"Lawn Chair, Two O'Clock, One Mile..."

Maxwell wrote:

They couldn't duplicate it on their show, and considered it busted. But a
good friend of mine was trying to move one in a church that was under
construction. He accidentally drove it into an orchestra pit and was thrown
across the sanctuary.

That's very different than what they were investigating on the show.

On the show, the conditions involved suddenly removing a lifted weight,
causing the arm to suddenly apply the lifting force in the opposite
direction, launching the occupant as a projectile.

With all due respect to your friend, it sounds like he was thrown as one
set of wheels fell into a hole. This is totally different, very easy to
understand, and unfortunately, it happens on a regular basis.

I work for a utility company, and guess what happens when a line truck
with the boom up gets hit by a car? The same thing! This is why body
harnesses are OSHA required when working aloft on a platform or in a
bucket. We've had technicians travel a surprising distance to their
death as the parked truck was rear-ended and the harness wasn't attached.

On Mon, 14 May 2007 23:44:19 -0500, "Maxwell" wrote in :

... a
good friend of mine was trying to move one in a church that was under
construction. He accidentally drove it into an orchestra pit and was thrown
across the sanctuary.

Condolences to you and to his family.

RIP.

Marty
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On Tue, 15 May 2007 19:11:04 +1000, "d&tm" wrote in :

Calculating the lift is really not that difficult. And even if you cant
calculate it , how hard is it so simply measure the lift of a single balloon
on a scale to determine how many balloons are requried to lift the desired
payload. I remember doing this my 10 year old daughter using party balloons
and a kitchen scale. I recall we calculated about 5000 party balloons were
required to lift a small person.

http://www.mythbustersfanclub.com/mb...nt/view/61/27/

Mythbusters miscalculated and didn't explain why their calculations
were off.

They thought 1700 would lift 40 pounds.

It took ~3500 to get the effect they sought.

One guess: they were conservative in filling the balloons
on the day of the test and didn't put as much gas in each
balloon (on average) as they did in the lab. Or there
was some weight in the tethers they used that they didn't
factor into their prediction.

Marty
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"Martin X. Moleski, SJ" wrote in message
...

Condolences to you and to his family.


Thanks Marty. It's been 5 or so years ago, but he was a very good friend to
me. I owed Don a lot.

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...
On May 14, 8:10 am, quietguy wrote:
John Deakin included this link in his latest "Pelican's Perch" column
on AvWeb.com:

http://home.earthlink.net/~quade/lawnchair.html

Despite the downbeat ending I find it inspirational: chase that
dream...

His exchange was actually recorded .
http://www.markbarry.com/audio/lawnchairman.ram
BTW: He did win one with the FAA. He was able to successfully argue
that his lawn chair did not need an airworthiness certificate. That
charge was dropped and he setted for $1500. He was quoted as saying
its a good thing the FAA was not around when the Wright brothers flew!
-Robert

That poor henpecked fool.

"Mike Young"
His exchange was actually recorded .
http://www.markbarry.com/audio/lawnchairman.ram

That poor henpecked fool.


In her defense, she did not hold him back! :-)


Montblack

"Montblack" wrote in message
...

"Mike Young"
His exchange was actually recorded .
http://www.markbarry.com/audio/lawnchairman.ram

That poor henpecked fool.


In her defense, she did not hold him back! :-)



And what's up with the BB-gun thing? A right thinking person (yes, they fly
lawnchairs, too) would just cut the strings with a ka-bar. Or a Leatherman,
for today's suburbanite; doubles as a bottle opener. Not much chance of
putting out an eye with an errant missile then. And no danglie strings to
snag in, ummm, powerlines.

"Mike Young" wrote:

His exchange was actually recorded .
http://www.markbarry.com/audio/lawnchairman.ram

That poor henpecked fool.


In her defense, she did not hold him back! :-)



And what's up with the BB-gun thing? A right thinking person (yes, they fly
lawnchairs, too) would just cut the strings with a ka-bar.

More than one balloon per string?

--
Dan

"How can an idiot be a policeman? Answer me that!"
- Chief Inspector Dreyfus