Pumpkin Toss Math Question

[cocheese 0]

Let's help Wildfan75 win the Pumpkin Toss at her dz this weekend.

A plane is traveling 75 mph at 500 feet.
The pumpkin is basketball size and weighs 7 pounds.
The wind is 5 mph head wind.
The target is an orange VW Bug.

How far before the car should Wildfan75 drop her pumpkin?


I figure if she places a marker in this spot, she will win with the help of you smart people.

Kalland? Billvon? Grannyinthesky? Sunshine?
Anyone?


My dumb guess is 350 feet.

[davelepka 4]

You need the altitude of the plane to do the math

[cocheese 0]

After proof reading i realized i forgot the most important part.

[davelepka 4]

Ooops!

Of course you realize you have once again left out the needed info.

[cocheese 0]

Still?

Umm She throws like a girl?

Edit: I don't think she throws like a girl

[davelepka 4]

Now it's my mistake, I see you edited the original post.

This is where we go back to waiting for some of the smart people to figure out the answer.

[pirana 0]

Even if the physics gurus here nail down the factors and give the perfect answer; the human error in eyeballing the drop spot will still make it very tough.

My tactic would be a "repeater" drop. Machine gun pumpkins. Get a dozen and start dropping them one at a time, about 1/2 second apart, equally spread out before and after the calculated perfect spot. Would that be cheating?

I've heard that in all the years the car has only been hit once or twice.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[BillyVance 34]

I've done this before. West Tennessee Skydiving from Mullins King Air. It was great fun, and I had the 3rd or 4th closest drop out of 3 full loads, with two of the Mullins boys besting me.

I don't remember the particular data such as speed and altitude drop, but I remember the plane flying east to west perpendicular to the runway, well away from the DZ facilities, for a good reason (which I'll explain later). Spot was about halfway between the road and the runway. The plane passes over the road first. We had some wildly fluctuating guesses. Some pumpkins splattered on the runway, some just past the road but most in the vicinity of the target. We found we were having to drop well short of the road. It was weird just watching the falling pumpkin continue to fall forward almost damn near all the way to the ground because when it hit, it splattered to the direction of flight.

Now the story... funny one actually, maybe not to Mike... Now this was not the same year I participated so I wasn't there. One of his sons was at the door with his pumpkin. Mike thought he'd dropped and started banking the plane to the left, towards the DZ facilities, only his son hadn't dropped by then. He dropped in the process of the turn. It entered through the roof of the bathhouse, exploding into a gooey orange mess all over the inside of the girls' side. If the pumpkin had a diameter of 24 3/4", the hole's diameter was 24 7/8"!

I was told no one was in there at the time but somebody was just about to open the door to go inside when it did hit.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[wildfan75 1]

500 feet
Door speed is more like 80mph.

And while a pumpkin machine gun would be great, we can't take too many pumpkins with us because of airplane weight. We do the pass at 500' and then head to altitude to jump.

Forecast states winds will be 12mph WSW. Pumpkin Run will be south the north due to the fact that the clubhouse is east of the target vehicle and there's a house west of the target vehicle.

And yes, it car hasn't been hit for many, many, many years. If fact, when doing video the safest place to video from is standing on the car.

[wildfan75 1]

And no, I don't throw like a girl.








Unless people are watching.

But I've got a mean wrist shot and slap shot so its all good.

[cocheese 0]

Anyone from Michigan know about a pumpkin that went through a roof near Crosswell i think about 20+ years ago.

I was told the owners were gone at the time, but the skydivers had to wait til they got home to explain what happened and pay/fix the roof....and clean the inside.

Man what a mess that would be.

[wildfan75 1]

We get blamed for every pumpkin found smashed in the streets of Chippewa Falls every year. If we had the skills to be able to hit the streets randomly around town, certainly we would have hit the car in recent years!

[pirana 0]

Which causes me to wonder; do you have to get a permit for the event? Is it legal to just throw shit from a plane at your own discretion? I'd think there'd be some laws about that kind of thing.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[bfilarsky 0]

rough calculation gives me 5.5 seconds of freefall for the pumpkin. I didn't account for drag, but its fairly negligible. At 75 mph, that gives me 613 ft across the ground. Good luck!

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Yes you can throw stuff out of airplanes. The Regs read something to the effect "as long as you have taken reasonable care not to damage persons or property on the ground".

[poe62 0]

Sec. 91.15 Dropping Objects

No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.

**edit** oops...I didn't make the post in time. ha

~Nikki
http://www.facebook.com/poe62

Irgity Dirgity

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Quote

rough calculation gives me 5.5 seconds of freefall for the pumpkin. I didn't account for drag, but its fairly negligible. At 75 mph, that gives me 613 ft across the ground. Good luck!

I think your across the ground number is about right. I think with forward throw your freefall time will be a little longer.

I remember the the first time I did this it seemed like it took forever to hit the ground.

[JohnMitchell 16]

Yep, I wagged about 6 seconds of FF, about 100 ft/sec velocity. Huck it 200 yds early. Pace off a landmark along the bombrun line to know where 600 ft is.

I've seen a direct hit on a old Dodge van from a large pumpkin, from 100 mph at about 100 feet. I was next to the van and hid behind it when we realized they had our range. It was a pretty impressive smash.

Ahh, the good old days.

[Nutz 0]

OK, I am an expert at this. Throw the math out the window. You need to be somewhere in the middle to the end of the throwers. You watch what kind of throw they are getting, pick your spot to release before you go up. When you "throw" the pumpkin, all you do is let go of it. If you have judged your spot correctly you will be close. The drop is hard to judge and if you are a split second early or late you will miss. I have found the safest place to be during one of these things is on the target - there is no way any of you dumb asses are hitting it. (Me included.) Great fun!

"Don't! Get! Eliminated!"

[wildfan75 1]

So the next thing to do is to mark it on the map. See attached. The red circle indicates where the car will be. The red line indicates jump run.

Mark the spot!!!

[BillyVance 34]

Quote

OK, I am an expert at this. Throw the math out the window. You need to be somewhere in the middle to the end of the throwers. You watch what kind of throw they are getting, pick your spot to release before you go up. When you "throw" the pumpkin, all you do is let go of it. If you have judged your spot correctly you will be close. The drop is hard to judge and if you are a split second early or late you will miss. I have found the safest place to be during one of these things is on the target - there is no way any of you dumb asses are hitting it. (Me included.) Great fun!

Hey now, I would not bet against any of the Mullins kids.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[popsjumper 2]

How about a covert operation?

Secretly install pop-out wings and tail on said pumpkin with RC controls inside. Operator hides in woods and flies the RC pumpkin to target. Destruction on impact will hide any and all evidence.

Oh wait...forget that. You'd be busted really quickly. If TWO people know a secret, EVERYBODY will soon know it.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[JohnMitchell 16]

Quote

So the next thing to do is to mark it on the map. See attached. The red circle indicates where the car will be. The red line indicates jump run.

Make sure you get a long jump run. Confirm the pilot is at 500 feet AGL Center up on a straight track to the target. Kill your drift with small heading corrections to the pilot. Release the pumpkin when the peas are a little closer than half way between you and the car. That is about 200 yards. (Or pace off 200 yards from the target and put a marker in the field for a release point.) Good luck.

[labrys 0]

Quote

How far before the car should Wildfan75 drop her pumpkin?

Is it an African pumpkin or a European pumpkin?

Owned by Remi #?

[cocheese 0]

What is the difference?

1st pic is South African