What is the most dangerous thing you ever did?

Good thing that Arc Flash didn't kill you!

 

Back on my Virago 920, I was driving very early in the morning and still dark, from Davis to the SF Bay area on Hwy 80, ran into a fog bank at about 90 mph. It was so thick, I could only see the road under my wheels. There was traffic all around me and I could have easily been hit by a big-rig or run off the road. I didn't know what to do, but I put on my flashers and drove slowly hoping nobody would hit me. I just watched the lines on the road until I made it out of the fog-bank.

I was scared to death!

 

Probably around that same timeframe, my wife drove through the Brandenburg Gate into East Germany - I don't recall why...

 

It was only 120V to ground, so not enough plasma to get a good flash going. I was surprised it didn't knock out the 100A breaker above it, but with the transformer being half way down the block there was enough line impedance to make it less exciting. I always used the "when above 12V, live, keep one hand in your pocket" routine. Especially working on TVs where you could pull a 3" arc off the flyback rectifier tube...

I should have kept the remainder of the screwdriver. You do see guys pulling / installing meters wear full arc flash gear now. There's 25kVA, unfused, at the transformer in the front yard..that would make for some nice metal vaporization.

 

I did this too - lived about 5 miles from the epicenter. Fortunately my home was built on bedrock, so not much liquefaction and I only experienced minor damage.

My father was visiting me, and that day was his 60th birthday. He had never experienced an earthquake before, so it was a memorable birthday for him.

 

Been there, done that many times. I know what you mean.

 

Nope. Old springs and cylinders go in the dumpster. That's why the good lord created Quick Struts. Spring compressors are an accident waiting to happen just to save a few bucks.

 

I climbed these rocks when I was a young child, this wasn't intentional at all. But I've heard there were many deaths that happened there. I visited them a few times with my family and as I got older, I heard about how people fell from rock climbing. When I was eight years old, I just loved to explore and we all did it, but we were very careful. When your young, you truly don't get the concept of what your doing. I wouldn't do something like that now though, I'd be way too nervous.

 

Being Airborne in the US Army.

Most jumps were at night with a 60 lb. parachute, a rucksack weighing anywhere from 70-100 lbs, plus a weapon jumping out into the pitch black from 800 feet. There were so many things that could go wrong.

I preferred helicopter jumps because we’d jump from 1500 feet, but planes we’d jump at 800 feet. Not much time to deal with emergencies.

Fortunately, I never had any serious injuries. I bounced off the side of the plane a couple of times (bruises) and suffered a sprain, but another soldier in my platoon was killed when his chute didn’t deploy (static line jumps).

I was stationed right up the road in Budingen. I bought my first new car from Military Car Sales in Hanau.

Every year we’d take over one of the outposts on the E. German border for a month so 11ACR could go to gunnery and do SQT testing. I spent 16 hours/day running HMMWV patrols from checkpoint to checkpoint. Staring across the fence into what was essentially the world’s largest prison certainly left an impression on me.

 

25 years ago, I'm a private e-nothing fresh outta airborne school.

I report to Bragg...

One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand is muscle memory at this point. My first ever jump with the 82nd is from a Blackhawk.

I'm a cherry. No one told me it would take until six one thousand this time...

I swear it took 20 minutes to reach the ground. Everyone was bitching at me as I hit the earth, two--two--deployed chutes billowing around me.

I'm still embarrassed about it.

 

I can relate and experienced the exact same things

 

They probably did that on purpose. Getting messed with as a cherry jumper was a right of passage

No matter how many helicopter jumps I made knowing to count to six instead of four (about a dozen), a shock of adrenaline still pumped through my body when nothing happened at four. We were so conditioned to “four” that it was an automatic fear response. AATW!

 

Good to know that your reserve parachute deployed- and that there wasn’t an old Army striped pillow sitting behind that ripcord grip

 

The helo jumps were quite different than high performance aircraft jumps. That drop from the helicopter seems longer, faster, and quiet (with the exception of the wind rushing past your ears) versus the prop blast that tears you right out of the paratroop door. Geez, everything leading to going out the door is just loud hell when jumping C17, C130, C141 aircraft. I don’t think I ever got comfortable with either type of jump, no matter how many I did. I don’t miss any of it, still feel foolish for doing it.

 

I hated jumping from a C-17. I was so little (at 18 I had this wonderful thing called metabolism) that I never really jumped. I just kinda got sucked out the door, and, seemingly more often than not, bounced down the side of the plane or being spun around upside down when my chute opened. Never had a good jump from one of those planes.

I would love to get into sky diving though. The army was a wrong turn for me. Too much conformity and being at the bottom of the hill shit ran down. But I do miss that feeling of being on top of the world while standing in the door.

 

Volunteered to accompany the military during Desert Storm or not evacuating before a CAT3 hurricane.

 

Attempted suicide a few times. Putting a loaded gun to my head without the safety soon after my brother passed away, but because i saw so many great movies from the 50-70s, my imagination helps/hurts.... I feel so dumb that I even failed at that. My pain would be over. Haven't had pleasure in many years. I'm alone constantly, but if I mention it, everyone expects someone ELSE to help you. Evasion of responsibility (for those who keep saying shit like "love", etc) and I want to reply to a woman, "Love ME. I'm right here!" or at least be a friend, or get to know me, but no one seems to like the things I love and vice-versa.