I’m surprised I’m still the only one who’s answered “parachute.” I only did it once, nearly 30 years ago. Didn’t think it was that uncommon.
“down” is not my preferred direction of travel
Some stats from this website (which appear to be from around 2019) suggest that it’s still a pretty seriously niche activity. It says that 350,000 people completed a skydiving jump in 2018, which would be about 0.1% of the U.S. population; it also cites that the U.S. Parachute Association only has 35,000 members (so, about 0.01% of the U.S.)
I went to an indoor skydiving facility once, which was fun, but you’re essentially flying around in a vertical wind tunnel, and as there’s no actual parachute involved, I didn’t select it as something I’ve “operated.”
I’m wondering how there can be 2 people who’ve piloted a steam locomotive
Are those little kiddie trains in the park steam powered? If so, I forgot to claim that one.
Re: vehicles and cylinders. We currently own and drive a 4-cylinder car (my wife’s Mazda CX-7), a 6-cylinder (my Mustang), and an 8-cylinder (my wife’s Corvette); I’ve driven various other cars with those configurations over the years, but never a 10- or 12.
When I was in high school and college, I had a moped, which had a tiny one-cylinder engine.
Possibly, though many of them are likely to be gasoline- or diesel-powered. Live steam is a bigger challenge to operate and maintain than an ICE, and requires skills and knowledge which are less common now.
I just want to know who’s driven a turbine powered vehicle that’s street legal. Is Jay Leno among this board’s readers? I guess if he were here he would have picked steam as well, though.
It occurs to me that I don’t know whether I’ve ever eaten a prawn. Maybe I haven’t.
I’ll eat as much of a shrimp as I can plausibly chew, though. So I’ll let my answer stand.
– I honestly have no clue what was under the hood of some of the vehicles I’ve driven; but I do know about some others, so I didn’t select that choice. However, the fact that I don’t know about some of them means that my negative answers on the ones I didn’t choose are in some cases suspect.
Not only have I driven a car with a rotary engine, it was a Wankel rotary engine.
Why was American Sign Language not on the poll?
You kiss your mom with that mouth?
I am one of them!
When I worked at the zoo, I drove the “Little Puffer” Steam Train about once a week. (Not me in this photo)
While it’s clearly not a full-sized locomotive (runs on a 22-inch gage track), it is indeed an honest-to-god real steam engine with pretty much the exact controls you’d find on a big one. It took many hours of training and I needed to be certified by the state before I could carry passengers. So I’d say that counts.
In La Bete Humaine Jean Gabin plays a locomotive operator of a 1930s French steam engine. He wanted to know how to do it, so he received training and was actually driving (is that the correct word?) the train in several scenes.
Very cool!
That is awesome, and speaking as a lifelong fan of railroads and trains, I’m exceptionally jealous.
It was by far my favorite part of that job, and I miss it.
I’d ask who voted that they are not fluent in English, but I guess they might not be able to understand the question.
Those aren’t running on roads.
They do exist, called road locomotives, but they’re pretty rare these days.
Alas, only English. I had four years of high school German but after 50+ years of disuse it has largely evaporated.
OTOH I am fluent in menu-German, also -Spanish, -French, -Japanese, and -Italian, plus somewhat in -Vietnamese, -Thai, -Greek, and -Ethiopian.