What almost got you?

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Roadking Larry

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Motorcycle Vs car when I was 16. Highway Patrol estimated my speed at impact as 80 mph. Brand new 1978 Chevy Chevette, the car was totaled, I slept in my own bed that night and I rode the bike again (after a rather extensive rebuild).

Most recent was a gangrenous gall bladder last August, that kind of sucked.
 

DRC458

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Lightning. I was at a transmitter site for a radio station with four towers and all the lateral lines and guy wires covered twenty-three acres. The weather wasn't doing anything yet, but there was a storm getting close. I was walking across the field amongst those four towers, when the hair on the back of neck stood up and I heard a kind of a 'sizzle.' I didn't hesitate. I did a face plant just as lightning hit the guy wires above me. That was the closest one. There have been others.

,
 

murphranch

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Horse wrecks, shot myself about 1 inch below the boys and out the side of my thigh, parasail collapsed with a 300 ft rope, riding in a Z28 that flipped and flipped and rolled and rolled. The worst thing that almost got me was a 38 year old cougar who I shacked up for 10 days of spring break when I was a sophomore in college. First 3 days was awesome. After the next 7 I thought I was gonna have to be put in ICU. Dehydrated, hungry, hungover and sore.

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ConstitutionCowboy

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What almost got me was a PV1 Ventura. I believe it was in 1984 or 1985, I was the attendant mechanic along with a pilot and copilot ferrying the plane from Page Airport in Yukon, OK, to New Bedford, MA, airport where I had my aircraft maintenance and repair business. About half way home, one of the old "bullet proof" fuel tanks decided to rupture and it commenced to empty itself into the fuselage from the right wing. I tried stemming the flow by stuffing the clothes from my luggage into the openings in the wing butt, but that only slowed it down.

The pilots shut down the right engine and feathered the prop just in case the fuel might be ignited from the engine exhaust. Fortunately, that particular tank only held 40 gallons and what had been sloshing around in the belly of the fuselage gradually seeped out. And yes, the fumes were heavy and made me a bit lightheaded. Fortunately, the pilots had a steady flow of "fresh air" from their vents.

So, we made an emergency landing, and during the roll-out, the co-pilot decided to raise the flaps without getting the go-ahead from the pilot. This was bad. The PV1 Ventura does not have tail wheel steering, ergo, the only steering is done with the breaks, and aided with the engines. The problem is that this airplane has a priority valve in the hydraulic system that prioritizes things like the flaps and gear retraction, shutting out the breaks. Normal procedure is to retract the flaps after parking. That was one wild ride down the runway until the flaps retracted fully and the pilot regained steering control with the breaks. Remember, we only had one engine and the rudders are quite small for that size of an airplane, so there was no goosing an engine to regain directional control using the prop blast to aid the rudders.

Yes, I prayed. It helped to keep me from panicking, then I thanked the Good Lord for sparing me and the two pilots.

Oh, I forgot to tell you: The tank ruptured while we were flying over a low cloud deck, had to scramble to locate a close enough airport with a long enough runway, and then circle down through the cloud deck. Fortunately, there was about a 1000 foot ceiling as we broke out of the clouds and the airport was only about five miles or so ahead.

A week later, after having installed a makeshift fuel tank, the remainder of the trip was uneventful.

(I think I'll thank the Lord some more.)

Woody

Picture of a PV1 Ventura.
 

El Pablo

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Self induced: motorcycle. Others: high crane operator tried to knock me off a bridge concrete pylon we were pouring, electricians that cut off all power except one conduit of 220. I hit it with a reciprocating saw, that hurt. They laughed, then got scared as I turned bright red, they ran away from me as I chased them with my framing hammer.
 

jrusling

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I am allergic to hornets. I was 40 ft up in a tree when one zapped me on the back of the head. Even after 2 atropine shots I was one sick puppy for a while.
 

RickN

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What almost got me was a PV1 Ventura. I believe it was in 1984 or 1985, I was the attendant mechanic along with a pilot and copilot ferrying the plane from Page Airport in Yukon, OK, to New Bedford, MA, airport where I had my aircraft maintenance and repair business. About half way home, one of the old "bullet proof" fuel tanks decided to rupture and it commenced to empty itself into the fuselage from the right wing. I tried stemming the flow by stuffing the clothes from my luggage into the openings in the wing butt, but that only slowed it down.

The pilots shut down the right engine and feathered the prop just in case the fuel might be ignited from the engine exhaust. Fortunately, that particular tank only held 40 gallons and what had been sloshing around in the belly of the fuselage gradually seeped out. And yes, the fumes were heavy and made me a bit lightheaded. Fortunately, the pilots had a steady flow of "fresh air" from their vents.

So, we made an emergency landing, and during the roll-out, the co-pilot decided to raise the flaps without getting the go-ahead from the pilot. This was bad. The PV1 Ventura does not have tail wheel steering, ergo, the only steering is done with the breaks, and aided with the engines. The problem is that this airplane has a priority valve in the hydraulic system that prioritizes things like the flaps and gear retraction, shutting out the breaks. Normal procedure is to retract the flaps after parking. That was one wild ride down the runway until the flaps retracted fully and the pilot regained steering control with the breaks. Remember, we only had one engine and the rudders are quite small for that size of an airplane, so there was no goosing an engine to regain directional control using the prop blast to aid the rudders.

Yes, I prayed. It helped to keep me from panicking, then I thanked the Good Lord for sparing me and the two pilots.

Oh, I forgot to tell you: The tank ruptured while we were flying over a low cloud deck, had to scramble to locate a close enough airport with a long enough runway, and then circle down through the cloud deck. Fortunately, there was about a 1000 foot ceiling as we broke out of the clouds and the airport was only about five miles or so ahead.

A week later, after having installed a makeshift fuel tank, the remainder of the trip was uneventful.

(I think I'll thank the Lord some more.)

Woody

Picture of a PV1 Ventura.


Man the PV1 Ventura is a classic! I have only ever flown one in a combat flight sim and did not know there were any real ones left flying. Sorry about the scare but I know people that would pay good money to fly in one.
 

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