an on-call volunteer translator of French documents for the Smithsonian Institution.
2. I've driven both a Mercedes and a BMW at 100+ on the Autobahn (in the Benz, topped out at 220kmph which is ~ 137).
3. Slept in a loft of a barn in Normandy during the 60th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day landings. I bet that cot was in existence during said landings, too. On night two I decided to opt for my car instead.
4. Oooh another one. I took my Mom on a private after hours tour of the Vatican. (well, private meaning only 20 of your closest other-tourists, as opposed to 5000).

This is fun to read!
 
Everskyward said:
That's going to require a little more explanation.
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Just like it sounds. Use genetics to relieve mice of genes, and see what happens. For example, if we see a gene that controls cell proliferation and think if it is mutated you get cancer, I knock it out in the mice (create mutant mice that don't have it) and see if they do indeed get cancer.

Riding through Mexico was a lot more fun.
 
woodstock said:
2. I've driven both a Mercedes and a BMW at 100+ on the Autobahn (in the Benz, topped out at 220kmph which is ~ 137).

This is fun to read!
Click to expand...

I've driven an Audi 80 at over 100 mph on the Autobahn. Does that count? :D

This is fun.
 
-Played the Stardust in Vegas for 3 nights (with the Wisconsin Marching Band)
-Spent Christmas eve helping my dad with a lambing ewe (thankfully it was only triplets and no breech births)
-Rode my bicycle on the shoulder of I-70 down from Loveland Pass to Idaho springs
 
Ghery said:
Quite a trip to sing there, isn't it? Oh, and John Rutter is as wonderful a person as the music he writes.
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Yep, that's for sure. I love going to Carnegie Hall, and being one of the people singing there was even better.

Don't ask me to sing today. A few things have happened to me in the past 11 years, and my singing voice is not what it once was. Considering the fact that it's also dropped about 2 octaves, that's not entirely a bad thing. ;)

woodstock said:
2. I've driven both a Mercedes and a BMW at 100+ on the Autobahn (in the Benz, topped out at 220kmph which is ~ 137).
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Hmm... I suppose that counts since the Mercedes and BMW aren't Alfa Romeos, but that's pretty close to mine. ;)

Isn't the Autobahn awesome? I was driving an Alfa Romeo 156 with the 2.5L 24-valve V6. That engine would sing up to 7000 RPM and I had it up to about 240 km/h. By that point, the front axles started vibrating and I decided that the car was telling me to slow down, lest I not live long enough to tell the tale. I did, however, get a picture:

220kmh.jpg


And the Swiss roads I was driving on prior:

Swiss_Mountains_Road_Hairpin_2_06_28_06.jpg
 
I'm loving this thread. So much fun....

For clarification:
When I ate off the cart in India I didn't get sick, but it was sooooo hot I thought I was gunna die.

Also:
I drove as a passenger in a Mercedes on the autobahn going about 125 mph, and kept nudging the driver each time he fell asleep!

A few years back, when I was near broke and my daughter really, really wanted to play in a national tennis tournament in Toledo, Ohio we drove the mini van there from California. Slept in the van, cooked on the mini bbq. I'm doing a "bit" better financially now...she plays #1 for the University of Wisconsin-Madison where they treat her like royalty.
 
1. Drove a rented Ferrari 550 Maranello through the country just outside of Monaco.
2. Watched a flight of B-1s make a practice bomb run from an observation tower about a mile from the point of impact.
3. Have seen tornadoes in person on 10 separate occasions, including once from a helicopter.
 
Flybob37 said:
By the way....can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice, practice, practice
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I usually take a taxi, but the N or the R train will get you close enough. :D

And this thread is great.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Yep, that's for sure. I love going to Carnegie Hall, and being one of the people singing there was even better.

Don't ask me to sing today. A few things have happened to me in the past 11 years, and my singing voice is not what it once was. Considering the fact that it's also dropped about 2 octaves, that's not entirely a bad thing. ;)



Hmm... I suppose that counts since the Mercedes and BMW aren't Alfa Romeos, but that's pretty close to mine. ;)

Isn't the Autobahn awesome? I was driving an Alfa Romeo 156 with the 2.5L 24-valve V6. That engine would sing up to 7000 RPM and I had it up to about 240 km/h. By that point, the front axles started vibrating and I decided that the car was telling me to slow down, lest I not live long enough to tell the tale. I did, however, get a picture:

220kmh.jpg


And the Swiss roads I was driving on prior:

Swiss_Mountains_Road_Hairpin_2_06_28_06.jpg
Click to expand...

which pass was that?
 
Went through 6 hurricanes at sea
Sailed a schooner around Cape Horn
Ran Fuel Altered
 
Lots of police stories come to mind, but with enough of us on the Board, I'd have to strike a few stories I'm sure (or more likely the best ones are not ones I'd print in a public forum! ;)).

1. Got robbed at gunpoint while working as a cashier at a gas station at the age of 18. Said robber also took all my clothes and left me naked locked in the garage until the priest from catholic church down the road found me and let me out. :yes:
2. Sat on top of a huge pile of marijuana plants stacked in the back of an unmarked pick up truck (stacked higher than the cab of the truck) and watched in disbelief when a couple of drunk/high idiots in another truck tried to hijack us. Subsequently watched in amazement when the DPS helicopter following us to the Sheriffs Department almost landed on the hijacker's car.:eek:
3. Helped deliver a baby in the middle of a meth lab.
 
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Well lets see:

1) Wrestled Professionally for just over 3 years
2) Have ridden in a Fiat with no shocks on the Italian Autostrada at about 160kph (that is freakings scary)
3) Have travelled into the depths of a castle, without permission, and found some incredible stuff with my sister that I don't think I was supposed to see. Go go Castlevecchio,

Aviation related:
1) Broken an airplane apart with my bare hands
2) Taken a Cherokee above its listed Service Ceiling
3) Participated in a fly in the day after getting my PPL.
 
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