"The fire department in Davison, Michigan, hoped the local community would get into the Halloween spirit with a pumpkin drop event during the annual Pumpkin Festival. Footage shared by Davison-Richfield Fire Department shows crew members 102 feet up a cherry picker dropping a large pumpkin. The pumpkin hits the ground with a terrible splat, much to the horror of onlookers.


Obviously shaken, Davison-Richfield Fire Chief Les Nessman declared, "As God is my witness, I thought pumpkins could fly."





https://www.msn.com/en-us/food...oween-fun/vi-AAIRx51





( https://youtu.be/lf3mgmEdfwg )

WKRP in Cincinnati turkey drop without feathers.

quote:

Originally posted by redleg2/9:
WKRP in Cincinnati turkey drop without feathers.

That was an all time classic. I still chuckle when I replay it in my mind.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by redleg2/9:
WKRP in Cincinnati turkey drop without feathers.

One of the all time great segments in TV history.

Some years ago, a group of pilots in various airplanes (mostly two-seat taildraggers) May have done something similar from various heights, both higher and lower over Soggy Dry Lake. I can neither confirm nor deny whether both pumpkins and bowling balls were involved.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
Some years ago, a group of pilots in various airplanes (mostly two-seat taildraggers) May have done something similar from various heights, both higher and lower over Soggy Dry Lake. I can neither confirm nor deny whether both pumpkins and bowling balls were involved.

Which one hit first?

quote:

Originally posted by Sailor1911:
Which one hit first?

I don’t believe anyone ever dropped both at the same time. I can say that it was only the bowling balls that were dropped more than once.

quote:

Originally posted by Sailor1911:

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
Some years ago, a group of pilots in various airplanes (mostly two-seat taildraggers) May have done something similar from various heights, both higher and lower over Soggy Dry Lake. I can neither confirm nor deny whether both pumpkins and bowling balls were involved.

Which one hit first?

Duh. Whichever one was heavier.



Just in case

Psshh. Last month we went out and blew up a big pumpkin with 2 1/2 pounds of Tannerite.

Some years ago we did pumpkin jumps for halloween. It was a mountain airstrip, cold that time of year, so I wore a ski suit. I showed up with a carved pumpkin with some questions about how to get out of the airplane holding it, stay stable, and deploy the parachute. Everyone else showed up with a small gourd-looking thing that they could hold in one hand, and made nice, stable exits for a "hop-and-pop parachute deployment.

I did a diving exit and tumbled and by the time I managed to get stable, holding the pumpkin, I was close to terminal velocity. Unfortunately, in my zeal to get the parachute out and deployed before reaching a speed too high to retain the pumpkin during opening, I had already tossed the pilot chute while unstable. It did a wrap at my elbow with the bridle line, and it burbled uselessly at my elbow, with a complete pack closure. If the main container did open at this point, I'd have had a "horse shoe" malfunction that would have broken my arm, or worse. As it was, I had a total pack closure malfunction.

I pushed the pumpkin away, and watched it increase speed, a slow arc down, and noticed a single vehicle on the two-lane road below, and thought great...now I'll be the first person to kill someone with a pumpkin. I deployed the reserve, a small navy conical parachute that opened quite hard. I landed on the gravel runway about the same time as the airplane, which had to taxi off the runway to go around me.

The idea was to get out, open, and spiral down to 2,000' where we'd drop the pumpkin into a trash can, marked with panel markers. Then we'd fly the parachute to the "peas," a landing area with a 3 cm electronic disc. The combination of scores, closest to the trash can and closest on the accuracy landing, added up to determine the winner. I wasn't remotely close on either.

I did witness pumpkins hitting around the trash can, from 2,000'. They made a surprisingly loud pop. One slipped from between a jumper's thighs as he was spiraling, spun outward with centripetal force, leaving some question as to where it might go. A jumper observing realized it might be in his vicinity and began running. It hit just behind him bursting. He was hit by some of the pumpkin and fell down yelling "I'm hit, I'm hit." Everyone had a good chuckle.

That was my last pumpkin drop.

I'm guessing the firefighters in the original post had a lot more fun.

I always wanted to go see the catapult pumpkin chucking contest. Maybe one of these days...