I decided to make a thread for those who have been recently tagged. Consider this as a place for the newcomers to let themselves be known so that we can welcome and get to know them. I know that now that I have cards, I will be on a tagging rampage and would like to meet the people whose car I tagged. Don't hesitate to jump in and let us know you got tagged or you're new to The Birmingham Area Mini Association. We may be telling cool stories and talking when you get here (such is life in the awesome MINI community) but rest assured, meeting you is our number one priority.

Maybe the gods of North American Motoring will sticky this for me so it can be near the top of the page and so it will be one of the first few posts seen by our new soon to be friends?

 

Was nice meeting you mistercooper, Tuesday nite at the Meet & Eat. Glad you made it out in the cold. oh and BTW. ya scope is SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET.

 

Good thread idea MisterCooper. I sure do wish I had seen your Mini in your sig Monday, I coulda put it on your cards. Ah well maybe next batch

 

Nice meeting you too! Thanks...I got the idea for painting it because it kind of felt unbalanced to me with being on the top and mirrors but no where else. But that MINI of yours is Sick. I've seen your sig plenty of times but in person...WOW. Too cool for words.

Oh btw...loved the caption on the picture on bamamini.com. I did have one of those "I'm not so sure that's true" kind of looks on my face. I cracked up when I saw it.
Thanks. I thought that this thread would be especially good for people new to forums and NAM cuz they don't have to navigate much, especially from the link on bamamini.com. And I just recently got Cooperation to make the cartoon so it's kind of been in and out of my posts and pm's while i've been trying to get it to fit in the sig section but not look totally distorted. Still not crazy about the quality in my sig since I have to compress it to get it to fit. So that might've been the reason you didn't see it before. But I'm sure these cards will be put to good use. I'm still trying to tag the third MINI at Samford though...they seem to be elusive.

 

The three of you have some of the sweetest MINIs I've seen yet (and I look at a LOT of galleries) ! What's going on down there in 'Bama ? I've been there a couple of times and I never saw any cars that cool !! Might have to come back down.

Anyway, just wanted to stop in and tell you... great looking MINIs !!!!!

 

Aww your sweet . Next time you come to Bama be sure to let us know & we can meet up & show you some of the AL twisties

 

Thanks for the invite !

I had many more opportunities to get to 'Bama when I was in the Air Force (Gunter AFS in Montgomery, of course), but I still love to travel so who knows ?! Would love to see some of your twisties if the opportunity presents itself.

The invitation goes both ways, of course. We have some great twisties ourselves, up here in MD, WV, and PA.

 

Thanks for the great compliment man! How about you...owning two good looking MINIs. I'd be in heaven. And I bet the Air Force had some pretty sweet rides too. A.Where you a pilot or an engineer or something else,B. which planes did you fly, work on or work with?

 

Yes, owning two MCs has been a whooooooole bunch of fun ! One of the best decisions I've ever made, I must say.

Oh yeah, the Air Force has some pretty cool toys, too. Nope, I wasn't a pilot, I was in Logistics. But I did get to go up in some of the aircraft, most of them your garden variety passenger planes. However, one time I did get the opportunity to take a ride in an F-16D Fighter Jet. I could write the longest post in NAM history and tell you about THAT.

 

I can't believe I said "where" instead of "were" in my last post. Sorry, I just saw it in your quoted text and...well, anyway...that's neither here nor there.

You rode in F-16D?! That's incredible! What an amazing opportunity.

 

I'd like to hear about it too. That sounds Amazing.

 

MC, no worries. I hadn't even noticed your grammatical error. Besides, you'll probably find several in this post.


Okay, since at least two people are interested, I'll give you the short version story of my ride in the F-16.

The day before, I attended a training session on emergency egress. That is, how to survive if there is an in-flight emergency requiring ejection. Doesn't give you a good feeling when you learn that about 25 percent of ejections end in death. Of course, that was the early 90s and ejection equipment has probably improved. Anyway...

I'm sitting in the backseat of the jet and we're at the end of the runway with afterburner on. The noise is deafening and I can barely hear the pilot getting clearance for takeoff from the tower. On the radio "Boner" (that was his call sign) tells me to hold on and he gives the thumbs up sign. We begin to roll. FAST. We are not rolling long because within about two seconds we are retracting the gear. We do what is called a "vertical zoom" takeoff, 90 degrees, straight up in the air while pulling about 6 g's. Oh... did I mention we were barrel rolling while doing this ??

About ten minutes into the flight, due to all the quick turns (the F-16 is literally a rocket with wings and is very nimble), I start the dry heaves. Yep, I was sick already. So I go to the pure oxygen and my stomach begins to settle down. Boner asks me if I'm okay to make a "mach run". Not wanting to be a chicken, I say "sure". So we head out over the Pacific Ocean so as not to endanger people on the ground. I feel my body starting to get heavier and heavier. He's giving me play-by-play..... 5 g's.... 6....7.... I start to black out, tunnel vision. The G Suit kicks in and the tunnel suddenly gets wider and is gone...8.... 9 g's. VERY COOL !! At 9 g's, your body feels like it weighs nine times it's normal weight. So, I was feeling like I weighed about 1500 pounds. I couldn't have pulled my head forward if my life depended on it.

After going on some more 100 percent oxygen and chasing away the dry heaves, Boner asks me if I'm okay to take the stick. What ? You want me to fly this thing ?? Yeah, right. Anyway, after some assurance that the F-16 computers wouldn't let me kill the both of us, I take the stick. I try a banking maneuver that resulted in an accidental barrel roll. I stopped the rolling... only I was flying upside down and didn't realize it for a while. After finding the horizon on the HUD (heads up display), I managed to get her flying right-side-up. I had enough... told Boner to take it back (needed some more pure oxygen).

So... an hour after take off, we come in for a landing and there is a stiff cross wind. We have to pull up and go around for another shot at it. Second time, the wind is still out of limits for a safe landing. We go around AGAIN. I was really sick at this point...dry heaving like crazy. I told Boner if he didn't land it this time, I was going to land it myself. Well, he saw some of my flying skills earlier. Needless to say, he touched down the next time.

I was sick for about three days afterwards... like a nasty hangover. I also busted most of the blood vessels in my eyes and looked like Satan himself with the whites of my eyes nearly completely red. Also had nosebleeds for about a week.

That is some kind of machine, the F-16 ! I'll always be grateful for the experience, but you could not DRAG me into the cockpit again. Not a chance.

Sorry... that ended up being longer than I anticipated.

 

Sorry to hijack this post, but, Gawd, I'd love a ride in a F-16. Even after all your details, I'd still go.

 

Ha! I think I already did hijack the thread ! Didn't mean to, just happened that way. Sorry !!

And yes, you should want to get a ride in one 'cause it's AWESOME. I wouldn't trade that day for maybe but five others in my whole life. Just saying once was enough for me.

 

Great story. There's an AF commercial which I believe shows that vertical zoom (aimed back at the pilot as the ground just spins and gets so much smaller- I've watched it frame by frame as I'm a huge aero buff). Too cool to read your report. At the controls, how sweet is that? Glad you didn't have to bail! Thanks for sharing.

 

You wouldn't happen to still have connections down this way would you? I gladly gave up 2 minutes of my life just to read that story and imagine the experience. Just plain awesome. Oh and don't worry about hijacking the thread...I can always make an addendum to my original post. See above

 

Great read Chili . I would kill to get a ride like that, dry heaves & all

 

Flattery will get you everywhere. . . . I'll make it a sticky in here. .

I've tagged quite a few MINI's, but no response from any of them yet. . .

 

yyyess!

Same here...tagged several, no response.

 

I tagged a pw on pw yesterday afternoon at the summitt.

I found a race track (electric) at Homewood Toy and Hobby and it is Mini's of course I got one and they have 2 left in case anyone is interested, it's too cool .

 

Got two of these race tracks a couple weeks ago going to send them to my nephews

 

Got mine. They have two sets left.

no brg's though.

 

As soon as I read this post, I closed the top of my laptop and ran out the door to get it. Too cool to pass up...

I definitely saw your car there I knew because of the plates.

I wonder if Carerra makes one though.... One of the cars is so close to being exactly my car, I'm almost tempted to get some model paint and mess with it until it looks exactly like my car.

 

What in the hec are y'all talking about? Is it a racetrack w/Mini's on it?

 

That's exactly how I felt. Someone came in my office and held me at bay as I was scurrying for the phone book.

Cool! there was another BRG cooper several spaces down from me. Didn't recognize the state on the tag though. OK? I think it's the same brg that didn't wave back last Sunday.

TT, its a slot car set with two MINI S' (red and blue), striped and roof graphic'd, with controllers and 11' of track. They do have two expansion track sets for $26.99 ea.

I'm wrapping up mine and putting it under the tree tonight. No, I'll have another toy on Saturday. I'm not THAT charitable...