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SwordsMaster
01-16-2007, 19:24
http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html

There has been few things so amusing and so educational at the same time... And they say you can't learn while having fun....




Unplanned Freefall? Some Survival Tips
By David Carkeet (http://www.geocities.com/davidcarkeet/)

Admit it: You want to be the sole survivor of an airline disaster. You aren't looking for a disaster to happen, but if it does, you see yourself coming through it. I'm here to tell you that you're not out of touch with reality—you can do it. Sure, you'll take a few hits, and I'm not saying there won't be some sweaty flashbacks later on, but you'll make it. You'll sit up in your hospital bed and meet the press. Refreshingly, you will keep God out of your public comments, knowing that it's unfair to sing His praises when all of your dead fellow-passengers have no platform from which to offer an alternative view.

Let's say your jet blows apart at 35,000 feet. You exit the aircraft, and you begin to descend independently. Now what? First of all, you're starting off a full mile higher than Everest, so after a few gulps of disappointing air you're going to black out. This is not a bad thing. If you have ever tried to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you know what I mean. This brief respite from the ambient fear and chaos will come to an end when you wake up at about 15,000 feet. Here begins the final phase of your descent, which will last about a minute. It is a time of planning and preparation. Look around you. What equipment is available? None? Are you sure? Look carefully. Perhaps a shipment of folded parachutes was in the cargo hold, and the blast opened the box and scattered them. One of these just might be within reach. Grab it, put it on, and hit the silk. You're sitting pretty. Other items can be helpful as well. Let nature be your guide. See how yon maple seed gently wafts to earth on gossamer wings. Look around for a proportionate personal vehicle—some large, flat, aerodynamically suitable piece of wreckage. Mount it and ride, cowboy!

Remember: molecules are your friends. You want a bunch of surface-area molecules hitting a bunch of atmospheric molecules in order to reduce your rate of acceleration. As you fall, you're going to realize that your previous visualization of this experience has been off the mark. You have seen yourself as a loose, free body, and you've imagined yourself in the belly-down, limbs-out position (good: you remembered the molecules). But, pray tell, who unstrapped your seat belt? You could very well be riding your seat (or it could be riding you; if so, straighten up and fly right!); you might still be connected to an entire row of seats or to a row and some of the attached cabin structure. If thus connected, you have some questions to address. Is your new conveyance air-worthy? If your entire row is intact and the seats are occupied, is the passenger next to you now going to feel free to break the code of silence your body language enjoined upon him at takeoff? If you choose to go it alone, simply unclasp your seat belt and drift free. Resist the common impulse to use the wreckage fragment as a "jumping-off point" to reduce your plunge-rate, not because you will thereby worsen the chances of those you leave behind (who are they kidding? they're goners!), but just because the effect of your puny jump is so small compared with the alarming Newtonian forces at work.

Just how fast are you going? Imagine standing atop a train going 120 mph, and the train goes through a tunnel but you do not. You hit the wall above the opening at 120 mph. That's how fast you will be going at the end of your fall. Yes, it's discouraging, but proper planning requires that you know the facts. You're used to seeing things fall more slowly. You're used to a jump from a swing or a jungle gym, or a fall from a three-story building on TV action news. Those folks are not going 120 mph. They will not bounce. You will bounce. Your body will be found some distance away from the dent you make in the soil (or crack in the concrete). Make no mistake: you will be motoring.

At this point you will think: trees. It's a reasonable thought. The concept of "breaking the fall" is powerful, as is the hopeful message implicit in the nursery song "Rock-a-bye, Baby," which one must assume from the affect of the average singer tells the story not of a baby's death but of its survival. You will want a tall tree with an excurrent growth pattern—a single, undivided trunk with lateral branches, delicate on top and thicker as you cascade downward. A conifer is best. The redwood is attractive for the way it rises to shorten your fall, but a word of caution here: the redwood's lowest branches grow dangerously high from the ground; having gone 35,000 feet, you don't want the last 50 feet to ruin everything. The perfectly tiered Norfolk Island pine is a natural safety net, so if you're near New Zealand, you're in luck, pilgrim. When crunch time comes, elongate your body and hit the tree limbs at a perfectly flat angle as close to the trunk as possible. Think! Snow is good—soft, deep, drifted snow. Snow is lovely.

Remember that you are the pilot and your body is the aircraft. By tilting forward and putting your hands at your side, you can modify your pitch and make progress not just vertically but horizontally as well. As you go down 15,000 feet, you can also go sideways two-thirds of that distance—that's two miles! Choose your landing zone. You be the boss. If your search discloses no trees or snow, the parachutist's "five-point landing" is useful to remember even in the absence of a parachute. Meet the ground with your feet together, and fall sideways in such a way that five parts of your body successively absorb the shock, equally and in this order: feet, calf, thigh, buttock, and shoulder. 120 divided by 5 = 24. Not bad! 24 mph is only a bit faster than the speed at which experienced parachutists land. There will be some bruising and breakage but no loss of consciousness to delay your press conference. Just be sure to apportion the 120-mph blow in equal fifths.

Concentrate! Much will depend on your attitude. Don't let negative thinking ruin your descent. If you find yourself dwelling morbidly on your discouraging starting point of seven miles up, think of this: Thirty feet is the cutoff for fatality in a fall. That is, most who fall from thirty feet or higher die. Thirty feet! It's nothing! Pity the poor sod who falls from such a "height." What kind of planning time does he have? Think of the pluses in your situation. For example, although you fall faster and faster for the first fifteen seconds or so, you soon reach "terminal velocity"—the point at which atmospheric drag resists gravity's acceleration in a perfect standoff. Not only do you stop speeding up, but because the air is thickening as you fall, you actually begin to slow down. With every foot that you drop, you are going slower and slower.

There's more. When parachutists focus on a landing zone, sometimes they become so fascinated with it that they forget to pull the ripcord. Since you probably have no ripcord, "target fixation" poses no danger. Count your blessings. Think of others who have gone before you. Think of Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant who in 1972 fell 33,000 feet in the tail of an exploded DC-9 jetliner; she landed in snow and lived. Vesna knew about molecules. Think of Joe Hermann of the Royal Australian Air Force, blown out of his bomber in 1944 without a parachute. He found himself falling through the night sky amid airplane debris and wildly grabbed a piece of it. It turned out to be not debris at all, but rather a fellow flyer in the process of pulling his ripcord. Joe hung on and, as a courtesy, hit the ground first, breaking the fall of his savior and a mere two ribs of his own. Joe was not a quitter. Don't you be. Think of Nick Alkemade, an RAF tailgunner who jumped from his flaming turret without a parachute and fell 18,000 feet. When he came to and saw stars overhead, he lit a cigarette. He would later describe the fall as "a pleasant experience." Nick's trick: fir trees, underbrush, and snow. But in one important regard, Nick is a disappointment. He gave up. As he plummeted to Germany, he concluded he was going to die and felt "a strange peace." This is exactly the wrong kind of thinking. It will get you nowhere but dead fast. You cannot give up and plan aggressively at the same time. To conclude, here are some words that might help you avoid such a collapse of resolve on your way down.
"Keep a-goin'." (Frank L. Stanton)
"Failure is not an option." (Ed Harris, as the guy in Apollo 13 who says, "Failure is not an option")
"'Hope' is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops-at all." (Emily Dickinson)

BDC
01-16-2007, 20:20
The redwood is attractive for the way it rises to shorten your fall, but a word of caution here: the redwood's lowest branches grow dangerously high from the ground; having gone 35,000 feet, you don't want the last 50 feet to ruin everything.

That made me laugh.

Husar
01-16-2007, 20:27
:laugh4:

Two questions:
1. Hitting a tree with 120 mph will "only" slow you down? My impression is more that it will slow your individual parts down...

2. The dividing the force in fifth is quite hilarious but in theory(if one could perfectly move ones limbs really fast) it should work, shouldn't it?
:inquisitive:

ZombieFriedNuts
01-16-2007, 21:23
So basically you’re falling but don’t worry be happy enjoy it you might not die. Has anything happened to you recently that we should know

Vladimir
01-16-2007, 22:18
There have been rare occurrences of trees sufficiently slowing someone's decent to where they survived the fall. I would advise against the "5 point" parachute landing fall, you won't make it in one piece.

Marshal Murat
01-17-2007, 00:20
I have a felling that 3 feet of snow won't save you,it'll just clearly identify your drop zone.

BDC
01-17-2007, 00:36
There have been rare occurrences of trees sufficiently slowing someone's decent to where they survived the fall. I would advise against the "5 point" parachute landing fall, you won't make it in one piece.
If only you had more legs...

There was a man who managed to freefall through the open window on top of a warehouse when his parachute didn't open properly. It the caught on the roof and he stopped before he hit the group. Presumeably the bruising was quite bad...

Mooks
01-17-2007, 00:37
Im guessing rolling wont break your fall either.

Husar
01-17-2007, 09:33
Maybe the last minute is enough to strip the other passengers off their clothes and make a parachute from them.:clown:

SwordsMaster
01-17-2007, 12:34
There are links to actual falls in the original page if you feel like broadening your horizons...

BDC
01-17-2007, 15:11
Keep deceleration under 200g to survive it seems.

You head hitting a pavement after you slip over can be up to 300g, hence why so many die from that.

KukriKhan
01-17-2007, 15:49
The other dilemma I see is: with a minute to go 'til your likely demise, what do you switch your iPod to as you're enjoying the ride? Ride of the Valkyries?

Big King Sanctaphrax
01-17-2007, 15:55
Im guessing rolling wont break your fall either.

Depends if you're the Hero of Time of not.

InsaneApache
01-17-2007, 16:04
Reminds me of the old one about being in a lift that fails. Just before it hits the ground you jump. Therefore saving your skin by only 'falling' a couple of feet. :skull:

Scurvy
01-17-2007, 16:15
The other dilemma I see is: with a minute to go 'til your likely demise, what do you switch your iPod to as you're enjoying the ride? Ride of the Valkyries?

actually he reccomends:



But in one important regard, Nick is a disappointment. He gave up. As he plummeted to Germany, he concluded he was going to die and felt "a strange peace." This is exactly the wrong kind of thinking. It will get you nowhere but dead fast. You cannot give up and plan aggressively at the same time.
To conclude, here are some words that might help you avoid such a collapse of resolve on your way down.

* "Keep a-goin'." (Frank L. Stanton)
* "Failure is not an option." (Ed Harris, as the guy in Apollo 13 who says, "Failure is not an option")

they might be good :2thumbsup:

drone
01-17-2007, 16:42
Reminds me of the old one about being in a lift that fails. Just before it hits the ground you jump. Therefore saving your skin by only 'falling' a couple of feet. :skull:
Mythbusters did this one. It was not a pretty sight. ~D

Peasant Phill
01-17-2007, 16:46
Reminds me of the old one about being in a lift that fails. Just before it hits the ground you jump. Therefore saving your skin by only 'falling' a couple of feet. :skull:

On the program "Mythbusters", this technique was proven insufficient to survive an eight story drop.

The 'grab a large piece to slow your fall'-technique was also tested and worked but it was impossible to navigate with it.

Ronin
01-17-2007, 17:30
On the program "Mythbusters", this technique was proven insufficient to survive an eight story drop.

The 'grab a large piece to slow your fall'-technique was also tested and worked but it was impossible to navigate with it.

you´re talking about the plywood myth? I think that they proved that it could slow your fall a little bit...but not enough to save your butt.

a list of all the myths tested:
Mythbusters Myth List (http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/MythBusters-Episodes)

Del Arroyo
01-18-2007, 14:15
Two things:

(1) the fifth point of contact is the pull-up-muscle, ie the strip of muscle covering your ribcage on either edge of your back, not the shoulder. If you land on your shoulder you will crush it.

(2) the five points of contact do not divide the velocity into five equal parts. The results of an attempted parachute-landing-fall on an insufficiently decelerated human body are not pretty.

SwordsMaster
01-18-2007, 14:20
Two things:

(1) the fifth point of contact is the pull-up-muscle, ie the strip of muscle covering your ribcage on either edge of your back, not the shoulder. If you land on your shoulder you will crush it.

(2) the five points of contact do not divide the velocity into five equal parts. The results of an attempted parachute-landing-fall on an insufficiently decelerated human body are not pretty.

Well, yes. But of course the article is meant to be funny, not as an actual guide to survival...

InsaneApache
01-18-2007, 14:43
Well, yes. But of course the article is meant to be funny, not as an actual guide to survival...

:laugh4:

Del Arroyo
01-18-2007, 22:06
Well, yes. But of course the article is meant to be funny, not as an actual guide to survival...

Well pardon me. There are people who fall out of planes regularly and on purpose.

Marshal Murat
01-18-2007, 22:13
Well pardon me. There are people who fall out of planes regularly and on purpose.

Luckily we have a word for them.
Airheads.

Del Arroyo
01-19-2007, 02:17
Airheads.

I am not personally a fan of this candy, though some have been known to carry the chewy, tangy confections with them in their cargo pockets as they fall towards the earth.

Marshal Murat
01-19-2007, 03:46
Touche

SwordsMaster
01-19-2007, 12:41
Well pardon me. There are people who fall out of planes regularly and on purpose.

I do hope that when you do, you remember de chute...

Vladimir
01-19-2007, 16:24
I do hope that when you do, you remember de chute...

Not so fast there. You've put forth some interesting statements that deserve research and testing. I'll be taking volunteers shortly and I'm offering large financial compensation after completion of the tests.

SwordsMaster
01-20-2007, 17:15
Not so fast there. You've put forth some interesting statements that deserve research and testing. I'll be taking volunteers shortly and I'm offering large financial compensation after completion of the tests.

Just remember that for a successful test, the minimum altitude must be of 12,000 feet. :beam:

spmetla
01-21-2007, 08:36
While intended as a bit of humor if for some strange reason I find myself falling from the sky without a parachute you can bet that I'll try whatever little I can do to try and survive, slim as the chances may be. If anything I don't want the final plunge to be spent idlely, better to use your last moments for something before one makes a big dent in the ground.

discovery1
01-21-2007, 10:14
Try to get to a wooded swamp. The trees will help break your fall, and the mud is relatively soft and rather deep. Oh, and just before impact, curl into a ball. I don't really know why, although in this case it seems like it will keep you from being cut up by the branches.

InsaneApache
01-21-2007, 11:35
Try to get to a wooded swamp. The trees will help break your fall, and the mud is relatively soft and rather deep. Oh, and just before impact, curl into a ball. I don't really know why, although in this case it seems like it will keep you from being cut up by the branches.

I disagree with this. Firstly you need to keep your wits about you, so you need to be able to see what's going on. Secondly it is a well known fact that the correct posture is one in which you grab your ankles just before impact, tuck your head between your legs and then kiss your arse goodbye.

:smash:

InsaneApache
01-21-2007, 14:24
It's all lies, lies I tell ya! What you really need to do is have a skinful. :laugh4:


An American man has survived after falling 17 floors from the window of a hotel in the US city of Minneapolis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6284061.stm

SwordsMaster
01-21-2007, 16:40
It's all lies, lies I tell ya! What you really need to do is have a skinful. :laugh4:



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6284061.stm

Well, now we know Del Arroyo's real name... :laugh4: Told ya you should've brought the chute....

Or was it one of Vladimir's "research assistants"? You just HAD to get him drunk, didn't you?

KukriKhan
01-21-2007, 17:08
Odin watches over little children and drunken Minnesotans. :)

Rameusb5
01-22-2007, 21:35
Actually, I'd be more focused on trying to land somewhere that would kill me quickly, without any suffering.

Like a volcano or a Celine Dion concert.

spmetla
01-23-2007, 03:33
Well living on an island like I do the chances that I'll be free falling over water are pretty good. Though I might not survive impact with the water I'd try for that more than solid ground. I'd just have to hope that I'd be concious enough after impact (assuming I survive) to not drown and hopefully my arms and legs are still in condition to assist my remaining on the surface or if really lucking then for swimming to shore or waving to a boat or something.

Beren Son Of Barahi
01-23-2007, 05:39
Actually, I'd be more focused on trying to land somewhere that would kill me quickly, without any suffering.

Like a volcano or a Celine Dion concert.


Celine Dion would certainly kill you, but there would be lot of suffering... unless you found a nice bouncy fan to land on....


you could always aim for someone, if your lucky you won't die in vein, you will also die happy...could be worst..

BDC
01-23-2007, 11:33
Well living on an island like I do the chances that I'll be free falling over water are pretty good. Though I might not survive impact with the water I'd try for that more than solid ground. I'd just have to hope that I'd be concious enough after impact (assuming I survive) to not drown and hopefully my arms and legs are still in condition to assist my remaining on the surface or if really lucking then for swimming to shore or waving to a boat or something.
If you go in feet first in theory you could survive. Not that anyone ever has really. You tend to rupture your aorta from what I remember of reading a book on this (it was actually mentioned in the quoted website!). Plus a whole bunch of other injuries.

But not everyone suffers all the fatal injuries, so if you got really lucky you might get none of them. But yeah you'd probably drown.

InsaneApache
01-23-2007, 12:14
I found an interesting take on this....


A number of folks have written with comments about the compressibility of water in regard to this question. Here is what a correspondent named Matias had to say: "I doubt surface tension matters at all, what *does* matter is a simple fact about water: it's an incompressible fluid. Even plain earth will compress when hit by a falling body, and if you add grass, etc, it's even 'bouncier'. Basically, falling on water at high speed is like falling on concrete, except concrete won't swallow you after breaking your bones and rendering you unconscious."

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

So spmetla it seems you'd be better off, say, aiming for Celine Dion. :laugh4:

BDC
01-24-2007, 16:58
Aim for soft earth it seems.

Hope it's ploughing season?

spmetla
01-24-2007, 19:16
I found an interesting take on this....



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

So spmetla it seems you'd be better off, say, aiming for Celine Dion. :laugh4:

I'd rather aim for the bosom of a lovely college girl at Waikiki! It's not considered murder, right?

Never thought of water like that though.

Del Arroyo
01-25-2007, 03:47
A water landing is the most dangerous kind of landing because it takes the longest to prepare for. If you find yourself headed for a body of water, the first thing you should do is slip away.

If you are unable to avoid the body of water, first remove your ballistic helmet and, checking to ensure no fellow jumpers are directly below you, drop it. Then, still watching below you, lower and jettison all of your equipment.

When you are 200 feet above the ground, undo your chest strap and, pulling the quick release on your reserve parachute, unhook it on the left and swing it over to your right side. Then place your hands on the releases for your left and right leg straps and assume a good prepare to land attitude. In case the water is shallow, you should be prepared to execute a good parachute landing fall.

As soon as the balls of your feet make contact with the water, pull the releases on your leg straps and throw your arms up, arching your back and sliding out of the parachute harness. Then swim to shore as quickly as you can, upstream and away from your parachute.

If you find yourself underneath your parachute, locate a seam and follow it all the way to the edge of the canopy, then swim to shore as quickly as you can, upstream and away from your parachute.