Ok not boat or alcohol relate. Ok I was probably hung over. Flew in a Cessna
150 with a college friend to check out a grass strip his dad was buying. Dad
being smarter than us drove up. We landed to find that the old owner had not
cut the grass in a long while, which we did not see from the air. The strip
was slanted with a high voltage wire over one end. We looked the place over
and returned to the plane. We tried to take off into the wind but could not
come close to getting airborne due to the grass and the upslope. Turned
around and ran out of the wind (bad), downhill (good) towards the wire at
the other end (bad). Turns out the wire would not matter because there was
no way in hell we could have gotten up high enough to hit it. My friend was
bouncing the plane from wheel to wheel to try to cut down on the drag from
the high grass. We picked up speed so slow I thought I should get out and
push. We were committed with no way to stop before the barn (did I forget to
mention the barn at this end of the field - very bad). We squeaked into the
air with the stall warning blaring and made it over the barn only because it
did not have a weather vane (I still looked back for tire tracks on the
roof). I was shook, I had spent many hours in small planes at this point,
but that was a little close for me. My friend had done well. He didn't panic
and he got it in the air. Poor judgment for committing to the takeoff not
withstanding, he was cool through it all. I didn't get really, really
concerned about what we just did until he turned to me and with that typical
pilot understatement said "That was not good". The problem was his total
lack of color and the buckets of sweat coming off his face. Well like the
saying goes that which does not kill you. He has made a very good career
getting people safely from place to place for the last 20 years and I
learned to open my damn mouth when I don't like the looks of something. That
has probably saved me from having more stories like this one. Although I do
have a few more but I will pause to read about your missteps for awhile.

Great idea Riverman - nice break from the other thread. Anyone taking bets
on how long it takes this thread to digress ;

Ken

"riverman" wrote in message
...

"Frederick Burroughs" wrote in message
...

Personally, my life has been perilously close to the edge a few times.
The
fact that I'm still here gives me pause. Each incident is like a skin
has
been shed from a progressing metamorphosis. Most people I know have
stood
at death's door once or twice, but were denied admittance by luck or
attentive guardian angel.


Great idea for a thread! I've been tossing around the idea of a collection
of short vignettes of every time I've almost died...either from being
hammered and not quite getting across the threshold, or taking a random
left
turn when later I discover that a right turn would have been fatal. Why
not
start a new thread, tell us your 'times I almost died' tale, and lets hear
some skin crawlers from folks.

--riverman
You go first, I'll be right on your tail :-)