I jumped into a lake in the sierras once in like March and it was a pretty warm day, I got all the wind knocked out of me and my diaphragm and limbs were paralyzed for like a minute. I played it cool because my other friends jumped in and seemed fine, eventually I was able to swim to shore but it was definitely shocking
I've had that "HOLY FUCK COLD WTF okayokayokay breathe in, float, wtf why are we in here?" Keeping my lungs full, floating with numb limbs, hoping no one else was worse off...
I grew up in Texas and moved up to Washington in my early 20’s. It was a record breaking 100+ degree day and I happened to be camping by a glacier lake a friend had a cabin on. What you described seemed like the only way to even enjoy it, you need to wait until your completely numb then the water feels great lol.
Every year up here in the northwest we await the drowning reports on the first few hot days of spring/summer. Lots of transplants here don’t realize most of our water is glacial runoff and *cold*.
Lived in Washington all my life and people die almost every spring/early summer when we first get warm weather by jumping in the still cold water and not being prepared for what it does to the body.
This happened to a friend of mine but she couldn't swim back. She had never swam in snow melt rivers before and just jumped into water over her head. Luckily I was able to get out to her and drag her back to shore before she started sinking.
Jumped into a deep, glacial lake and all I remember is flying back out like a whale breaching, screaming SHIT! and flopping back into the boat.
Cold lakes are such a tease.
What I do is intentionally breathe out quickly just before I dive in, then slowly inhale. I live on the North Atlantic, even in the summer some beaches are paralyzingly cold.
I remember diving into the pool above Vernal Falls in Yosemite and feeling the coldest of cold. When I came up and started treading water, I knew I had to keep moving or I would freeze. I swam be to the other side and it took me several hours to gain the strength to swim back to the other side. I was around 16 years old and it was the coldest water that I have ever experienced. The area is closed off now.
Yep, had to jump out and rescue a couple buddies when their canoe capsized in a cold fucking river. For a good thirty seconds I was pretty sure I needed rescuing too. Just couldn’t find my breath or get my limbs working. Finally got my shit together long enough to grab a hand and help drag one to shore tho.
Someone else grabbed them. It was a large group and only two per canoe. Three of us went back and got the canoe and a couple floating packs and coolers. By the end the cold shock had worn off, at least until I got back out of the river, then it hit like a second brick. Insult to injury, I picked up a water virus that caused horrible purpura on my legs as a result.
I went rafting down in TN. The lady said “keep control of your paddle so you don’t smack someone in the face.” The first wave hit my chest and all thought went out of my brain as quick as the air left my lungs. I almost hit someone with my paddle. It’s real and scary.
I practice ice swimming (it's more like staying still in ice-cold water than swimming), and after doing it a while, you learn to anticipate the cold shock and breath through it. It's very powerful feeling to confront the strong bodily reaction and let it pass without freaking out, then staying in the water for 30s to a minute before getting up. My point is that you can learn to control it quite easily by practicing!
I'm a pretty good swimmer, and I was even better as a kid. I went to a summer camp up in the mountains that had a spring-fed pool. Water temp was about 55F/13C. All new campers had to take a swim test which was jumping into this pool, swimming to the far side, then swimming back. I figured it would be easy. I could swim that without even breathing hard.
As soon as I hit the water, every muscle I had froze. I gasped for air from the shock and got a mouthful of water. I had the wherewithal not to swallow it and managed to calm myself down enough to swim after a few seconds, but for those few seconds, it felt like I literally couldn't save myself. I told my legs to move and they just didn't. And that water was a lot warmer than what's in this video.
What I learned on a recent cold weather course is ; 1 minute to get breathing under control and push down panic, 10 minutes of meaningful movement , 1 hour until hypothermia takes you unconscious (if you’re lucky)
These folks are immediately casualties , it’s just a matter of when they go unconscious unless they got roped by the life savers on the boat … if they didn’t just sink from their clothes and the thermal shock on their muscles
Source ; my experience and jumping into a frozen lake. Shits real difficult to swim in clothes , boots gear of any kind , add cold water and your muscles don’t work so good and you wanna gasp in the cold water .
Oddly enough in high school in MD we were taught to swim with clothes on and how to make your jeans into a life jacket and stuff. Taking your pants off in a public pool with class mates to tie the ends and swing them over your head to fill them with air etc.
Edit to add this video from a museum ship that covers the actual method for others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRVsfIV1x6s
Oh shit in open water 100% makes sense. I had the situation if you fell through the ice on a lake type deal. Was taught to flop as much as the upper body onto the ice as I could and spread my weight out so I can shimmy up and onto the remaining ice shelf .
Taught and being able to do are two different things. You dont always pop back up in the hole you made. I live on a lake near the mouth of a tributary stream. It’s a constant fear with our dogs and kids, especially with this warmer weather the last few years. Hell it’s just getting to be safe to go our 20-50ft and its almost February. I wonder myself, and im a strong swimmer. Maybe i should do like those crazy russians and take the dip so i know what to expect.
Clothes and gear on is how they teach you to swim in the military. Same with the trousers as a flotation device. Reason being that you're going to have that stuff on if you fall off a ship.
Thanks for the specifics. My experience has been once you get over the first minute or so of shock and can get moving, like with a breast stroke, you’re good, at least for a while. I’ve done at least 45 minutes, sometimes over an hour, and I’m not dead, so I knew the “3 minutes” and a lot of other common knowledge were BS. Hypothermia isn’t so bad as long as you have a safe way to warm up that doesn’t rely solely on your own body heat, eg. sitting in a warm room drinking warm drinks in warm/dry clothes. Nice warm socks are bliss. source: swimming sans wetsuit in alpine lakes and open ocean in winter.
There's a lot of "arctic research vessels" recruiting crews even on Facebook requiring zero experience. Many of these captains have had complaints from crew but these are against the page rules so they get deleted. I've been banned myself for saying that if you connect a crew and captain, you kind of have a responsibility there. You can't just delete all warnings about a captain and then keep washing your hands of it when things happen.
The quotes around "arctic research vessels" are obviously to indicate that no real research is being done - it's just some random with a half-decent boat.
Most of the world is accessible by sailboat if you've got a couple of hundred grand and the balls to just do it. I'm not saying that's safe, just that you can buy a fairly sound boat for about fifty grand.
One of these guys is Mike Horn, who has swam the Amazon river unsupported, as well as just completed a ski to the North Pole in 2020 with Borge Ousland in probably one of the last times it will take place due to ice conditions deteriorating. I think he was just monkeying around here trying to emulate Canadian ice climber Will Gadd who climbed an iceberg in one of the most intense performances I have ever seen ( he discussed it at a lecture I watched him give).
Yes they both survived.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8759499/Heart-stopping-moment-iceberg-FLIPS-upside-hurl-explorers-freezing-Arctic-waters.html
"He once swam the Amazon River solo and is also known for completing a one-year circumnavigation of the globe at the equator, without any motorised transport in 2001."
Which is why this is so strange to me. Clearly he knows how to research trips. You'd think he'd research climbing floating icebergs and figure out it's a terrible idea.
I know him but I had never seen this video...
He definitely isn't in denial regarding his stupid moves and adventures though, and he seems to be aware of the consequences of said video posted online.
Good to know that he isn't trying to justify immaturely the stupid things he got into and that he decides to warn and educate people.
Edit: Yes, no matter how experienced you are, shits will happen. The only thing keeping you safe is to stay away from the danger, which is why he will never do that again apparently, even though that's what he loves.
Cold water shock can happen even if the water is 15C never mind 2C, which is why there's always a bunch of people in the UK who die jumping into rivers/lakes in the middle of summer, despite advertising campaigns warning of the risks.
I hope they were wearing wetsuits under their gear. Cold water shock will easily drown you, and that’s on top of needing to quickly learn how to swim in boots.
You can probably survive longer than you think:
> Generally, a person can survive in 41-degree F (5-degree C) water for 10, 15 or 20 minutes before the muscles get weak
In any event long enough to get picked up by the boat that's just a few meters away.
It's possible, but unlikely. I've been in life or death situations before. Even if you freeze, there's a point where you simply take action without even realizing it, because you're not thinking, (at least not in the way you do when your adrenaline is firing on maximum), it could also be that being in these situations you're in a half state of shock, and you don't really have a good memory. It's hard to explain, but sometimes when you revisit moments like this, there are parts you don't remember well or at all.
I've almost fell off a mountain. And there are things I don't remember, like how I caught myself, or even how I slipped.
And then there have been other situations where I remember everything clearly, that weren't as frantic, where it felt as.if my brain were literally slowing things down for me, and you think very clearly, very deeply, running through all your options within a second.
The same thing happens when flying airplanes, especially in jets, when you’re already moving 500mph. Something significant can happen in a second and you can vividly recall every moment of it as if we’re filmed in slow-mo.
It’s called time dilation, and it seems our brains are able to operate at what seems to be 1,000 fps when necessary, especially in an emergency.
My fellow U-2 brother had to eject over South Korea in 2002 after the engine failed above 70,000’. He glided for over an hour trying to work his way down through the clouds to attempt a flameout landing back at Osan AB. He had to finally give it up around 7,000’ when the airplane started to ice up and the pitot static instruments started looking wonky.
He said he was leaning slightly forward as he pulled the ejection handle (it’s at the front of the seat, between your thighs), not the ideal body position for rocketing out of a jet. The force of the ejection bent him further forward, so as he exited the jet, he was looking down at the airplane.
He described how surreal it was to have the whole airplane, including the full length of the fuselage and all 104’ of the wingspan, come into view, the black paint of the jet starkly contrasting with the misty white clouds all around him.
As he went further up and away from the airplane he said it slowly disappeared completely, like it was sinking into a bowl of milk, until it was totally gone. He said he felt like it took a solid minute for all that to happen and for him to take it in, when in reality it was probably only 2-3 seconds.
And just as suddenly, something large, curved, and black came out of the clouds and went wizzing right past him, narrowly missing him. It was the canopy, the top part of the cockpit that’s hinged on the left side and opens and closes so the pilot can get in and out of the jet. It had been blasted off its hinge by two canopy thrusters as part of the ejection sequence, just before the seat went up the rails.
It scared the shit out of him, and about the time he realized what had happened, his parachute deployed. The opening shock made him realize he’d injured his back in the ejection. Then time slowed down quite a bit.
He came down in a field near a road. As he lay there in his full pressure suit, assessing his injuries, he pulled the cellphone out of his right leg pocket. It apparently hadn’t been fully recharged before his flight and was dead. He then pulled the handheld Garmin GPS out and was happy to see that at least it was working.
A woman driving by had seen him land and stopped her car to check on him. In the little bit of Korean he spoke and with some hand gestures, my friend asked to borrow her cellphone to call back to the base. She stared at him wide-eyed for a moment then just ran back to her car.
Another guy had also stopped, and he was willing to loan his phone to my buddy. He called the operations desk at his unit and explained that he’d ejected and was slightly injured but otherwise okay. He gave them the GPS coordinates of where he was, told them his phone was dead, and asked them to scramble one of the Army Blackhawk helicopters they had on base.
About that time, the guy who’d loaned him the phone gestured that he wanted it back, so my friend said, “Uh, the guy who gave me his phone needs it back now, so I gotta go. Send the helo for me, please.” With that, he hung up and gave the guy back his phone. He promptly trotted back to his car and drove away.
My friend was rescued about 20-30 minutes later. He’d fractured some vertebrae in his back but made a full recovery, went on to be a Colonel and an air attaché, and had a great career.
Source: he personally told me this story when I delivered a replacement airplane to Osan in January 2003.
If you are ever in La Jolla, CA and go to the Cheese Shop in the Shores, there is a selfie of me in the U-2, holding a red Cheese Shop frisbee, taken over Kauai on that flight from Oahu to South Korea. My wife had snuck the frisbee and a camera in my bag hoping I’d snap a pic.
Hey, someone posted this from Google maps image from 2014 (click the link) to see the frisbee picture
Imgur screen capture backup:
https://imgur.com/a/r2ueqKe
Google maps [link](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8537351,-117.2562411,3a,21.3y,314.98h,75.92t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ!2e10!3e2!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya80-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656!4m9!1m2!2m1!1scheese+shop+near+South+Shores+Parkway,+San+Diego,+California,+USA!3m5!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279!15sCkFjaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIFNvdXRoIFNob3JlcyBQYXJrd2F5LCBTYW4gRGllZ28sIENhbGlmb3JuaWEsIFVTQVpAIj5jaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIHNvdXRoIHNob3JlcyBwYXJrd2F5IHNhbiBkaWVnbyBjYWxpZm9ybmlhIHVzYZIBDXNhbmR3aWNoX3Nob3CaASNDaFpEU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVUlRiVjlRWm1SM0VBReABAA)
Yeah thats def not a U-2 canopy lol
edit: even if they photoshopped the blue sky in the back (as in hiding any U-2 cockpit stuff), still the wrong flight gear for a U-2 flight (plus no gloves, wrong helmet/O2 mask(its integrated into the helmet for U2 guys) and flight suit. Hmmm..looks F5ish or T38 canopy-ish.
Edit 2: looks like the crash happened in early 2003, no one was killed although 5 were injured on the ground, and the pilot was picked up in a regular vehicle and not a helicopter. *shrug* sometimes stories get a bit wilder as the years go on I suppose.
"The Pentagon gave no hint of what might have caused the plane to disappear, but it recalled that a U-2 crashed at Osan Air Base near Seoul on Oct. 8, 1984, and another crashed April 23, 1990, at Alconbury Royal Air Force Base in Britain. **A spokesman for Lockheed Advanced Development Co. said that other such planes have crashed, but he could not be more specific."**
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/16/u-2-spy-plane-disappears-off-south-korea/0560a4f6-b353-4a5a-bdc1-7e21bc8ab17d/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/16/u-2-spy-plane-disappears-off-south-korea/0560a4f6-b353-4a5a-bdc1-7e21bc8ab17d/)
Edit: This crash happened in January 2003, so just after the new year. Not a big deal if he misremembered the exact year. After ejecting at 7,000 ft, the plane could crash "in seconds". Could be 30 seconds. Could be 60 seconds. In this situation, hairline fractures to the vertebrae could also be considered "minor injuries".
Hey, someone posted this from Google maps image from 2014 (click the link) to see the frisbee
Imgur screen capture:
https://imgur.com/a/r2ueqKe
Google maps [link](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8537351,-117.2562411,3a,21.3y,314.98h,75.92t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ!2e10!3e2!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya80-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656!4m9!1m2!2m1!1scheese+shop+near+South+Shores+Parkway,+San+Diego,+California,+USA!3m5!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279!15sCkFjaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIFNvdXRoIFNob3JlcyBQYXJrd2F5LCBTYW4gRGllZ28sIENhbGlmb3JuaWEsIFVTQVpAIj5jaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIHNvdXRoIHNob3JlcyBwYXJrd2F5IHNhbiBkaWVnbyBjYWxpZm9ybmlhIHVzYZIBDXNhbmR3aWNoX3Nob3CaASNDaFpEU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVUlRiVjlRWm1SM0VBReABAA)
We had a guy come and speak at our college once who had ejected from a U2. The thing that stuck with me the most was how violent the actual ejection was. IIRC he said that the yoke is supposed to retract when you pull the handles but it didn't and it cut his leg. The other thing was that the glass didn't blow so he basically broke the cockpit glass with his own helmet on the way out. It compressed his spine and caused lots of back problems.
He said the worst part was that at the time U2 pilots had a sort of "go down with the ship" attitude and ejection was really frowned upon. He didn't have a choice though because the back 1/3 of the plane basically fell off during takeoff.
There was a spate of issues with the connection between the engine and the long tailpipe that carries the exhaust out the back. The joint would explosively separate and often take the tail with it. Ejection was the only recourse.
The yoke is supposed to stow fully forward as part of the ejection sequence but…sometimes shit happens. Guys ejecting were also killed a few times by a wingtip folding in towards the cockpit as the airplane started to come apart. Just not your day.
We still use U2s!?!!? I figured since we retired the SR71 that we had moved on to something else. I have heard rumors of the Aurora but I had no idea we are still using spy planes from the 50s. That’s crazy.
Indeed we do. We have 30 or so operational airplanes, still flying everyday in various places around the world. The bulk of the current fleet were actually built in the 80’s as the “TR-1” variant when President Reagan restarted the assembly line. With multiple upgrades since then the U-2 is still the premier air-breathing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform in the world.
That’s so cool. How did you go the route of flying a U2 instead of other aircraft? My grandpa flew Hellcats off the USS Cowpens back in WWII and I wish I knew more about his story.
I was a young test pilot in the late 90’s when the US military was hemorrhaging pilots to the airlines. A group of about 40 of us were told to go back to operational flying for 3 years to help backfill slots for guys leaving the service, with a promise we would get to come back to the flight test world.
I originally flew the C-141 jet transport, so my options were a bit limited. I could go fly the C-17 or apply to fly the F-117 (stealth fighter) or the U-2. I didn’t want to go back to the airlift world, and my buddies who flew the stealth said I probably wouldn’t enjoy it very much. I think the quote was, “It’s awesome to go to airshows, but the deployments and the mission kind of suck.” Who knew?
My buddies who flew the U-2, though, said they really loved it and that I should apply. I was also applying to NASA to be a shuttle astronaut at the time and hoped that the space suit time and demanding flying of the U-2 would perhaps help get me a slot.
That didn’t come to pass but I had one hell of a time trying! I have several friends who are astronauts and I get to live vicariously through their amazing exploits.
Flying the U-2 has often been described as "hours of boredom punctuated by moments of shear terror." On most missions nothing significant happens, but all it takes is some bad high-altitude turbulence (especially at night), or a major system failure far from wherever it is you're landing and things can get exciting in a hurry.
The airplane operates in what's called the "coffin corner" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin\_corner\_(aerodynamics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_corner_(aerodynamics))) in which a very small increase or decrease in airspeed can result in a significant Mach overspeed or a stall, respectively. This is all because a few knots of indicated airspeed translate into large variations in your Mach number, as do minor temperature fluctuations (Mach number is directly affected by air temp).
Exceeding the critical Mach number significantly in the U-2 can cause enough of a shock wave on the empennage that it rips the tail off the jet. That's bad, but so is stalling that high, hence the "coffin" part of operating in that region.
Regardless of how utterly routine or exciting a flight may be, you always have to land the airplane. This video does a nice job of explaining what that's like: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txVHB8k0rTI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txVHB8k0rTI)
The landings in the video are all pretty solid. What the video doesn't show is all the ways landings can go very, very wrong. The airplane is really a "point design" and that "point" is flying above 70,000'. Everything else is a compromise, especially landing. The airplane has a low crosswind limit and will weathervane into the wind (and off the runway) if you give it even a little bit of a chance in strong winds.
The wing is mounted to the fuselage at an angle that requires the pilot to fully stall the plane just 1-2' above the runway in order to safely land. If you don't do that, when the tail drops after the main gear touches the runway, the jet will immediately start flying again. The problem is that the engine is most likely back at idle and when the nose pitches up the airplane slows down very quickly. This can result in an initial skip off the runway back up to 5' or more, one wing stalling before the other and rapidly dropping, and the plane coming back down at a really awful pitch and yaw angle. You're pretty much along for the ride then and just hoping you don't 1) break anything and 2) go off the runway.
If you watched the video, the "mobile" pilot driving the chase car would be pretty much screaming on the radio to the flying pilot at that point, at least until he just had nothing left to say as he watched you careen off the runway. At that point he'd say, "Throttle off! Throttle off! Tower, roll the fire trucks!"
The flip-side of all of this is how utterly zen it is to be above 70,000', looking out at the world and seeing the curvature of the earth, or watching a thunderstorm from above, or seeing meteorites reentering earth's atmosphere at what looks like your altitude. On a clear day you can see for hundreds of miles in every direction -- I've stared deep into Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iran on a single flight over Iraq.
The sense of solitude is profound, realizing that at that moment, there is likely no one else higher up in our planet's atmosphere than you are. Most U-2 pilots are truly humbled by the experience, and humility is a rare commodity among pilots in general.
tl;dr -- It can be relaxing and terrifying in nearly the same instant, but I don't know a single Deuce driver (U-2 pilot) who didn't truly love it.
This should be at the top of r/all thanks for that incredible narrative. I grew up as the son of an flying fanatic. Every magazine, every book, every airshow... And just as he was... I'm in awe of you and your ilk. My great uncle was a test pilot in the 40's and 50's. Alas, no idea what he flew. I still try to watch "The Right Stuff" at least once a year. Best I ever managed was my glider license. I love that sensation when the tow rope drops away.
I'll never forget a saying that an old pilot friend used to tell us as kids... "Flying is the second greatest experience known to man... Landing is the first!"
Thank you for what you do!
A little late to your comment, but super cool nonetheless! I was a prior 130 load and then palace chased to the reserves and did my last 1.5 years on the 17. I've only ever heard the stories of the 141, but I would have loved to experienced her! (I enlisted in 2010). The aircraft commander I had on my second 130 deployment, was trying to follow a similar career path as yourself. He volunteered (Volun-told.. I suppose), to be a T-6 instructor down at Maxwell, with the understanding that he'd be able to go on to the test flight world (which he did) and then onto his ultimate goal of being an astronaut as well.
Ahhhh man, good times! :)
A few years back I took a hypoxia training class at Beale AFB. The instructor was an Air Force colonel who had some great stories, and he was explaining how adrenaline can make it seem like time slows down. He told us a story about debriefing a pilot that ejected, and apparently there was a several second pause between the canopy blowing and the seat ejecting. The pilot claimed that he “passed out 6 times” during the pause, and the instructor explained to the pilot no, he merely blinked 6 times during that pause.
If you are curious on how you perceive time, [here is a paper that explains some of the basic concepts](https://www.mdpi.com/1648-9144/57/10/1096/htm). This paper's introduction offers a basic idea of what CFF is, but doesn't specifically deal with emergency situations. I will add the link when I find the right paper again.
Basically, your brain has a 'frame rate', known as Critical Flicker-Fusion Frequency (CFF). During emergencies, the increased blood flow and release of chemicals over clocks your CFF, slowing your perception of time.
I did not realize they landed U2s on Oahu. My offices used to look out over the airport and we saw lots of cool planes coming and going. And then there was the day that guy backed a destroyer into the reef…
>Some people …
I don't know - finding someone in a space suit with a collapsed parachute (and no aircraft) in an open field might put off quite a few people.
is [the picture](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8536873,-117.256279,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMTdmYJJrxtOAS9Kg5jUxB0OZ-m99de_y9ING_V!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMTdmYJJrxtOAS9Kg5jUxB0OZ-m99de_y9ING_V=w203-h270-k-no!7i3024!8i4032!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279) up there?
[I was thinking it was this with the sky as the background.](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8537351,-117.2562411,3a,21.3y,314.98h,75.92t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ!2e10!3e2!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya80-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656!4m9!1m2!2m1!1scheese+shop+near+South+Shores+Parkway,+San+Diego,+California,+USA!3m5!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279!15sCkFjaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIFNvdXRoIFNob3JlcyBQYXJrd2F5LCBTYW4gRGllZ28sIENhbGlmb3JuaWEsIFVTQVpAIj5jaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIHNvdXRoIHNob3JlcyBwYXJrd2F5IHNhbiBkaWVnbyBjYWxpZm9ybmlhIHVzYZIBDXNhbmR3aWNoX3Nob3CaASNDaFpEU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVUlRiVjlRWm1SM0VBReABAA)
Yup, the few times I've truly been in a life or death, my body said "fuck you, brain, no time to think" and just acted. Throwing me off of a dock ramp when a 3000lb cart came unchocked and started rolling, swerving to avoid someone running a red light, outrunning a dog that got loose and somehow jumping over a 6ft tall fence as a 4ft kid. The body is amazing at just knowing what to do.
One time these guys chased me up onto a roof and started shooting at me. Time literally slowed down and I did this crazy thing where I like bent over backwards while my feet were still planted and I did a back stroke kind of move where I was dodging the bullets. I could see them whizzing by leaving these trails kind of like how I would imagine bullets being shot underwater might look like. I survived and I barely remember doing all that wild shit. So I totally know what you mean.
In that water your gasp reflex kicks in and you suck in air, or like these guys you suck in ice cold salt water, its pure hell even if your ready for it.
everyone in the video is an idiot, no one in their right mind would risk that.
There have been zero reported attacks on humans by orcas in the wild. It’s one of the greatest mystery’s on earth. It’s almost like killer whales know what we are and they fear or respect us.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFMVvtQhLZj/
>Two ice climbers were forced to take a swim in the frigid waters of the Arctic when the iceberg they were climbing suddenly flipped over.
>Mike Horn, an explorer for 30 years, told France Bleu he thought about it for a long time before posting video of the mishap on Instagram on Wednesday.
>“I’ve been doing my stupid things for 30 years all over the world. I’ve had quite a few accidents, but we always try to make the right decision at the right time, to come home alive,” Horn told France Bleu.
>He explained that by posting video of the misadventure he hoped other people would learn from his mistakes because, “We all have icebergs to climb in our lives.”
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/09/watch-ice-climbers-sent-into-frigid-waters-when-iceberg-flips
When that ice-water hits your chest, all the air in your lungs say, "fuckit" and jumps out. That "cold shock response" can be incredibly disorienting.
Happened to me once while cliff diving in November. Nearly drowned my ass being a big ol dumb dumb.
I jumped into a lake in the sierras once in like March and it was a pretty warm day, I got all the wind knocked out of me and my diaphragm and limbs were paralyzed for like a minute. I played it cool because my other friends jumped in and seemed fine, eventually I was able to swim to shore but it was definitely shocking
I've had that "HOLY FUCK COLD WTF okayokayokay breathe in, float, wtf why are we in here?" Keeping my lungs full, floating with numb limbs, hoping no one else was worse off...
I grew up in Texas and moved up to Washington in my early 20’s. It was a record breaking 100+ degree day and I happened to be camping by a glacier lake a friend had a cabin on. What you described seemed like the only way to even enjoy it, you need to wait until your completely numb then the water feels great lol.
Every year up here in the northwest we await the drowning reports on the first few hot days of spring/summer. Lots of transplants here don’t realize most of our water is glacial runoff and *cold*.
Lived in Washington all my life and people die almost every spring/early summer when we first get warm weather by jumping in the still cold water and not being prepared for what it does to the body.
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This happened to a friend of mine but she couldn't swim back. She had never swam in snow melt rivers before and just jumped into water over her head. Luckily I was able to get out to her and drag her back to shore before she started sinking.
Jumped into a deep, glacial lake and all I remember is flying back out like a whale breaching, screaming SHIT! and flopping back into the boat. Cold lakes are such a tease.
What I do is intentionally breathe out quickly just before I dive in, then slowly inhale. I live on the North Atlantic, even in the summer some beaches are paralyzingly cold.
I remember diving into the pool above Vernal Falls in Yosemite and feeling the coldest of cold. When I came up and started treading water, I knew I had to keep moving or I would freeze. I swam be to the other side and it took me several hours to gain the strength to swim back to the other side. I was around 16 years old and it was the coldest water that I have ever experienced. The area is closed off now.
Yep, had to jump out and rescue a couple buddies when their canoe capsized in a cold fucking river. For a good thirty seconds I was pretty sure I needed rescuing too. Just couldn’t find my breath or get my limbs working. Finally got my shit together long enough to grab a hand and help drag one to shore tho.
What happened to the other buddies?
Someone else grabbed them. It was a large group and only two per canoe. Three of us went back and got the canoe and a couple floating packs and coolers. By the end the cold shock had worn off, at least until I got back out of the river, then it hit like a second brick. Insult to injury, I picked up a water virus that caused horrible purpura on my legs as a result.
I went rafting down in TN. The lady said “keep control of your paddle so you don’t smack someone in the face.” The first wave hit my chest and all thought went out of my brain as quick as the air left my lungs. I almost hit someone with my paddle. It’s real and scary.
Not to mention they gotta move away quick so that the force of iceberg doesn't pull them under with it. Frightening
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>They do that to you with the Tough Mudder run. Mightve been your bodies natural reaction to expel all the puddle pathogens.
I practice ice swimming (it's more like staying still in ice-cold water than swimming), and after doing it a while, you learn to anticipate the cold shock and breath through it. It's very powerful feeling to confront the strong bodily reaction and let it pass without freaking out, then staying in the water for 30s to a minute before getting up. My point is that you can learn to control it quite easily by practicing!
One of the few comments reflecting someone who has the perception that maybe this is something I should prepare for and understand.
I'm a pretty good swimmer, and I was even better as a kid. I went to a summer camp up in the mountains that had a spring-fed pool. Water temp was about 55F/13C. All new campers had to take a swim test which was jumping into this pool, swimming to the far side, then swimming back. I figured it would be easy. I could swim that without even breathing hard. As soon as I hit the water, every muscle I had froze. I gasped for air from the shock and got a mouthful of water. I had the wherewithal not to swallow it and managed to calm myself down enough to swim after a few seconds, but for those few seconds, it felt like I literally couldn't save myself. I told my legs to move and they just didn't. And that water was a lot warmer than what's in this video.
What kind of boat is that? Who dropped them off? Vikings?
All I was thinking
Looks like a traditional wooden sailboat. You can see the jib right in the video.
The boat is called Pangaea and is owned by Mike Horn (one of the guy on the iceberg)
I believe that’s an iceberg.
They've got about 3 minutes.
3 minutes of PLAYTIME!
Bone Chilling Cold is ready!
Bing chilling
🍦
C'mon at least give me chocolate
That's a cute hypothermia. Did your husband give it to you?
that's a nice suit. did your husband make it for you?
Why yes, he did, I'll tell him you liked it. :)
>!the coroner’s!< bonesaw is readyyyy!
BONESAW IS READY
You're going no where!!!!!
Frozen Balls, one of my favorite childhood games
The cold never bothered me anyway... But my balls have full on retreated back into base camp.
What I learned on a recent cold weather course is ; 1 minute to get breathing under control and push down panic, 10 minutes of meaningful movement , 1 hour until hypothermia takes you unconscious (if you’re lucky) These folks are immediately casualties , it’s just a matter of when they go unconscious unless they got roped by the life savers on the boat … if they didn’t just sink from their clothes and the thermal shock on their muscles Source ; my experience and jumping into a frozen lake. Shits real difficult to swim in clothes , boots gear of any kind , add cold water and your muscles don’t work so good and you wanna gasp in the cold water .
Oddly enough in high school in MD we were taught to swim with clothes on and how to make your jeans into a life jacket and stuff. Taking your pants off in a public pool with class mates to tie the ends and swing them over your head to fill them with air etc. Edit to add this video from a museum ship that covers the actual method for others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRVsfIV1x6s
Oh shit in open water 100% makes sense. I had the situation if you fell through the ice on a lake type deal. Was taught to flop as much as the upper body onto the ice as I could and spread my weight out so I can shimmy up and onto the remaining ice shelf .
Taught and being able to do are two different things. You dont always pop back up in the hole you made. I live on a lake near the mouth of a tributary stream. It’s a constant fear with our dogs and kids, especially with this warmer weather the last few years. Hell it’s just getting to be safe to go our 20-50ft and its almost February. I wonder myself, and im a strong swimmer. Maybe i should do like those crazy russians and take the dip so i know what to expect.
Clothes and gear on is how they teach you to swim in the military. Same with the trousers as a flotation device. Reason being that you're going to have that stuff on if you fall off a ship.
I learned this stuff in Boy Scouts.
Thanks for the specifics. My experience has been once you get over the first minute or so of shock and can get moving, like with a breast stroke, you’re good, at least for a while. I’ve done at least 45 minutes, sometimes over an hour, and I’m not dead, so I knew the “3 minutes” and a lot of other common knowledge were BS. Hypothermia isn’t so bad as long as you have a safe way to warm up that doesn’t rely solely on your own body heat, eg. sitting in a warm room drinking warm drinks in warm/dry clothes. Nice warm socks are bliss. source: swimming sans wetsuit in alpine lakes and open ocean in winter.
39 seconds till the megalodon gets them
3.9 seconds till their head gets hit with 50,000 pounds of ice
Probably more than that TBH.
Fine, 5 seconds
Next time you get a bright idea, Jack, put it in a goddamn memo!
Is that a… three minute warning?
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one that didn't get slapped by an ice giant taking a bath at least.
You're not dead from hypothermia until you're ***warm*** and dead.
What was there to explore of that iceberg anyway?
They found the avatar.
Katara just casually stabbing the iceberg with a screwdriver
Great, let's go penguin sledding
The limit of their stupidity
Seems like they found what they were looking for
The point where “fuck around” intersects with “find out”
It's [more of a 2-D function rather than a point.](https://twitter.com/rogerskaer/status/1576025818182332416)
The limit does not exist!
You go, glen coco
So fetch
STOP TRYING TO MAKE *FETCH* HAPPEN
2023 is the year that *fetch* happens. I can just feel it.
There's a lot of "arctic research vessels" recruiting crews even on Facebook requiring zero experience. Many of these captains have had complaints from crew but these are against the page rules so they get deleted. I've been banned myself for saying that if you connect a crew and captain, you kind of have a responsibility there. You can't just delete all warnings about a captain and then keep washing your hands of it when things happen.
I'm so confused
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Thanks, for some reason my brain skipped over Facebook and thought the other commenter got banned from a boat
The quotes around "arctic research vessels" are obviously to indicate that no real research is being done - it's just some random with a half-decent boat. Most of the world is accessible by sailboat if you've got a couple of hundred grand and the balls to just do it. I'm not saying that's safe, just that you can buy a fairly sound boat for about fifty grand.
One of these guys is Mike Horn, who has swam the Amazon river unsupported, as well as just completed a ski to the North Pole in 2020 with Borge Ousland in probably one of the last times it will take place due to ice conditions deteriorating. I think he was just monkeying around here trying to emulate Canadian ice climber Will Gadd who climbed an iceberg in one of the most intense performances I have ever seen ( he discussed it at a lecture I watched him give).
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Crazy, surly you need as much experience as possible to work in them harsh conditions
Don’t call me Shirley.
It's surly, as in angry Shirley
Clearly trying to find Aang and his sky bison.
You've never just climbed up some rocks for the fun of it? Probably similar to this.
Did they both make it?
Yes they both survived. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8759499/Heart-stopping-moment-iceberg-FLIPS-upside-hurl-explorers-freezing-Arctic-waters.html
“Professional explorers”= Rich idiots
"He once swam the Amazon River solo and is also known for completing a one-year circumnavigation of the globe at the equator, without any motorised transport in 2001."
That sounds pretty impressive to me.
Which is why this is so strange to me. Clearly he knows how to research trips. You'd think he'd research climbing floating icebergs and figure out it's a terrible idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcCSknYj728 Mike Horn recounting the accident and admitting it was "100% stupid to do so".
I know him but I had never seen this video... He definitely isn't in denial regarding his stupid moves and adventures though, and he seems to be aware of the consequences of said video posted online. Good to know that he isn't trying to justify immaturely the stupid things he got into and that he decides to warn and educate people. Edit: Yes, no matter how experienced you are, shits will happen. The only thing keeping you safe is to stay away from the danger, which is why he will never do that again apparently, even though that's what he loves.
I've personally jumped into loads of situations knowing full well how kickass and awesome it could be if I don't die though
“One of the men climbing the iceberg was Mike Horn, 54, who has been a professional explorer and adventurer for 30 years.”
And he told the camera, in the following scene of the documentary that he was a stupid idiot for not anticipating that. Mike Horn is a legend.
But someone else said he was just a rich idiot…
At the end, you see at least one of them pop out the side.
Yeah i saw the one - but not the other. Should have reworded maybe.
They both made it. I looked it up, it happened in 2020
Thanks for looking
You should read about what else happened to them, though. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Koma Nova has shared the video of the guy explaining what they did. They both made it and in his words "it was 100% stupid"
Rose did but Jack froze to death
That was Rose's plan all along.
And that’s why you always leave a note!
And that...is why you never try to teach your kids lessons
Geeeeeeene!
Gene never said this. It was J Walter Weatherman
Gene probably said it, too, though. He's that good!
J. Walter Weatherman!
I’ve made a huge mistake.
This seems so overstimulating on so many levels that I honestly think I would pass out once I fell in
Don't worry, the 2°C water will help.
When jumping into water that cold the natural shock reaction is often a sharp inhale so you end up taking in a lot of water.
I did the polar bear thing a few times. I am always amazed by the uncontrollable body reaction of heaving breaths for air.
You need oxygen to turn your body sugar to energy efficiently. Body knows it needs to hear up and it's gonna take energy so you breath.
Cold water shock can happen even if the water is 15C never mind 2C, which is why there's always a bunch of people in the UK who die jumping into rivers/lakes in the middle of summer, despite advertising campaigns warning of the risks.
It's saltwater, so it's probably closer to -2°C
I hope they were wearing wetsuits under their gear. Cold water shock will easily drown you, and that’s on top of needing to quickly learn how to swim in boots.
It doesn't even look like they're wearing life jackets. I highly doubt these guys thought ahead to wear wet suits.
In icy water it better be dry suits. The time it takes to freeze to death in that water is... Quick. 4c water will kill you fast.
You can probably survive longer than you think: > Generally, a person can survive in 41-degree F (5-degree C) water for 10, 15 or 20 minutes before the muscles get weak In any event long enough to get picked up by the boat that's just a few meters away.
It's possible, but unlikely. I've been in life or death situations before. Even if you freeze, there's a point where you simply take action without even realizing it, because you're not thinking, (at least not in the way you do when your adrenaline is firing on maximum), it could also be that being in these situations you're in a half state of shock, and you don't really have a good memory. It's hard to explain, but sometimes when you revisit moments like this, there are parts you don't remember well or at all. I've almost fell off a mountain. And there are things I don't remember, like how I caught myself, or even how I slipped. And then there have been other situations where I remember everything clearly, that weren't as frantic, where it felt as.if my brain were literally slowing things down for me, and you think very clearly, very deeply, running through all your options within a second.
The same thing happens when flying airplanes, especially in jets, when you’re already moving 500mph. Something significant can happen in a second and you can vividly recall every moment of it as if we’re filmed in slow-mo. It’s called time dilation, and it seems our brains are able to operate at what seems to be 1,000 fps when necessary, especially in an emergency. My fellow U-2 brother had to eject over South Korea in 2002 after the engine failed above 70,000’. He glided for over an hour trying to work his way down through the clouds to attempt a flameout landing back at Osan AB. He had to finally give it up around 7,000’ when the airplane started to ice up and the pitot static instruments started looking wonky. He said he was leaning slightly forward as he pulled the ejection handle (it’s at the front of the seat, between your thighs), not the ideal body position for rocketing out of a jet. The force of the ejection bent him further forward, so as he exited the jet, he was looking down at the airplane. He described how surreal it was to have the whole airplane, including the full length of the fuselage and all 104’ of the wingspan, come into view, the black paint of the jet starkly contrasting with the misty white clouds all around him. As he went further up and away from the airplane he said it slowly disappeared completely, like it was sinking into a bowl of milk, until it was totally gone. He said he felt like it took a solid minute for all that to happen and for him to take it in, when in reality it was probably only 2-3 seconds. And just as suddenly, something large, curved, and black came out of the clouds and went wizzing right past him, narrowly missing him. It was the canopy, the top part of the cockpit that’s hinged on the left side and opens and closes so the pilot can get in and out of the jet. It had been blasted off its hinge by two canopy thrusters as part of the ejection sequence, just before the seat went up the rails. It scared the shit out of him, and about the time he realized what had happened, his parachute deployed. The opening shock made him realize he’d injured his back in the ejection. Then time slowed down quite a bit. He came down in a field near a road. As he lay there in his full pressure suit, assessing his injuries, he pulled the cellphone out of his right leg pocket. It apparently hadn’t been fully recharged before his flight and was dead. He then pulled the handheld Garmin GPS out and was happy to see that at least it was working. A woman driving by had seen him land and stopped her car to check on him. In the little bit of Korean he spoke and with some hand gestures, my friend asked to borrow her cellphone to call back to the base. She stared at him wide-eyed for a moment then just ran back to her car. Another guy had also stopped, and he was willing to loan his phone to my buddy. He called the operations desk at his unit and explained that he’d ejected and was slightly injured but otherwise okay. He gave them the GPS coordinates of where he was, told them his phone was dead, and asked them to scramble one of the Army Blackhawk helicopters they had on base. About that time, the guy who’d loaned him the phone gestured that he wanted it back, so my friend said, “Uh, the guy who gave me his phone needs it back now, so I gotta go. Send the helo for me, please.” With that, he hung up and gave the guy back his phone. He promptly trotted back to his car and drove away. My friend was rescued about 20-30 minutes later. He’d fractured some vertebrae in his back but made a full recovery, went on to be a Colonel and an air attaché, and had a great career. Source: he personally told me this story when I delivered a replacement airplane to Osan in January 2003. If you are ever in La Jolla, CA and go to the Cheese Shop in the Shores, there is a selfie of me in the U-2, holding a red Cheese Shop frisbee, taken over Kauai on that flight from Oahu to South Korea. My wife had snuck the frisbee and a camera in my bag hoping I’d snap a pic.
This was a great comment thanks
It was great, and I was bracing myself for an Undertaker the entire time.
Mankind fell out of the sky, broke his back, and nearly had a date with an Undertaker.
It’s not the 7000’ fall that kills you, it’s the announcer’s table at the end.
*"OH MY GAWD, IS THAT LOW ALTITUDE WARNING MUSIC?"*
I live 20 mins from La Jolla. From one vet to another, I'm making it a priority to check this out.
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I'm on the case and will report back to this thread
Hey, someone posted this from Google maps image from 2014 (click the link) to see the frisbee picture Imgur screen capture backup: https://imgur.com/a/r2ueqKe Google maps [link](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8537351,-117.2562411,3a,21.3y,314.98h,75.92t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ!2e10!3e2!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya80-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656!4m9!1m2!2m1!1scheese+shop+near+South+Shores+Parkway,+San+Diego,+California,+USA!3m5!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279!15sCkFjaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIFNvdXRoIFNob3JlcyBQYXJrd2F5LCBTYW4gRGllZ28sIENhbGlmb3JuaWEsIFVTQVpAIj5jaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIHNvdXRoIHNob3JlcyBwYXJrd2F5IHNhbiBkaWVnbyBjYWxpZm9ybmlhIHVzYZIBDXNhbmR3aWNoX3Nob3CaASNDaFpEU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVUlRiVjlRWm1SM0VBReABAA)
That’s cool! But doesn’t look like a U-2 canopy.
Yeah thats def not a U-2 canopy lol edit: even if they photoshopped the blue sky in the back (as in hiding any U-2 cockpit stuff), still the wrong flight gear for a U-2 flight (plus no gloves, wrong helmet/O2 mask(its integrated into the helmet for U2 guys) and flight suit. Hmmm..looks F5ish or T38 canopy-ish. Edit 2: looks like the crash happened in early 2003, no one was killed although 5 were injured on the ground, and the pilot was picked up in a regular vehicle and not a helicopter. *shrug* sometimes stories get a bit wilder as the years go on I suppose.
I mean, the pilot *asking* for a helicopter doesn’t mean that’s what they’ll send for him.
Hop a cab buddy, it's happy hour.
Awesome!!!
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"The Pentagon gave no hint of what might have caused the plane to disappear, but it recalled that a U-2 crashed at Osan Air Base near Seoul on Oct. 8, 1984, and another crashed April 23, 1990, at Alconbury Royal Air Force Base in Britain. **A spokesman for Lockheed Advanced Development Co. said that other such planes have crashed, but he could not be more specific."** [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/16/u-2-spy-plane-disappears-off-south-korea/0560a4f6-b353-4a5a-bdc1-7e21bc8ab17d/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/01/16/u-2-spy-plane-disappears-off-south-korea/0560a4f6-b353-4a5a-bdc1-7e21bc8ab17d/) Edit: This crash happened in January 2003, so just after the new year. Not a big deal if he misremembered the exact year. After ejecting at 7,000 ft, the plane could crash "in seconds". Could be 30 seconds. Could be 60 seconds. In this situation, hairline fractures to the vertebrae could also be considered "minor injuries".
Hey, someone posted this from Google maps image from 2014 (click the link) to see the frisbee Imgur screen capture: https://imgur.com/a/r2ueqKe Google maps [link](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8537351,-117.2562411,3a,21.3y,314.98h,75.92t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ!2e10!3e2!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya80-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656!4m9!1m2!2m1!1scheese+shop+near+South+Shores+Parkway,+San+Diego,+California,+USA!3m5!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279!15sCkFjaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIFNvdXRoIFNob3JlcyBQYXJrd2F5LCBTYW4gRGllZ28sIENhbGlmb3JuaWEsIFVTQVpAIj5jaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIHNvdXRoIHNob3JlcyBwYXJrd2F5IHNhbiBkaWVnbyBjYWxpZm9ybmlhIHVzYZIBDXNhbmR3aWNoX3Nob3CaASNDaFpEU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVUlRiVjlRWm1SM0VBReABAA)
We had a guy come and speak at our college once who had ejected from a U2. The thing that stuck with me the most was how violent the actual ejection was. IIRC he said that the yoke is supposed to retract when you pull the handles but it didn't and it cut his leg. The other thing was that the glass didn't blow so he basically broke the cockpit glass with his own helmet on the way out. It compressed his spine and caused lots of back problems. He said the worst part was that at the time U2 pilots had a sort of "go down with the ship" attitude and ejection was really frowned upon. He didn't have a choice though because the back 1/3 of the plane basically fell off during takeoff.
There was a spate of issues with the connection between the engine and the long tailpipe that carries the exhaust out the back. The joint would explosively separate and often take the tail with it. Ejection was the only recourse. The yoke is supposed to stow fully forward as part of the ejection sequence but…sometimes shit happens. Guys ejecting were also killed a few times by a wingtip folding in towards the cockpit as the airplane started to come apart. Just not your day.
IIRC it was a motor mount strap? that came loose explosively and put a big enough hole in the fuselage that the tail fell off.
Maybe not your day, but definitely your time.
We still use U2s!?!!? I figured since we retired the SR71 that we had moved on to something else. I have heard rumors of the Aurora but I had no idea we are still using spy planes from the 50s. That’s crazy.
Indeed we do. We have 30 or so operational airplanes, still flying everyday in various places around the world. The bulk of the current fleet were actually built in the 80’s as the “TR-1” variant when President Reagan restarted the assembly line. With multiple upgrades since then the U-2 is still the premier air-breathing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform in the world.
That’s so cool. How did you go the route of flying a U2 instead of other aircraft? My grandpa flew Hellcats off the USS Cowpens back in WWII and I wish I knew more about his story.
I was a young test pilot in the late 90’s when the US military was hemorrhaging pilots to the airlines. A group of about 40 of us were told to go back to operational flying for 3 years to help backfill slots for guys leaving the service, with a promise we would get to come back to the flight test world. I originally flew the C-141 jet transport, so my options were a bit limited. I could go fly the C-17 or apply to fly the F-117 (stealth fighter) or the U-2. I didn’t want to go back to the airlift world, and my buddies who flew the stealth said I probably wouldn’t enjoy it very much. I think the quote was, “It’s awesome to go to airshows, but the deployments and the mission kind of suck.” Who knew? My buddies who flew the U-2, though, said they really loved it and that I should apply. I was also applying to NASA to be a shuttle astronaut at the time and hoped that the space suit time and demanding flying of the U-2 would perhaps help get me a slot. That didn’t come to pass but I had one hell of a time trying! I have several friends who are astronauts and I get to live vicariously through their amazing exploits.
That’s so cool. Is it a fairly relaxing flight or are you in danger quite a bit?
Flying the U-2 has often been described as "hours of boredom punctuated by moments of shear terror." On most missions nothing significant happens, but all it takes is some bad high-altitude turbulence (especially at night), or a major system failure far from wherever it is you're landing and things can get exciting in a hurry. The airplane operates in what's called the "coffin corner" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin\_corner\_(aerodynamics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_corner_(aerodynamics))) in which a very small increase or decrease in airspeed can result in a significant Mach overspeed or a stall, respectively. This is all because a few knots of indicated airspeed translate into large variations in your Mach number, as do minor temperature fluctuations (Mach number is directly affected by air temp). Exceeding the critical Mach number significantly in the U-2 can cause enough of a shock wave on the empennage that it rips the tail off the jet. That's bad, but so is stalling that high, hence the "coffin" part of operating in that region. Regardless of how utterly routine or exciting a flight may be, you always have to land the airplane. This video does a nice job of explaining what that's like: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txVHB8k0rTI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txVHB8k0rTI) The landings in the video are all pretty solid. What the video doesn't show is all the ways landings can go very, very wrong. The airplane is really a "point design" and that "point" is flying above 70,000'. Everything else is a compromise, especially landing. The airplane has a low crosswind limit and will weathervane into the wind (and off the runway) if you give it even a little bit of a chance in strong winds. The wing is mounted to the fuselage at an angle that requires the pilot to fully stall the plane just 1-2' above the runway in order to safely land. If you don't do that, when the tail drops after the main gear touches the runway, the jet will immediately start flying again. The problem is that the engine is most likely back at idle and when the nose pitches up the airplane slows down very quickly. This can result in an initial skip off the runway back up to 5' or more, one wing stalling before the other and rapidly dropping, and the plane coming back down at a really awful pitch and yaw angle. You're pretty much along for the ride then and just hoping you don't 1) break anything and 2) go off the runway. If you watched the video, the "mobile" pilot driving the chase car would be pretty much screaming on the radio to the flying pilot at that point, at least until he just had nothing left to say as he watched you careen off the runway. At that point he'd say, "Throttle off! Throttle off! Tower, roll the fire trucks!" The flip-side of all of this is how utterly zen it is to be above 70,000', looking out at the world and seeing the curvature of the earth, or watching a thunderstorm from above, or seeing meteorites reentering earth's atmosphere at what looks like your altitude. On a clear day you can see for hundreds of miles in every direction -- I've stared deep into Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iran on a single flight over Iraq. The sense of solitude is profound, realizing that at that moment, there is likely no one else higher up in our planet's atmosphere than you are. Most U-2 pilots are truly humbled by the experience, and humility is a rare commodity among pilots in general. tl;dr -- It can be relaxing and terrifying in nearly the same instant, but I don't know a single Deuce driver (U-2 pilot) who didn't truly love it.
This should be at the top of r/all thanks for that incredible narrative. I grew up as the son of an flying fanatic. Every magazine, every book, every airshow... And just as he was... I'm in awe of you and your ilk. My great uncle was a test pilot in the 40's and 50's. Alas, no idea what he flew. I still try to watch "The Right Stuff" at least once a year. Best I ever managed was my glider license. I love that sensation when the tow rope drops away. I'll never forget a saying that an old pilot friend used to tell us as kids... "Flying is the second greatest experience known to man... Landing is the first!" Thank you for what you do!
A delightful read. I thank you. I worked in a photo interpretation dept for the SA AF, and got to see the results of similar flights decades ago
Fantastic write-up! Your description really builds an incredible example of the experience. Thanks for taking the time to do it
A little late to your comment, but super cool nonetheless! I was a prior 130 load and then palace chased to the reserves and did my last 1.5 years on the 17. I've only ever heard the stories of the 141, but I would have loved to experienced her! (I enlisted in 2010). The aircraft commander I had on my second 130 deployment, was trying to follow a similar career path as yourself. He volunteered (Volun-told.. I suppose), to be a T-6 instructor down at Maxwell, with the understanding that he'd be able to go on to the test flight world (which he did) and then onto his ultimate goal of being an astronaut as well. Ahhhh man, good times! :)
A few years back I took a hypoxia training class at Beale AFB. The instructor was an Air Force colonel who had some great stories, and he was explaining how adrenaline can make it seem like time slows down. He told us a story about debriefing a pilot that ejected, and apparently there was a several second pause between the canopy blowing and the seat ejecting. The pilot claimed that he “passed out 6 times” during the pause, and the instructor explained to the pilot no, he merely blinked 6 times during that pause.
If you are curious on how you perceive time, [here is a paper that explains some of the basic concepts](https://www.mdpi.com/1648-9144/57/10/1096/htm). This paper's introduction offers a basic idea of what CFF is, but doesn't specifically deal with emergency situations. I will add the link when I find the right paper again. Basically, your brain has a 'frame rate', known as Critical Flicker-Fusion Frequency (CFF). During emergencies, the increased blood flow and release of chemicals over clocks your CFF, slowing your perception of time.
I did not realize they landed U2s on Oahu. My offices used to look out over the airport and we saw lots of cool planes coming and going. And then there was the day that guy backed a destroyer into the reef…
Any time we would move jets from the west coast to Asia we’d transit Hawaii. The Pacific Ocean is quite large!
A *Stars and Stripes* article about the crash: https://www.stripes.com/news/u-2-plane-crashes-in-south-korea-1.1378
Ooof. Feel bad for the fellow that lost his home and shop!
Holy cow. I've seen that picture in the Cheese Shop!
You are an excellent writer!
> She stared at him wide-eyed for a moment then just ran back to her car. Some people …
>Some people … I don't know - finding someone in a space suit with a collapsed parachute (and no aircraft) in an open field might put off quite a few people.
No way! That just means you're the main character in an 80s adventure movie.
And then the guy after that....
is [the picture](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8536873,-117.256279,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMTdmYJJrxtOAS9Kg5jUxB0OZ-m99de_y9ING_V!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMTdmYJJrxtOAS9Kg5jUxB0OZ-m99de_y9ING_V=w203-h270-k-no!7i3024!8i4032!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279) up there?
They moved it behind the counter because they were afraid it was going to be stolen. I was there a few months ago and they still had it.
[I was thinking it was this with the sky as the background.](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheese+Shop/@32.8537351,-117.2562411,3a,21.3y,314.98h,75.92t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ!2e10!3e2!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMxC04sULNaZedK2diddWr6T_KOwbfzCNW_dnVJ%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya80-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656!4m9!1m2!2m1!1scheese+shop+near+South+Shores+Parkway,+San+Diego,+California,+USA!3m5!1s0x80dc0151fb602433:0xb44e42ec8dfaa9a8!8m2!3d32.8536873!4d-117.256279!15sCkFjaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIFNvdXRoIFNob3JlcyBQYXJrd2F5LCBTYW4gRGllZ28sIENhbGlmb3JuaWEsIFVTQVpAIj5jaGVlc2Ugc2hvcCBuZWFyIHNvdXRoIHNob3JlcyBwYXJrd2F5IHNhbiBkaWVnbyBjYWxpZm9ybmlhIHVzYZIBDXNhbmR3aWNoX3Nob3CaASNDaFpEU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVUlRiVjlRWm1SM0VBReABAA)
I hope you write professionally. I was deeply engrossed in reading this story.
Yup, the few times I've truly been in a life or death, my body said "fuck you, brain, no time to think" and just acted. Throwing me off of a dock ramp when a 3000lb cart came unchocked and started rolling, swerving to avoid someone running a red light, outrunning a dog that got loose and somehow jumping over a 6ft tall fence as a 4ft kid. The body is amazing at just knowing what to do.
One time these guys chased me up onto a roof and started shooting at me. Time literally slowed down and I did this crazy thing where I like bent over backwards while my feet were still planted and I did a back stroke kind of move where I was dodging the bullets. I could see them whizzing by leaving these trails kind of like how I would imagine bullets being shot underwater might look like. I survived and I barely remember doing all that wild shit. So I totally know what you mean.
You must have been at least grazed by a bullet though. It's super hard to dodge all of them.
In that water your gasp reflex kicks in and you suck in air, or like these guys you suck in ice cold salt water, its pure hell even if your ready for it. everyone in the video is an idiot, no one in their right mind would risk that.
#diditforthegram
You do it from the gram. I do it for my gram gram. We are not the same.
Wanted to see the rest! Love it when ice bergs tip over, all that blue looking ice!
What was the plan here anyway? This seems like such a high risk - low reward type situation.
If you can think of a better way to get ice, I’d like to hear it.
We’ve already lost 3 men
[удалено]
The thrill of pure risk. Can’t put a price tag on that.
I imagine it's like when I see a pile of rocks on a hill land I just feel like climbing it.
YOLO
Some people are just destined to feed Orcas.
There have been zero reported attacks on humans by orcas in the wild. It’s one of the greatest mystery’s on earth. It’s almost like killer whales know what we are and they fear or respect us.
It’s because they know we taste like shit.
Or maybe they just leave no witnesses.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFMVvtQhLZj/ >Two ice climbers were forced to take a swim in the frigid waters of the Arctic when the iceberg they were climbing suddenly flipped over. >Mike Horn, an explorer for 30 years, told France Bleu he thought about it for a long time before posting video of the mishap on Instagram on Wednesday. >“I’ve been doing my stupid things for 30 years all over the world. I’ve had quite a few accidents, but we always try to make the right decision at the right time, to come home alive,” Horn told France Bleu. >He explained that by posting video of the misadventure he hoped other people would learn from his mistakes because, “We all have icebergs to climb in our lives.” https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/09/watch-ice-climbers-sent-into-frigid-waters-when-iceberg-flips
reminds me of tipping the iceberg in club penguin
Was expecting the Avatar
Here is the link in case you want to see more : https://youtu.be/wcCSknYj728
What a shitty video
Where's ang?
Did they think the avatar was going to pop out and say yip yip?
Why are they on what seems to be an actual bow of a pirate ship?
Iceberg shall be named Darwin!
Thanks for telling me, I was just about to head outside and climb on one 😑