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I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

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Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#141

Post by kortilla »

merely-unlikely wrote: post #136

It amazes the quantity of resources that will sometimes be deployed to rescue a sole man (or a handful) lost at sea. Not to say this is a bad thing; I would certainly appreciate it if I were lost at sea. But it might be questionable to a pure utilitarian. I counted at least one plane, two ships, and a helicopter all being diverted for the rescue. That's a great deal of expense in terms of fuel, I assume hundreds of c…

You’re discounting the morale destruction of leaving your teammates to die to save gas costs.

> I assume hundreds of crew, and lost time in whatever they were supposed to be doing.

They aren’t producing widgets. They are mostly idle or training for a real event anyway. This was a good training exercise at a minimum.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#142

Post by yamtaddle »

merely-unlikely wrote: post #136

It amazes the quantity of resources that will sometimes be deployed to rescue a sole man (or a handful) lost at sea. Not to say this is a bad thing; I would certainly appreciate it if I were lost at sea. But it might be questionable to a pure utilitarian. I counted at least one plane, two ships, and a helicopter all being diverted for the rescue. That's a great deal of expense in terms of fuel, I assume hundreds of c…

In the civilian cases, there may be large economic benefits to the way people behave when they expect rescue if something goes wrong, even if very few particular rescues make economic sense per se.

There's likely a similar argument to made for the military, but involving morale and willingness to take personal risks in emergencies or times of war. Esprit de Corps and all that.

These both in addition to all other arguments in favor of such rescues.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#143

Post by 10000truths »

bobthepanda wrote: post #129
TrapLord_Rhodo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Progress is limited by security clearance. The US has incredible aircraft but no incentive to 'share'.

The military doesn’t optimize for fuel burn though, which limits practicality in the cutthroat commercial sector.

Commercial supersonic flight has been done before with the Concorde and the Tu-144. While it might not be as big a money maker as standard commercial flights, I’m sure there are people willing to shell out big bucks to reduce their 15-hour flight to 3 hours.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#144

Post by Diesel555 »

michael_fine wrote: post #22

In a story of insane luck (and unluck!), the craziest part is definitely this " He said that if I had had a spleen, it almost certainly would have ruptured when I hit the water, and I would have bled to death. Of the 25 pilots in our squadron, I am the only one without a spleen. It gives me something to think about. Maybe it does you as well."

I thought the craziest part was where in this sequence of events does the pilot say

> “This is very serious,” I thought.

It's just after

> "The main, 24-foot parachute was just flapping in the breeze and was tangled in its own shroud lines. It hadn’t opened! I could see the white folds neatly arranged, fluttering feebly in the air.

So... after the flame-out, after the fire, after the lack of radios, after the failed ejection, after the canopy manual ejection, after jumping out of the plane, after not hitting the tail, then after pulling his parachute and it doesn't open does he finally think - man this is serious.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#145

Post by LorenPechtel »

codethief wrote: post #117
anderspitman wrote: post #97

Reminds me of a web page I stumbled upon many years ago. It was very much visually designed in the 90s style. The whole page was dedicated to tips and tricks for surviving falls from very high distances. I only remember 3 points: * For most of the fall, try to spread out like a flying squirrel to reduce your terminal velocity. * As you get close to the ground, rotate to take the impact primarily on your feet and legs…

> As you get close to the ground, rotate to take the impact primarily on your feet and legs. That makes it sound a lot easier than it actually is.

Not that hard for an experienced jumper.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#146

Post by dctoedt »

Something similar happened to my dad (USAF fighter pilot) in around 1961 or 62: He was test-flying a T-33 single-engine jet trainer assigned to his unit after it'd had repair work. The engine quit and wouldn't restart. He ejected, but his parachute didn't deploy fully (much the same as in the article) and he got tangled in the shrouds. He said a quick Hail Mary just before crashing head-first in a muddy, fresh-plowed field. The pilot of another plane in the area saw the crash and radioed the tower to send the meat wagon and not the ambulance, but my dad walked away with just a headache — and with his helmet split open like a melon. The impact apparently damaged his inner ear: five years later he started getting vertigo while aloft, and soon afterwards got medically grounded. (That meant he lost the extra flight pay and was reduced to his base pay, with four school-aged kids while stationed in the Washington DC area — to make ends meet, my mother had to go back to work as an RN [registered nurse].)

EDIT: What I remember was that when my dad crashed (see above), my mom came to get me from playing with the neighbor kids in their yard. Dad had called her from the flight surgeon's office and told her about the crash (very nonchalantly, she later said), and that he was OK. So six-year-old me blithely went on playing. Of course, my mom had been living with that possibility all their married life ....

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#147

Post by LorenPechtel »

a4isms wrote: post #8
whoisjuan wrote: post #5

Still not as impressive as Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant who holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 m (33,330 ft; 6.31 mi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87

Thanks for the link, although I believe we're now in a place where "relative impressiveness" is all-but-meaningless. These are all impressive stories, and trying to figure out which one is more impressive is a little like sitting in a barbershop trying to figure out who is the greatest boxer that ever lived. My contribution to impressive feats of survival bailing out of an airplane is this story of a WWII ball turret…

I think you have the same story twice. The ball gunner went into an evergreen forest in the winter.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#148

Post by Forgeties79 »

dctoedt wrote: post #146

Something similar happened to my dad (USAF fighter pilot) in around 1961 or 62: He was test-flying a T-33 single-engine jet trainer assigned to his unit after it'd had repair work. The engine quit and wouldn't restart. He ejected, but his parachute didn't deploy fully (much the same as in the article) and he got tangled in the shrouds. He said a quick Hail Mary just before crashing head-first in a muddy, fresh-plowed…

>and soon afterwards got medically grounded — which meant he lost flight pay, with four school-aged kids while stationed in the Washington DC area; my mother had to go back to work as an RN (registered nurse) to make ends meet.

That’s so, so wrong.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#149

Post by LorenPechtel »

jbverschoor wrote: post #110

Did the parachute not simply open before he landed in the water? He can't remember that part, and he only woke up after the parachute was under water and yanking on him. Either way, refreshing to see a well written piece.

A streamed parachute is a lot better than no parachute. Kinetic energy goes at the square of velocity so even a fairly small slowing is worth a lot in reducing injury.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

#150

Post by ars »

merely-unlikely wrote: post #136

It amazes the quantity of resources that will sometimes be deployed to rescue a sole man (or a handful) lost at sea. Not to say this is a bad thing; I would certainly appreciate it if I were lost at sea. But it might be questionable to a pure utilitarian. I counted at least one plane, two ships, and a helicopter all being diverted for the rescue. That's a great deal of expense in terms of fuel, I assume hundreds of c…

During a shooting war the calculation might change, but in times of peace what else are you thinking they are doing that is so much more important?
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