Flat Earther Dies in Home Made Rocket

[ls99]

I did this about 227 times.

Makes for great pucker factor.

And each landing was graded.

 

[Fermion]

Could you land on a carrier like that if there were crosswinds and you had to crab? Or maybe the ship positioned itself for landings so the wind was on your nose? (I know nothing about this stuff)

 

[NW-Bound]

I think the worst thing that could happen if you "miss" the hole a bit is that you tear off an arm and leg as you pass through.

Hitting the rock directly would probably be a painless death but tearing off 1/2 your limbs would be a real future issue for you.

Then, do not miss the hole!


A while back, there was a much-publicized story about the death of a well-known Chinese rooftopper. I just ran across an explanation of the failure of his last feat.

Following are some of his earlier exploits, obviously with success.

 

[TromboneAl]

I am very surprised there was anyone left in this day and age that still thinks the Earth is flat. I thought it was an established fact that the Earth is round, if even imperfect, but certainly not flat.

87% of Americans believe there's an invisible creature who can hear the thoughts of every person on Earth.

IBTL.

 

[Fermion]

87% of Americans believe there's an invisible creature who can hear the thoughts of every person on Earth.

IBTL.

Is it that high?

But really, pondering infinity can lead you to some pretty bizarre things. I was just thinking about it the other day. If time is infinite in both directions, then there existed at some point in some pre big bang universe a Fermion who posted this exact rambling except one hair on his head was 1 degree to the right of where it is now. The fascinating thing is that this will happen again in the future to a new Fermion. Everything exactly the same, every facet of my life except that one hair being 1 degree off from where it is now.

You think about that and then anything is possible and death really doesn't matter.

 

[corn18]

Could you land on a carrier like that if there were crosswinds and you had to crab? Or maybe the ship positioned itself for landings so the wind was on your nose? (I know nothing about this stuff)

Never really had any crosswind because the boat would just turn into the wind. Although there could be some hairy dynamics in high natural winds because the landing area is angled 9 deg off centerline, so the runway was always drifting to the right as you came down the chute.

 

[like2]

From the LA Times-

Daredevil killed in rocket crash outside Barstow
‘Mad Mike’ Hughes, who’d done stunts for decades, had hoped to soar to 5,000 feet.
MIKE HUGHES is shown next to his homemade rocket in 2017. (Paul Buck EPA/Shutterstock)
By David Zahniser
Mike Hughes, the self-made engineer who billed himself as the “world’s greatest daredevil,” was killed Saturday outside Barstow during a launch of a homemade rocket gone wrong, his publicist confirmed.
Hughes, who went by the nickname “Mad Mike,” was captured on video as he rode a rocket into the sky, failed to activate a parachute and then plummeted to his death, said Darren Shuster, his public relations representative.
The daredevil had been hoping to use Saturday’s launch to reach a height of 5,000 feet, according to a post on Space.com. Instead, dozens of people watched in horror as he fell to earth, said Justin Chapman, a freelance writer who told The Times that he attended the launch.
“Everyone was stunned. They didn’t know what to do,” said Chapman, who had been working on a profile of Hughes. “He landed about a half a mile away from the launch pad.”
An official with the San Bernardino County coroner’s office said she expected there would be a “lengthy” investigation into the incident. “We have no facts at this point,” she said.
Saturday’s launch was supposed to be featured in “Homemade Astronauts,” a series on the Science Channel, according to Discovery.com. The series followed people looking to “explore the final frontier on limited budgets,” the company said.
Chapman said he believes the daredevil had been knocked unconscious during the launch, which took place in the desert south of Barstow, off Highway 247. “The parachute ripped off at launch,” he said. “So the rocket went straight up in an arc and came straight down.”
None of Hughes’ backup parachutes activated, either, Chapman said.
Hughes, 64, had been performing stunts for decades, making long-distance jumps in a limousine and, in more recent years, riding in his own homemade rockets. In 2018, his rocket soared nearly 1,900 feet into the air, landing in the Mojave Desert.
Before that launch, Hughes told the Associated Press that he believed Earth is flat — or, in his words, “shaped like a Frisbee” — and that he wanted to fly into space to make sure.
Shuster, who did not attend Saturday’s launch, said the flat Earth argument helped drum up publicity and sponsors for Hughes, who made his rockets at his home in Apple Valley.
“I don’t think he believed it,” Shuster said. “He did have some governmental conspiracy theories. But don’t confuse it with that flat Earth thing. That was a PR stunt we dreamed up.”
Other sponsors, such as a New Zealand dating app, later signed on to promote Hughes’ adventures, Shuster said.
Eric Sherwin, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department, said his agency had neither been alerted in advance that Saturday’s rocket launch was going to take place nor informed of the fatality after it had occurred.
Fire Department officials will look into why they were not told of the crash, Sherwin said. A private company, Desert Ambulance, was on the scene at the time, he added.
“They said they did have a fatality,” Sherwin said. “They pronounced a single person deceased at 1:45 this afternoon.”
Hughes’s DIY rocket-making ventures drew widespread attention, attracting the interest of documentary filmmakers and reality TV producers. His supporters donated money so that their names would appear on his rockets, Shuster said.
“He was this generation’s Evel Knievel,” the publicist said, referring to the late daredevil motorcyclist and showman.
“This guy knew he wasn’t going to live till 80. I spent a lot of hours with him,” Shuster added.
“He had something in him that compelled himself to push himself further each time.”

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

87% of Americans believe there's an invisible creature who can hear the thoughts of every person on Earth.

IBTL.

Your point is taken, but "creature" is not the correct choice of words to describe this belief!

 

[Fermion]

Your point is taken, but "creature" is not the correct choice of words to describe this belief!

being or entity would probably be a little better.

 

[donheff]

I think sometimes there is a fine line between adventurous and suicidal.


Skip to about 1:30

These insane stunts are morbidly fascinating. I watched a GoPro video by a wingsuit flyer who was about the sixth in line of a group of flyers. About half way thru the video they soared close over the ground and I noticed what appeared to be one of the flyers further ahead flash past crashed on the ground. There was no way to know if that was actually one of the flyers but it was awful anyway.

 

[stlguy57]

Don't think the parachute was supposed to come off at launch.

 

[ER Eddie]

I remember chuckling about this guy's earlier attempts, some years ago. He made some comments about how he "didn't believe in science." I figured that would come back to bite him, lol.

I got the impression that he was a poor man's wannabe Evil Kenievel who wanted publicity, and to get it, he had co-opted this flat earth philosophy. It wasn't his original reason for building the rocket. He got into it because it brought him publicity.

He has a history of getting injured in his attempts before. He also had a pattern of scheduling flights and then calling them off for one reason or another. I guess he finally got off the ground, for a while anyhow.

As one of the commenters said, "Look who's flat now, motherf*cker." lol.

 

[Amethyst]

Because then he'd have to trust the pilot, quoting from the altimeter. And you know how those guys are always making stuff up.

Why didn't he just book a commercial flight? You can easily get 6 miles high that way.

 

[timo2]

I am very surprised there was anyone left in this day and age that still thinks the Earth is flat. I thought it was an established fact that the Earth is round, if even imperfect, but certainly not flat.

IMO the flat earth concept is a symptom of the general doubting of any kind of advanced expertise that is pervasive in some groups of humans. The doubters only believe what they themselves can witness, and then they themselves can come up with a suitable explanation that matches their worldview.

 

[mountainsoft]

Just to be clear, that is not the shadow of the Earth that you are referring to. The sun only illuminates one hemisphere of the moon at any moment. The curved border you refer to is just the line between the illuminated hemisphere and the unilluminated hemisphere.

Well dang, now I feel stupid...

 

[zedd]

I deny he was onboard the rocket

 

[REWahoo]

I deny he was onboard the rocket

So you think he was on the ground when the falling rocket killed him?

 

[Sunset]

....

A while back, there was a much-publicized story about the death of a well-known Chinese rooftopper. I just ran across an explanation of the failure of his last feat.
......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXVZMJpU2sw

When I see something like that, I always wonder:

Does the person have profound regret of their action and consider how they just wasted their life and had they not done such a stupid thing, they would not be about to die as they are now ?

 

[zedd]

Dead at 64. Tragic. Tragic. Perhaps a lesson for the rest of us.

On my way out to the shop right now to make sure that the "adjust seat lumbar support" and "deploy parachute" levers are clearly marked on my home built steam powered rocket.

 

[NW-Bound]

When I see something like that, I always wonder:

Does the person have profound regret of their action and consider how they just wasted their life and had they not done such a stupid thing, they would not be about to die as they are now ?

They only have a few seconds to regret their actions.

But leading to that moment, they had a long time to plan their exploits and to think about it. Did they fail to consider failure? Maybe some people have an invincible feeling about themselves. Some like to live on edge, to push the envelope.

I don't know. I guess being a pessimistic kind of guy, I constantly consider what happens if I fail in some endeavors. Would I just lose a bit of money? A limb? My life?

 

[NW-Bound]

I deny he was onboard the rocket

So you think he was on the ground when the falling rocket killed him?

Could it be a publicity stunt? Has the coroner confirmed the presence of a body? And positively identified him?

 

[audreyh1]

I got the impression that he was a poor man's wannabe Evil Kenievel who wanted publicity, and to get it, he had co-opted this flat earth philosophy. It wasn't his original reason for building the rocket. He got into it because it brought him publicity.

Right - when I had read about him once before I got the impression that the flat earth thing was just for the publicity.

 

[ER Eddie]

Right - when I had read about him once before I got the impression that the flat earth thing was just for the publicity.

Well, he got it, I guess. 15 seconds of fame as a dumb guy.

 

[stepford]

When I see something like that, I always wonder:

Does the person have profound regret of their action and consider how they just wasted their life and had they not done such a stupid thing, they would not be about to die as they are now ?

I've found myself heading toward the ground at high speed a couple of times. The thought going through my head is always "Ah s**t, this is gonna hurt". And then, miraculously, when the BLAMMO moment occurs it never hurts. Pain comes later, if you're lucky.

 

[ncbill]

I did this about 227 times.

Exactly what our oldest tells us he now wants to do.

We'll see if he feels the same way as he progresses through flight school...