That Embarrassing Moment

Curse you Red Baron!!

Walter Mitty moment

But it was worth it!!! And anyway, this is far more embarrasing!!!

OK Blue Max, you asked for it!

My most embarrassing moment involved a wheelchair, the ramp at the AAM and a curiously excitable and breathless JDK…..

Regards,

kev35

A red mist came down M’lud, I woz not in control. 😀

It was the open ramp, a wheeled Kev and some barracking from the Forum cheap seats. What’s a tweeded chap to do?

I believe the AAM Wheelchair ramp record still stands. Something about the owner driver still being in shock… 😉

Consul’s tale reminded me of that day……..hilarious. In those days the Barnstormers shows had the same style of toilets. On one show at Netherthorpe construction work was somewhat behind and a queue formed outside, what was to be, the ladies inconvenience. As time passed the natives got a bit restive but as the labourers finished and vacated the premises there was a mad scramble for the facilities – only to be followed rapidly by a plaintive wail from inside….”There’s no paper……!!!!”. Fortunately at that moment I was doing a streamer cutting act with the Tiger and an on-crowd breeze carried some of the debris over and into the open topped loos……!! Manna from heaven perhaps…??
Cheers,
Trapper 69

The most embarrasisng thing I ever saw at an airshow was at the World Aerobatics Championships when held at Hullavington 35 years ago. On one of the public days it absolutely p****d down with rain. The thunderstorm was very short but absolutely torrential. Now in those days the public loos at such outdoor events were a little primative – none of your enclosed cabin portaloos. For a sit down job they provided elsans. To offer a modicum of privacy each open-topped “cubicle” comprised no more than sheets of canvass to act as screens, supported by vertical wooden poles. When dry this is quite effective – sadly when soaking sacking gets VERY heavy and when suspended it sags. In this case the loos were sited quite near the entrance to the event and everyone had to walk past them. The “modesty” screens started off when dry at about five feet high – after their soaking they sagged down to about two feet six inches in the middle as they hadn’t been fixed up taughtly. You should have seen the poor souls who were doing their numbers on the elsans. One minute minding their own business (pardon the pun) then next they were doing formation “drops” in front of several hundred people! Boy how embarrassing!

Some years ago several of us were helping on one of the aviation art stalls at Plymouth Navy Days where we were doing the book launch of Robert Taylor’s Maritime paintings book. During the afternoon of the third day business was rather quiet as people were watching the various displays going on and we were just sitting in the front of the marquee watching the action.
Various aircraft were displaying, (Sea Harrier, Sea King, etc), but in the distance we could hear the rumbling of something ‘heavy’ approaching. The noise gradually got closer and louder but we could not decide what it might be. We all stared at each other until the curiosity grew too much.
Suddenly we all jumped to our feet and ran outside to investigate and were just in time to see a Naval Rating come around the corner pulling an empty wheelie bin!!!!

Same things happened to me, but it was those ride-on lawnmowers, happened to me at both East Kirby AND Elvington, on my only visits there! Crikey, what are the odds :p

Some years ago several of us were helping on one of the aviation art stalls at Plymouth Navy Days where we were doing the book launch of Robert Taylor’s Maritime paintings book. During the afternoon of the third day business was rather quiet as people were watching the various displays going on and we were just sitting in the front of the marquee watching the action.
Various aircraft were displaying, (Sea Harrier, Sea King, etc), but in the distance we could hear the rumbling of something ‘heavy’ approaching. The noise gradually got closer and louder but we could not decide what it might be. We all stared at each other until the curiosity grew too much.
Suddenly we all jumped to our feet and ran outside to investigate and were just in time to see a Naval Rating come around the corner pulling an empty wheelie bin!!!!

On another occasion we were helping on the same stall at the Waddington show. Our stall was next to one of the Vulcan preservation group stalls. During the afternoon my wife was sitting on a chair partly in front of the Vulcan stall directly beneath a sign advertising a video they were selling.
The sign read, “45 minutes for £7:50”! Unfortunately someone pointed this out to her before I could get to my camera.

Telling an announcer, (in the middle of his description of an aerobatic act) that the pilot’s brother was flying the airplane…(when of course the announcer was correct). That one still makes me cringe, my brain was definitely not working right that day.

John

another that has stayed quiet till now, when you are pressuretesting a cylinder in a c172 (or any piston type for that matter) and you plug in the airline to the adaptor, make sure the piston is at the bottom of the stroke and not near the top!!!, other wise WOLLOP, i got one dead arm for about 5 mins. lucky me no one saw 😉
Greg

Years ago doing a leak down test on RareBear, We had about 8 people hanging on the prop to stop the engine turning …. :rolleyes:

Getting hit in the head by a prop hanging on the front of TFC’s B25 at Alconbury in ’90. Part of the “pull it thru 12 blades” pre start malarky & some pillock couldn’t count. As I turned around to walk away he pulled it thru one more blade… CLANG!! I still have the scar.

You also learned that day that the twelfth blade should be left pointing upward! 😀

My most embarrassing moment involved a wheelchair, the ramp at the AAM and a curiously excitable and breathless JDK…..

Regards,

kev35

I used to do work on the aircraft at Newark air museum. spent all day saturday and half of sunday working on the swift during its first resto, was used to jumping on and off the wing, got asked to help out on the shackleton as they where taking the starbord wing tank off, on the wingtip, rope in hand and helped lower the offending article down, turned, jumped and landed on my rear, wasn’t hurt cept my pride but one of the lads said i really ought not have done that as i mignt have landed on a paying customer!!!.
the bruising went after a couple of weeks. guess i was VERY lucky.
another that has stayed quiet till now, when you are pressuretesting a cylinder in a c172 (or any piston type for that matter) and you plug in the airline to the adaptor, make sure the piston is at the bottom of the stroke and not near the top!!!, other wise WOLLOP, i got one dead arm for about 5 mins. lucky me no one saw 😉
Greg

You don’t need to hurt yourself, or even need a whole aeroplane to make a fool of yourself (see attached!)

But it was worth it!!! And anyway, this is far more embarrasing!!!

You don’t need to hurt yourself, or even need a whole aeroplane to make a fool of yourself (see attached!)

Can’t remember when my last embarrasing moment started – or stopped for that matter – life is one great big embarrasing moment as far as I’m concerned!

I’d been fortunate enough to fly rear seat in a Yak 52 last year, and after landing I managed to forget what I’d flown in. The wing of a Yak 52 is quite a bit higher off the ground than that of the PA28 which I normally fly, and in fairness to my pilot, he did brief me beforehand that I should dismount the Yak by sitting on the leading edge, dangling my feet, and sliding off.

But in all the excitement of flying the thing, I forgot.

So I stepped off the trailing edge as I normally would, straightened my leg in anticipation of my foot hitting the PA28’s step, realised my mistake, had just enough time to think “oh bugger”, then landed heavily on said leg and jarred both it and my back, and spent the next week on crutches.

My embarrassment was compounded by dear old von Perthes, who managed to post a picture of me on here with the crutches about a week later.

Getting hit in the head by a prop hanging on the front of TFC’s B25 at Alconbury in ’90. Part of the “pull it thru 12 blades” pre start malarky & some pillock couldn’t count. As I turned around to walk away he pulled it thru one more blade… CLANG!! I still have the scar.
SG’s comment: “I hope you didn’t get any blood on my aeroplane” :rolleyes:

That was the day I learned that if you have a headwound that is bleeding rather profusly it’s NOT a wise decision to try & stem the flow of claret with a rag soaked in avgas & aeroshell…
smelled nice tho 🙂

Brings tears to the eyes just thinking about it 🙂

While trying to shoot some stored Caribous in Madrid,

I always thought they were native to Canada? :p

Ooh, bet that stung! 😀

The really fun part came just after that. It was pointed out to me that as I was leaking at a rather alarming rate it would be wise to seek medical attention. I duly wandered off along the flight line towards a large green tent with a big red cross on the top of it…
Upon reaching what I assumed to be a first aid station I was surprised to see a bunch of USAF wallahs swanning about drinking alcoholic beverages & laying about all over the tent in lawn chairs. There also seemed to be a complete lack of anything vaguely medical, apart from the tent itself.
I enquired about the chances of a bit of duct tape or something to seal my noggin & was informed that this was in fact a decoy first aid station set up by a bunch of guys who wanted a front row seat to the airshow & had borrowed the tent…. The real first aid station was bloody miles away… which is how I arrived at the place with a bloody rag in one hand & a beer in the other. :rolleyes:

While trying to shoot some stored Caribous in Madrid, I fell into a concrete (with iron bars) ditch. Didn’t hurt at all so I thought things were fine, untill I looked down and noticed I cut some (rather high pressure) veins in my leg. Costed me 10 weeks and the entire 2004 season to cure. BW Roger