Your brown trouser moments..

Osem · 01-03-2009, 21:17

Inspired by recent tales of near misses on our motorways, I thought a thread devoted to frightening experiences would be in order.*

My own worst 'brown trouser moment' came when I was working in Abu-Dhabi engaged in obtaining stereoscopic aerial photography of the oil fields. I was located on a box in the back of a Piper Cherokee and already feeling pretty sick (it's a bit like sailing the South Atlantic in a barrell during a storm) when the pilot strayed over a massive oil field flare. The result was like falling of a very tall building in reverse! I don't think I've ever screamed sooooo loud or prayed so much so fast !

What's your worst brown trouser moment?

* If it's been done before feel free to merge, delete or whatever....

**Hugh** · 01-03-2009, 21:20

First time I free-fall parachuted (Joint School of Adventure Training) - plummeting down, waiting to pull the ripcord; and when I did - best feeling in the world.

Second time was much more fun.

**Stuart** · 01-03-2009, 23:50

Being on a passenger plane at night when the power failed. Not sure what happened, but when we were over the ocean, the engine sound stopped, and the lights went out. The lights were probably only out for a few seconds but it felt like a lifetime.

When the power came back on, the Captain (sounding a little nervous) came on the PA and apologised for the slight technical problem which had caused the lights to fail.

01-03-2009, 23:55

warming up for my first ring fight . First fight of the night when my name was called my stoach felt like it started spinning lol

**Rob** · 02-03-2009, 00:03

Doing a Technical Scuba Diving course in a murky gravel pit at about 9metre depth. Had to swim, with no mask so I couldn't see properly, round all four sides of a 3m square whilst pretending to be out of air and thus exhaling only. Once round the square signal to your dive buddy and get an air source. By now I was really desperate for a breath, as it takes a while to swim and negotiate those corners when you are loaded with the drag of twin cylinders and other paraphernalia. I get the buddy's regulator, spit my own out, and then in my haste drop my buddies. :disturbed:

Fortunately, as with any good dive instructor when regulator skills are being practised, they were on hand ready to jab another regulator in my mouth. Even so I was not a happy bunny and never ever want to be in that state of panic again.

02-03-2009, 00:10

Suddenly realising while crossing a walkway at the top of the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona that I might be affected by vertigo...

- I'm fine with heights, usually, but looking over the edge while so high up suddenly got to me - I made it over the walkway - then had to negotiate the seemingly endless spiral stairway to descend from the tower - luckily Mrs Gaz was in front & didn't realise how close I came to 'losing it' ...

Halcyon · 02-03-2009, 00:25

When I was younger I was trying my rollerblades out and thought I was ready for the hill that had a good downwards slope. Although there was one slight problem, I didnt know how to stop and ahead was a busy main road.
I was gathering speed and trying to keep my balance and felt like I was going to flip over and end up in hospital. Finally I saw a lamp post and just stretched out. Managed to cling on and slam into it but it could have been a lot worse. I was glad to have stopped.

Mr Angry · 02-03-2009, 01:37

Calvi - 09/06/1984 with the "Not quite sure what I'd gotten myself involved with up until that point 2 rep "School of Adventure Training" - similar to foreverwar's example.

Turkey Machine · 02-03-2009, 02:10

One many years ago on a trip back from my Nan's in Braintree, on the A120 at night a bus decided it was a good idea to overtake another bus on a single carriageway stretch (for those who don't know the A120 it's single-carriageway from the A12 to the A130, twisty in places, a bit tight in others, but a good drive/ride on a clear day). Only the quick reactions of my mother in the driving seat prevented us from being road casualty figures on the following mornings news.

Another one happened on the same road, different time, when a pigeon decided to have a "suicide" moment and fly in front of my Dad on his motorbike. I was riding pillion at the time and to have him swat the thing away and feathers everywhere as we rode through it wasn't a nice moment!

On the way home from NTU Clifton campus in Nottingham, to get back to my place, you gotta go down this rather steep hill - which is great on a push bike cos you get to go really fast. However when your brakes decide not to work it becomes a liability because you then have to act fast before crossing the road ahead. I managed to slow it down such that the brakes actually started working again when I needed them most, but that was a very scary moment that could have quite easily ended with me in hospital.

A similar thing happened one day when I was cycling on the way to work. I was going down a hill to the university (I get work there occasionally) and it had been raining a few minutes before I left, such that it left the roads with a nice shine. Unfortunately, the sun then decided to pop out from its hiding place and blind myself. Using one hand to shield my eyes from the spray coming from the wheel and stop blinding myself, and the other on the handle bars keeping me pointed in the right direction and fingering the brake, I ended up hurtling down this hill about 20-30mph, students crossing the road, completely oblivious to me not being able to see and I was getting very intimate with one person who forced me onto the path and into the wall. A very sh*t-yer-pants moment, and after regaining my composure, I looked a picture of (bad) health when I turned up for my shift!

Sirius · 02-03-2009, 06:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by foreverwar

First time I free-fall parachuted (Joint School of Adventure Training) - plummeting down, waiting to pull the ripcord; and when I did - best feeling in the world.

Second time was much more fun.

Ditto but at Bad Lippspringer

Ramrod · 02-03-2009, 08:25

1993, waiting to take my 1st Dan in Shotokan. I actually felt physically sick afterwards. After that my finals at uni and getting married were a doddle......

altis · 02-03-2009, 09:13

Mrs A, shortly after our latest brown trouser moment:

Taken last Thursday on the summit of Mont Jovet (near La Plagne, France) just after we had crossed that narrow ridge in the background. You can't see the drop on either side but it was a loooooong way down and, if we had slipped, we would have been unlikely to stop until the bottom.

02-03-2009, 09:22

atlis you people that do that for fun are mad

**Stuart** · 02-03-2009, 09:33

Oddly, one event in my life that *should* have been a brown trouser moment wasn't while it was happening as it happened too fast (it was actually over before I realised what was happening).

I was in my Friend's Astra, on the South Circular near Eltham. We were on our way to a mate's house. All of a sudden, we were stopped on a grass verge, my friend had collapsed onto the steering wheel and the passenger side of the car (the side I was sitting on) had caved in.

What had actually happened (as I found out later from witnesses) is that another car (which the police estimated had been going at over 70mph) hit our car on that side, and hit it with enough force to throw it over the curb on onto the embankment.

The car had actually hit close enough to my hip that my jacket was caught between the chassis of the car (which had bent badly) and the back of my seat. So, in a sense, I was lucky. If it had it about 5-10 centimetres forward of where it did, my left hip and/or left leg would have been severely damaged. As it was, I was unhurt. The jacket I was wearing was wrecked though..

tweetypie/8 · 02-03-2009, 13:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

Inspired by recent tales of near misses on our motorways, I thought a thread devoted to frightening experiences would be in order.*

My own worst 'brown trouser moment' came when I was working in Abu-Dhabi engaged in obtaining stereoscopic aerial photography of the oil fields. I was located on a box in the back of a Piper Cherokee and already feeling pretty sick (it's a bit like sailing the South Atlantic in a barrell during a storm) when the pilot strayed over a massive oil field flare. The result was like falling of a very tall building in reverse! I don't think I've ever screamed sooooo loud or prayed so much so fast !

What's your worst brown trouser moment?

* If it's been done before feel free to merge, delete or whatever....

driving a lorry carrying 22ton of 9" spalds and a crossmember breaking and slicing through the air lines,definitley a brown trouser job.