5 ms·
Well-written but a bit light on information. I thought about this a while back when I had the chance to try free-falling in an indoor wind tunnel. You can cont
by owenversteeg 10y ago
Well-written but a bit light on information. I thought about this a while back when I had the chance to try free-falling in an indoor wind tunnel.
You can control four variables: your speed, your landing position, your landing orientation, and your muscles.
- Increase your surface area as much as you can, that's your only way to slow down. Best case scenario you'll find a parachute, put it on, and slow down to 25mph or so; worst case, you'll manage to point yourself in a bullet shape and hit 200 mph. Realistically you'll go into a "flat" position and sail along around 120mph.
- Make yourself "flat" until you're about to land, then position yourself such that you land feet first.
- You can move, as the site said, about 2 miles horizontally falling from 15,000 feet: aim for trees, a heap of soil, or snow if possible. If you know the area, aim for any buildings with a large glass skylight - that's saved two known freefallers [0].
- Relax your muscles as much as you can. This can greatly improve your odds. By "greatly improve your odds" I am not kidding: this is almost definitely the single best thing you can do, and being fully relaxed can make you half as likely to die. [1]
There's also a very good possibility you're not at 35,000 feet. For example:
- You fall off the Burj Khalifa, 830 meters high. You'll fall for about 20 seconds, the last 5 or so near terminal velocity. Use your body to move and aim for the trees near the base of the tower - you've got enough time to make it, easily.
- You fall off a very tall building, ~500 meters or so. Same as the Burj Khalifa but you have less time, so think fast.
- You fall off a shorter building. There's no time to maneuver or slow down. With the few seconds you have, point your feet down and relax.
If you're over water, your odds are very low. The best option is to go in feet-first like a pencil dive.
Remember, you _do_ have an OK chance at survival. Between 5 and 15 people have survived free fall, most of which did not know what to do. From 15,000 feet up, you can land wherever you want inside a 13 square mile area - 2 miles in any direction. That's probably enough to get you to some trees at the very least. You can draw that on a map with this tool [2].
You can seriously improve your odds of survival by following these steps. Landing on snow, or a swamp, or a glass skylight makes your odds quite good. Landing in trees makes your odds OK. Making yourself flat gives you more time, and grabbing onto debris - if you can - can increase your chances of survival by 5 times [3]. Then, simply relaxing can double your chances of survival.
Finally, once you've hit the ground - regardless of what you did - there's a decent chance you're still alive, even if you'll die soon. Spend a short amount of time to stop external bleeding, keep your wounds clean and contact emergency services as soon as you can - ultimately, they will know far better than you what to do.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee
[1] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2012.08.006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2012.08.006
[2] http://obeattie.github.io/gmaps-radius/ http://obeattie.github.io/gmaps-radius/
[3] http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a5045/4344036/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a5045/434...
- ionwake 10y agoThe last sentence reminded me of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy for some reason.
- bitL 10y agoIn that case you'd just point your feet down and miss ;-)
- guptaneil 10y agoIf grabbing onto debris can increase your chances of survival 5x, why eject from your seat, which presumably qualifies as debris, in the first place?
- owenversteeg 10y agoYou want to minimize weight and maximize surface area, as well as increase impact time. If you're given the option to hold onto a giant piece of extra-strong pinkboard with grip handles, that'd be ideal. Unfortunately, this debris usually means you give up control, so it's a tradeoff you have to make. If you're over the middle of the ocean and two miles of lateral movement won't help you, by all means stay with your debris. But if you're falling over a mid-sized city, you have lots of things beneath you: buildings with glass skylights, piles of snow, and occasional trees. Landing on any of these things is far better than staying with whatever object you've got a hold of.
- tempestn 10y agoIf you are hanging onto a piece of debris, do you want to try to let go of it before impact? I'm assuming it's something with more drag than you, so presumably you're hanging under rather than surfing on it.. Although that's another interesting question. Maybe there's debris that wouldn't be particularly useful in slowing your descent, but could be useful to break your fall on impact... I can't immediately think of something that would be sufficiently good at that that it would be worth carrying with you though.