jf951 1 #1 November 17, 2011 hey guys i was wondering if anyone has any first hand experience flying with fruit they'd care to share, specifically pumpkins or watermelons. could any of you guys elaborate on their fall rates and flight characteristics? i figure their speed would either be close to freefly speeds or some where drastically under terminal. and lastly do they fall relatively "straight" or is there some drastic wobble in their flight? thanks guys!Jump more, Bitch less. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nutz 0 #2 November 17, 2011 Sorry, I've only dropped them from 500'. "Don't! Get! Eliminated!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuckakers 425 #3 November 17, 2011 Find "Simon Bones" of Houston on facebook. He's chased just about everything in the sky and does so a on a regular basis. He can fill you in.Chuck Akers D-10855 Houston, TX Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davelepka 4 #4 November 17, 2011 Releasing anything in freefall is risky business. Flying with a skyball, tuned for an ideal speed and falling straight down is not easy, and that's why it's generally frowned upon. Add in the variables of fruit, those being the size and density, and the 'odd' shapes, what you end up with is a fall rate you may or may not be able to stay with, and a trajectory that's anyone's guess. If the 'object' starts to spin, it will not fall straight down, or even close to it. I'm sure it goes without saying, you need the very clear and obvious permission of the DZO and the pilot before releasing anything in freefall. Walk up to each of them, fully geared up and holding the 'object' right before you board the plane, and double check that they know you are doing it then, and that they still agree to the action. The other thing is to have a plan in place for the bottom end. You should assign the best flyer in the group to 'catch' the item, and have a break off plan where everyone clears away fom the object at 5k, and make sure the 'catcher' knows that he needs to stop tryng to catch the object by 2500ft. He will need time to catch and secure the object, and then get stable and slowed down for deployment. You need your hands on the object by 2500 at the lowest to even hope to have all that other stuff done by 2000 so you can deploy. If you don't have it by 2500, you're never going to have it, so give up and open a parachute. Overall, just don't do it fi you have to ask questions on the internet. If you don't have someone on your DZ with experience in this sort of thing who is willing to organize the jump, just take a pass and do something else. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmytavino 16 #5 November 17, 2011 sensible advice.. only while it Is possible to catch and hold a 'skyball' or some smaller object... there's NO way that anyone will likely be able to hold a Watermelon Or pumpkin, once deployment begins and the jumper hits line stretch.... imho right???? jt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wmw999 2,457 #6 November 17, 2011 Here is one (not very smart) way to hold a pumpkin. And here is his description of opening. Wendy P.There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davelepka 4 #7 November 17, 2011 Quotesensible advice.. Back in the day when the skyball started to show up in freefly videos (mainly Chronicle 2), me and my buddies were already freeflying with some success, and had 500 to 1000 jumps each, so we figured, why not? It turned out there were a bunch of reasons why not, and most of them are several feet deep in the Ohio woods. A couple of us were also almost several feet deep in the Ohio woods chasing things much lower than we should have. There's nothing like 3 guys going for the same freefly-speeed skyball under 2k to get your attention. Eventually we did get it figured out, and then for some reason we all paid Olav $75 to prove it and earned an 'Atmospheric Dolphin A License'. A lot of good that did.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 2,027 #8 November 17, 2011 Quotehey guys i was wondering if anyone has any first hand experience flying with fruit they'd care to share, specifically pumpkins or watermelons. could any of you guys elaborate on their fall rates and flight characteristics? i figure their speed would either be close to freefly speeds or some where drastically under terminal. and lastly do they fall relatively "straight" or is there some drastic wobble in their flight? thanks guys! We have a chunkin' contest at our school every year. We limit the size of the machines for safety reasons, and don't allow any explosives or compressed gases. The winning throw is usually around 250ft. A moving axle trebuchet has been the winning design for several years in a row. There's video somewhere on the web. Pumpkins fly fairly straight. If you want to calculate a trajectory, use a drag coefficient of 0.5 which seems to give pretty accurate results.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnRich 4 #9 November 17, 2011 Search: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_string=pumpkin+pumpkins&search_type=AND&search_fields=sb&search_time=&search_user_username=&sb=score&mh=20 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jf951 1 #10 November 18, 2011 awesome! thanks for pointing me in the right direction guys! dave im not going to catch it, i've got a buddy with a few hundred empty acres were gonna toss it out over, my biggest concern was it being dangerously floaty but it sounds like it'll sink out if anything. hopefully ill have some video for you guys soon! and you werent kidding about that simon bones guy, he's jumped with anything! a frozen turkey!? that'll put a hole in the ground. Jump more, Bitch less. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davelepka 4 #11 November 18, 2011 Quotei've got a buddy with a few hundred empty acres were gonna toss it out over, my biggest concern was it being dangerously floaty but it sounds like it'll sink out if anything. Make sure you have a plan for either eventuality. If it's too fast, you don't have to worry about the pumpkin, but your buddy trying to catch it might be a risk. Focused on the pumpkin and diving hard, maybe he doesn't see you, or maybe he corks out of the dive near you. If it's too slow, same problem where everyone is looking at the pumpkin, and not each other. Of course, you also need to think about the pumpkin up overhead, and where it might be drifting before you go to track off or open. Like I said, have a plan, and have it invovle going the other direction as the pumpkin for a long time before pulling. You might need to adjust your break off altitude way up if it floats on you. If you're doing this off DZ, make sure you have a good LZ scoped out, one with clean air given the wind direciton of the day. Don't forget about wind socks or airblades, and try to get a jumper on the ground to be a spotter watching for cutaways, off landings, and that everyone gets open. Make sure they have the number of local ambulance/rescue, and they know the street address where you're landing and how to get first responders into the LZ if need be. Jumping off DZ can be done, but there are facilites and procedures in place at the DZ that nobody realizes until something goes wrong. Only then does the benefit of the DZ, their emergency planning, and the group of experienced jumpers hanging out become clear. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dpreguy 14 #12 November 18, 2011 OK I know this has nthing to do with falling vegetables, but: For whatever reason (escapes me now) a friend, Stan Welniak and I took a full sized Christmas tree out of Cesssna 182. It stood both of us up and we just let go of it after a while, then pulled. Of course the tree whistled by. We were not all that concerrned at the time, but looking back - we sure should have been. Round parachutes. 60's. It is a logged jump, for whatever that is worth. Taking wierd things out the door was all the rage for a while back then. I guess we just had to top the last stunt. Why we chose a Chrisatms tree escapes me. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmytavino 16 #13 November 18, 2011 speaking of tossing various items out of the plane...one time we chucked a big Rock out.. just to watch it... we were at 2 grand or so.. with 4 of us laying in the cabin, in various positions soas to get our heads out the door....AWAY it went. it was about the size of a good sized dinner plate, and 8 or 10 iches thick !! maybe 30 pounds... it rocketed away!!!!... over a VERY remote UNoccupied area, and spanked the ground BIG TIME.... It remined me of a Road Runner - Wile E Coyote impact.. with a visible PUFF of air.. and a cloud of dust, rippling out away from the crater. like concentric rings on a Pond..... neat visual... Another time a jumper who was a Photographer had an SLR camera that he didn't like and wasn't using much. It was insured for damage, and he wanted to update his gear.. so he figured, "if it Falls,,,, and breaks",, the insurance will provide him with the $$$$$ to buy something "better"... sooooo Up in the 180 we Go he ties a W D I streamer onto it, so we can follow it.... "hires" a kid from the DZ to watch from the ground, and then head out to "recover it" and everything is Good to Go........well there was a real scramble to "get ON that load" once the word got out... and i was able to get a slot.. So anyway UP we go and the guy decides,, higher is Better.. ( for camera smashing momentum) so tell the pilot,, "gimme FIVE grand "... once again all heads have a piece of the door and were ready for " The Show".... he pitches that BadBoy OUT the door... just south of the DZ and over the top of a wide open field.. ONLY Problem???!!!!! the field is adjacent to a deep and nasty swampy area covered in water, and muck and brush and a few trees.... well with the "carry" from our forward momentum,, AND maybe a tailwind, and Maybe some Karma for this dude who was trying to rip off his insurance co... hahahahahah all the rest of us, ( with No horse in the race ) look at each other and start Cracking UP !! Big Time!! hahahhahha... we are still grinning as we get to seven-five,,,, well alll except Bob... and we do our skydive.... We get to the ground to find that the "spotter" ( who was an optimistic kid, and who REALLY wanted that 10 dollar "recovery fee" ) has headed out and is in pursuit of the "evidence " for the insurance claim...The kid returns about 45 minutes later.. he is carrying about 3 feet of yellow streamer and proclaims to BOB.." i think you're gonna need a shovel".... hahahaha BOB loses it ... but we took up a quick collection to pay the Kid HIS 10 dollars..simply for the entertainment value of his proclamation !!!!!! BOB was pissed........ back in the 70's baby... back in the 70's jmytee Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BillyVance 34 #14 November 18, 2011 That's a great story! Funny shit! But yeah, whatever forward speed the plane is going when you drop something, you have to adjust and drop before you pass over the spot. The pumpkin toss competition I got to be part of years ago was loads of fun. We all got pumpkins approximately 18" in diameter and the closest strike to target won. There were a few wild misses too. And although I wasn't there that one year one of the contestants dropped a pumpkin way too late after the pilot had already started turning to get lined up to land and the pumpkin scored a bulls eye on the bathhouse roof! If the pumpkin had a diameter of 16 3/4", the hole it made was 16 7/8" across! Luckily nobody was in the bathhouse at the moment but it crashed a split second before one person started to open the door to go in. Fucking huge mess with shredded pumpkin everywhere in the bathroom. This is what was related to me by someone who was there, mind you. "Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
