Catastrophic experiment

[Rover 11]

I seriously doubt that this happened but it is a good read.
Suspend your disbelief, please. This story may or may not be true, but I would like to believe it is. "My dad was a skydiver back in the '60s," writes a Reddit user. "There was a guy in his club who had the idea that he could test the axiom that 'cats always land on their feet' from freefall altitude, where he would fall with them and observe their self-righting behaviour. He had no interest in aiding their descent, just wanted to see how they behaved in freefall. In his plan, landing was the cats' problem, not his. Scientific impartiality, or some such thing. He took four stray cats up in a pillowcase for the jump. After exiting the plane, he turned the pillowcase inside out, releasing the cats. To his great surprise, all four cats attached themselves to his body immediately. With their claws. Given that cats have 18 claws each, he was punctured at least 72 times. More, probably, because he struggled vainly to remove the cats as he fell, but they were having none of it, and would reattach with even more conviction with every effort he made to pull them off. Presently, he was out of altitude, and had to turn his attention to opening the chute. Let's pause to do some math. A chute opening can generate as much as 3 Gs of force. The average cat weighs 8lb (3.6kg) at 1 G. At three Gs, this becomes 24lb (10.8kg) per cat. So when the chute opened, for a moment this guy had 72 razor sharp claws in his skin, each one being pulled down with a force of about one and a third pounds. That's 96lb of cat. He was sliced to ribbons, basically.



All four cats hung on through the chute opening, although the skydiver's shredded flesh allowed each one to slip several inches. Bleeding and in misery, the skydiver managed to make a safe, if rather rough, landing in a farm field. As soon as he hit the earth, all four cats ran off across the field, leaving him to lie there bleeding from his hundred or so wounds. He was the only member of the skydiving club displeased with the results of his experiment."

2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

[riggerrob 643]

Rumours are far more entertaining than facts!
Hah!
Hah!
Circa 1990, SKYDIVING Magazine published a fictional tale entitled "The Man Who Loved Cat Chasing."
Cat lovers were horrified!
Others (like me) laughed up thier lunch!
Hah!
Hah!

[dogboybirdy 1]

Hahahaha, I like how he had the intention of murdering 4 cats for "science".

"Take Risks not to escape life... but to prevent life from escaping."

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

I heard what could possibly be the same urban legend when I was a youngin' in the sport. Except it went more like, "Guy gets out of airplane at Elsinore, with a sack-full-of-cats and does a clear-and-pull. His plan was to drop the cats for accuracy. When opening the sack of cats, they all get loose and claw all over him. He's unable to get rid of any of them and eventually lands and the cats split leaving him a clawed up bloody mess."

ETA:

Moral of the story: If you're going to drop cats for accuracy, leave them in the sack!

[Niki1 1]

Karma is a bitch, isn't it?
This obviously proves that a "skydiving cat" will land on the skydivers feet. And then run off.

There was a story in DeLand from the late 60s about a cat that was dropped out of a plane at about 1,000 feet and landed (impacted) off the end of a runway. The cat was gone when they went to retrieve it. Some time later, weeks, months, a cat showed up at the clubhouse. Had the same coloring as the previous cat but the face was pretty flat.
I wasn't there. I didn't see it. If it's a lie, I'm not the first one to tell it.
(But the damaged face would indicate that the cat did indeed land on face down if not on its feet.)

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

[davidlayne 5]

Then there was the monkey that was being used on a test jump. The canopy opens, the monkey climbs up the lines and sits on top of the canopy collapsing it.

Also the Neil Bortz radio show that did a live broadcast of a supposed cat chasing sky dive. If memory serves me right it was in Atlanta and involved David Williams.

I don't care how many skydives you've got,
until you stepped into complete darkness at
800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs
of parachute, son you are still a leg!

[dogboybirdy 1]

***Then there was the monkey that was being used on a test jump. The canopy opens, the monkey climbs up the lines and sits on top of the canopy collapsing it.

I dont think Ive ever laughed that hard on the forums before.

"Take Risks not to escape life... but to prevent life from escaping."

[tbrown 26]

I'd say he had it coming. No problem there.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[obelixtim 150]

Then there was the attempt to give a chicken the longest flight by a chicken. Tossed out the door at 3 grand, but as soon as he hit the prop blast instinctively spread his wings.

Prop blast was too strong and the wings did the hand clap behind him. Chicken spiraled to earth....Should have released him from under canopy....

Also the theory that a mouse could survive a freefall from altitude, but no one could ever find one afterwards to verify the truth or otherwise of that.....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[Refugio 0]

obelixtim

Also the theory that a mouse could survive a freefall from altitude, but no one could ever find one afterwards to verify the truth or otherwise of that.....

Heck, tie some orange surveyors tape to a hind leg so he's highly visible on the ground. You could even watch him streamer in! Probably wouldn't slow him down much to cheat the experiment.

[danornan 79]

I serve on a local university committee that effectively works to prevent cruelty to animals in laboratory research called IACUC (Industrial Animal Care and Use Committee) and I don't think we would have allowed any of the preceding experiments. :-)

Dano

[jimjumper 25]

I resisted joining this conversation till now. Years ago, at Cal City, Dar Robinson did some filming for a Japanese commercial that included a free-falling dog. Not knowing how things would work out, they got a dog from the pound and rigged it up in a harness with a round reserve. They then dragged it out AFF style for some filming. The first time went great with the dog trying to swim and the canopy opened fine. The second time, they had to muzzle the dog because he wasn't having any of it! They exited the same way but on deployment the canopy line-overed. The dog managed to escape the harness on landing and ran away! Dar was killed 2 weeks later in a freak motorcycle accident while working on another stunt. The rumor was that it was the dogs revenge! Be careful with your karma out there...

[jclalor 12]

I've always gotten a kick out of the expression(s) on this cat's face.


https://youtu.be/VCshRw1DAks

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

jimjumper

I resisted joining this conversation till now. Years ago, at Cal City, Dar Robinson did some filming for a Japanese commercial that included a free-falling dog. Not knowing how things would work out, they got a dog from the pound and rigged it up in a harness with a round reserve. They then dragged it out AFF style for some filming. The first time went great with the dog trying to swim and the canopy opened fine. The second time, they had to muzzle the dog because he wasn't having any of it! They exited the same way but on deployment the canopy line-overed. The dog managed to escape the harness on landing and ran away! Dar was killed 2 weeks later in a freak motorcycle accident while working on another stunt. The rumor was that it was the dogs revenge! Be careful with your karma out there...

So would this be an example of one's dogma running over their karma!??

Anyway, a photo of that jump hung in the office at Cal City unit the day the place closed. I suppose maybe Junior & Emiko have it now.

[jimjumper 25]

Hey, someody has got to remember some of the craziness of Cal City! Now if we could just get Carrie to transfer the Halloween Pumpkin First Jump Course and fatality video to digital format!

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

jimjumper

Hey, someody has got to remember some of the craziness of Cal City! Now if we could just get Carrie to transfer the Halloween Pumpkin First Jump Course and fatality video to digital format!

Yeah, that was a hoot... right up until the cops showed up.

Anyway, I doubt Cary still has the tape. If not that, many things that went on at Cal City are best left to the ages... before everyone was running around with digital cameras cell phones capable of capturing digital video that to could blasted straight to Facebook and/or the Interwebs. ;)

[DougH 270]

I heard a story of a bunch of jerks that brought a cat along on a 182 load with the intention of tossing it out and catching it. Skyball with claws.

When they opened the door the cat turned into the tazmanian devil and started attacking everyone it could get to like a meth crazed buzz saw.

All evil doer jumpers got a good ass kicking, and then jumped, leaving the pilot to fend for the cat.

I can't verify the story, but if true they got what they deserved, including the complicit pilot!

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[jimjumper 25]

I still have the 16 way we tried to do with Emily the Manifest girl on her tandem with Bill. Nothing like a 16 way tandem funnel in the dark! I am pretty sure I remember Carrie mentioning that he still had it but that was a while ago!

[riggerrob 643]

Opposite story from the early days of the US Army training tracking dogs to jump.
These were tough, athletic dogs who cheerfully swam with their handlers, lept through obstacle courses, etc.

First jump, they strapped dogs across thier trainers legs ..... Similar to the way military static-liners hang thier rucksacks. They lowered the dogs on ropes after opening and everyone enjoyed thier jumps.

Second load was on a hot and humid day and a JM opened the door early to cool off the cabin ......

Before the third load, officers announced that all dogs must be securely strapped to jumpers before the door opened.