Discussion
Returning on a very early Monday from a track day at Blyton Park (I had stopped overnight to visit a ladyfriend on the way home).
It was about 5.30am and rounding a blind bend on an NSL road I came face to face with a tipper bed transit on the wrong side of the road overtaking......
I have never hit the brakes so hard in my life, and was most grateful for the uprated pads fitted before the track day - there was about a foot of space between me and the transit and the same again between the transit and the car following it.
I had to pull over and allow myself some time to shake and compose myself before I could carry on.
It was about 5.30am and rounding a blind bend on an NSL road I came face to face with a tipper bed transit on the wrong side of the road overtaking......
I have never hit the brakes so hard in my life, and was most grateful for the uprated pads fitted before the track day - there was about a foot of space between me and the transit and the same again between the transit and the car following it.
I had to pull over and allow myself some time to shake and compose myself before I could carry on.
Some very harrowing ones here, but I was living in Paris a few years ago and was following a Renault Clio along a section of Route Nationale 1 just outside of Beauvais, no central reservation on this section. I was about to overtake the Clio when a deer ran out from the verge, the Clio swerved to the opposite carriageway and was collected by an HGV. It wasn't a particularly high speed thing, but obviously the mass of the HGV versus a Clio meant that both people in the Clio were killed instantly, and I missed it by seconds. I still have quite a blurred recall of what happened following this, and theres nobody to tell me what happened because I was by myself. The Gendarmes were very, very good to me, though.
McVities said:
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
McGee_22 said:
Had a bit of a depth excursion on a submarine once.
How close... In general terms.. not meters obvs? much as is allowed.
I was the knob on the Reactor Panel.
McGee_22 said:
McVities said:
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
McGee_22 said:
Had a bit of a depth excursion on a submarine once.
How close... In general terms.. not meters obvs? much as is allowed.
I was the knob on the Reactor Panel.
For those of us not 'in the know' can we have that in plain english please?
Drive it fix it repeat said:
McGee_22 said:
McVities said:
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
McGee_22 said:
Had a bit of a depth excursion on a submarine once.
How close... In general terms.. not meters obvs? much as is allowed.
I was the knob on the Reactor Panel.
For those of us not 'in the know' can we have that in plain english please?
Quick reboot of operating systems and restart of the reactor?
Mc_Gee22 was in someway responsible for the nuclear reactor.
My Brazilian girlfriend was booked on Air France 447 on 1st June 2009 out of Rio.
She had a big fight with her husband at the time a few days before and cancelled her ticket.
Still has the original confirmation and ticket though. Was also approached to talk about it for the local news but she refused to.
It actually has effected her a fair bit. Ten years on and she still gets emotional if it comes up in conversation.
She had a big fight with her husband at the time a few days before and cancelled her ticket.
Still has the original confirmation and ticket though. Was also approached to talk about it for the local news but she refused to.
It actually has effected her a fair bit. Ten years on and she still gets emotional if it comes up in conversation.
Drive it fix it repeat said:
The only bit I understood of that is that your a knob
For those of us not 'in the know' can we have that in plain english please?
Your first assumption is probably still correct.For those of us not 'in the know' can we have that in plain english please?
A Submarine very often does training exercises with specialist trainers and observers prior to deployment; the exercises are round the clock for a week to 10 days (IIRC), sometimes longer if you're all a bit crap and the 'pretend' faults are actually not that easy to revert as flicking a switch. The chap who runs this merry bunch of b
ds is known as Captain Submarine Sea Training, CSST.Submarines have maximum diving depths that are calculated by very, very clever office based scientists and boffins who I think assume and factor in supposedly (hopefully) enormous safety margins for two reasons;
1. They hope never to be found out by a Sub going pop in 'normal' circumstances, and
2. They hope never to be found on a submarine to be proved fatally wrong in their complicated long division sums.
Submarine crews occasionally go to their maximum diving depths in training exercises and the odd noises and curious and ominous clues of the outside pressure at those depths makes the crew not want to;
1. Do it too often, and
2. Go any further.
Beyond this is a calculated crush depth which I assume is the scientists version of a fun office lottery.
The submarine Trimming Officer is meant to know the weight of the submarine and the balance of the submarine such that should it stop moving or lose propulsion it would just sit, stable, fore and aft, port and starboard, at a certain depth and not roll, pitch, bob up like a cork, or heaven forbid, sink like a stone. Forward propulsion, ie, moving, can often disguise a small calculation error here but you just hope you don't lose forward propulsion...
When a reactor shuts down it is called a SCRAM. In normal civilian life this is a very major event and restarting can sometimes take a day or days if the SCRAM was unplanned, but with military reactors there was/still is(?) an enormous amount of leeway on operating characteristics so reactors can be restarted a little (lots) more quickly than civilian reactors. That said, the trainers could instigate an 'extended scram' which would mean in real terms the reactor would actually cool further and genuinely be much harder (poisons and stuff) to restart should we really need its power in a hurry.
Hydraulic systems on submarines are very critical for controlling the rudder (left/right) and hydroplanes (up/down).
So what I was saying earlier was that our exercises had commenced and all appeared reasonably well, we were about four or five days in but the Trainers had been increasing the pressure. In this particular session they shut down the reactor for an extended time whilst we already fairly deep and they also put a fault on the hydraulic systems.
We soon discovered the Trimming Officers playmobile abacus had failed in his sweaty hands and we did start sinking rather like a stone; whilst this was was quite amusing for the Trainers for a little while the fact that a real hydraulic failure on the remaining hydraulics meant we were still pointing down and unable to drive up on any remaining power. It got considerably less amusing when the CO (Commanding Officer - the bloke who actually signed for and was responsible for the submarine) had to point to CSST that we had in fact passed our maximum diving depth and just how far down was he intending to take us?
We then blew lots (and lots and lots) of air into the ballast tanks in an attempt to act like a cork, removed the hydraulic failures to help point the submarine upwards and then threw the civilian reactor operating guidelines into the bin and attempted to restart the nuclear reactor as quickly as possible.
There are roughly four normal methods of starting a military reactor; a normal start-up, a planned (slow) reactor recovery, a reactor fast recovery, and an emergency fast recovery. No CO ever asks for the last one unless he believes the s
t is on the fan. No MEO (Marine Engineering Officer - the guy that signed for and is responsible for the reactor and its safety) would ever agree and order the last one unless a quick mental calculation told him the fan was already slowing due to a very increased st intake.Our survival at this point hinged on restarting the reactor really, really quickly without tripping any safety parameters and causing an automatic safety systems shutdown of the reactor which might have been... bad.
There is a knob on the Nuclear Reactor Operating Panel specifically for withdrawing, or inserting, the control rods that can increase, or decrease, the criticality levels within the reactor; it is a tremendous wheeze or in-joke to call the man who is manning the panel at the time, 'the knob on the panel'.
HTH.
Leaving Camden Rocks music festival, I was on an underground train going to London Bridge to catch a train home to Redhill. The garbled announcement came over the intercom that the train would not be stopping and would go to Borough Market. A second announcement then came on saying that there was a change of plan and we would be going to Elephant & Castle.
Thoroughly annoyed, I made my way to Victoria, cursing the underground network. When I got to the surface, my mobile went ballistic - panicking voice mails from my girlfriend. I rang to see what the hell was going on, she had been watching the BBC news and saw the terror attacks unfolding knowing I was heading straight into it.
That was a eye opening and pretty sobering experience.
Thoroughly annoyed, I made my way to Victoria, cursing the underground network. When I got to the surface, my mobile went ballistic - panicking voice mails from my girlfriend. I rang to see what the hell was going on, she had been watching the BBC news and saw the terror attacks unfolding knowing I was heading straight into it.
That was a eye opening and pretty sobering experience.
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
How close... In general terms.. not meters obvs?
I worked with some of Traf's back afties immediately after she tried to mate with a sea mount. Lot of shaken up folks then.
Also worked a few old timers who were on sceptre when she boat hit the phospher-bronze ice burg.
Near misses go with the job.
There was always a few interesting incidents on boats that thankfully didn't turn catastrophic; Turbulents fire was one and I knew the two Tiffs that caused it, but at least that was alongside. I was never on a boat that collided with anything but I do remember watching one boat coming alongside in Faslane with a little too much 'style' - you could hear and then watch the 'Full Astern' in action and watch as the dockside dissolved into laughter and giggles much to the consternation of the subs bridge and the watching brass.I worked with some of Traf's back afties immediately after she tried to mate with a sea mount. Lot of shaken up folks then.
Also worked a few old timers who were on sceptre when she boat hit the phospher-bronze ice burg.
Near misses go with the job.
I was driving to Manchester one night to see Russell Howard. Roads were a bit icy.
Driving along the M62 and all of a sudden the car infront loses control and spins around in the middle of the motorway.
I immediately reacted by going into the right lane making sure there was space and carried on.
As cars were going 60-70mph I didn’t get chance to see what had happened behind.
An absolute mental event especially with not knowing if there was a crash after seeing a car lose control in the middle of a motorway at 6pm.
Driving along the M62 and all of a sudden the car infront loses control and spins around in the middle of the motorway.
I immediately reacted by going into the right lane making sure there was space and carried on.
As cars were going 60-70mph I didn’t get chance to see what had happened behind.
An absolute mental event especially with not knowing if there was a crash after seeing a car lose control in the middle of a motorway at 6pm.
Corvid-2020 said:
Sister should have been in New York on 9/11. Missed a connection to the cross Atlantic flight that would have got her into NY on 10//9. Flew next day but ended up being grounded in Newfoundland somewhere. Her agenda for 9/11 would have had her at her bank in the twin tower!
Boxing day storm in 1998 I was in Norn Ireland. I'd stopped to speak to the police to see if the B road short cut I was going to take was open, we'd already come across three trees down that evening and were two hours, one quarter distance in, to a journey that usually took 1hr 45mins.
Spoke to the police and they reckoned the short cut would be better as it went over a moorland, rather than through woods South of Strabane where there were more trees down on the A road. So after a few minutes discussion we then set off again. No trees on the mountain road but going over the top a mile or so in front of us we saw an awesome electric storm as the electric poles (wooden) went down and the power cables snapped and were arcing onto the road surface. If we'd not stopped and spoke to the cops we'd have been on that bit of road.
one of my friends had a tour round the twin towers @ 9am that morning. Forgot to set their alarm and overlaidBoxing day storm in 1998 I was in Norn Ireland. I'd stopped to speak to the police to see if the B road short cut I was going to take was open, we'd already come across three trees down that evening and were two hours, one quarter distance in, to a journey that usually took 1hr 45mins.
Spoke to the police and they reckoned the short cut would be better as it went over a moorland, rather than through woods South of Strabane where there were more trees down on the A road. So after a few minutes discussion we then set off again. No trees on the mountain road but going over the top a mile or so in front of us we saw an awesome electric storm as the electric poles (wooden) went down and the power cables snapped and were arcing onto the road surface. If we'd not stopped and spoke to the cops we'd have been on that bit of road.
My partner and her entire family was on holiday in london during the london bombings. They had a ticket for the very tube that got bombed. Her brother (who they was visiting so wouldnt abandon him haha) slept in as for no apparent reason his alarm never sounded. Seems a bit freaky how unexplainable events can potentially save your entire familys life.
It was also the exact time we had started texting and doing the young teenage flirting thing with my 5 free texts a day for life on orange so would have completly changed my life path aswel. Crazy.
It was also the exact time we had started texting and doing the young teenage flirting thing with my 5 free texts a day for life on orange so would have completly changed my life path aswel. Crazy.
Edited by hotchy on Monday 29th June 08:50
Another 7/7 one, I was working for Oracle but on a project at Network Rail on Euston Road
Usually on a Monday I would fly down from Aberdeen on the Red Eye, Heathrow Express to Paddington, then Circle Line round to Liverpool Street to go to the Oracle office before then heading back on the Circle Line to Euston Station and walk up to Network Rail, the timing would have put me in close proximity to either of the bombs on the Circle Line that morning but I had finished on the project the week before.
One of my ex girlfriends walked past the 1991 bin bomb the IRA left at Victoria Station an hour before it went off.
Usually on a Monday I would fly down from Aberdeen on the Red Eye, Heathrow Express to Paddington, then Circle Line round to Liverpool Street to go to the Oracle office before then heading back on the Circle Line to Euston Station and walk up to Network Rail, the timing would have put me in close proximity to either of the bombs on the Circle Line that morning but I had finished on the project the week before.
One of my ex girlfriends walked past the 1991 bin bomb the IRA left at Victoria Station an hour before it went off.
Seems pretty trivial compared to several here. Aged 17 or 18, driving like a knob in the early hours down a back road that I thought I knew well. Turned out I wasn't as clever as I thought and reached the T-junction at the end sooner than I expected, as I realised and started braking I saw a car cross in front of me and I ended up in the driveway of the house opposite with a couple of big skid marks right across the road.
My cousin lives in Nairobi, she had been shopping in the Westgate Mall and left an hour or so before the attack.
My cousin lives in Nairobi, she had been shopping in the Westgate Mall and left an hour or so before the attack.
Jazoli said:
I was walking back to my van between jobs one day when I turned the corner and saw someone on the ground next to a taxi rank with a Citroen Picasso stopped in the road next to it.
Turns out it was Derek Bird on his rampage, I didn't realise how lucky I was until later that day.
I was driving on the M6 through Cumbria when the news broke of the shootings. I was miles away but still it sent a chill Down my spine. Turns out it was Derek Bird on his rampage, I didn't realise how lucky I was until later that day.
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