h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: How To Fall Out Of A Plane (and live to tell the tale) - A19299315
Author: SWL™ The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. - Voltaire - U1775547

Short and sweet

>>caravans or rock concerts. It is possible although unlikely that these kind of things will slow you down enough to ensure that only the majority of the bones in your body are broken

- needs full stop

same for last paragraph. missing full stop.


From whence have you this guarantee that diving into the ocean at 125 mph is safe?


Finally, you might want to link to the recommended entry A18778747 at some point.

I find that when falling out of the sky rapidly, there are very few guarantees in life.

Got the typos, added the link, but I need to do a lot more linking.

Glad you liked it

Hmmm, hello again SWL,
Well yet again a highly entertaining read, would make a great script for a Monty Python sketch have to say. You are proberly aware that in it's current format this has about as much chance of making the EG as you have of surviving 'inadvertantly falling from a plane at 30,000 feet'.
I've looked at this from both the entertainment value and the 'factual' side of it. Factually, well, it's obviously a load of bunkum so not a lot to say on that other than again, I would suggest perhaps the place for this is the AWW.

If you would like me to go into what happens to both a plane and a body at 30,000 plus feet when a door is 'inadvertantly' opened then I will but I feel that's not the purpose of your article. I think you've written it purely for entertainment purposes in which case you have more or less succeeded.

ST.

My first reaction would be to check whether I was by some freak chance wearing a parachute.

What did you base this on, SWL? Has anyone survived falling out of a plane at that height, and what were the circumstances? If not, then we would need a bit of science to back up the theory.

Icy

There is a documented case of a crewman of a WW2 bomber jumping from his stricken aircraft at around 20 - 30,000 feet without a parachute and landing on some fir trees covered with snow AND surviving to tell the tale, with only a few minor cuts and bruises.

Perhaps relating the advice with factual information and circumstances like that would help cover the bases required

Hi SWL

I enjoyed reading this, found it amusing and with a suitable amount of Quirk.

I'd have to agree though that at present it stands little chance of making the EG. Perhaps its chances may be enhanced by quoting the three known occasions when aircrew have baled out of aircraft at height and survived.

Notably:
I M Chisov, 22,000 ft into snow
A Magee 20.000 ft Thro the skylight of a train station
N Alkemade 18.000 ft into a forest and snow on a sloping bank.

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

Hope this helps.

Great link!

The "Unplanned Freefall" section is very similar to SWL's entry.

Some of the items in the other sections could be appropriate too.

I'd agree - adding case studies to the end of the entry would be quite good...

One 'technical' fault though...

"Hitting the water with your arms outstretched and your body extended into as neat a line as terror allows means you're going to lose a little skin and suffer some bruising,"

Nope - at those sorts of speeds it's actually going to rip your arms off.

Lifeguards are taught to jump into swimming pools with their arms outstretched to avoid submerging and thus loosing sight of their victim.

Sailors are taught that if you have to jump off the deck of a ship into the water then you should cross your arms in front of you. (Although this is partially to stop your lifejacket from flipping up and breaking your neck).

Whisky, I think he meant arms stretched into the diving position, but that line gave me pause too.

I still have trouble with that statement, though. I've read that jumping off a bridge can be deadly, if you g o in feet first and straight as an arrow. This had to do with water forcing itself into certain bodily orifices because of the speed of contact. Not sure if that would apply to diving, but it seems unlikely that entering the water at 125 mph heafirst is somehow safer.

I think it can go into the EG. It just needs its statements backed up by proof.

Cool article!

Yes, it's thin on fact. That's why I'm not browsing Wikipedia atm. I like it and I think it should go in. Would be good to know exactly how likely your spine is to snap on impact at 125mph though.

I had trouble reading the 'arms outstretched' bit too - at first I thought spreadeagled, then body vertical, arms straight up.

Could do with some stats on what your % chance of hitting water or trees is. Also, when this inevitably happens to me, I will be using my coat / shirt / whatever as a parachute - apparently this could reduce terminal velocity by 25%.

www.math.gatech.edu/~weiss/pub/v2II.pdf

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01790.htm

Gif

I'll work on this at the weekend - limited access at the moment though.

I like it!

I agree that it's not really clear exactly how one should aim to enter the water. I've heard feet-first, pointing toes, ankles crossed, buttocks squeezed as tightly as possible. Not sure what you do with your arms and I think that may have been falling from a bridge or somesuch, and maybe it is better to try to dive from that sort of height.

Tremendous. AWW at the moment, but if you can back up your Entry with some real-life stories you could really nudge this EG-wards. I hope you can

In furtherance to the provenance of your entry you might like to have a look at this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=435377&in_page_id=1770

The whole awful video will apparently be available from tomorrow night on:
www.mailonsunday.co.uk/skydiver

All the best

DK

Hey there!

Keep working on it, and it may get in the EG yet!

Here are some additional things to aim for:
Haystacks
Mud
Trampolines

I've heard rumors of surviving through haystacks, and heard documented accounts of mud. Trampolines, that may just be wishful thinking, and may just delay things as you hurl through the air again, already in pain.

Hmmm, maybe you'll want to suggest giving trampolines a miss !

You may also want to suggest how a parachutist uses their body like a wing to 'aim' themselves toward a target.

Perhaps you should also offer the suggestion that, failing to find something suitable to break your fall, that you aim for the hardest surface you can find to make your passing as quick and pain-quick as possible.

random question for anyone who's ever been skydiving: does your stomach get left behind after you jump, and does it catch up again?

There was a guy on the news today who's chute didn't open - he landed safely with only a cracked rib and a broken ankle -

Leo - Yes and yes.

I *will* finish this. Hopefully in the next day or two.

I reckon the official free-fall survival record is this lady : http://www.asi-mag.com/editorials/vesna_vulovic.htm

Though she was still strapped into the seat, in which position some of your suggestions are a bit impractical.

Pin