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I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

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Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#131

Post by graphitezepp »

unicornporn wrote: post #64
anonymouslee wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson explores this idea towards the very end. Doesn't give it much time but obviously it's hard to interpret from our end.

Thank you. I was kind of hoping someone would have suggestions for further reading. :)

Anathem is a great book that explores lots of interesting, fairly unique ideas, and does some moderately original world building. But I always tell people Stephenson (the author, personal favorite) isn't for everyone, and Anathem isn't even for all Stephenson fans, it can be a hard read for many.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#133

Post by bitL »

nicpottier wrote: post #127
bitL wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably said just to keep you from panicking to give you something to attempt/think about while snow is crushing you. How can a mass of (often wet or frozen in blocks) snow tearing down trees and hurling rocks allow you to swim? Wishful thinking, survival is a question of luck. Maybe in very small avalanches. Many people get their skulls crushed, the forces there are immense... Best way is to avoid avalanche…

Avalanches act very much like liquids while they are still moving, swimming upstream is indeed the common advice and it has definitely worked. That is why one of the newest devices to survive one (if you are caught) is basically a life preserver: https://www.scott-sports.com/global/en/page/avalanche-pack These serve the dual purpose of protecting your head and decreasing your density so you float to the top of the sn…

Avalanche bags work nicely in small slab to medium powder avalanches where you might end up upside down a few feet under the surface and suffocate without these bags. It won't help you with most killer avalanches such as large powder ones (220mph and acting as concrete when they stop, filling your cavities), heavy wet ones in spring taking grass, rocks and tree trunks, and most importantly large frozen slab avalanches that just don't care about any equipment you might have or movements you do (and those often give you acoustic signals before they are ready to go). I've read somewhere that without any special equipment, your avalanche survival rate is that of lightning strike. I guess we see videos only of those survivable ones so we often underestimate the danger.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#135

Post by meredydd »

realusername wrote: post #97
baby wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah I didn't know that, so pilots in France use feet as a measure for aviation altitude? PS: wow, interesting https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%C3%A9_en_aviation

They only use it internally, when communicating to passengers, they still use metres (because nobody has any idea what a foot looks like in France).

Not actually true; French pilots and ATC use feet too (whichever language you're speaking).

French influence on aviation has been strong since the beginning (hence all the French words - aileron, fuselage, décalage, etc), but the unit of height/altitude is one where the Americans set the standard.

(Source: I fly an American-designed, French-built aeroplane to/through France semi-regularly.)

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#136

Post by 24gttghh »

DonHopkins wrote: post #123
et-al wrote: post #11

This is insane. At least 5 redundancies failed: the Ram Air turbine, primary and secondary ejection sequences, the parachute, and his survival pack went missing. And yet Mr. Judkins survived maybe because he had spleen removed. Amazing.

That's 6 failures, assuming that's why he had to have his spleen removed.

His spleen was removed after an auto accident prior to the flame-out.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#138

Post by philjr »

DeerSpotter wrote: post #134

This is a interesting quote, googling it only shows this article, did the person writing the story make it up, or is this actually a saying that "some" say. “Some days you are the dog and others you are the fire-plug.”

"Some days you are the dog, some days you are the tree / fire hydrant" is the canonical quote.

I would assume the fire plug is the name of one of the things that failed while he refueled. Doesn't quite go together in my head, but once you understand the original quote it makes sense. Some days you're on the giving end, some days you're on the receiving end.

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