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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)

#261

Post by nneonneo »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #127
Maursault wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've reminded me of the story of the Zen master and the little boy from Charlie Wilson's War.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2cjVhUrmII&t=0m38s

I was taught this by a Chinese culture coach. She said it more like: Man's horse runs away: aww Horse returns, brings new wild horse: yay new horse Son riding wild horse breaks leg: aww War comes and takes able-bodied men: yay get to live

This story gives rise to the idiom “塞翁失马，焉知非福” - the old man lost his horse, but it turned out to be a blessing.

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

#262

Post by pcurve »

bobthepanda wrote: post #185
10000truths wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Because of the fuel burn, they also don’t go that far. Military supersonic planes regularly do aerial refueling to make up for it. At the kind of range that Concorde and the Tu-144 operated at, you can either spend three hours in a plush but narrow seat, or you can leave at night in a lie-flat business seat and wake up refreshed after a 6-8 hour sleep.

Yep. With travel time to and from the airport the savings isn’t compelling

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

#263

Post by InCityDreams »

lefstathiou wrote: post #151
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…

My childhood best friend went into the Army to be a Ranger. He once told me that there is basically no higher priority event than a search and rescue mission. Down to a man, if you are captured, or at risk of capture, special forces and black hawks get called in with the ability to use any means necessary to get you out of there alive. He said it was an extreme source of pride for him personally to see how far they w…

>a few of the videos / articles / images I've seen of Russians fighters in Ukraine lead me to believe they don't feel this similar level of support from their armed forces,

I'd mostly agree with the russian opinion (from what I've seen), but i certaily haven't seen it regarding the Ukranians. r/combatfootage r/ukkranianwarvideoreport etc.. Quite the opposite. I'd guess being trained by the us and uk has had an effect. As an aside, whenever ukraine forces pass, they always wave to each other.

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

#264

Post by Aerroon »

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...

It's unrelated, but I wanted to nitpick this:

>safety comes first. Always.

The safest way to keep the airspace above the US would be to ban all general and commercial aviation.

Safety does not come first. Safety never comes first, because the safest course of action is to never do anything. It is always a balancing of risk.

It is very unfortunate that something like this is keeping you from your dream. I'm sorry.

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

#265

Post by ghoward »

Aerroon wrote: post #264
ghoward wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

It's unrelated, but I wanted to nitpick this: > safety comes first. Always. The safest way to keep the airspace above the US would be to ban all general and commercial aviation. Safety does not come first. Safety never comes first, because the safest course of action is to never do anything. It is always a balancing of risk. It is very unfortunate that something like this is keeping you from your dream. I'm sorry.

I actually mention this in my post that I linked.

Yes, another of their missions is to facilitate aviation.

What I meant is that in my case, the default decision couldn't be to give me a medical. So I should have limited the "safety comes first" to my case.

A more charitable interpretation is to say that pilots without issues are defined as safe, which they are even if they are not in practice. They're safe enough.

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

#266

Post by Forgeties79 »

Diesel555 wrote: post #167
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.

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…

The fact that his mother had to return to work just to “make ends meet” indicates it was not an inconsequential loss, I think “inhumane” isn’t too far of a stretch. Especially given his injury was the direct result of risking his life for the American government.

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

#267

Post by DanHulton »

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.

Dirt/grass _absolutely_ compress. Easy way to see - take a large hammer outside and hit the dirt real hard. It'll leave a dent. You want to leave that dent, because that's force transferred into the dirt, not you.

But also, it makes sense when you think about it a bit, too. Dirt is a mostly heterogeneous mixture of _stuff_ that tends to clump, which leaves great pockets of air in between that can get compressed out. Water, on the other hand, is a homogeneous liquid with _no_ air in between. There's practically nothing to compress!

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

#268

Post by kjs3 »

chris_wot wrote: post #239

There was a group called the "Caterpillar club" - people who jumped or fell out of airplanes and lived.

One of the companies that makes ejector seats sends a tie to anyone who makes full use of their product.

https://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/

There are some good stories on that page.

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

#269

Post by euroderf »

mabbo wrote: post #91
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

I'm even more impressed with Nicholas Alkemade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade He was the tail gunner on a WW2 Avro Lancaster that was on fire and going to crash. So he simply opened the door and jumped. > His fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground. He was able to move his arms and legs and suffered only a sprained leg. > Alkemade was subsequently captured and interviewed b…

Huh, the krauts didn't let him go back home ASAP ? He was a wonder of nature (a Naturwunder?).

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

#270

Post by sixothree »

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…

Juliane Koepcke also credits the Peruvian forest trees as one of the reasons she survived her fall from an airplane.
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