So, there I was....

[Mike]

That's definitely photoshop. Lighting and sharpness is wrong. Still made me sick, though.

Yeah, I knew it was. Looks like the guy isn't even holding on.
But it's the thought of it all. . . . isn't it?
Just imagining being in his position . . .  uargh...

[FlyingBlind]

That's definitely photoshop.  Lighting and sharpness is wrong.  Still made me sick, though.

agreed..now that i concentrate on the picture..its pretty obvious

[fireflyr]

I made a post on "things you don't want to hear" about gear up landings that reminded me of a young pilot who landed gear up at SBD a few years back---her comment was to the effect that she couldn't understand why the A/C (a Seneca) floated like 6000 feet down the runway before settling.   Gads, what an UGLY sound!!!

Second thing I remembered was my first solo flight in a Mooney with manual gear---got on short final and looked at handle--it was up, I quickly moved it to the down position then realized that when the handle is UP the gear is DOWN (and vice versa)---- VERY quickly put it back in the UP position (gear DOWN) and landed.    I was trying to impress the folks on the field with my new airplane--they were impressed with how fast the gear goes up and down at 50 feet, DUH!!!!   Now I always do 3 GUMP checks before landing, even in a fixed gear airplane (G as on correct tank- U ndercarriage down and welded- M ixture for go around- P rop set for go around)
They say there are 2 types of pilots---those who have landed gear up and those who will---I try to avoid the latter by always using the gear to slow the A/C to landing speed instead of retarding the power all the way.

[Plthijnx]

so there i was today at 10,500 doing my radio relay when i look up and see a dark spec getting bigger in the windscreen of my trusty tomatohawk (red tomohawk) and well i'll be......it was a duck! just one duck. a teal. missed'im by about 3 feet with the outter edge of my left wing. he zigged and i zagged. that got me thinking....what's the highest anyone here has ever seen a fowl friend? i've seen geese as high as 8,000 and in groups. i was taken aback that there was just one duck cruising along and not in formation......

[Stef]

Did it wear an oxygen mask?! 

[Gulfstream Driver]

I think I read somewhere that birds have been spotted as high as 10 or 11,000...I'll try to find that article.

[fireflyr]

No bird incidents at high altitudes but I got a HUGE bug splat on the windshield at 14 or 15 one day.   What the hell is some dumbass bug doing up there----might have been a Steve Fossett beetle going for an altitude record. I probably ruined his once-in-a-lifetime attempt.

I was about 10,000 one day over Big Bear Lake and was startled by looking UP and seeing a powered parachute (or whatever the hell they're called) a couple of thousand above me.  Speaking of YO-YO'S, anybody remember the jerk that fastened a bunch of balloons to a lawn chair and ascended through LA's airspace with a BB gun for altitude control?   I would have loved to heard the PIREPS on that........ "Uh, LA center, United 1836 heavy, Do you show a man in a lawn chair at 10,500 over HTSHT intersection?"----------"United 1836 heavy, LA center, after landing, please report to the FSDO office for a random drug test"

[Mike]

"United 493 heavy, you have traffic 3'o'clock at 10,000"
"Really, please confirm. We don't see him on TCAS"
"Uhm,...yeah...it's a guy in a lawn chair"
"Control, please confirm. At 10,000?"
"yep"
or something like that!
We should start a new thread on this one!
Maybe the tape floats around on the internet somewhere...

[MO]

Larry Walters was the guy in the flying lawnchair incident. You can find out more about this here:

http://www.markbarry.com/lawnchairman.html

And yes, it seems that there's a tape circulating... Kind of interesting.

Cheers!

[MO]

For those of you who don't like to read too much... Well, here's the short version of the incident, including a myths spelled and links section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters

Enjoy!

[FlyingBlind]

Well...10 feet is a lot! But the jump we did with the gardening tools (Shovels, Baskets, Buckets etc. etc.) was at 3000 feet....
That was fun, ill try to get the vid. uploaded somewhere (First of all - my pc!) then ill show you guys

[Stef]

By coincidence, I've seen an episode of "Myth Busters" today where they tried to recreate the story with the flying garden chair. I didn't pay close attention and didn't see if the myth was busted or confirmed in the end, but it seemed like a hell of a lot of work! First you need a very stable garden chair that on the other hand is not too heavy. (They had to reinforce theirs with a small metal frame). Then they needed hundreds of dollars of helium. I think they spent at least 800-1000.00 bucks just on helium... Well I think it is possible after all, but a rather expensive experiment!!
Oh, and the sixpack of beer should rather be cans rather than bottles, because every ounce counts! 

[Stef]

Well...10 feet is a lot! But the jump we did with the gardening tools (Shovels, Baskets, Buckets etc. etc.) was at 3000 feet....
That was fun, ill try to get the vid. uploaded somewhere (First of all - my pc!) then ill show you guys

Haha... Where do you do stuff like that? You can't just do it anywhere can you? You could kill innocent people with throwing shovels out of an airplaine at 3000 feet!  But... hm, thinking about it, you probably didn't let go of that stuff, did you?

[FlyingBlind]

Well...10 feet is a lot! But the jump we did with the gardening tools (Shovels, Baskets, Buckets etc. etc.) was at 3000 feet....
That was fun, ill try to get the vid. uploaded somewhere (First of all - my pc!) then ill show you guys

Haha... Where do you do stuff like that? You can't just do it anywhere can you? You could kill innocent people with throwing shovels out of an airplaine at 3000 feet!  But... hm, thinking about it, you probably didn't let go of that stuff, did you?

yes we did its at a military airstrip in ämari (seriously remote , not many people wondering around in a airbase) and we had to let go...cause you cant hold a shovel AND guid your parachute to the ground well technically you could, but that would be painful and could end up badly

[chuckar101]

Hey Stef speaking of mythbuster I saw an episode like that might of been the same one.  They lifted a little girl off the ground about ten feet.  All I remember is that they filled up a pretty descent sized hangar with balloons before it worked.