There must be many versions of the story where you dropped from the skies with throttles back, everything hanging out, as quiet as a (noisy) mouse, then clean up and see if there isn't really an afterburner setting half an inch past the throttle stops....
CXX/6 did it over a parade in Greece, after 30 mins or so doing a '12 O'Clock High' impression dodging Greek fighters that were allegedly attempting some sort of formation flypast of said parade.
From the port beam it looked like we'd have caused less carnage had we dropped 500 lb bombs.
Jax - Dirty Harry's nightclub. A railed sort of verandah.... lean on it for more than 5 seconds and the result would be a 'my ankles have been gripped' sensation, a touch of acrobatics, and if you were lucky you didn't land on a glass on the table you'd just become an overly large drinks mat on. One night about 8 of our crew went through that in rapid succession - I always blamed the AEO. (Who decorated the outside of the minivan haflway from Daytona to Disney at about 40 mph).
Lingerie show in the Holiday Inn (a regular event), young ladies quite pleased by Nav Captain crying 'soooooot' as they went past, imagining it to be a cry of approbation... until he explained it was the final part of a cry that - in its complete version - went 'Tit sooooooot'. (Without the space. Admittedly an oddly Scottish sounding cry for a devout yorkshireman).
USN, Springtrain (I think) in the early 80's, USN asks Nimrod on surpic type task to on top the enemy group to aid targetting solution. Al B**e, yet another Nav Captain, eventually gets onto the radio in person to say 'this is the Royal Air Force, not the Japanese Kamikaze bloody airforce, I suggest if you want somebody to on top the enemy group you send for a P3'.
Pretty much on the same topic (ie "How, as a Flt lt Captain, you might address those of star rank") off Ascension as the fleet came by, explaining to the Admiral how he should land his helos, point out to sea, and **** off in fine pitch and leave the Nimrod to settle his 'possible sub sighting' issue. Well, he put it a bit more politely, but not much. (According to the callsign it WAS the Admiral he was talking to).
Baia Verde - there was another hotel up a sort of side road up the hill, can't recall the name, but they had a heck of a cable feed in the early hours of the morning that I discovered quite by chance....Also interesting characters in the bar who came in with two minders and had camel hair coats draped over their shoulders. It was like being an extra in the Godfather some nights when you stopped off at the bar<g>
Didn't do Piper Alpha, but we did fly on Alexander Kielland - an accomodation rig that capsized when a leg broke off. I would dearly love to have the power to wind time back and stop it happening, but as the 2nd crew on we were busy as hell all night and, as far as I can tell, rarely put a foot wrong. There's a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that your crew all pulled together and did a sterling job. This gave a fairly rare sense of satisfaction, the 6 hr crew trainers didn't produce anything like the same (apologies to all my AEOs who thought they'd come up with devilish scenarios to explain another 4 hrs of ACT), but just now and again you flew an important mission and knew you'd done a good job, and it felt fantastic. Got the same buzz from Airde Whyte and Fincastle sorties, and my personal favourite - JMC anti surface tasks. Common factor here, I guess, is you were in RADAR and going like a one armed paper hangar! (ON ASV and Searchwater - both kits had these moments).
I think the average IQ of a Nimrod crew was probably pretty high, and it took quite a lot to get the blood pumping - you had to know you were doing something worthwhile, and doing it well... but when that combo came up it made up for doing SAR on Christmas day, cold-cold 'wet' sorties, and at least some of the other nausea encountered.
It helped that the average Maritime career lasted about 60 years, I guess, dunno what others felt but I liked the wide age range and experience you got on the kipper fleet....
Favourite places - Marina in Gib, Bunch of Grapes at Pissouri, Chiefs' mess in Kef. (Although I imagine the Brass Nut might be more popular with the voting public).
Dave