What has been your worst/most dangerous mistake?

[HemlockKing]

In a work setting or recreational. I'm expecting to hear lots of forestry stories.
I'll start with mine. I was working in a weld shop and had been tasked that day with punching holes in 3/8 steel plate in the "iron worker" (machine that shears angle iron, and punches holes), I had grabbed the correct punch I had needed and proceeded to swap them out, next thing I know someone had asked me to give them a hand in lifting something, I come back forgetting I did not swap out the die, the die was only 1/32 too small but forged steel plus 70 tons of impact caused it to explode into a couple of pieces and shot into the ceiling of the shop. Might as well of been bullets, and my face was right in front of it, somehow I never got hit. Looking back I just can't believe how close I came to dying that day. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Does marriage count?  :D

   (I can't say that for me as my bride has been through a lot and put up with a lot for 44+ years.)

[HemlockKing]

  Does marriage count?  :D

  (I can't say that for me as my bride has been through a lot and put up with a lot for 44+ years.)

That would be worst "costly" mistake lol 

[firefighter ontheside]

I'll give you two.  One was my fault and one was a freak accident.  When I was about 14 I used to walk around the woods with my 4.10.  I was "hunting" crows one day as I walked.  I had my finger in the trigger guard and tripped as I walked and fired a shot into the ground right next to my foot.  No injury, but man did that scare me.  I never did tell my dad about that.

The other was also around the same age.  We were fishing in Canada and I was sitting in the bow as dad drove the boat in a storm back to the lodge.  A big gust of wind picked up the front of the 16' boat  and threw me right over dad's head.  One second I was riding and then next thing I knew I was 6' underwater.  Once I found up, I swam to the top and yelled at my dad "what did you do dad".

[HemlockKing]

I didn't have no shortage of dumb mistakes when I was a kid. Although mostly dirt bike and ATC related not shotguns    Yep can't help the boating scenario though, being tossed under water isn't fun and you come up gasping for a breath. I've been there

[Paul_H]

In the mid 1990's we were logging and road building in an area and the forest service  was coming that day to look over a setting with me and the fallers. The fallers were falling right of way for a spur near the river and I went down the green muddy road to the the heading where the excavator had finished before going back to the mainline.
I could hear the saws but couldn't see the fallers and knew that I should hike up above them and walk down to them and make eye contact before coming into them.
Because I was in a hurry and thought that the sound was coming from farther away I climbed the hump of ground where the excavator finished and as I did I heard the familiar sound of the saw stop and the cracking of the holding wood in the tree. Running down the muddy road for my life I knew I was to close and went up against the cut bank on the ditch side as the large Balsam landed 6 feet from where I stood  and filled my mouth with grit and blew my hat off. The huge limbs broke all around but missed.
The faller was pithed when he saw me about 60 feet from the stump. We knew a couple bullbuckers killed doing the same thing so I knew better, it was a stupid move.

[mike_belben]

I somehow survived teaching myself to be an arborist for awhile, when i was 28-30 i climbed and dismantled trees fairly often.


Last tree of my first job which was very technical for a noob. I had a top roped to go east but it wanted west so i was wedging it hard while my buddy was yanking his heart out.  The wind we were counting on quit and i just kept driving that wedge in a panic because it just had to go east. I whittle the hinge a bit more thinking it was too thick. Well it wasnt.

 The weight balance was off and the wedge lifted the top straight up, tearing the hinge.  It stayed vertical and started to rotate like a ballerina on her toes. About 8" diameter and 15-20 ft tall, maybe 1-2k pounds.

It was gonna walk into my harness and crush me to death so i just threw the saw left (on a lanyard) and dove to the right at about 45, 50 feet in the air. There was no time at all.. It was maybe one second from seeing the top log coming into my ropes, a light bulb flashed "dive or die" and then a suicide leap.  Even if i wasnt tied in, those were the option. Jump is the only chance to live. 

The top hit my knee on the way down and i ate a face full of tree as the half second of freefall ended and my ropes pulled me into it full force -like eating a slapshot hockey puck.

It was the kinda scare that makes you wanna puke. I called it quits for the day as the top smashed onto my garage. Took a while to get back in the saddle after that.

[mike_belben]

The farthest tree, right hand corner.  This alley was all the space i had to work.



Different top but about the same size.  Look close and youll see dave leaned over to buck it up.  Tight quarters for flying tops.

[HemlockKing]

Did that top just kiss the shed with limbs ? Looks like a close call lol

[HemlockKing]

I also almost got ran over by a dump truck when I was 10. I was biking from my friends house, he lived in a hill with a dirt road leading down to the main road, I was biking down the hill trying to hit high speed, and planned on braking and drifting the corner, turns out I got going really fast, seen the truck, and slammed on my brakes but still moving while skidding, the truck was going right and I turned right too as it's the only thing I could do and I came about 6 inches from getting caught in between the rear tandem axles. 

[moodnacreek]

In the early '80's when the hemlock started dying I was turning a big one down with a 5' cant hook [on a sawmill carriage] and the hook pulled out, I landed on the small of my back against the log behind me hard and went numb. The next morning I wasn't numb, in fact for the next 3 years. Another time, edging hemlock flitch boards on the mill, I some how gigged back and sent a knot in my face that knocked me out. I started wearing a hard hat/face screen at that point.  Trying not to go for no. 3.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My problem here is this thread seems to limit us to one single significant mistake. After mentioning an ATV incident and getting grief over that for a year or so I am somewhat reluctant to mention other incidents. 

   There was the time I stopped a 5' long olive colored snake in Ethiopia with a small leafy limb and a water bottle so my wife could take its picture and when we got to a place with internet access and compared the pictures to a list of reptiles in the area we identified it as a Black Mamba. : On that same trip I tried to pull a python out of the papyrus reeds along Lake Tana for another photo but he was too strong and pulled free. I never found how long he actually was as all I saw was the tail but it certainly scattered the watching crowd to the point one guy in a wheelchair laid rubber on the sidewalk for 50' leaving the area.  ???

   Fortunately the 500 lb Silverback gorilla who charged us in the CAR was just making a mock charge to keep us away from his tribe and stopped about 15' from us (Both times) - remember to be sure not to make eye contact in such cases as he sees that as a threat and it piths him off.

    Getting between a feral boar and his escape route in Dixie Count Fla when I was 7 y/o was painful but steri-strips to the R. knee and a tetnus shot while draped over the hood of the car at the drunk doctor's home Christmas party fixed that. I survived - the hog did not.

   Climbing trees catching squirrels and coons as a kid and adult taught me how to select better limbs to step on or hold but I can well remember dangling by my right arm in a magnolia 50' above ground one time as I watched the big broken limb I'd been standing on falling towards my buddy below. I think he was in more danger than me as he barely stepped back in time to avoid getting creamed. 

   There was that coups in February 2008 in Cameroon in central Africa but most of the time it was going on we were out in the bush with the pygmies and such and missed the worst of that. My former co-workers were less fortunate and one saw the man beside him shot by Gendarmes as they both ran away but Louis escaped. It all seemed stable when we arrived and started our vacation but got ugly when they raised the price on gasoline. 2008 Cameroonian anti-government protests - Wikipedia

  There have been many, many incidents that were likely much more threatening than these but they were less memorable. Food poisoning or disease was probably a bigger threat but... Besides, most of these incidents were self-inflicted and did not seem unreasonable at the time. 

   Life is for living not just watching. A few scars are the price we pay for the memories. 

[Sedgehammer]

Hmm. There are many. 

On the way to school from helping my girlfriend at the time family with milking cows and doing all the chores for a few weeks. I was heading to school on some back roads in my little chevy chevette. Hit a patch of black ice. Car spun sideways went in the ditch backwards. No seat belt. I ended up in the passenger seat still hanging onto the steering wheel with both hands. Roof was fully caved in down to the seat on the driver's side. Passenger side had little damage. Walked about a half a mile to a house and called the county sheriff department. Sheriff deputy showed up. He looked at the car and all the marks in the snow and me several times and said it was a miracle I was alive. They figured I went end for end 5 times backwards

Then there was my service time. Can't talk about that

Went dove hunting in Oregon with a friend. He was looking for a bird dog, so a guy that breeds and sells them said he would bring one of his dogs out and he'd hunt with us. Our last hunt of the day was a 1 acre patch of grass. Had was between 4' and 7' high. The grass was on an angle. About 25°. My buddy walked in first, the guy with the bird dog and then me. We tried to maintain a straight line. I went over several times we only shoot to the front. No side shooting for the middle and only outside for the 2 ends. We got in a good 75' or so and a covy of five flew up in front of the middle guy and then turned and flew between him and me. I hurt the bird shot coming through the grass. I said an expletive and just had time to turn slightly and bring my right arm up some. My entire right side from my waste up was hit including my face and head. Both guys came running. I pulled down on the bird dog guy. Didn't pull. He left in a hurry. I left for ER. I was finding shot in my body for 20 some years later. I think it's all out now

Was in Oregon for business. Arrived at my partner's place in the afternoon on a Friday. He told me I needed to call home. I said "yeah, my dad died" he said "you've already called home". I hadn't, I just knew. I left Saturday, drove through a snowstorm in Yellowstone. Couldn't see 50'. 10" + inches of snow. Made it through that. Hit Minnesota on I-90. Glare ice. Was going 55-60 to make it in time for the viewing. Truck was all over the road. Arrived home at 6, showered, changed clothes and made it to the viewing at 7. I was very close to my dad. My siblings weren't. They didn't allow me any input on the funeral save I was allowed to pick 1 pallbearer

Was taking my 3 oldest kids to school one snowy morning. I was a single dad, had full custody and running 2 businesses. Kids were 5, 6 & 7. Had to use 4 when drive to get out if the drive way (half mile long) and on the township rd to the state highway. I got there and turned out the hubs. Was a Ford truck and they didn't have automatic hubs yet. Drove the 8 miles till the next highway. It hadn't been plowed yet, but there was tire tracks down to the blacktop. Was crusing at 55. Came up over a hill and I couldn't see the tractor with turd spreader on the road. The tractor and spreader was covered in dirty snow, which matched the road near perfectly. The tires blended in with the two wheel tracks that were black. But I could something was off. Started to slow down, but was too late. Couldn't go right, big drop off. Had to go left into traffic. Had to wait till the last minute as there was a milk truck headed our way. Turned just in time to avoid the tractor and spreader, but was too late to avoid sliding into the ditch. Truck rolled 3 times. My daughter and son were pinned under the passenger door. The chrome moly large towing mirrors caved in the door and made a pocket for them both. I went through the windshield. My other boy just got thrown around inside the truck. Me and 3 guys tipped the truck enough to get the kids out. Went to the ER. They were just bruised up. I was a bloody mess, but was ok. Looked worse than it was

Was traveling to a pit with my first dump truck. Was on the turnpike. Was going 79 mph. Right front tire blew. I went hard right, I pulled it back some or I was going up a overpass embankment right under the overpass. Couldn't go too far left or I'd hit a large turnpike sign sq on. Just clipped the driver's mirror and the back portion of the box on that sign. Broke one of the signs posts off. The right side of the truck was off the ground 60' while doing an angle up the bank. Crested the embankment, went through a fence and went a couple hundred ft into a wheat field. Came to rest facing east, was going south. Changed the tire and drove it home

I had forgotten all these until this thread was here. Made me think a lot. I think that was good

Then there was my recent accident

I'm sure there's several more. I'll see what I can remember 

[HemlockKing]

In the early '80's when the hemlock started dying I was turning a big one down with a 5' cant hook [on a sawmill carriage] and the hook pulled out, I landed on the small of my back against the log behind me hard and went numb. The next morning I wasn't numb, in fact for the next 3 years. Another time, edging hemlock flitch boards on the mill, I some how gigged back and sent a knot in my face that knocked me out. I started wearing a hard hat/face screen at that point.  Trying not to go for no. 3.

I've gotten a few good clobberings from chainsaw throwing loose pieces at me, usually get it on my knees. face shield saved me good one time 

[HemlockKing]

  My problem here is this thread seems to limit us to one single significant mistake. After mentioning an ATV incident and getting grief over that for a year or so I am somewhat reluctant to mention other incidents.

  There was the time I stopped a 5' long olive colored snake in Ethiopia with a small leafy limb and a water bottle so my wife could take its picture and when we got to a place with internet access and compared the pictures to a list of reptiles in the area we identified it as a Black Mamba. : On that same trip I tried to pull a python out of the papyrus reeds along Lake Tana for another photo but he was too strong and pulled free. I never found how long he actually was as all I saw was the tail but it certainly scattered the watching crowd to the point one guy in a wheelchair laid rubber on the sidewalk for 50' leaving the area.  ???

  Fortunately the 500 lb Silverback gorilla who charged us in the CAR was just making a mock charge to keep us away from his tribe and stopped about 15' from us (Both times) - remember to be sure not to make eye contact in such cases as he sees that as a threat and it piths him off.

   Getting between a feral boar and his escape route in Dixie Count Fla when I was 7 y/o was painful but steri-strips to the R. knee and a tetnus shot while draped over the hood of the car at the drunk doctor's home Christmas party fixed that. I survived - the hog did not.

  Climbing trees catching squirrels and coons as a kid and adult taught me how to select better limbs to step on or hold but I can well remember dangling by my right arm in a magnolia 50' above ground one time as I watched the big broken limb I'd been standing on falling towards my buddy below. I think he was in more danger than me as he barely stepped back in time to avoid getting creamed.

  There was that coups in February 2008 in Cameroon in central Africa but most of the time it was going on we were out in the bush with the pygmies and such and missed the worst of that. My former co-workers were less fortunate and one saw the man beside him shot by Gendarmes as they both ran away but Louis escaped. It all seemed stable when we arrived and started our vacation but got ugly when they raised the price on gasoline. 2008 Cameroonian anti-government protests - Wikipedia

 There have been many, many incidents that were likely much more threatening than these but they were less memorable. Food poisoning or disease was probably a bigger threat but... Besides, most of these incidents were self-inflicted and did not seem unreasonable at the time.

  Life is for living not just watching. A few scars are the price we pay for the memories.

What is all about that incident of you lighting yourself on fire in a tree stand? Care to share? lol lol 

[HemlockKing]

Hmm. There are many.

On the way to school from helping my girlfriend at the time family with milking cows and doing all the chores for a few weeks. I was heading to school on some back roads in my little chevy chevette. Hit a patch of black ice. Car spun sideways went in the ditch backwards. No seat belt. I ended up in the passenger seat still hanging onto the steering wheel with both hands. Roof was fully caved in down to the seat on the driver's side. Passenger side had little damage. Walked about a half a mile to a house and called the county sheriff department. Sheriff deputy showed up. He looked at the car and all the marks in the snow and me several times and said it was a miracle I was alive. They figured I went end for end 5 times backwards

Then there was my service time. Can't talk about that

Went dove hunting in Oregon with a friend. He was looking for a bird dog, so a guy that breeds and sells them said he would bring one of his dogs out and he'd hunt with us. Our last hunt of the day was a 1 acre patch of grass. Had was between 4' and 7' high. The grass was on an angle. About 25°. My buddy walked in first, the guy with the bird dog and then me. We tried to maintain a straight line. I went over several times we only shoot to the front. No side shooting for the middle and only outside for the 2 ends. We got in a good 75' or so and a covy of five flew up in front of the middle guy and then turned and flew between him and me. I hurt the bird shot coming through the grass. I said an expletive and just had time to turn slightly and bring my right arm up some. My entire right side from my waste up was hit including my face and head. Both guys came running. I pulled down on the bird dog guy. Didn't pull. He left in a hurry. I left for ER. I was finding shot in my body for 20 some years later. I think it's all out now

Was in Oregon for business. Arrived at my partner's place in the afternoon on a Friday. He told me I needed to call home. I said "yeah, my dad died" he said "you've already called home". I hadn't, I just knew. I left Saturday, drove through a snowstorm in Yellowstone. Couldn't see 50'. 10" + inches of snow. Made it through that. Hit Minnesota on I-90. Glare ice. Was going 55-60 to make it in time for the viewing. Truck was all over the road. Arrived home at 6, showered, changed clothes and made it to the viewing at 7. I was very close to my dad. My siblings weren't. They didn't allow me any input on the funeral save I was allowed to pick 1 pallbearer

Was taking my 3 oldest kids to school one snowy morning. I was a single dad, had full custody and running 2 businesses. Kids were 5, 6 & 7. Had to use 4 when drive to get out if the drive way (half mile long) and on the township rd to the state highway. I got there and turned out the hubs. Was a Ford truck and they didn't have automatic hubs yet. Drove the 8 miles till the next highway. It hadn't been plowed yet, but there was tire tracks down to the blacktop. Was crusing at 55. Came up over a hill and I couldn't see the tractor with turd spreader on the road. The tractor and spreader was covered in dirty snow, which matched the road near perfectly. The tires blended in with the two wheel tracks that were black. But I could something was off. Started to slow down, but was too late. Couldn't go right, big drop off. Had to go left into traffic. Had to wait till the last minute as there was a milk truck headed our way. Turned just in time to avoid the tractor and spreader, but was too late to avoid sliding into the ditch. Truck rolled 3 times. My daughter and son were pinned under the passenger door. The chrome moly large towing mirrors caved in the door and made a pocket for them both. I went through the windshield. My other boy just got thrown around inside the truck. Me and 3 guys tipped the truck enough to get the kids out. Went to the ER. They were just bruised up. I was a bloody mess, but was ok. Looked worse than it was

Was traveling to a pit with my first dump truck. Was on the turnpike. Was going 79 mph. Right front tire blew. I went hard right, I pulled it back some or I was going up a overpass embankment right under the overpass. Couldn't go too far left or I'd hit a large turnpike sign sq on. Just clipped the driver's mirror and the back portion of the box on that sign. Broke one of the signs posts off. The right side of the truck was off the ground 60' while doing an angle up the bank. Crested the embankment, went through a fence and went a couple hundred ft into a wheat field. Came to rest facing east, was going south. Changed the tire and drove it home

I had forgotten all these until this thread was here. Made me think a lot. I think that was good

Then there was my recent accident

I'm sure there's several more. I'll see what I can remember

I've been in 2 car accidents in my life, one I was the driver, the other I was a passenger, we were going 80 over a hill in a rural area on a skinny road, someone pulled out right before over the crest of the hill,
I had no seatbelt on and my first instinct was to brace myself with my feet against the dash. Oh my god how lucky I am the airbag somehow didn't go off(probably because it was a old junk Mazda). It was just instinct, funny enough, it did save me from going through the windshield. 

[Sedgehammer]

I just remember another one. I was 18 most likely. Borrowed my brothers dodge GT something. It wasn't overly quick, but was fast if had the room. Me and a couple of buddies went to a move me. On the way home they talked me into seeing how fast it could go. They didn't need to work too hard at it. The speedometer went to 135. We went well past it. If it kept the same ratio after 135 we were doing between 155 and 160. Had it about topped out. Left rear tire decided to let go. Didn't panic. Just let it do its thing while we costed to below 45 and then I lightly applied the brakes. Ruined the aluminum wheel obviously. Had to come up with some story to my brother. Can't remember what it was though. If I had panicked. Prolly wouldn't be here typing this

[sawguy21]

I know I have been scared spitless a few times but fortunately don't remember all the gory details. Probably a self defense mechanism. I was going too fast on a snowmobile down a logging road, it was Sunday so no other traffic, trying to catch up after getting stuck. Went into a switchback sideways headed for a looong drop off, the tail broke through the snowbank but I suddenly became a devout Christian and managed to stay on the road. I slowed down and never did tell my companions about that one.

[WV Sawmiller]

  My problem here is this thread seems to limit us to one single significant mistake. After mentioning an ATV incident and getting grief over that for a year or so I am somewhat reluctant to mention other incidents.

  There was the time I stopped a 5' long olive colored snake in Ethiopia with a small leafy limb and a water bottle so my wife could take its picture and when we got to a place with internet access and compared the pictures to a list of reptiles in the area we identified it as a Black Mamba. : On that same trip I tried to pull a python out of the papyrus reeds along Lake Tana for another photo but he was too strong and pulled free. I never found how long he actually was as all I saw was the tail but it certainly scattered the watching crowd to the point one guy in a wheelchair laid rubber on the sidewalk for 50' leaving the area.  ???

  Fortunately the 500 lb Silverback gorilla who charged us in the CAR was just making a mock charge to keep us away from his tribe and stopped about 15' from us (Both times) - remember to be sure not to make eye contact in such cases as he sees that as a threat and it piths him off.

   Getting between a feral boar and his escape route in Dixie Count Fla when I was 7 y/o was painful but steri-strips to the R. knee and a tetnus shot while draped over the hood of the car at the drunk doctor's home Christmas party fixed that. I survived - the hog did not.

  Climbing trees catching squirrels and coons as a kid and adult taught me how to select better limbs to step on or hold but I can well remember dangling by my right arm in a magnolia 50' above ground one time as I watched the big broken limb I'd been standing on falling towards my buddy below. I think he was in more danger than me as he barely stepped back in time to avoid getting creamed.

  There was that coups in February 2008 in Cameroon in central Africa but most of the time it was going on we were out in the bush with the pygmies and such and missed the worst of that. My former co-workers were less fortunate and one saw the man beside him shot by Gendarmes as they both ran away but Louis escaped. It all seemed stable when we arrived and started our vacation but got ugly when they raised the price on gasoline. 2008 Cameroonian anti-government protests - Wikipedia

 There have been many, many incidents that were likely much more threatening than these but they were less memorable. Food poisoning or disease was probably a bigger threat but... Besides, most of these incidents were self-inflicted and did not seem unreasonable at the time.

  Life is for living not just watching. A few scars are the price we pay for the memories.

What is all about that incident of you lighting yourself on fire in a tree stand? Care to share? lol lol

Here it is:

A deer hunting tale in The Outdoor Board

  Compared to having a mother hippo chase me off my fishing spot in the Okavango Delta in Botswana this was a pretty mild incident.

[HemlockKing]

That was hilarious! Things escalated.... Quickly after the chipmunk lol 

[SawyerTed]

I used to fly small airplanes Cessnas and Pipers, storms, lightning crosswinds presented all sorts of near disasters.  Never crashed one.  The one I remember most was when I soloed.  I checked the weather all looked fine.  My instructor looked over everything and sent Me on my way.  I took off from Mount Airy headed to Person County Airport. 

When I checked conditions at Person county, a significant crosswind had developed.  If I recall correctly a Cessna150's crosswind limit is 14.  The wind was steady at 14 with gusts to 22.  I was determined to land, do my taxi and get on my way back.  I made my approach, stayed lined up although crabbed into the wind.  Just as I reached the ground effects level above the runway one of those gusts hit.  I'm still not quite sure why the downwind wingtip didn't hit the runway. Someway I got it straightened out leveled up and on the ground.  I did my taxi, made my way back around to the active runway and took off for Mount Airy.

The same conditions had developed at Mount Airy.  I handled them a bit better.  I kept the plane crabbed into the wind a bit longer and touched down with a tire squawk. Got the plane secured and went inside. My instructor was quite pleased.  He gave himself lots of credit as an instructor.  I reminded him he wasn't there....  8)

[Corley5]

  Not looking up enough when falling timber, I suffered a fractured 7th vertebra, separated shoulder, sprained ankle, and needed some stitches to reattach my lower ear lobe.  I was wearing a hard hat or I'd have been dead.
  Standing with my back to traffic I was struck by a Chevette.  Seven major breaks and compound fracture to my lower left leg.  I had an external fixator for 5 months and walked with crutches for close to ten months.  It could have been much worse.  Never ignore traffic.   

[HemlockKing]

Ted, I had no idea you piloted, I hadn't realized only a gust of 14 was enough to make landing unsafe in those little planes either, now that I think back on when I see them, it's always very calm days

[Tom King]

Ted, my first job when I got out of school was at the Cessna dealer at RDU.  One of the perks was taking lessons, and renting a plane for half price.  Once I started soloing, my price for a 150, including fuel, was $7.50 an hour.  That was in 1974.  I flew most afternoons after work.

I never flew one with that much sidewind, but I could drag it in with full flaps between the landing lights, and stop on the numbers on 23.  I'd get applause from the pilots in DC9's waiting to take off.

Learned touch, and go landings in a 150 in between landing passenger jets.

I had bought plans to build an airplane, had started on it, and met the girl who is still my Wife.  The only time she'd been up in an airplane, it crashed, so she wouldn't have anything to do with airplanes.  I decided to take her over airplanes, so my flying career was short lived.

[SawyerTed]

One other near crash was when the carb iced up on the downwind leg of the pattern at Mount Airy.  I turned on the heat, tried to restart once, declared an emergency and made a short field landing on what at the time looked like a postage stamp sized piece of the runway.  

Tom that's very cool.  My costs about 20 years ago were in the $60 per hour range.  $110 for lessons.  

If ultra light planes are the kayaks of the sky, Cessna 150"s are the Jon boats of the sky. 

Unfortunately I had to give up flying a few years ago due to some health issues that prevent me from passing a medical. 

[moodnacreek]

This happened when i was 12, We where camping and fishing at a man made reservoir in McNary Tex. I got myself in a corner between the lake, a fence I could not go back through and the largest bull I have ever seen. I might of been a kid from N.Y. but I knew about bulls. We hade a pleasant conversation as I walked steady and slow backwards around him

[maple flats]

iIn 2012, I had my grandson drop some trees that were going to block some sun where I was adding solar about 75' to the north. I then went to drop a few more, without checking what was under the piles of brush. I cut one tree, about 14" DBH and it went exactly where I'd aimed it to go. Unfortunately it turned out to have a stump that stood about 30" tall, just maybe 15' from the tree stump I just made. My tree hit the stump perfectly on center and the butt end of my falling tree jumped up well over my head, I jumped back at 35 degrees or so as the butt end of my tree missed landing on me by about a foot. It sure made my ticker run lots faster for few minutes. I did have a helmet on, but that butt would have ended it all for me. I was just plain lucky, it just wasn't my time.
I did point out to my grandson that leaving tall stumps buried in brush was dangerous. 
That grandson is now in the Navy, in EOD, (explosive ordnance disposal). I hope he's more careful now!!!

[Don P]

Can angels beat you up in Heaven?

Tom, you were at RDU the same time my Dad was recertifying in the 150's at the flight school there. He used the last of his GI bennies on that then bought a '56 180. That was very much like a boat and owned about as long as most, I have the original compass on a shelf in the shop. He kept it at Chapel Hill, which was cleverly designed at an angle to the prevailing wind. I don't think we ever made a straight approach :D.

[kantuckid]

I wouldn't know where to begin...
Some would say it was hopping on my 1st motorcycle (that I had no idea how to ride safely at that time) in 1963 or continuing to ride many since then for many, many miles. 21,000 miles ridden in Mexico, alone and her to tell the story.
I tend not to choose safe stuff for recreation nor work. Raced sports cars for a bit (Austin-Cooper, 1275cc 1965 model in SCCA road racing) So I've heard car racing's dangerous?
A lifetime of shooting sports I'm good to go-well, except the hearing part.
8-9 years of playing football isn't for the timid among us nor is it not damaging at times. HS wrestling was painful too.
As a mechanic in a tire plant I was working in one of the highest industrial back injury places known to man.
In the Army in aviation it's also sort of dicey. Ask my beaver teeth what a slipped helo jack does to your smiley face.
 Meat packing plants, I wasn't working in the boning room but many in there and the sausage room had stab wounds and missing fingers.
Construction (stepped on a sill termite shield over a window opening and busted my back) and agriculture are known for injuries and I tried to miss most of those events, not always.
In every one of those places my guardian angel was in attendance as I did lots of stupid stuff, not cause I'm an unsafe worker but as I'm human and Murphy's law applies to us all?  
My most recent test was failed when I tried to find out what an oak 6x10 beam can do to yer finger when dropped? Result is a very thin finger.
 Oh, then there's my shoulder recently and buggered it up now in rehab stage-luckily.  

[upnut]

40 years ago I worked at our local road commission, our winter job when not plowing snow was cutting trees. We used a cable on the worst ones, dead roadside trees could be unpredictable. Our Cat loader operator and I made a pretty good team, maybe a little overconfident at times. One time in particular nearly got me. Cutting a huge gnarly oak we decided to forego the cable and simply push it over, first mistake. He drove thru the wet snow and took up position as I notched and began cutting. When ready for the final push I would nod and away the tree goes. Not this time. We did not realize the snow had iced up under his tires and when I nodded, nothing happened. Cut a little more, nod, nothing. When the tree finally snapped I ran behind the loader to my safe zone, only this time the Cat wasn't pushing, it was a fulcrum. The tree was headed right at me. I dropped the saw and ran, figuring to at least lessen the injuries. The flagman said "Scott you just sort of appeared out of the brush and limbs crashing down..." The saw was destroyed, busted some lights on the loader, we always used the cable after that!

Scott B.