Stupidity

[Lu tze]

Have you ever done something in the spirit of entertainment but which on reflection may have been just a little bit silly if not completely stupid?
By this I mean....well, I used to work weekends as a bungee jump crew member and obviously this involved me throwing myself from a great height on a regular basis.  This was great fun of course and perfectly safe  as I was well aware of what could go wrong and was always careful to guard against my own or anyone else's slip ups.
Mostly, if we were busy I would be rigging the crane, harnessing the punters or throwing them out of the cage.
However there were occasions when we would turn up at venues and there would be an scarcity of jumpers (busy days we could jump 120-140 people).
On these occasions we would have to make our own fun and too this end would devise new and unorthodox ways to travel the 200 odd feet to the ground. Riding a bike out of the cage was one wheeze or crawling inside the 'test weight bag', as well as the usual gymnastics, somersaults etc.
There are however only so many ways you can come up with to make Newtonian physics look cool.
On one occasion we attended a trackday event where we thought there would be loads of people up for a jump (insert snigger) but which turned out to be attended by the scaredy cat brigade of the go faster populace.
We deciding to entertain ourselves by trying something a bit different.
Catapulting.
Now we had tried this at a previous event but as we were "pioneering" we did it in a wary and very very hesitant way with very little tension applied to the bungee ropes.
This day however, as there were lots of vicarious "danger merchants" around we elected to have a "proper go".
There were two crew members in addition to myself who would do the test jumps at most venues, after rigging the crane and throwing the 'test weight bag' out. Today, they elected, with myself to do the test catapults first (I think we were all involved in a pissing game.
Having prepared the crane and (using a strain gauge) worked out approximate acceleration parameters off they went. Interesting but not spectacular were the results. Both achieved a fairly low parabola below the block and then just swung back and forth like superman's s*****c cousins.
Now without going into too much detail we achieved launch conditions by tethering the catapultee via his harness to the tow bar of a Ford Granada by way a slip noose.
The crane would take up the slack in it's bond and then start to stretch the bungee rope until the weight gauge in the crane operators cab equaled our calculations derived from the mass of the person and the theoretical acceleration he should encounter at which point a signal was given, the slip noose released and the victim would sail off into the near distance.
On both occasions prior to my attempt I thought they looked a little bit silly as the acceleration imparted by the ropes was nowhere near what we had anticipated, not visually anyway and upon questioning they seemed to confirm this, describing the experience as somewhat underwhelming.
We did a quick test of the strain gauge and it proved to be wildly inaccurate, therefore we decided to dispense with it and rely on the gauge in the crane.
So I'm up next, I'm harnessed, attached to the ropes and the crane starts to take up the strain.
My feet come off the ground (I am being held straight and steady by other crew members who have hold of my legs), the tension on the bungee ropes is increased steadily and the guy with control of the slip noose is waiting for the crane operator to signal.
Suddenly, with no warning I am released and I swear to this day I went over the block. This should be, according to theory, impossible, but man, did I fly.
It turns out that the signal from the crane never came and the only reason the guy with control of the slip noose let me go was because the rear of the car lifted clear of the ground and he, in a moment of not understanding, thought the car was going with me.
On reflection it was an idiotic thing to do but I'm not sorry,  it was an experience and the one thing I have craved all my life is experience. In as many things as possible, and preferably with an element of risk.
Are all short people like this?

[chocky909]

Can you draw a diagram of the catapult? I can't picture it.

[Lu tze]

Can you draw a diagram of the catapult? I can't picture it.

Just picture an eight wheel crane. 200 ft boom fully elevated straight up without stinger (the lattice work bit) up top. The 'bond' rope straight down, attached to bungee ropes at the 'block' (bit with the hook). The bungee ropes would descend straight to the ground under normal circumstances but when catapulting the boom of the crane is slewed sideways slightly and the bungee ropes are pulled/stretched to one side at an angle of about 35 degrees to the vertical. The stretching of the bungee ropes of course cause the 'bond' to deviate from the vertical by a number of degrees, depending on the tension applied. To alleviate sideways twisting torsion on the boom the fact of the cranes slew helps and the crane operator then has to just slew back to square once the catapultee is launched. If a flake of creativity should escape my dandruffed head then I will attempt a diagram.