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

191–200 of 274 posts

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

#191

Post by ars »

chucksmash wrote: post #176
ars wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I agree that it seems unintuitive, but compressibility of water is up to four orders of magnitude lower than a very plastic clay, and even worse than gravel[1]. Generally the speeds at which we impact water are slow enough that this effect is not noticable (i.e. we have time to sufficiently displace, not compress, the water without suffering a catastrophic deceleration). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressibi…

This sounds like something that would have been perfect for MythBusters.

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

#192

Post by 2runner »

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…

Possibly?

http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html

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

#193

Post by otikik »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #2

The whole description is wordy but astonishing. It is strange that the part that strikes me the most though is this one: "The Coast Guard amphibian gained altitude and flew off. (I learned later that he headed for a squadron of minesweepers that was returning to the United States from a tour of the Western Pacific. He was unable to tune to their radio frequency for communications. But this ingenious pilot lowered a w…

I didn’t understand this, is “lowering a wire” an expression? did the airplane just literally throw a very long comms cable to the minesweeper? How did they “understand the plea” and knew where to go?

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

#194

Post by dmitrygr »

ghoward wrote: post #187
otikik wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, absolutely. I have a pilot acquaintance that would refuse to go to the doctor when he was younger. I also tried to become a pilot, but because of a documented history of taking anti-depressants, the FAA grounded me for life, despite being years removed from needing them. [1] I wish that history was not documented. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2022/09/grounded-for-life-losing-the...

Are you sure? Last I checked (a friend was on anti-depressants), as long as you only want a private (not commercial or ATP), a year off the meds or a year at a stable dose and a letter from your doc that you're ok will be enough to get a 3rd class medical.

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

#195

Post by chasd00 »

genghisjahn wrote: post #27
jrumbut wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is the quote from? Sounds familiar.

https://youtu.be/gv7mO41bbPg?t=74

didn't Eddie Murphy play all of those roles at the same time? well i mean it was edited to look like he played them all at the same time.

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

#196

Post by lkrubner »

This doesn't seem like a big deal, since it is only 15,000 feet and he had the help of an unopened parachute, which certainly slowed his descent, even though it didn't slow his descent enough.

By contrast, Vesna Vulovic fell 33,000 with no parachute to help her, and she also lived.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9496466/stewardess-terror-fell...

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

#197

Post by anderspitman »

2runner wrote: post #192
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…

Possibly? http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html

Definitely very similar in spirit; nice find! Doesn't feel like the same one though.

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

#199

Post by imdoor »

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…

The "pure utilitarian" viewpoint never made much sense to me because it seems to usually imply accounting for only first order effects, when calculating some costs and gains, and stopping there. I think the secondary effects of not saving people might go far beyond some saved fuel and time in such situations (especially in war, as some have mentioned here).

In other words, optimizing some aspects of a very complex and well functioning system, such as society, locally is likely to mess things up globally.

Post reply on HN