mmm, bin a few. one of the most memorable was when my mad mate Mick who comes from a Irish family with a long lineage of bomb throwers, decided to take me on a celebratory trip in a 269B model after he had just now gained his license. Having had a f/w license for a fair while he only did not many hours to get there, like about 35 or so.
I had about 3K hours by this stage but all in slow moving 47's and was enjoying the flight down Huntington Beach watching the very shapely things below, the many kites above and the stringy bits connecting them to ground borne objects when Mick reckons, "I'll show yer an auto". got my attention full on real quick he did.
landing on the beach in one peace was a real joy, i can tell you. even coors tasted nice that night. I've never asked the bas**** to reflect on it, maybe I should now that he has retired with more than 20K hours.