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

I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

uss-la-ca135.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 252 posts

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#181

Post by macandcheese »

yodsanklai wrote: post #99
cjonas wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if your unlucky enough to be fully buried in an avalanche, it's not possible to dig, period. After everything stops moving, the loose snow refreezes almost instantly, locking you in place. Still, you're correct... Survivors often state they had no idea which direction was up.

> Survivors often state they had no idea which direction was up They can spit or pee.

Why is this being downvoted? First thing you should do after an avalanche is dig your face out a foot or two and spit [1]. If it lands back on your face, you're facing up, if not, you're upside down. Taught early in AIARE courses.

[1]: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/21/nation/la-na-nn-aval...

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#182

Post by jsjohnst »

muzani wrote: post #177
jsjohnst wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has done three of four (not done Everest, but have done highest peak in continental US), I think I can fairly say you have a misconception of the risk with white water rafting. The risk of being thrown overboard is high, but the risk of death is much lower in my opinion than skydiving. Sure, a tandem jump is pretty safe, but progressing further is barely what I would call a “controlled” risk. With BASE…

I thought skydiving was just a series of safety procedures, whereas white water rafting is something challenging even to experts, especially at category 5.

> I thought skydiving was just a series of safety procedures

For basics, sure. Get into stacking, swooping, wing suit flying, CRW, XRW, BASE, etc and it gets extremely challenging to the point where dying is inevitable if you keep doing it.

I’ve been white water rafting maybe a dozen or more times in my life and have done CL5 / CL5+ rapids multiple times. I can assure you, no skydiving place I know of will let you get close to doing the activities I listed above with that little experience under your belt.

Edit: As an example, when I worked at LinkedIn we as a team outing did Class IV+ rapids and most folks had zero prior experience. I think the “coaching” was like a 15min briefing before setting off, where as for sky diving you have to do an all day ground school class before jumping with two instructors holding onto you virtually the whole time. Even after being certified, you still typically have to go through the class again if you haven’t jumped recently.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#184

Post by c22 »

JadeNB wrote: post #168
iopuy wrote: post #27

Earlier this year on a white water rafting expedition I had the misfortune of falling out of the raft and into a series of category 5 rapids. It was absolute chaos. The force of large bodies of moving water is astounding. Any notion of "swimming to safety" is ludicrous. A more accurate description is "being washed to safety" because you have no control over the larger movements of your body. I've heard in avalanches…

> How he managed to survive is astonishing. Finding his knife, assessing the situation, and acting before being pulled under while injured almost defies my imagination. Riveting read. Did this happen to you or someone else? You switch from first to third person without explanation. "Riveting read" seems like a weird conclusion.

It happened to Cliff Judkins. GP is comparing an event from their own life with the content of the article.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#185

Post by munificent »

iopuy wrote: post #27

Earlier this year on a white water rafting expedition I had the misfortune of falling out of the raft and into a series of category 5 rapids. It was absolute chaos. The force of large bodies of moving water is astounding. Any notion of "swimming to safety" is ludicrous. A more accurate description is "being washed to safety" because you have no control over the larger movements of your body. I've heard in avalanches…

> The force of large bodies of moving water is astounding.

We underestimate it because we're used to water flowing around us at low speeds. But once you've got enough of it moving quickly, the viscosity and momentum really starts to matter.

The thing I think of to try to ground my intuition is to imagine someone throwing a gallon of water at me, still in its jug. Now imagine thousands of those hurtling my way. That's a big crashing wave.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#186

Post by johngalt »

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.

+ rescue plane couldn't communicate with nearby ships

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#187

Post by thecrazyone »

As I read it, I thought this is such a well written piece (I thought the author was the pilot himself), and that the pilot must be insanely talented because not only was he a fighter pilot (which requires skill) but he was an adept writer as well.

Then I later realized that this was a chapter from a book. Whew! the tale has got my heart pumping. This is some amazing narration of an amazing incident

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#188

Post by borkabrak »

unicornporn wrote: post #52

While not nearly as dramatic, this story reminds me a serious accident I had in my early childhood. For a long time I thought that perhaps I did die and that I had continued life in a near identical parallel dimension while leaving friends and relatives mourning in the one I had been born in. I wonder if this thought ever occurred to the pilot. A fantastic read.

I guess we're wandering a bit from the topic, but I used to feel the same way about, of all things, that childhood pastime of spinning around with your arms out. I spent more time than I'm comfortable specifying believing that every revolution put me in a slightly different universe, and that in order to get back, I'd have to perform exactly as many counter-revolutions in the opposite direction.

While this may sound insanely OCD, I remember thinking that I didn't have to get the number of counter-revolutions exactly right -- within a half-dozen or so should be "good enough".

I guess I was an imaginative child.

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#189

Post by hellbanner »

Why did "He was unable to tune to their radio frequency for communications. But this ingenious pilot lowered a wire from his aircraft and dragged it across the bow of the minesweeper, the USS Embattle. The minesweeper captain understood the plea, and veered off at top speed in my direction.)" work?

Did they just figure out something was wrong or is dragging a wire a common naval code?

Re: I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived

#190

Post by delvinj »

wolfkill wrote: post #126

I had a friend in high school who's father survived a skydiving accident "breaking every bone in his body." What made the biggest impression on me was that not only did he have to recover physically, but he had to deal with inability to work and medical bills leading to bankruptcy and a failed business. It may have been the first time in my life I thought about this kind of consequences.

I did a tandem jump from 10,000 ft when I was a teenager. We exited the plane while flying through clouds (which is illegal IIRC) and tumbled out of control for the entire free fall period before the chute opened.

The exit was my fault. To initiate a jump, the pilot would count down from three and then scream "GO". With the door open it was very difficult to hear. Clouds were forming and we had already aborted twice, with my partner pulling us back into the plane each time.

On the third attempt I misread the shouts and hand signals and exited the plane before "GO". I was taller and heavier than my tandem partner so he probably had no choice.

We tumbled into thick, gray clouds. Without a horizon this made me nauseous. My partner was screaming from the moment we left the plane. I'd catch a word or two but most of his instruction was lost to the wind. We were totally out of control.

We exited the cloud still tumbling, my partner still screaming. I remember the chute opening, but we were never properly in control.

The next few minutes were glorious, though still nauseous, and the landing was uneventful.

I didn't think much of the consequences back then... But no more skydiving for me :-)

Post reply on HN