[Merlin]

If it didn't hurt me the last 10 times ... it must be safe

I call this the "inductive horizon". I think we usually reason thru induction... an intuitive assessment from experience. Of course just beyond the "horizon" waits something entirely different from what we have seen before. And if we rely soley on our intuition we are doomed to blindly bumble into it.

We can only hope to learn from a close call when these things happen. But geez, with these paraglider collapses - so often there is no close call to learn from.

[Rick Masters]

Corsicana Daily Sun
Corsicana, Texas
14 Jun 1962
page 12

[Rick Masters]

The sport of flying your car: Before and after

Before


After ballistic parachute save.

http://nitra.sme.sk/c/7794922/v-nitre-p ... ezcom.html

[wingspan33]

Probably couldn't take that to your local auto body repair shop!

[Bob Kuczewski]

Probably couldn't take that to your local auto body repair shop!

I look forward to seeing you next week Wingspan!!!   

By the way, this was a very good post:

If it didn't hurt me the last 10 times ... it must be safe

I call this the "inductive horizon". I think we usually reason thru induction... an intuitive assessment from experience. Of course just beyond the "horizon" waits something entirely different from what we have seen before. And if we rely soley on our intuition we are doomed to blindly bumble into it.

That's exactly the problem we wrestle with in all forms of aviation (some more so than others).

[Rick Masters]

Skydiving and marital bliss

An army instructor is accused of the attempted murder of his wife on April 5. The police suspect he deliberately removed straps that connect the parachute harness from the equipment of his wife just before she jumped. The 39-year-old woman miraculously survived a fall of 1200 meters above the air base Netheravon. When her parachute refused to open, it triggered the reserve parachute. It deployed only a few seconds before she struck a field. She escaped death but suffered serious injuries: a broken collarbone, a broken leg and injuries to the spine. The security forces suspect the husband of the victim, a native of South Africa and a sergeant. It was he who had lent the faulty parachute to his wife.
http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2015/05 ... -mort.html

[Rick Masters]

Freeway skating

Video: http://webtv.hurriyet.com.tr/haber/cok-tehlikeli-hareketler-bunlar-e-5-te-paten-macerasi-_112786

[Bill Cummings]

The sport of flying your car: Before and after

Before


After ballistic parachute save.

http://nitra.sme.sk/c/7794922/v-nitre-p ... ezcom.html

Most of you are all fear pushers -- that damage should buff right out.

[Bob Kuczewski]

-- that damage should buff right out.

That ranks right up there with one of my other all-time favorites:

      "It's only a flesh wound."

[Rick Masters]

Adventure aviation operators should face random drug tests, a New Zealand coroner said Thursday, after finding the pilot of a balloon that crashed killing 11 people was a "chronic cannabis user". Coroner Peter Ryan said pilot Lance Hopping's judgement was probably impaired by cannabis when the balloon hit power lines in January 2012 before plunging to the ground in a flaming wreck. Ryan said cannabis would account for some of the "inexplicable" actions taken by Hopping in the lead up to the crash, which killed everyone on board -- all New Zealanders -- as relatives watched from the ground in horror. ..."The question that must then be asked is: was Mr. Hopping's piloting of a commercial balloon with THC (cannabis) in his system an isolated incident, or is this a widespread problem within the adventure aviation sector?" Adventure aviation includes hot-air ballooning, gliding, tandem hang-glider and paraglider operations, as well as commercial parachuting.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/ar ... agedy.html
[also posted in "Flying with Children"]