Post by a425coupleYo Jim,
About those mystery East Coast drones that hundreds are seeing,
but nobody knows anything about.
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I recognized a triangular "mystery drone" photo on TV as landing lights
illuminating part of the underside of an airliner.
Human eyes are too close together to accurately judge the distance and
size of an unfamiliar
object against a blank or unknown background. When I began hang gliding I
immediately learned that I couldn't tell how far I was above the ground by
looking down. My eyes and brain gave an answer but it was usually wrong.
Looking forward worked better.
https://forum.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=11515
I had a similar experience when doing a parachute jump (one was enough).
Looking down it seems you're just hanging in the air not descending.
You determine movement sideways (wind direction) using your feet as a
sort of sight on the terrain below. (You want to be pointing into the
wind as you descend as there is a slight forward drift of the
parachute). You can clearly determine your drift, but up and down is
sort of vague.
As you get closer to the ground, it seems to finally be slowly coming up
to you until the final 40-30-20-10 feet when the ground seems to
suddenly start rushing up at you.
Very difficult to judge rate of descent looking down...at least for a
first time parachutist.
SMH
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When I was little I read that a paratrooper landing was like falling from
18-20 feet. Naturally I had to try it from the porch and garage roof. My
knees and feet never fully recovered; I claim I feel like a teenager because
the youthful injuries still hurt. My sister and friends had to copy whatever
the boys could do, and one of her friends broke a leg.
By my sixth flight I'd learned to estimate time, speed and distance and made
a two point Superman landing on a boulder. Then I gave it up for sports that
didn't depend on being able to see air currents. Flying has shown me that
everything I care about is on the ground.