"dpb" wrote in message
...
DerbyDad03 wrote:
...

... At that height, I wouldn't want to be wondering "Hmmm ... will
this work?"

Thing is, after about 40-ft or so, it really makes little difference
other than the time it will take (and generally less than that unless
really fortunate).

I dunno. In the few serious car crashes I've been in, time really does
s-l--o---w----d-----o------w------n tremendously. I can remember the car
spinning in slow motion, the doors blowing open, stuff on the seat next to
me rising up in the air like it was weightless and floating, not flying, out
the open doors. I remember seeing bright white lights, then bright red
lights, then white lights again as the car spun, facing away from traffic
(red tail lights) and then towards it (white headlights). It was remarkably
slow. The car was totalled, but I didn't have a scratch on me.

A poem by the guy who wrote "Deliverance" (the "squeal like a pig" movie),
James Dickey, is about a stewardess who gets sucked out of a plane at high
altitude and the thoughts she has on the way down. It's called "Falling."

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/arch...html?id=171431

Dickey used to guest lecture at my uni - until his drinking became too
serious for the administrators to ignore. As someone said "He drank
oceanically." Those southern boys can really do some world class drinking.

I am surprised OSHA lets these guys free-climb considering the regulations
they impose on window washers for office buildings. My dad, who used to be
a forensic engineer, investigated many window washer accidents. Quite a few
were sabotage jobs from rival firms (there are allegations that in big
cities like NYC there's a big mob influence in the janitorial services
industry) but many were just plain stupidity like tying the motorized
scaffold to an AC unit that wasn't bolted down and thus slowly walked to the
edge of the roof as they were washing and got pulled off the building and
right on top of them. Those poor guys. Their fall was only a few stories
but soon after they hit the ground, the huge AC unit came hurtling down on
them. That's got to be a REALLY bad day.

Another time, one of the ropes on one side failed and the whole scaffold
broke free, and one of the workers was left swinging about 10' off the
ground in a huge arc, getting dragged through all the treetops at the base
of the building. He was scratched up badly but survived with only a broken
ankle, which had gotten caught in the rigging and probably saved his life.

I suspect when something goes wrong on a 1,700 foot tower, the certain
outcome is "splat." I'm betting there's some serious evisceration as a
result of such an impact. I've seen what happens when Letterman tosses
watermelons off the NBC building. Vertical motion quickly becomes
horizontal splattering.

--
Bobby G.