Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived (2009)

uss-la-ca135.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 274 posts

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

#161

Post by otikik »

louison11 wrote: post #139
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…

I’d say this is actually when you see the true purpose of a military shine: protect its people. It doesn’t matter how much it costs. This is real love and sacrifice right here. I read that and although I’m not American, I felt very patriotic. What a great attitude and effort all the people involved brought.

I read it differently. I think it’s a tradeoff: they know that if they don’t do that sort of expenditure, troop morale will go down and they will have a less effective group anyway. So they take the lesser hit.

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

#162

Post by tedunangst »

10000truths wrote: post #143
bobthepanda wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nobody is building passenger jets that go Mach 5.

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

#163

Post by fauria »

Related to this, in 2012 Gary Connery [1] landed a wingsuit over cardboard boxes [2], and in 2016 Luke Aikins [3] jumped from 25000 feet (~7600 metres) without a parachute, landing into a giant net that absorbed the impact [4].

There has been issues of BASE jumpers accidentally landing wingsuits without deploying a parachute too (can't find any reference online at the moment).

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Connery

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEP8juRSBRo

[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Aikins

[4] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTTOnvvEpn0

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

#164

Post by tevon »

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…

From a utilitarian standpoint my guess is that the payoff is confidence.

Every sailor on those ships watched them send everything they had to rescue the pilot. Every one of them repeats this story. And every kid/new recruit hears it. My guess is that it instills a sense of safety where there isn't any.

I certainly feel safer traveling abroad knowing the lengths America generally goes to rescue its own.

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

#165

Post by Diesel555 »

elteto wrote: post #107
tunesmith wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's why it was pretty brilliant that he skewed the plane.

"Rolled" :)

He skidded the airplane. He applied rudder trim so that the tail was not directly behind the aircraft. He also mentions trying to be nose high.

What this would look like I think. Slow down to increase angle of attack in level flight. The nose is now high (likely already occurred after flameout and ejection attempts without thinking about it - check). Go full deflection rudder trim to skid the aircraft. Now trim the ailerons and elevators to fly level based on drag and adverse yaw. Get out.

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

#166

Post by dirtyid »

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…

I remember that page

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

#167

Post by Diesel555 »

otikik wrote: post #156
Forgeties79 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Not only it’s inhumane, it’s also stupid: it incentivizes pilots who have problems like that to hide them, instead of coming forward.

I'm not sure I agree with the inhumane (flight pay is an incentive pay where without it pilots still make the same pay as the rest of the military their rank), but I can confirm the stupidity of the policy. Usually anyone medically interacting with a fighter pilot on an issue that could be grounding must spend some time gaining trust for the pilot to be completely open with them. The result of this policy is normally that pilots are completely fine - until they are completely broken.

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

#168

Post by dctoedt »

otikik wrote: post #156
Forgeties79 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Not only it’s inhumane, it’s also stupid: it incentivizes pilots who have problems like that to hide them, instead of coming forward.

According to my dad, flight surgeons are the natural enemies of military pilots.

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

#169

Post by BucketsMcG »

ars wrote: post #154
merely-unlikely wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if it was the same one but I've read you also want to avoid water (since it doesn't compress). Go for dirt/grass if possible.

That doesn't make sense: dirt/grass also don't compress. Small branches might be good, but water is certainly more compresible than dirt.

It's really not. Earth's generally full of holes big and small. Water isn't.

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

#170

Post by codefoster »

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…

It's foolish for the pure utilitarian to leave the human factor out of the equation. Or perhaps his error is to consider dollars to be the ultimate commodity. Really, we as humans work for a much more valuable commodity than money. The fighting of the war in the first place is a human attempt at creating a good story (of a country that actually realizes peace and prosperity). The saving of one man (whether soldier or civilian) is yet another attempt at such a story. It's the human way.
Post reply on HN