Is there any science behind pucker factor?

[MossRoad]

i hear that is also a -blessing- sometimes as well!!

Soundguy

DOH!

 

[Defective]

She forgot which car she was in and was "stepping on the clutch." Wow was I glad to be wearing a seatbelt!

I spent last weekend doing that same silly trick over and over...

My van is a standard & my stepdaughters car was also... The car got written off a couple of weeks ago &, apparently, nobody has manual rentals available. Guess who did the driving in the nasty little Suzuki while trying to find her a new car. (I'll DEFINITELY never buy a small car with an automatic. ) My wife seems to think I don't know how to drive now.

BTW: I counted 3 pucker marks in the car when I went to view the wreck. Guess how many were in it when it turned over...

 

[Rara Avis]

apparently, nobody has manual rentals available.

There is reason for that....

 

[Soundguy]

DOH!

Moss.. I wasn't specifically aiming that at you.. just making the comment in general... my previous message wasn't quite clear on that (wink)

soundguy

 

[patrick_g]

Anyone ever been sitting stopped in two lanes of traffice at a light on a hill and feel like you are rolling so you stomp on the brakes harder only to realize you are not moving, the car next to you is?

Yea verily brother! First you press your brake and it doesn't help so you REALLY STOMP ON IT and it still doesn't help and when you are on the verge of a panic attack you figure out the others are pulling forward.

This was one of the examples given in a lecture on Gestalt Psychology talking about the effect where you brain tends to cause you to experience as your perception what you expect rather than what is.

One time sailing at night I nearly got run down by a large well lit section of San Diego harborside skyline which eventually (and in time) resolved itself in my perception to be a rather large cruise ship.

Pat

 

[MossRoad]

That's one of the reasons I ride in airplanes but do not pilot them... I don't trust instruments and you have to to fly in the dark, clouds, etc...

 

[N80]

Yea verily brother! First you press your brake and it doesn't help so you REALLY STOMP ON IT and it still doesn't help and when you are on the verge of a panic attack you figure out the others are pulling forward.

I've witnessed several accidents where people have stomped on the gas pedal thinking they were hitiing the brake. The car accelerates of course, but since they think they have their foot on the brake, they stomp even harder. This was the cause of the Audi's in the 1980's 'mysteriously' shooting through people's garages.

One time sailing at night I nearly got run down by a large well lit section of San Diego harborside skyline which eventually (and in time) resolved itself in my perception to be a rather large cruise ship.

Pat

Foggy night on the ocean. Two lights in the fog.

First light to second light: We are approaching you at 10 knots, please move out of our way.

Second light to first light: No, we prefer that you alter your course.

First light to second light: We are a US Navy vessel, you please alter your course.

Second light to first light: We still suggest you alter your course.

First light to second light: This is the USS ENTERPRISE, you MUST alter your course immediately.

Second light to first light: This is the Rock Island Light House we suggest that YOU alter YOUR course immdiately!

 

[patrick_g]

That's one of the reasons I ride in airplanes but do not pilot them... I don't trust instruments and you have to to fly in the dark, clouds, etc...

My USAF job was instrument flying instructor on a flight simulator. I used to joke that I had spent so many hours flying purely on instruments with nothing visible outside that I had to be careful if I looked outside the cockpit and saw the natural horizon I might get disoriented/vertigo.

You do have to trust the instruments. Luckily there are alternate/secondary instruments against which you can crosscheck your primary instruments so you don't have to put your life on the line with just one indicator (usually.)

Pat

 

[MossRoad]

My USAF job was instrument flying instructor on a flight simulator. I used to joke that I had spent so many hours flying purely on instruments with nothing visible outside that I had to be careful if I looked outside the cockpit and saw the natural horizon I might get disoriented/vertigo.

You do have to trust the instruments. Luckily there are alternate/secondary instruments against which you can crosscheck your primary instruments so you don't have to put your life on the line with just one indicator (usually.)

Pat

Besides that, I like to look around when I fly and don't want to be bothered with paying attention!

I was very fortunate as a kid in that I had several friends whose fathers were involved in F.B.O.s at a couple local airports. I got lots of time in many different aircraft and ended up working at airports for 6-7 years as a line man. Plenty of opportunities to get my pilots license at dirt cheap rates, but I just wanted to go along for the ride and watch the ground from up high. It was still fun to fly the plane, but I was always happy to give control back so I could look around some more.

You know how the plane accellerates on takeoff and you feel that force, etc...? And you start lifting off the ground, and everything is still like you are in a car and all of a sudden, POP! everything is smaller than you. Little kids in back yards are looking up at you while raking leaves with their dads wondering what its like to be up there. Sometimes they wave, the pilot waggles the wings, the kid starts jumping and grabs the dad's arm and points at the plane... that's a feeling I have never outgrown. Even today, on large airliners (which are nowhere near as fun as small planes) I like to stare out the window and pick my way across the country guessing where I am and seeing how close I am. I'd rather ride than pilot.

Now put me in a car and I'd much rather drive than ride. I can't explain why?

 

[patrick_g]

MossRoad, I do know, THAT FEELING. I recall my first ride in a private plane. I was 5 and got to take the controls for a while. Controlling the plane was "nice" but looking down at the little miniature model railroad size steam engine puffing and pulling its train of cars and the little model houses and roads and cars and ...

Well, I don't have to tell you, you have been there and done that.

I like to sightsee and have flown low over the Grand Canyon before it was made illegal, I have chased wild pigs into the surf at an unspecified off shore California island, and released balloons so my buddy and I could compete to see who could find and break the most with the prop. I have dropped water balloons and found getting close to a target without a bomb sight is extremely difficult.

Pat