@canuk Yeah that's why they made all us little people (chicks) fly them in flight training - because normal sized guys couldn't hardly fit w/o busting the weight limit.
I flew in a plane that only had room for 6 passengers. It was a 10-minute flight but then we were delayed at the airport because there was a big iguana on the runway.
@christinerenee No, Des Moines, IA. Story goes kind of like this. Once upon a time there was an iguana sitting in a parking lot, sunning himself. I noticed him, went home and grabbed a towel, to wrap him up in, then took him home. And he lived happily ever after; at least until my girlfriend's Jack Russell decided to break into his enclosure and when he came out, the dog killed him. The end.
I've flown in a tiny glass bottomed tourism helicopter... And got motion sick. I've flown in 8 passenger planes... And got motion sock. I've flown in a variety of large commercial jets... And always gotten motion sick. I don't like flying.
@cleverogre So then do they have any sort of purpose (like a farmer using them to view his crops from above) or are they strictly recreational? Always wanted an ultralight, just not sure if I could justify owning one.
@pepsiwine actually have a neighbor that uses his to view and spray his crops (mostly cotton around here), and a photographer friend uses his to take beautiful arial photos. They are ideal for this kind of thing with very low air speed. Unfortunately, the photo friend is now having to compete with drones and there is not near as much demand for his services these days. That all being said, recreation is almost always the goal of this kind of plane. Most of the guys that fly these things also enjoy sailing. It's not a sport plane, which is a whole nother thing that requires a license. :)
I've piloted or flown in /on everything in the list minus the jet pack (my hang glider experience was a disaster), but the jet pack is on my bucket list - and I've piloted one of these too: THAT is the absolute smallest thing with an engine I have piloted. And it is waaaay scarier than pulling high G in a jet trainer (went up in the L-39 Jet Trainer in California).
I remember a connecting flight with maybe 12 seats and you had to lean toward the aisle or you'd hit your head on the ceiling (I had to duck whenever I stood up, but I'm 6'7", so that's not unusual). Also, we could see into the cockpit through a curtain. It was bumpy in a fun sort of way. That's the best I've got. But I fly and levitate and sometimes simply teleport in my dreams. Sometimes. So there's that.
@joelmw Off-topic, but I've been trying to figure out what the donkey icon next to your name means. I only have a VMP badge. :-( I want an ass badge like yours.
@joelmw the tiny airport near here has planes with 8 passenger seats (much more cramped than a mini van) and I've been on a flight where they sold 9 tickets, so one passenger rode in the Co pilot seat. I was close enough to the pilot to remove dog hair from his pretty blue coat. It was terrifying.
@TheCO2 I need a badge that indicates that I'm allergic to assholes - like one of those medical alert bracelets. Or that anywhere within my immediate vicinity is a "No Asshole Zone". Can you make that happen?
@pepsiwine@christinerenee Scapegoat badge- forum folks nominate and vote on a new scapegoat every month. Sometimes for an 'epic' mistake/post, or for just being too helpful, or unhelpful, or whatever whim catches the forum that month. Scapegoat gets all blame for everything/anything/nothing. And lots of emails and therefore extra forum participation is assumed. It's totally @joelmw 's fault that you didn't already know that.@joelmw is also to blame for not answering more quickly. But in fairness, @joelmw is probably still typing and re-editing his even-longer-than-this response. ;) Here's a thread to check out, there are more. https://meh.com/forum/topics/scapegoats-of-meh
@TheCO2 Doesn't everyone? Though, honestly, I'm not usually nude; but there is something about being up in the air that makes me worry less about the fact that I am, which may seem illogical. I used to have this recurring dream in which I started out free and powerful, and unaided, soaring through the air and--perfect metaphor--the more I thought about it, the less elevation and freedom I had, until finally it was all I could do to stay a few inches off the ground in this funky-ass bicycle that had suddenly become part of the experience.
@MsELizardBeth It can be a little freaky, but I have in fact been convinced and do feel much safer in the air than on the road. When we're bumping along in the turbulence, it can be uncomfortable, but the reality is that it's proof that we're up there in the air. Landings and takeoffs are typically the dangerous times.
@pepsiwine@christinerenee@mehjohnson I take pride in the mediocrity of my time under the curse. I am however disappointed that I haven't been able to spit out very many of my characteristically rambling, ranty posts; I actually think I'll be doing more of that in February, in case anyone else is disappointed with me on that count. Yes, I'm sure you are. But I won't cheat it. If I don't have anything that I think needs to be said (or don't have the time to say it--more often the case; I always have plenty that I'm convinced needs to be said), I don't say it. And, yeah, the re-editing: I do that, a lot. Unfortunately it didn't save me from tricking myself into falling for this: https://meh.com/forum/topics/wtf-per-se . Which, by the way, is only one of the several stupid things I've done to "earn" the badge. But I never fucked a goat ( http://goo.gl/kbWMIe ) and I've never ever fingered a dog ( http://goo.gl/p3vEbg ). This is how I console myself. And, there, @mehjohnson, that's moderately ranty. And, yes, it's my fault.
@joelmw@TheCO2 The asshole situation has gotten out of hand. I seriously can't take anymore gross asshole-similar pictures. When I asked for a "No Assholes" badge I meant Asshole the Person, not Asshole the Ass hole.
@pepsiwine I think @TheCO2 is just demonstrating that there are plenty of them here. Let the record show that I didn't post any of those images, @Thumperchick. And I'm getting my ass out of here. I recommend the same to you, @pepsiwine (this thread in particular, I mean).
@joelmw Thanks for sharing the links to the dog-fingering. I laughed for a solid 20 minutes after reading that. And your thread on "per se" reminded me of when something similar happened to my computer: This past summer I had a garden in which I had grown some eggplant that I needed to use up. So I googled recipes for eggplant, but google kept returning search results for marijuana - how to grow it, how to make it into an edible, general information on marijuana, pictures of marijuana. So I tried the search for "eggplant recipes" again, and again - several times and kept getting marijuana results from google. So I tried modifying my search terms to things like "recipes for eggplant", "what to do with fresh eggplant", "how to cook eggplant", etc. and kept getting marijuana EVERY DAMN TIME. For about 10 minutes this went on. I couldn't believe it so I took screenshots and everything that SHOWED I'd searched for EGGPLANT and GOTTEN results for MARIJUANA. I seriously thought google had been hacked or something, but simultaneously wondered if I'd lost my damn mind. It went on long enough that I called my friend and asked THEM to google eggplant recipes to see if google gave them back marijuana. They really DID think I was losing my mind. LOL Finally after about 10 minutes of this, I googled again for eggplant and google finally gave me eggplant recipes instead of marijuana. But if I hadn't screenshot it when it was happening I probably wouldn't have believed it myself that it happened.
@joelmw thank you ever so much for dragging me into the goatse thread. FYI - mock goatse is funny. REAL goatse though, that's just not okay. I also just had to teach my phone the word goatse, I'm sure that won't bite me in the ass at some point.
Since we are listing off aircraft we have flown in... - Cessna 172 - Cessna 152 - Piper Cub - C-130 - KC-135 (Refueling 7 F-16s) - HH-3E Jolly Green Giant Helicopter (Gunner door open; over the Atlantic Ocean and around space shuttle Endeavor, the day before its maiden voyage) - Many different commercial airliners
I forgot to mention; I went up in a skydiving plane, but I wasn't jumping. That was an experience, in itself. I don't know what kind of plane it was.
@pepsiwine Well, if there were only about 4-5 people on board then it could've been a C-172, if it had several more people on board and it opened up on the left side then it could've been a King Air or Cessna Caravan, if it had a few more people and opened straight out the back then it could've been an Skyvan, CASA, and there's a few other specialty skydiving planes. Did you do it at a big boogie or at a smaller drop zone? The ride down in the plane after letting out jumpers can be pretty great, too, if the pilot does a nice, fast, tight spiral down from altitude. Pulls some serious g's.
@pepsiwine The plane was small. I think we had either 4 or 6 skydivers and the door opened on the right. I do remember coming down quite quickly. And it was a small airport about 40-50 miles east of Des Moines. My ex wife's uncle has a sky-diving school and takes regulars up, all the time.
I once flew the Millennium Falcon away from planet Hillary in an alternate universe through my dreams.. And to make it more complicated, it was in a former life. Does that count?
I suppose it matters how you define aircraft size. I've flown Cessna 150s and they're 2-seaters prop planes that are so small they can rarely hold a passenger in that second seat. But I've also flown an aerobatic jet that was pretty-freakin' tiny, too. But my favorite way to fly is sans aircraft - i.e. skydiving. Then you're really just flying your body and it is AMAZING.
Couldn't decide if a Cessna 152 or a helicopter ambulance was smaller so checked the helicopter since it was narrower. Cessna was more fun since I was upright and alert for that one. Now spouse has been in little planes, big planes and was flight engineer on numerous Marine C130 flights but he hasn't had the helicopter ride yet. Says doesn't like an aircraft where the wings move faster than the rest of the plane.
I watched the Rocketeer with my fiancee last week, if that counts. She had never seen it, I hadn't seen it since I was old enough to realize how ridiculous (but still rad) it was.
In my teens I bought a coupon book which included one free flying lesson in a Piper Cub. I'd never seen such a tiny plane. The pilot took us up and let me steer around the mountains. Our mountains aren't nearly this green, but it would have looked a lot like this:
Define "flown." I attempted a homemade glider off a small mesa once. Falling with the bare minimum of style necessary to avoid broken bones counts as flight in my book, but I have low standards. Other than that, my smallest was a three passenger island hopper in Washington state. Or is this list implying hot air balloons are smaller? Because the was definitely smaller than the hot air balloon I rode in.
So yes it was a prop airplane. But it's bad when the pilot has to calculate how to do weight distribution so that the 4 seat plane will work out. Oh and it was an hour flight.
I'm surprised that Paraglider/Parachute wasn't an option. Nothing quite like running off the side of a mountain and hoping that a piece of fabric will prevent you from plummeting to your doom... fun times :)
Delivered an RH53D helicopter from the rework facility at NAS Pensacola to Panama City, FL. They gave us a ride back home in a Huey. Big difference. Huge difference. But the smallest was the front seat of a Cobra. What a rush!
A small two-seater Tomahawk. Can't remember the actual name. Piper Tomahawk, maybe? My buddy had just gotten his private pilot's license and it was his first solo VFR flight. We flew from the Philly area down to Ocean City, MD. Looking back, maybe it wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made but we had a good time and it was pretty uneventful. I remember how beautiful the landscape looked from a few thousand feet up. And, I never realized just how many little airports there are (you can tell at night by the aerodrome beacons [usually green/white]).
I have no idea what kind of four-seater it was, but it was a four-seater circa maybe 1965 or so. My dad worked at Hanscom Air Force Base outside Boston, and he was really good at schmoozing pilots during the summer air show. Awesome stuff.
I misread that, and put the wrong thing in. I've flown in a cessna, but I can't remember the model. I think it was a 182 or something. The guy we flew with ended up crashing with a person he was training a few years later though. If I were going to buy an aircraft and learn to fly, I'd probably get a LongEZ or Defiant.
I flew in a twin-prop passenger plane once; one seat either side of the aisle and the co-pilot was the steward. Didn't serve anything, just went through the emergency exits and seatbelts schtick. Flew through the most barf-inducing weather for the last 20 years to my waiting 757. I would have had a different flight, but the jet airliner scheduled for the first leg ate a bird on the way to my airport.
A four foot diameter hovercraft, assuming it still counts as flying even when parts of the hovercraft skirt are probably touching the floor.
The hovercraft was powered with an electric leaf blower, but I have one of those self winding extension cord thingies hanging from the garage ceiling and the cord wasn't resting on the floor, nor was it holding up the hovercraft.
What the hell was I thinking??? When visiting Poland in '01, I had enough vodka in me to let my wife's cousin take me up in this contraption.. Beautiful view of the Polish countryside, but my shorts needed a-changin' when we landed...
My cousin built a 6 foot plane and flies that. He also owns a 3000 sf airplane hanger. Kind of overkill for a 6’ plane I think. LOL. I have been in a tourist helicopter over Niagara Falls and a tiny plane that held six in flying in the Grand Canyon (again tourist thing). And as I mentioned above in the imagination post, when asleep flying unencumbered by any assistive flying device.
A friend of mine build and flew one of those “lawnmower ultralights” he built himself but unfortunately I never saw it. It crashed (from a few feet up) and he never fixed it. He did have a pilot’s license but unfortunately I never flew with him.
I went up in a 2-seater once with my high-school English teacher. I think a Cessna. Tiny. He showed me spins and things like that. I had never been in a small plane before.
I heard he kept trading up to nicer craft. And then later we found out how he could afford to keep upgrading - he died in a plane crash in west Texas with a plane full of dope.
Smallest plane was a 6 or 8 seater (including the pilot) in Norway. The clouds were so bad that we had to fly through mountains. It was fun, but terrifying. You would see nothing but white, and then the side of a mountain, really close. I don’t know how the hell the pilot could navigate. I guess he just used instruments… But still.
I really regret never flying in my uncle’s sea plane. I was so introverted as a child that I refused to go because I would have to wear the headphones and actually talk to him.
My mom told me a fun story that he flew her into town in the plane, so she could go to work, and she got a lot of weird looks of people wondering why she was so special to fly in, instead of using a boat like everyone else. Then again, she was the only woman on the island we lived on that actually knew how to pilot a boat by herself. There was one time that the Norwegian navy moved the boat, while she was in town, so they could park their huge ship. They all stared while she untied the boat and took it to sea.
If I would of stayed, I definitely would of been the same way. I don’t have much desire now because of motion sickness, and how expensive the damn things are.
Flew in one of these:
Then my cousin’s husband nearly died when it crashed several weeks later.
I LOVE airplanes, I work in aerospace industry, my brother is a military pilot, but I’m pretty nervous about these tiny/experimental/home-built machines now.
@f00l Apparently I went when I was knee high to a BD-5, but in a car with my dad. I was too young to remember, probably 2 or 3.
I spent my childhood going to EAA meetings and fly-ins with my dad, although we never had a plane and my dad wasn’t a pilot. He has a collection of parts to build an ultralight (I believe it was called the Icarus, which I thought didn’t bode well) but that project went by the wayside when my sister and I came along, I think.
My uncle owned a Cessna (don’t remember the model) 2-seater. He took me for a flight over the Nevada desert once when I was maybe 10-11 years old. It was amazing. I don’t remember now why it was only the one time since we did a lot of things together.
For many years, especially after he retired, he flew that plane from Las Vegas to Laughlin to have breakfast, then back at least once a week. He loved flying.
@cranky1950
There are a fair # of ranchers who do this. In the days before internet banking, several small town banks had fly-thru banking service with runways.
@cranky1950
Or, in some dairy areas, the 1 lane each way roads (all called “Death Alley” or similar for some reason) are all full of turning dairy trucks and feed trucks.
cessna 172
@Headly We use to fly all over Iowa in a Cessna 172. Best way to fly, by far.
@Headly Cessna 150. For when you want the wind to blow you backwards.
@pepsiwine I can't even get my knees under the dash of a 150.
@canuk Yeah that's why they made all us little people (chicks) fly them in flight training - because normal sized guys couldn't hardly fit w/o busting the weight limit.
@pepsiwine Yeah, it was me or the instructor but not both. Did all my training in a 172.
@canuk I did most of mine in a 152 but we're close to sea level.
@canuk Actually I only flew in a 172 one time, and we jumped out at 12,500 ft... My favorite prop plane that I've flown in is a baron.
Paper airplanes. 100% fatalities every time.
@Pinky you win
I flew in a plane that only had room for 6 passengers. It was a 10-minute flight but then we were delayed at the airport because there was a big iguana on the runway.
@christinerenee I acquired an iguana in a similar situation, but totally different. Makes sense, doesn't it?
@TheCO2 was it in Puerto Rico? Maybe it was the same iguana.
@christinerenee No, Des Moines, IA. Story goes kind of like this. Once upon a time there was an iguana sitting in a parking lot, sunning himself. I noticed him, went home and grabbed a towel, to wrap him up in, then took him home. And he lived happily ever after; at least until my girlfriend's Jack Russell decided to break into his enclosure and when he came out, the dog killed him. The end.
@christinerenee I think this was an episode of Lost.
@dave I think The Others put it there.
@TheCO2 Poor iguana. :( But I guess you kept him safe for a little while. Des Moines doesn't seem like the best place for an iguana in the wild.
I have wanted to get my pilots license, since I was knee high to a fly.
@TheCO2 You should do it! One of the most rewarding things you can do. http://www.aopa.org/letsgoflying/
@canuk I can totally second this! Just do it! You won't regret it
Piper cub
I've flown in a tiny glass bottomed tourism helicopter... And got motion sick.
I've flown in 8 passenger planes... And got motion sock.
I've flown in a variety of large commercial jets... And always gotten motion sick.
I don't like flying.
@MsELizardBeth yes, I know... Ginger (doesn't help), Dramamine (allergic), wrist things (don't work)....
@MsELizardBeth Is the motion sock that thing at the end of the runway that indicates wind velocity?
@SSteve yes. Yes it is.
I was in the back of a smoke jumper's prop plane to go to an Xmas party a couple of hundred miles away. It was loud and slow.
I flew in a small prop plane and jumped out of it. So I've never landed in a small prop plane.
home built ultralight with 1/3 corvair engine... no, seriously.
@cleverogre How far can you fly something like that? What kind of range?
@pepsiwine you can only have 5 gallons of fuel, so it's not really a matter of range in these. you typically land the same place you take off from.
@cleverogre So then do they have any sort of purpose (like a farmer using them to view his crops from above) or are they strictly recreational? Always wanted an ultralight, just not sure if I could justify owning one.
@pepsiwine actually have a neighbor that uses his to view and spray his crops (mostly cotton around here), and a photographer friend uses his to take beautiful arial photos. They are ideal for this kind of thing with very low air speed. Unfortunately, the photo friend is now having to compete with drones and there is not near as much demand for his services these days. That all being said, recreation is almost always the goal of this kind of plane. Most of the guys that fly these things also enjoy sailing. It's not a sport plane, which is a whole nother thing that requires a license. :)
Sailplane
@glindagw Three cheers for sailplanes! I'm working on my license :D
I've piloted or flown in /on everything in the list minus the jet pack (my hang glider experience was a disaster), but the jet pack is on my bucket list - and I've piloted one of these too:
THAT is the absolute smallest thing with an engine I have piloted. And it is waaaay scarier than pulling high G in a jet trainer (went up in the L-39 Jet Trainer in California).
@Pavlov I would think that if your hang glider experience was really a disaster you wouldn't be around to write about it now.
@SSteve
Hang glider: Broken wrist, broken rib, one dislocated shoulder.
Not.
A.
Fun.
Day.
@Pavlov Now I feel like a dick. Well, I'm glad you walked away from the landing.
@SSteve Any landing you walk away from . . . as they say. It's all good! Don't sweat it!
Largest I flew on was a C5 Galaxy, but I've been all over the world on C130's.
My imagination
@The_Baron My imagination is the hugest thing I've flown in. Still, points for creativity.
@The_Baron Astral projection REALLY should have made the list.
@The_Baron
@joelmw Philosophical question: If a scapegoat makes a clever comment in the forums, but nobody reads it, does he still get points for creativity?I
@pepsiwine Yes. On my own scoreboard if nowhere else. Refer again to that bit about imagination.
@The_Baron I have had dreams where I am flying with no plane or other any other assistive device to fly.
UH60 Blackhawk. Not the most comfortable ride, especially the time I was the stick leader and heard the pilot talking the copilot through the landing.
"WTF, has he never flown one of these before?!?!"
"Nope!!!!"
@Sapper Hooyah!
I remember a connecting flight with maybe 12 seats and you had to lean toward the aisle or you'd hit your head on the ceiling (I had to duck whenever I stood up, but I'm 6'7", so that's not unusual). Also, we could see into the cockpit through a curtain. It was bumpy in a fun sort of way. That's the best I've got. But I fly and levitate and sometimes simply teleport in my dreams. Sometimes. So there's that.
@joelmw But have you ever levitated and flown really slowly, in the nude, in your dreams? That use to be a regular dream, of mine.
@joelmw Off-topic, but I've been trying to figure out what the donkey icon next to your name means. I only have a VMP badge. :-( I want an ass badge like yours.
@pepsiwine it's a goat... but I'll let him explain because I don't quite get it myself.
@joelmw Never sit next to a friend with a hangover on one of those flights. Vomit comets.
@pepsiwine Yes, not an ass, but take this badge and wear it with pride.
@joelmw the tiny airport near here has planes with 8 passenger seats (much more cramped than a mini van) and I've been on a flight where they sold 9 tickets, so one passenger rode in the Co pilot seat. I was close enough to the pilot to remove dog hair from his pretty blue coat. It was terrifying.
@TheCO2 I need a badge that indicates that I'm allergic to assholes - like one of those medical alert bracelets. Or that anywhere within my immediate vicinity is a "No Asshole Zone". Can you make that happen?
@glindagw never sit next to a pregnant woman with morning sickness either.
@pepsiwine DYING!! "ass badge"
@pepsiwine
@TheCO2 Nice. I will wear it with pride to my next job interview.
@pepsiwine Or better yet...
@pepsiwine @christinerenee Scapegoat badge- forum folks nominate and vote on a new scapegoat every month. Sometimes for an 'epic' mistake/post, or for just being too helpful, or unhelpful, or whatever whim catches the forum that month. Scapegoat gets all blame for everything/anything/nothing. And lots of emails and therefore extra forum participation is assumed. It's totally @joelmw 's fault that you didn't already know that. @joelmw is also to blame for not answering more quickly. But in fairness, @joelmw is probably still typing and re-editing his even-longer-than-this response. ;) Here's a thread to check out, there are more. https://meh.com/forum/topics/scapegoats-of-meh
@TheCO2 The wings should be hands.
@TheCO2 Doesn't everyone? Though, honestly, I'm not usually nude; but there is something about being up in the air that makes me worry less about the fact that I am, which may seem illogical. I used to have this recurring dream in which I started out free and powerful, and unaided, soaring through the air and--perfect metaphor--the more I thought about it, the less elevation and freedom I had, until finally it was all I could do to stay a few inches off the ground in this funky-ass bicycle that had suddenly become part of the experience.
@Fen_Star Something more like this?
@glindagw Sound advice.
@MsELizardBeth It can be a little freaky, but I have in fact been convinced and do feel much safer in the air than on the road. When we're bumping along in the turbulence, it can be uncomfortable, but the reality is that it's proof that we're up there in the air. Landings and takeoffs are typically the dangerous times.
@pepsiwine Assholes are like opinions . . .
@TheCO2 That "no assholes" is disturbing. Nicely done.
@pepsiwine @christinerenee @mehjohnson I take pride in the mediocrity of my time under the curse. I am however disappointed that I haven't been able to spit out very many of my characteristically rambling, ranty posts; I actually think I'll be doing more of that in February, in case anyone else is disappointed with me on that count. Yes, I'm sure you are. But I won't cheat it. If I don't have anything that I think needs to be said (or don't have the time to say it--more often the case; I always have plenty that I'm convinced needs to be said), I don't say it. And, yeah, the re-editing: I do that, a lot. Unfortunately it didn't save me from tricking myself into falling for this: https://meh.com/forum/topics/wtf-per-se . Which, by the way, is only one of the several stupid things I've done to "earn" the badge. But I never fucked a goat ( http://goo.gl/kbWMIe ) and I've never ever fingered a dog ( http://goo.gl/p3vEbg ). This is how I console myself. And, there, @mehjohnson, that's moderately ranty. And, yes, it's my fault.
@joelmw Disturbing is the only way to go.
@TheCO2 We think alike. Don't let @Thumperchick see that. Or that maybe-worse donut with the hands you've posted here. She hates the goatse.
@joelmw I'm just guessing @Thumperchick wouldn't like this pumpkin, either.
@joelmw @TheCO2 The asshole situation has gotten out of hand. I seriously can't take anymore gross asshole-similar pictures. When I asked for a "No Assholes" badge I meant Asshole the Person, not Asshole the Ass hole.
@pepsiwine OK, I'm done.
@pepsiwine I think @TheCO2 is just demonstrating that there are plenty of them here. Let the record show that I didn't post any of those images, @Thumperchick. And I'm getting my ass out of here. I recommend the same to you, @pepsiwine (this thread in particular, I mean).
@joelmw Thanks for sharing the links to the dog-fingering. I laughed for a solid 20 minutes after reading that. And your thread on "per se" reminded me of when something similar happened to my computer: This past summer I had a garden in which I had grown some eggplant that I needed to use up. So I googled recipes for eggplant, but google kept returning search results for marijuana - how to grow it, how to make it into an edible, general information on marijuana, pictures of marijuana. So I tried the search for "eggplant recipes" again, and again - several times and kept getting marijuana results from google. So I tried modifying my search terms to things like "recipes for eggplant", "what to do with fresh eggplant", "how to cook eggplant", etc. and kept getting marijuana EVERY DAMN TIME. For about 10 minutes this went on. I couldn't believe it so I took screenshots and everything that SHOWED I'd searched for EGGPLANT and GOTTEN results for MARIJUANA. I seriously thought google had been hacked or something, but simultaneously wondered if I'd lost my damn mind. It went on long enough that I called my friend and asked THEM to google eggplant recipes to see if google gave them back marijuana. They really DID think I was losing my mind. LOL Finally after about 10 minutes of this, I googled again for eggplant and google finally gave me eggplant recipes instead of marijuana. But if I hadn't screenshot it when it was happening I probably wouldn't have believed it myself that it happened.
@joelmw thank you ever so much for dragging me into the goatse thread. FYI - mock goatse is funny. REAL goatse though, that's just not okay. I also just had to teach my phone the word goatse, I'm sure that won't bite me in the ass at some point.
@Thumperchick
@pepsiwine This is a great (and twisted) community. :-)
@pepsiwine can't be a no-asshole zone because I'm here!
@Headly
@pepsiwine Oh. You've no idea. ;-/
Since we are listing off aircraft we have flown in...
- Cessna 172
- Cessna 152
- Piper Cub
- C-130
- KC-135 (Refueling 7 F-16s)
- HH-3E Jolly Green Giant Helicopter (Gunner door open; over the Atlantic Ocean and around space shuttle Endeavor, the day before its maiden voyage)
- Many different commercial airliners
I forgot to mention; I went up in a skydiving plane, but I wasn't jumping. That was an experience, in itself. I don't know what kind of plane it was.
@TheCO2 I have 'copter envy right now. Sounds like that was an incredible ride.
@Pavlov It was quite the amazing flight.
@TheCO2 Where were you when you went up in a skydiving plane? Approx how many jumpers were on board?
@pepsiwine Well, if there were only about 4-5 people on board then it could've been a C-172, if it had several more people on board and it opened up on the left side then it could've been a King Air or Cessna Caravan, if it had a few more people and opened straight out the back then it could've been an Skyvan, CASA, and there's a few other specialty skydiving planes. Did you do it at a big boogie or at a smaller drop zone? The ride down in the plane after letting out jumpers can be pretty great, too, if the pilot does a nice, fast, tight spiral down from altitude. Pulls some serious g's.
@pepsiwine The plane was small. I think we had either 4 or 6 skydivers and the door opened on the right. I do remember coming down quite quickly. And it was a small airport about 40-50 miles east of Des Moines. My ex wife's uncle has a sky-diving school and takes regulars up, all the time.
@TheCO2 Vinton? About the only place in Iowa that im familiar with is Fort Dodge when they hold their Couch Freaks boogie there every year.
@TheCO2 sounds like you were in a small cesssna of some sort. Sitting on the floor directly behind the pilots seat?
Scary TU-154. Those Russian pilots fly them like fighter jets.
I once flew the Millennium Falcon away from planet Hillary in an alternate universe through my dreams.. And to make it more complicated, it was in a former life.
Does that count?
@unkabob Sounds like a great reason to fly away in a Millennium Falcon. Of course it counts.
@unkabob What the hell is an aluminum falcon?
I suppose it matters how you define aircraft size. I've flown Cessna 150s and they're 2-seaters prop planes that are so small they can rarely hold a passenger in that second seat. But I've also flown an aerobatic jet that was pretty-freakin' tiny, too. But my favorite way to fly is sans aircraft - i.e. skydiving. Then you're really just flying your body and it is AMAZING.
What were the planes that Allegheny and Piedmont used to fly? Those were the smallest I was on.
Depends whether it was commercial or a mail plane. Could you see it's balls? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Airlines
I may have flown in a smaller plane but this Delta Douglas DC-3 is definitely the coolest thing I've ever flown in.
@phatmass That's beautiful.
@phatmass
Really love Delta's adherence to the space in air lines. I nearly cried when United gave up on the traditional spelling.
@phatmass Shiney
@simplersimon thanks for noticing.
Couldn't decide if a Cessna 152 or a helicopter ambulance was smaller so checked the helicopter since it was narrower. Cessna was more fun since I was upright and alert for that one.
Now spouse has been in little planes, big planes and was flight engineer on numerous Marine C130 flights but he hasn't had the helicopter ride yet. Says doesn't like an aircraft where the wings move faster than the rest of the plane.
@carwinew And I have an issue with wings that just sit there and do nothing.
powered parachute...basically a flying gocart
@hippiechik Looks like fun. I wanna ride one sometime but I need to find someone who owns one first so I can try before I buy.
on topic but off, if anyone is near Florida, this is ALWAYS a blast: http://sun-n-fun.org
@cleverogre Love Lakeland. Mom lives there.
I watched the Rocketeer with my fiancee last week, if that counts. She had never seen it, I hadn't seen it since I was old enough to realize how ridiculous (but still rad) it was.
In my teens I bought a coupon book which included one free flying lesson in a Piper Cub. I'd never seen such a tiny plane. The pilot took us up and let me steer around the mountains. Our mountains aren't nearly this green, but it would have looked a lot like this:
I love purple.
Helicopter for me and I jumped out of it while in flight. Never exit a perfectly good helicopter.
@Outofmehmind I was the crewchief waving goodby!
Define "flown." I attempted a homemade glider off a small mesa once. Falling with the bare minimum of style necessary to avoid broken bones counts as flight in my book, but I have low standards. Other than that, my smallest was a three passenger island hopper in Washington state. Or is this list implying hot air balloons are smaller? Because the was definitely smaller than the hot air balloon I rode in.
I was miniaturized by the shrink ray from the movie Honey, I shrunk the kids and flew in one of these bad boys.
So yes it was a prop airplane. But it's bad when the pilot has to calculate how to do weight distribution so that the 4 seat plane will work out. Oh and it was an hour flight.
I'm surprised that Paraglider/Parachute wasn't an option. Nothing quite like running off the side of a mountain and hoping that a piece of fabric will prevent you from plummeting to your doom... fun times :)
@manichawk That actually sounds like a lot of fun. I have seen videos of people doing that and I have to say, it's on my bucket list.
@TheCO2 Fun? Yes. Initially terrifying? Also yes :) Definitely worth doing if you get the chance to.
Just my own wings - solo skydiving!
@dlaiho I'm not sure whether the followup question should be "How do you get up there?" or "What happens to the plane after you jump?"
@editorkid Sometimes what you don't know won't hurt you. It may hurt others, when it crashes, though.
@TheCO2 This is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a black box.
Cape.
(Also, how do you embed a video?)
@pmulry https://meh.com/forum/topics/meh-style-guide-learn-how-to-post-good
This is a test of my new embed-fu skillz (or lack thereof) thanks to @SSteve
@pmulry
No Guy Clark fans in the house. That's sad.
Delivered an RH53D helicopter from the rework facility at NAS Pensacola to Panama City, FL. They gave us a ride back home in a Huey. Big difference. Huge difference. But the smallest was the front seat of a Cobra. What a rush!
I once won a raffle and got a half hour ride in the Goodyear blimp.
@alanh Now that would be an experience.
Either a hot air balloon or an NYPD helicopter, depending on how you quantify "smallest".
Smallest? A friend of mine has a powered parachute. Is basically a fanboat with a parachute for a wing.
Front seat of an AT-6 Texan.
A small two-seater Tomahawk. Can't remember the actual name. Piper Tomahawk, maybe? My buddy had just gotten his private pilot's license and it was his first solo VFR flight. We flew from the Philly area down to Ocean City, MD. Looking back, maybe it wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made but we had a good time and it was pretty uneventful. I remember how beautiful the landscape looked from a few thousand feet up. And, I never realized just how many little airports there are (you can tell at night by the aerodrome beacons [usually green/white]).
I like purple.
Definitely a glider. Absolutely fantastic decision, and I'm working on my license. :D
Not my pic, but you get the idea.
@flynnski JEALOUS!!!
I have no idea what kind of four-seater it was, but it was a four-seater circa maybe 1965 or so. My dad worked at Hanscom Air Force Base outside Boston, and he was really good at schmoozing pilots during the summer air show. Awesome stuff.
As much as I love aviation, I have to say, this is my all time favorite topic, on Meh.
I misread that, and put the wrong thing in. I've flown in a cessna, but I can't remember the model. I think it was a 182 or something. The guy we flew with ended up crashing with a person he was training a few years later though. If I were going to buy an aircraft and learn to fly, I'd probably get a LongEZ or Defiant.
@kazriko (I've also flown in a helicopter, but it was a bit bigger than the cessna.)
I flew in a twin-prop passenger plane once; one seat either side of the aisle and the co-pilot was the steward. Didn't serve anything, just went through the emergency exits and seatbelts schtick. Flew through the most barf-inducing weather for the last 20 years to my waiting 757. I would have had a different flight, but the jet airliner scheduled for the first leg ate a bird on the way to my airport.
I've flown a hang glider numerous times. Our usual flight out of town is aboard a twin engine plane.
A four foot diameter hovercraft, assuming it still counts as flying even when parts of the hovercraft skirt are probably touching the floor.
The hovercraft was powered with an electric leaf blower, but I have one of those self winding extension cord thingies hanging from the garage ceiling and the cord wasn't resting on the floor, nor was it holding up the hovercraft.
What the hell was I thinking??? When visiting Poland in '01, I had enough vodka in me to let my wife's cousin take me up in this contraption.. Beautiful view of the Polish countryside, but my shorts needed a-changin' when we landed...
Regular Hot air balloon crew and student pilot. Unfortunately since you rely on the wind you can't schedule a flight to anywhere in particular....
An Aeronca Champ.
I am not sure the jetpack I got to try counts as a plane as remained tethered to ground.
Other then that small 6 person island hopping plane
My cousin built a 6 foot plane and flies that. He also owns a 3000 sf airplane hanger. Kind of overkill for a 6’ plane I think. LOL. I have been in a tourist helicopter over Niagara Falls and a tiny plane that held six in flying in the Grand Canyon (again tourist thing). And as I mentioned above in the imagination post, when asleep flying unencumbered by any assistive flying device.
A friend of mine build and flew one of those “lawnmower ultralights” he built himself but unfortunately I never saw it. It crashed (from a few feet up) and he never fixed it. He did have a pilot’s license but unfortunately I never flew with him.
I went up in a 2-seater once with my high-school English teacher. I think a Cessna. Tiny. He showed me spins and things like that. I had never been in a small plane before.
I heard he kept trading up to nicer craft. And then later we found out how he could afford to keep upgrading - he died in a plane crash in west Texas with a plane full of dope.
Smallest plane was a 6 or 8 seater (including the pilot) in Norway. The clouds were so bad that we had to fly through mountains. It was fun, but terrifying. You would see nothing but white, and then the side of a mountain, really close. I don’t know how the hell the pilot could navigate. I guess he just used instruments… But still.
I really regret never flying in my uncle’s sea plane. I was so introverted as a child that I refused to go because I would have to wear the headphones and actually talk to him.
My mom told me a fun story that he flew her into town in the plane, so she could go to work, and she got a lot of weird looks of people wondering why she was so special to fly in, instead of using a boat like everyone else. Then again, she was the only woman on the island we lived on that actually knew how to pilot a boat by herself. There was one time that the Norwegian navy moved the boat, while she was in town, so they could park their huge ship. They all stared while she untied the boat and took it to sea.
If I would of stayed, I definitely would of been the same way. I don’t have much desire now because of motion sickness, and how expensive the damn things are.
Flew in one of these:
Then my cousin’s husband nearly died when it crashed several weeks later.
I LOVE airplanes, I work in aerospace industry, my brother is a military pilot, but I’m pretty nervous about these tiny/experimental/home-built machines now.
@compunaut It’s kind of telling that Kermit Weeks flie a twin beech these days.
Anyone been to Oshkosh during the last week of July?
Anyone flown there is a home built?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAA_AirVenture_Oshkosh#
@f00l Nah got to Lakeland once though.
@f00l Apparently I went when I was knee high to a BD-5, but in a car with my dad. I was too young to remember, probably 2 or 3.
I spent my childhood going to EAA meetings and fly-ins with my dad, although we never had a plane and my dad wasn’t a pilot. He has a collection of parts to build an ultralight (I believe it was called the Icarus, which I thought didn’t bode well) but that project went by the wayside when my sister and I came along, I think.
My uncle owned a Cessna (don’t remember the model) 2-seater. He took me for a flight over the Nevada desert once when I was maybe 10-11 years old. It was amazing. I don’t remember now why it was only the one time since we did a lot of things together.
For many years, especially after he retired, he flew that plane from Las Vegas to Laughlin to have breakfast, then back at least once a week. He loved flying.
@duodec Breakfast fly in. Kinda like a poker run for private pilots. Or more like cars and coffee.
@cranky1950
There are a fair # of ranchers who do this. In the days before internet banking, several small town banks had fly-thru banking service with runways.
@f00l That makes sense if you’re out in the boonies, beats the hell out of getting stuck behind a tractor driving between fields on the way into town.
@cranky1950
Or, in some dairy areas, the 1 lane each way roads (all called “Death Alley” or similar for some reason) are all full of turning dairy trucks and feed trucks.