Scariest Ride?
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,326
Likes: 6
From: PA
Also one of those aircraft that couldn't figure out if it was a bomber or a fighter jet so it decided to be both.
Very cool toy.
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,326
Likes: 6
From: PA
OK, you win ... pilot or not 
9 Gs? Arent you like blacked out by then
When I think about this, although I saw death
on the 3000' drop spinning the MR2 Turbo in Colorado, it happened so fast and everything in slow motion probably the Longest scariest ride was on ........
The Mighty Mouse roller coaster as a kid. Stupid wheels of the roller coaster were tucked intight and it looked JUST like the car was going to tip over on every turn. Several people died everywhere because they just had to stand up in front and got thrown out ... scared the crap out of a kid.
if we're talking cars other than .... death. I guess I was 15, no license, took a ride in a "big kids" (like early twenties) Hemi Roadrunner with open headers. Not only did the ground shake like an earthquake but THAT was when I understood what the word "understeer" meant since the beast couldn't handle any corner. that was the day I realized massive acceleration meant squat at the first corner and although I craved a Muscle car ... it was sportscars for me.
9 Gs? Arent you like blacked out by then
When I think about this, although I saw death
on the 3000' drop spinning the MR2 Turbo in Colorado, it happened so fast and everything in slow motion probably the Longest scariest ride was on ........The Mighty Mouse roller coaster as a kid. Stupid wheels of the roller coaster were tucked intight and it looked JUST like the car was going to tip over on every turn. Several people died everywhere because they just had to stand up in front and got thrown out ... scared the crap out of a kid.
if we're talking cars other than .... death. I guess I was 15, no license, took a ride in a "big kids" (like early twenties) Hemi Roadrunner with open headers. Not only did the ground shake like an earthquake but THAT was when I understood what the word "understeer" meant since the beast couldn't handle any corner. that was the day I realized massive acceleration meant squat at the first corner
and although I craved a Muscle car ... it was sportscars for me.
Reverse Gear
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 5,472
Likes: 0
Oooh - if we are waving wedding tackle about regarding planes, I have a bunch of fly-boy stories
I am the eldest son of a senior Royal Air Force Officer growing up I was lucky to be able to take short flights in many of the 'planes of the day'.
I was often on the list to be passenger on the first flight / weather recon every day. Possibly the most impressive of which was the F4K Phantom in a completely vertical inverted multi-G afterburner climb from zero feet utterly insane experience - I was on the edge of blacking out multiple times during that flight.
I also got rides in most of the trainer versions of various planes including the Jaguar J2, Saab Viggen SK-37 (on loan from the Swedish airforce), Folland Gnat T.1 and a T.5 Lightning to name but a few.
Mostly the flights where short and fairly dull, but a few stick in my mind
I am the eldest son of a senior Royal Air Force Officer
growing up I was lucky to be able to take short flights in many of the 'planes of the day'.I was often on the list to be passenger on the first flight / weather recon every day. Possibly the most impressive of which was the F4K Phantom in a completely vertical inverted multi-G afterburner climb from zero feet
utterly insane experience - I was on the edge of blacking out multiple times during that flight.I also got rides in most of the trainer versions of various planes including the Jaguar J2, Saab Viggen SK-37 (on loan from the Swedish airforce), Folland Gnat T.1 and a T.5 Lightning to name but a few.
Mostly the flights where short and fairly dull, but a few stick in my mind
2nd Gear
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 111
Likes: 0
From: Seattle, WA
A drag racing hydroplane with some giant stupor-charged engine, shooting a rooster tail about 200' behnid the thing. 115 or so on a lake. I aked if I'd need a life jacket and the driver told me, "Hell, son, you'll skip to shore".
Well, OK then.
Well, OK then.
6th Gear
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 15,478
Likes: 2
Wasn't the Phantoms referred to a the flying bricks or something like that?
Last edited by chows4us; Mar 28, 2009 at 07:10 PM.
Reverse Gear
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 5,472
Likes: 0
Wasn't the Phantoms referred to a the flying bricks or something like that? Hard to keep in the air?
While standard over NAM, my first remembrance of them was during the Cuban MIssile Crisis as a kid .... Navy moved a bunch of them very close to our little town in the local naval air station (small one) ... just flying around to ensure the bad guys didn't want to penetrate US airspace
While standard over NAM, my first remembrance of them was during the Cuban MIssile Crisis as a kid .... Navy moved a bunch of them very close to our little town in the local naval air station (small one) ... just flying around to ensure the bad guys didn't want to penetrate US airspace
they where slightly slower (top speed) than the US ones, but had better dynamics more acceleration and better gas mileage. The RAF crashed a few in training but generally they where fairly robust crates. The one I rode in was a very well worn trainer and not representative, still scary fun though.
That was my squadron that paid him a visit!
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,326
Likes: 6
From: PA
Excellent ! You must have been stationed in England at the time...what was it, RAF Chicksands, that had the F-111s ?
I was stationed in Germany at the time. I remember our Vice Wing Commander was gone for a few days during that time frame. We later learned he took part in that mission, having logged thousands of hours in the F-111 during his career. I also remember the French made that mission more difficult as they would not grant permission for our aircraft to use their airspace. Haven't thought much of France since then.
I was stationed in Germany at the time. I remember our Vice Wing Commander was gone for a few days during that time frame. We later learned he took part in that mission, having logged thousands of hours in the F-111 during his career. I also remember the French made that mission more difficult as they would not grant permission for our aircraft to use their airspace. Haven't thought much of France since then.
Reverse Gear
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 5,472
Likes: 0
Excellent ! You must have been stationed in England at the time...what was it, RAF Chicksands, that had the F-111s ?
I was stationed in Germany at the time. I remember our Vice Wing Commander was gone for a few days during that time frame. We later learned he took part in that mission, having logged thousands of hours in the F-111 during his career. I also remember the French made that mission more difficult as they would not grant permission for our aircraft to use their airspace. Haven't thought much of France since then.
I was stationed in Germany at the time. I remember our Vice Wing Commander was gone for a few days during that time frame. We later learned he took part in that mission, having logged thousands of hours in the F-111 during his career. I also remember the French made that mission more difficult as they would not grant permission for our aircraft to use their airspace. Haven't thought much of France since then.
talk about poetic justice......My father had retired by the time that operation was caried out, but we heard many stories about it at various RAFA meetings for years to come.
C-130 flying "dark" into Baghdad from Basrah, fall of 2003, on the night they announced the capture of Saddam.
Chaff, flares, and anything else we could throw out to distract the SAF... kinda like riding a rollercoaster without the tracks while getting shot at with God knows what.
Scary part... I'd love to take that ride again!
Chaff, flares, and anything else we could throw out to distract the SAF... kinda like riding a rollercoaster without the tracks while getting shot at with God knows what.
Scary part... I'd love to take that ride again!
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,326
Likes: 6
From: PA
C-130 flying "dark" into Baghdad from Basrah, fall of 2003, on the night they announced the capture of Saddam.
Chaff, flares, and anything else we could throw out to distract the SAF... kinda like riding a rollercoaster without the tracks while getting shot at with God knows what.
Scary part... I'd love to take that ride again!
Chaff, flares, and anything else we could throw out to distract the SAF... kinda like riding a rollercoaster without the tracks while getting shot at with God knows what.
Scary part... I'd love to take that ride again!
Excellent ! You must have been stationed in England at the time...what was it, RAF Chicksands, that had the F-111s ?
I was stationed in Germany at the time. I remember our Vice Wing Commander was gone for a few days during that time frame. We later learned he took part in that mission, having logged thousands of hours in the F-111 during his career. I also remember the French made that mission more difficult as they would not grant permission for our aircraft to use their airspace. Haven't thought much of France since then.
I was stationed in Germany at the time. I remember our Vice Wing Commander was gone for a few days during that time frame. We later learned he took part in that mission, having logged thousands of hours in the F-111 during his career. I also remember the French made that mission more difficult as they would not grant permission for our aircraft to use their airspace. Haven't thought much of France since then.
Rocking and rolling in that Vark was a special award for work well done. Cripes I was scared, freaked, and happy as heck all in one. TFR (Terrain Following Radar) when on "hard" mode is worse than a roller coaster. Roller coasters don't go several hundred miles an hour!
I wasn't at all surprised about the French denying their airspace. I expected it. Since they dropped out of NATO years before, they only look out for themselves, and are very insular in their thinking, except where there's a business opportunity! European Ferengi!
3rd Gear
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 213
Likes: 0
From: Lebanon, PA
Can't top the wings but back in the 60's, a friend in a '67 Vette says to me "I wonder how fast we can go before one of the studs come out of the snow tires?" I won't reveal the speed, but when it did let loose, it sounded like a Howitzer. You should have seen the hole it put in his rear fender. What an idiot!
Turbius Maximus
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 4,416
Likes: 0
From: Infinity and beyond
heh heh yeah... they said we could make it work... just needs some adjustments from what has been tried previously
Reverse Gear
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 5,472
Likes: 0
6th Gear
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,315
Likes: 0
From: Austin, TX
My god that Beetle is cool. About 5 years ago I test drove a modded 86' Corvette Callaway Twin Turbo.
I thought that was pretty insane until I drove these for a week:
140 MPH around the oval a few feet away from the cement wall is pretty surreal.
Not as scary but even more fun.
I thought that was pretty insane until I drove these for a week:
140 MPH around the oval a few feet away from the cement wall is pretty surreal.
Not as scary but even more fun.
6th Gear
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 3,748
Likes: 1
From: In my secret lair of justice somewhere among the sewers of Jacksonville Florida.
TA4F front cockpit my home for this flight. I had to keep my hands off all this while my Maintenance
officer was flying from the backseat. I was terrified, pumped up, high on adrenalin you name it.
At the invitation of my maintenance officer in 1968 a flight of multiple arrested landing and "cat" shots from the then training
carrier USS Lexington (in the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida panhandle) in a TA4-F. He was flying from the back seat knowing
that the front seat view was scary as hell with your hands in your lap the whole time. What a complete rush as the Lexington
was the "smallest carrier operating at the time - read little bitty damn flight deck trying to drift to starboard through the whole
approach and coming at you at just over 80 kts closing. TA4F landing speed about 120 kts with the Lex doing 20-25 kts.
When my maintenance officer turned on to final approach I could blot out the Lex with the tip of my little finger. My mind was
screaming "we going to land on that Bullsh*t! the deck grew in size at an enormous rate. We slammed onto the deck - the engine
shreiked at full power - I was thrown against my harnesses (painfully I might add my helmet nape strap was not quite tight
enough - bang - my helmet and visor whacked the instrument panel. I saw stars and this carnie barker (my maintenance officer)
asking if I was ok and was I ready to do it again? Somehow I stuck my thumb up and grimiced he took that for a grin and we
headed for the forward cats to be launched for another round.
Now I was usually part of the complex ballet of men helping to direct planes around the flight. But here I was in the front seat of
a TA4F with my hands in my lap cringing at the little forms darting around our aircraft. This (I think) is one reason why my
maintenance officer was giving me this front seat ride so I could better understand his view and it was an effective object lesson.
And hell how many non navy pilot types can say they've arrested landed and been shot (by catapult) from a carrier deck. Scary
but still my best memory from my time in the Navy.
Pictures aren't mine, I was not allowed a camera (afraid I might drop it into the controls - can't blame him) but it is still the best,
scariest ride I've ever gone on - ever!
LEE USN Ret