Tom,

Speaking strictly "off the cuff here" as I have yet to do any testing, and have not been into the local glass shops or websites yet.

My thought to exiting through one of the film covered windows would be to use a "sharp" of some type, anything ranging from handy office scissors, EDC, corner of metal drawers etc. to try and scribe a circle or several arcs or lines to form a polygon of some sort, then attempt the center punch methodology. Once the smaller opening is available, other objects could be used to lever / wedge / pry / curse / push / pull / catch breath / use CO2 fire extinguisher if available / foiled again heavy duty exhortatoins if no CO2 then a regular ABC as a blunt instrument to make my way through the laminated inside pane then the outside pane.

I concur with your post and that there are ways to do these (weird to non ETS folks) type of things.

At first glance, (pun intended) it would be a pain. However, the subject is a valid one, and I will quietly peruse it a bit more on the research side. This will take time though.

Regards,
Comanche7

gulliamo...

I'm not sure what the micro line is or how its properly used. I've certainly never used it for rappelling. If you can find me a link (I've gone back through the thread to find a reference, but I couldn't), or explain it in a little detail I'll be glad to give you my impressions.

Here's what I can tell you... generally thinner rope is "faster" in a rappel. Although it wouldn't surprise me that they're now making 5mm rope with a sufficient strength for rappelling, I wouldn't recommend it for the unitiated. You might find yourself getting to the ground a little faster than you wanted. Until we learn more, I wouldn't go smaller than 8 mm, preferably more like 10 mm (or 3/8").

I also forgot to mention that along with a swiss seat and a carabineer, each escaper will need a cheap pair of work gloves (with leather palm). Otherwise the rope will burn your hands, probably to the point that you wont be able to hang on. <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Do tell me more about this micro line, you've actually gotten me very interested and I'd like to hear about it.

Personally, I have to wonder how many of the World Trade Center victims would have died anyway if they had gone out of one of the top floors with a parachute on Sept. 11. That high up, in those windy conditions ... to me, that's one of those "bend over and kiss your butt goodbye" scenarios.

You may be right...

I now seem to remember some statements about how they tried to get rescue helicopters to the roof, but couldn't fly through the smoke/crosswind/updrafts.

The only thing that may have worked is a running swan dive from the roof in a hood, fall through area with all the smoke/heat and then pop the chute. Even then I'd want a ram-air chute so that I could steer clear of obstacles and not just let the wind carry me wherever!

I doubt any of the victims just happened to have a performance chute and an escape hood on them that day.

You may be correct in your thoughts of surviving a roof chute leap on 911.

Tho
Helicopter flying conditions are not indicitive of the ability to parachute in those same conditions.

Then again I bet 100% of the people who died would rather have burned in with a chute than in a rubble pile.

The memory of people leaping to their deaths (with no chute)to avoid the flames is something I will take to my grave.

Mike

I've only parachuted once in my life (been there done that <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> ) but what from what I've read and seen about "base jumping", even experience parachutists would have difficulty.

How far out would you have to be from the building? It's not a case of pulling the ripcord as soon as your feet clear the windowsill - if your chute inflates too close and contacts the building, then (best case) it will catch on a projection and you'll end up dangling like Neville Longbottom, or (worst case) it'll collapse and you'll drop to your death.

If I were inclined to worry about this (currently I work in a one-storey building, so I'm not), I would prefer to buy the smallest, lightest, most portable hang-glider available and learn how to fly it. H-g's are designed to leap from solid ground (parachutes aren't) and they are probably easier to control on landing. (The rectangular chutes you see at airshows, used by sport jumpers, are easier to manoeuvre but I suspect take longer to deploy; hence the "evacuchute" uses the WWII circular design - much more reliable (and hence used for sport jumpers emergency chutes)but I suspect harder to control if you find yourself being blown toward the 200' high crane on that nearby construction site.

ISTM that hang-gliding off the roof of a high-rise is at least do-able; parachuting seems almost guaranteed to fail, IMO.

I have used a "Quik Kut Glass Removal Tool" to take out auto windshields, I've also used sawzalls but I can't see keeping that in a bag under my desk, <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />.

The sawzall takes about 45-50 seconds if you've had practice, the Quik Kut takes about 2 minutes. YMMV

The Quik Kut did a nice job but it did take a little work. (But if you have to use it you'll probably on an adrenalin rush so it doesn't matter)

You will need to have a suction cup or some other means to pull the glass inside not out on to rescuers.

Nothing wrecks my day more than having glass fall on me at a fire scene.

Quik Kut

FYI I have no association with this company I've just used thier tool.

Never used it (thats why i'm asking) but a quick search brought up this...

http://www.neropes.com/techdata/tech_cord.htm

http://www.neropes.com/maxim_climbing/micro_rappel.htm

Wow, thats some small rope <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Iceman154,

Thanks for the info. Looks interesting, albeit a bit hard to fit into an Altoids tin. <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

But hey, my sawsall won't fit in it either. <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

What do they cost? I tried poking around on their website just now. It was really running slow and locking up on me, I'll retry in the daylight hours.

Comanche7