C-130 News: Watch an entire living room fall out of a plane (IAR C-130)

[casey]

When it comes to skydiving, Red Bull Air Force team member Jeff Provenzano has got a lot of experience. But jumping out of an airplane while sitting on a living room couch playing video games is one thing he's yet to try.

Until now. 

In his latest stunt, for technology company NVIDIA (they manufacture the kind of computer chips that make smartphones possible, as well producing gaming platforms) Provenzano looks so calm and collected, he could almost take a nap, but instead he focuses on the screen in front of him.

We've been told that no less than three living rooms were dropped out of the sky in the filming of this video, but we've received no word on how much it costs to produce something like this. Two of those living rooms – each weighing in excess of 1,100kg – descended without a stabilising parachute. According to Jeff, one living room was completely of control, while the other's flight was pretty stable. "The freefalling living rooms hit the ground at 125mph [200kph] and just exploded," he says. 

So how does one go about organising a stunt like this and what was it for? It was to promote NVIDIA's new Android TV Box, the NVIDIA Shield – basically a set-top box with access to internet channels like Hulu or Netflix. 

As to how, the crucial step, according to Jeff, is to find somewhere you can land such a flying object. "We found a land owner out in the desert who was cool with us landing there," he says. "We've landed all sorts of stuff there in the past – even dropped cars." That said, this stunt takes home the trophy.

So where does this rank among Jeff's long list of skydiving achievements? "Riding a living room set out of the back of a C-130 for the NVIDIA commercial was probably the craziest thing I've ever done from an airplane," he said in his Instagram feed. 

Jeff, we believe you. 

View original article at redbull.com

 

 

 

View full article

[jflimbach]

Re the news article about the Living Room Drop

My VP Bob Radley and I were the loadmasters on this project.  Aircraft was International Air Response N118TG (ex-RC-130A 57-0512), shot in November at the Jameson Tank DZ at Coolidge, AZ.  There were three identical living rooms, each weighing about 2,500 pounds.  All were gravity ejected using CDS flaps settings.  Basically around 10 percent or flaps up, depending on the weight at drop time.  A simple release consisted of a loop of 1-inch tubular webbing through a centerline floor tiedown ring, manually cut at "Green Light".   Drops 1 and 3 had no parachutes.  On drop 2, a Wamore GPS guided (JPADS) chute was used.  Jeff Provenzano rode all three of them down from 14,000 feet to about 4,000 before he got off.  #1 was mildly unstable while #3 was wildly unstable so discretion being the better part of valor, Jeff got off a bit earlier.  #2 was very stable and any of the times you see the platform not moving much and Jeff kicking back or playing with the game controller, you can be sure it was from drop #2.  The suspension slings and parachute were removed in post-production via movie magic.  Notice the accuracy of the touchdown of drop #2, right in front of the cameras.  Just like we planned it (right!!).  Being a dog person, I'm still bummed that they wouldn't let us drop the cat.  We had a dog on the shoot but I think he wound up on the cutting room floor along with the crew (as usual).  They made a "making of" film, which is very good too and also a short film to reassure the world that we didn't hurt the cat.  I'll put links to all three here.

I've dropped a lot of different and weird stuff over the past 53 years, but this is the first  "Living Room".