Most Daring/Crazy Thing You've Ever Done

[Bamaman]

Living amongst a bunch of Fed Ex pilots in Memphis, they talked me into taking pilots lessons in 1979. The trainer plane was a brand new Piper Tomahawk.

First lesson was power on and power off stalls, taking off and landing. Standard stuff.

Second lesson was spins. Little did I know that the FAA let Piper design the plane where it'd spin like a top. If you didn't give it enough throttle, went into a turn and stomped on the left pedal--you'd see the ground @ 1 revolution per second straight down. They later took spins out of the basic pilot licensure program.

Going into an intentional spin separates the men from the wusses.

 

[Souschef]

I posted earlier about my youth. At age 78, I strapped myself into a Vietnam era Russian MiG-15and flew it at altitudes up to 15,000 feet and speeds of 400 mph.It was an experience

 

[Oz investor]

i have a policy ...

if nobody saw it , it didn't happen

so what will i admit to ( where there were witnesses )

����

well one time when almost everyone was old enough to know better

i spent a day putting out spot fires with a damp rag INSIDE a ship's diesel tank while the boilermaker was using the oxy torch to patch defects in the tank .

or walking through a grass fire putting out the fire with a long handled shovei in bare feet ( it inspires you to look where you walk , and is still better than getting HOT tinder inside your boot ) it is much easier to walk THROUGH the fire and fight it from behind the flame front .

the rest is the stuff of mini-legends

 

[CyclingInvestor]

1) Backpacking in the Sierras, 3 days into a 5 day walk, in my mid-20s. We spot smoke up ahead on our route, downslope from the trail, then see flames, aerial tankers making drops, start running into groups who had turned back. We decide to go on (at a much faster pace). After passing the area, we see they have the fire under control, never reached the trail.

2) Wanted to see how fast my motorcycle would go, so at 3am on the 405 freeway in LA, no cars in sight, I gave it 1 mile. Got up to 118. Also in my mid twenties.

3) Bicycling from Denver to LA in August 1986 (age 28), ran out of water 40 miles short of Wickenburg in 110+ degree heat. Decided to go on without cutting down to Phoenix to restock (extra 20 miles).

 

[njhowie]

Back in 1979 a buddy of mine and I snuck into game #2 of the World Series in Baltimore. We arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon and I wore overalls similar to the custodians. We just walked through the gate. At the end of the game, we drove to BWI airport and got on the Charter plane heading back to Pittsburgh. Again, we acted like we were supposed to be on the plane and sat in the back next to Kent Tekulve. When we arrived in Pittsburgh airport, we disclosed that we had $2 to our name and a car in the BWI parking lot which we were not going to be able to get out. Anyway, we were escorted off the plane and a member of the Pirates Administrative staff purchased breakfast for us and made arrangements to get back to Baltimore on an Allegheny commercial flight. My late teens and 20’s were filled with quite a few J.D. Salinger moments (Catcher in the Rye.)

Very cool...now that's a story to tell the grand kids.

 

[FlaGator]

Jumped out of an airplane-once. Couldn’t say that old 172 was “perfectly good” though[emoji6]

Took a couple of motorcycles over 95, including a BMW R100 GS/PD, one of the least aero bikes ever made.

‘Bout it for the daring, please don’t ask about stupid[emoji6]

 

[MarieIG]

Almost answered back to my late wife once - luckily I was in Riyadh and she was in Cairo....and she'd hung up the phone on her end a couple minutes earlier.....but, still..

 

[FIREd]

Moving thousands of miles away from familiar grounds and faces, at age 23, to a country which I had never visited before. Just because. I only had $3k to my name, my personal possessions fitted in 2 travel bags, I was barely fluent in the local language, and I knew little about local customs. But I had the time of my life and ended up staying 20+ years.

 

[EarlyBirdly]

Maybe not the craziest, but worth noting....

Age 18 / Summer 1977 - Stole a family member's car, grabbed my underage girlfriend, and crossed an International Border with a bag full of money and various drugs.

Stayed in a hotel that my family had stayed in years before and paid cash. Banged like rabbits for 3 days and lived like Royalty.


This was the car:

This is the hotel ( Bonus points if you can I.D. it ) :

 

[Dtail]

Used to go on jaunts with other sports cars down the highways early morning. Reached speeds of 135 mph with the top down. Car pinned to the road, but wouldn't do it now.

 

[Ronstar]

Did that...once.

Yep - once was enough for me as well.

 

[Rianne]

Maybe not the craziest, but worth noting....

Age 18 / Summer 1977 - Stole a family member's car, grabbed my underage girlfriend, and crossed an International Border with a bag full of money and various drugs.

Stayed in a hotel that my family had stayed in years before and paid cash. Banged like rabbits for 3 days and lived like Royalty.


This was the car:

This is the hotel ( Bonus points if you can I.D. it ) :

That took cahoonas 1. that bag of money 2. to admit the whole story

 

[scrabbler1]

Back in my college days, I once took a test for a friend. It was a make-up test (in a room with all other test-takers from various classes), given months after the original final was given, and his instructor and classmates were long gone. We faked his picture ID and he stood guard outside in case his instructor were to show up. (He didn't, as he was a TA/grad student who had returned to his home town.) My friend was applying to law school and didn't want to mess up his GPA with a bad grade on a meaningless math test I could easily ace, or at least do a lot better than he could. We were successful.

 

[ckelly78z]

165 mph on a slightly curvy 2 lane state highway in a 1970 455 Trans Am....the telephone poles were flying by the car at an amazing rate.

 

[imp4]

Maybe not the craziest, but worth noting....

Age 18 / Summer 1977 - Stole a family member's car, grabbed my underage girlfriend, and crossed an International Border with a bag full of money and various drugs.

Stayed in a hotel that my family had stayed in years before and paid cash. Banged like rabbits for 3 days and lived like Royalty.


This was the car:

This is the hotel ( Bonus points if you can I.D. it ) :

That would be the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City.
What do I win?

 

[easysurfer]

Piling onto the back of a pickup truck hanging on for dear life (I exaggerate a bit, but not totally) coming back from a party during college.

 

[6miths]

Maybe not the craziest, but worth noting....

Age 18 / Summer 1977 - Stole a family member's car, grabbed my underage girlfriend, and crossed an International Border with a bag full of money and various drugs.

Stayed in a hotel that my family had stayed in years before and paid cash. Banged like rabbits for 3 days and lived like Royalty.


This was the car:

This is the hotel ( Bonus points if you can I.D. it ) :

Looks like a Mercury Cougar and the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City. A great place for a weekend escape. And who knows, maybe the French Canadian police would have understood your motivations and let you off with a warning!

 

[Dtail]

Maybe not the craziest, but worth noting....

Age 18 / Summer 1977 - Stole a family member's car, grabbed my underage girlfriend, and crossed an International Border with a bag full of money and various drugs.

Stayed in a hotel that my family had stayed in years before and paid cash. Banged like rabbits for 3 days and lived like Royalty.


This was the car:

This is the hotel ( Bonus points if you can I.D. it ) :

Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City.

 

[Nemo2]

1963: Two of us traveling through 'mountainous' country in Turkey at night.

Hitched a ride on a large, probably heavily overladen, truck. The cargo was piled high and secured by tarps held down with ropes.

We clambered up to the top, with backpacks and sleeping bags, (it was quite cold due to the elevation). Got into the bags, and both eased one arm under a rope to prevent falling off.

The truck swayed from side to side all night, and we lay there looking at the stars in a cloudless sky.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Living amongst a bunch of Fed Ex pilots in Memphis, they talked me into taking pilots lessons in 1979. The trainer plane was a brand new Piper Tomahawk.

First lesson was power on and power off stalls, taking off and landing. Standard stuff.

Second lesson was spins. Little did I know that the FAA let Piper design the plane where it'd spin like a top. If you didn't give it enough throttle, went into a turn and stomped on the left pedal--you'd see the ground @ 1 revolution per second straight down. They later took spins out of the basic pilot licensure program.

Going into an intentional spin separates the men from the wusses.

They don't call it the TraumaHawk for nothing!

Spin training is AWESOME. Unless you detach a retina like a pilot buddy of mine did.

 

[stepford]

I plead the 5th

 

[Lienlord]

In high school, I was visiting a buddy who was in the Air National Guard. He realized he had weekend duty, so I went with him to his local base. Turns out he was scheduled to travel with a Huey helicopter crew to the next state and back. The pilot said I could go too, but would need to wear utilities (he said in case we crash, can't have them finding a body in civilian clothes!). First time to ride a helicopter and they really put it through its paces to impress me! What a blast, and it never occurred to me to turn down the offer! Ah, sweet youth! Haha

 

[Koolau]

After confirming that I had passed all my classes (insuring graduation from university) a buddy of mine and I took $80 each and loaded up my dad's old station wagon with camping gear. We drove from Gary, up through Windsor Ont. and all the way to Montreal. We dropped down through NH and VT, over to Maine, down to Wash. DC and back through the Blue Ridge mountains, through Knoxville, Nashville, Louisville and back to Da Region where my buddy lived at the time. We drove 4000 miles in 8 days, using the gas card for fuel only.

So far, it doesn't sound too crazy. But on this trip, in order of crazy, (least to most) we stopped at one of those fireworks places in Tenn. and bought (real) M80s. We drove around the Mammoth Cave area, waiting to spend the night before doing the cave the next day. As we drove around, we threw M80s out the window. Next, there was the day I drove 1000 miles and hadn't planned to stop until I saw a car parked sideways across the road a few hundred feet ahead. When I got there, I realized the parked car did not exist except in my mind. We stopped at a roadside park for the night and, by flashlight, watched raccoons eating out of garbage cans (that last part wasn't too crazy). Finally, the real crazy thing we did on the trip was to climb Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. Still doesn't sound too crazy except we did it in street clothes AND we started late enough that by the time we reached the summit, it was nearly dark. We knew there was a road down, but couldn't find it, so we climbed back down in the dark. There were a few arrows painted on the rocks, showing the way up, so we followed them back down - by using matches. We later learned that it was not considered safe to descend the mountain in the day time. YMMV

 

[IMATERP]

Very cool...now that's a story to tell the grand kids.

I still have the postcard that I sent to my Dad from the stadium and it had a World Series postmark. [emoji3]

 

[Gearhead Jim]

40 years of flying airplanes combined with 30 years of police work and 20 years of occasional auto racing, it's been an interesting life. Still have my first wife and all body parts, so I'm happy.