Just for the heck of it, I thought I would start a thread on some of the most interesting or outrageous aviation stories you might have heard. Most of mine have been carefully gathered over the years during some rather impromptu hangar safety meetings. You know the type of meeting to which I'm referring. It's rainy, somebody's hangar door is ajar and you have an extra six pack. Next thing you know the goggles are down, the silk is flying and your strapped in for the ride of your life, albeit third hand or so.

Anyway, I'd love to here them and here's one to get ya' started.

For years the Great Texas Rattlesnake roundup has gone off without a hitch, save a snakebite or two. The participants would come from all over Texas with gunny sacks full of rattlers doomed to be skinned and eaten by the throng of Texans hungry for the other white meat. Well, being that Texas is a pretty big state it takes awhile to get to the roundup from some of it's far flung corners. It would be logical that a rich oil tycoon of a Texan would naturally have at his disposal an aircraft capable of reaching his oil fields and equally capable of landing in a pasture or on a road or whatever flat piece of real estate presents itself. So, having said airplane, let's say it was 65hp and yellow, it would follow that the rich Texan would want to show off his corporate steed to his fellow snake munchers. Gathering a good sized bunch of snakes, he and his foreman stuffed the noisy, squirming gunny sack of snakes into the back of the cub and departed for the roundup. For whatever the reason the gunny sack that should have held the buzztails securely, didn't. At 800 feet, lined up for a straight in on county road 37 west, the first rattler slithered along the floor board and past the boss man in the back seat. Now rattlers aren't particularly fond of flying and the vibration of the 4 cylinder continental just seemed to further piss him off. After latching on the the thigh of the foreman the snake was surprised at how fast one window went up, the other went down and he found himself plummeting 750 feet to the ground. Well, once one found the way the Texans concluded others would follow. Realizing 700 feet in the air tearing along at an eye watering 60 mph wasn't the best place to be rassiln' snakes, the boss put the cub in a full lock slip, opened the throttle and pointed the cub at the ground. For an agonizing two minutes snakes could be seen slithering all around their ankles and along the floor boards. The foreman was out on the struts as the cub touched down and he quickly either slipped or jumped away from the plane on rollout, skidding down the county road on his backside. He was followed shortly thereafter by the bossman who wasn't as lucky and got clipped by the tail as the cub rolled off the side of the road and down into the ditch. Both pilots were bit several times and only through a judicious application of the counties best moonshine did they survive.

I swear it's all exactly as I heard it so I know it's true!

Mark

Many years ago on a flight from CA to AZ as we were crossing the river near Blythe we heard a story relayed to a PSA flight from the local FSS. (Remember FSS"s? You used to talk to 'em on the old Narco Superhomer with "whistle stop tuning.") Anyway a pilot in a Cessna 150 was pulling the prop through as part of his pre-flight. With the airplane untied, miles of concrete in front of him, apparently mags on, mixture rich and throttle full open the engine started and off it went. The poor guy stood there and watched his perfectly trimmed airplane make a slow climbing arc and depart to the south. Faced with the dilemma of what to do with an unmanned 150 that was winging its way south authorities decided to scramble two Marine F-4's out of Yuma. When the airplane strayed close enough to the Chocolate mountain gunnery range they shot it down. Can you imagine what was going through the minds of the Phantom drivers when they got that order?

Kenny

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