Mythbusters Take Note

[TX50]

A Soviet air force officer called Ivan M. Chisov is
reported to have fallen nearly 22,000 feet and survived.
He says that he intended to free fall and
open his parachute at a thousand feet or so but
blacked out on the way down and just carried right on
in. He hit the edge of a snow covered ravine
and rolled to the bottom. He broke his pelvis and
suffered spinal injuries but survived (back on duty 14
weeks later!). He is usually acknowledged as the
highest "free fall" (ie. unaided by falling wreckage)
survivor. Googling "I. M. Chisov" will return information
on him.

Alan McGee actually fell through the glass roof of the
railway station at St. Nazaire so almost certainly had a
hard landing (after falling 20,000 feet),yet survived.

 

[Mattfn]

I believe the Alan McGee story is what the Mythbusters tested. If he was a gunner and fell into a glass railway station, it certainly is the story MB found.

 

[LTC8K6]

I think the Mythbusters are slipping a bit. In recent special they did on pirates, they allegedly debunked the "myth" that the splinters and shrapnel from cannon fire killed as many, if not more sailors than the cannonball itself by looking at a restricted special case that seemed rigged to fail. Not only does history (and the journals of numerous ship's surgeons) disagree with their assessment, this video: http://www.brigniagara.org/virtualtour/fightingsail.htm would suggest otherwise as well.

As a rabid Patrick O'Brian fan, I took great umbrage.

I think the Mythbusters demo was the more accurate of the two. That video appeared to be using thin styrofoam men. Hardly representative, imo. Indeed the Mythbusters initial scale experiments with foam looked deadly, but the full scale runs with pigs just didn't turn out to be so deadly.

The Mythbusters are quite willing to revisit myths and admit when they made errors. No doubt the Pirate show will generate follow ups.

 

[Buckaroo]

I think the Mythbusters demo was the more accurate of the two. That video appeared to be using thin styrofoam men. Hardly representative, imo. Indeed the Mythbusters initial scale experiments with foam looked deadly, but the full scale runs with pigs just didn't turn out to be so deadly.

The Mythbusters are quite willing to revisit myths and admit when they made errors. No doubt the Pirate show will generate follow ups.

You're certainly correct about the styrofoam men, and the video is difficult to analyze. But the shot used by the cannon in the Niagara video seemed to be larger than that used by the Mythbusters, and would carry significantly greater energy (in the Mythbusters' defense, they DID mention that their shot was kinda small). It looked like the Mythbusters were only using a six-pounder or so. (Did they say? I didn't see the whole episode.) What would a 36-pounder do? And I think the hull is probably more accurate in the Niagara video, too -- the Mythbusters version seemed a bit flimsy. I just think they were a little premature in pronouncing the myth "busted," and I'd love to see them revisit this topic.

Still love the show.

 

[Pidge]

I helped recover the body of a mountain climber who was killed by an eight-foot fall. 'Taint so much the fall, it's what what part of you hits.

I agree - I had a fall of eight metres or so, and "only" broke my left ankle and right heel.

 

[Ove]

I don't know whether this is a myth but I'm sure I heard the story that when Nick came too, in the snow covered pine forest, he thought he was in heaven because everything was white.

Dont know about that but i read the story about him. HE survived mainly because he landed in a dense forrest and in snow. Apparently he had great problems convincing the germans that he was not a spy. They at first thought he had buried his parachute. He managed to get them to search the wreckage of the plane though and they found the remains of his parachute in it. After that he was as you say treated with great respect.