Hey, Man, Glad to know you survived all that!!

John Rodgers

Ari Ollikainen wrote:

> >Chris, I'm impressed.....and amazed that you survived that one.
> >
> >I had a malfunction of a ski on Cessna 180 ski plane in Alaska one time.
> >The thing put me through an outside loop and between some treetops before
> >I got control of the situation. Damn near lost it.  If I had not had my
> >seatbelt on I would have been thrown all over the cockpit, so guess where
> >today I would be........or not be?
> >
> >Airplane or car, seatbelts are common sense.
> >
>
>         True...a harness saved my face and upper body parts from severe
>         damage when the nose of the tandem trainer I was  in the front
>         seat of stopped suddenly after passing through the after run
>         at the end of the runway as a result of total brake failure.
>         As the check pilot/instructor in the back seat was screaming
>         "EJECT! EJECT" I was trying to remind him that this particular
>         trainer model NEVER had ZERO ALTITUDE ejection seats. He sounded
>         pretty silly trying to defend that particular instruction during
>         the subsequent inquiry. Last I heard, he was keeping tabs on snow
>         removal equipment in Thule Greenland...
>
>         I was carted away from the crash site with broken knees and one
>         fractured lower leg. I had plenty of time to contemplate the
>         future of my flying career while recuperating ;^)
>
>         Silly me...once I recovered enough to drive, I rolled my VW beetle
>         out by Van Horn (Tx) at about 70mph dodging a jackrabbit that was
>         bigger than a cocker spaniel. This time, wearing three point seat
>         belts,  I was able to walk away from the rollover with a few
>         bruises.
>
>         Same decade (but during later 60s), I rear ended a car in fog at
>         about 20 mph wearing a seat belt, and walked away...only later
>         after getting my car fixed to slide on black ice on a decreasing
>         radius turn at about 60mph into a powerpole. Of course I was
>         wearing three point belts in the Volvo and found out that Volvos
>         were solidly made...the power pole ended up between the right
>         front wheel and the engine, almost all the way to the firewall.
>         The passenger compartment wasn't deformed. And the windshield
>         wasn't damaged!
>
>         I ALWAYS BUCKLE UP!
>
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>   You can't depend on your judgement when your imagination is out of focus.
>                                                           -- Mark Twain.
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>
>         OLTECO                    Ari Ollikainen
>         P.O. BOX 3688             Networking Architecture and Technology
>         Stanford, CA              Ari@OLTECO.com
>         94309-3688                415.517.3519