Wednesday, November 29, 2017

What made them think this was a good idea?


Over at Daily Timewaster, I came across this video of two BASE jumpers in wingsuits entering the passenger compartment of a Pilatus PC-6 Porter - in mid-air!





They seem to have enjoyed it, but I couldn't help shuddering at the thought of what would have happened if one of them had run into the propeller, instead of the entrance.  Sliced base-jumper?  Shredded chutist?  Either way, it would have been messy . . .

There's also the question of what might have happened if anything had gone wrong - a sudden wind swirl (not uncommon in the mountains), a problem with the aircraft (particularly a jumper hitting a vital control surface), or whatever.  I think this was a very dangerous stunt from many perspectives.

Peter

5 comments:

Old NFO said...

And no parachutes... Can we say death wish?

Ritchie said...

Wingsuit nuts do use parachutes for landing, like the jetwing maniacs, although the latter are said to be working on a way to land more or less normally. Years ago I stumbled across video of skydivers getting back into a diving plane, but the quality was so poor that this was the best interpretation.

Douglas2 said...

That same aircraft landed short of the airstrip a few days a go with substantial damage but no severe injuries:

http://www.aerotendencias.com/aviacion-general/41971-un-pilatus-pc-6-porter-sufrio-importantes-danos-al-aterrizar-en-el-aerodromo-de-empuriabrava/

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=201673

Thomas W said...

Watch enough Bond / super hero / action movies and anything is possible.

phil said...

Go watch "Wingman meets his maker" on Youtube. You will probably like it if you haven't seenit already.