BorderCount wrote:

Turns out building your own rocket IS a bad idea...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/22/us/scien … index.html

As with John Denver, it was for the best.

choad wrote:

matty.the.damned wrote:

As with John Denver, it was for the best.

The son of a friend wrote the insurance policy on that wreck and claimed, his finger cork screwing south, it was ruled a suicide and voided. I never checked so I dunno. Cute story, though.

He was in an ultralight which he really didn't understand how to fly and how to keep an eye on your next emergency landing site, like they teach every pilot who learns to fly a real airplane.  He also didn't know that switching to the emergency fuel tank was difficult to do without some practice.  So, yes, suicide by stupidity.

Last edited by Baywolfe (2020-02-23 10:01:44)

I am not sure Mike was totally into the flat Earth thing for real. I think there was some speculation that, had Mike survived, he'd have stepped out of the rocket and declared the Earth is truly round.  His chute deployed right at launch, so there's a chance flat Earthers got to the rocket and sabotaged it.

Platymingo wrote:

I am not sure Mike was totally into the flat Earth thing for real. I think there was some speculation that, had Mike survived, he'd have stepped out of the rocket and declared the Earth is truly round.  His chute deployed right at launch, so there's a chance flat Earthers got to the rocket and sabotaged it.

The same thing happened when Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River canyon.  I suspect he had control of the chute and freaked when the G Force hit him.