This weekend we proved that a bunk bed can fly, and we did it without FAA certification. It also taught me you can have too much confidence in your abilities, to the point that it blinds you to the obvious.

What is this about a flying bed you ask? Well read on and I will tell you a tale of adventure, and woe and eventual success, and the lessons learned.

Friday night we went to Birch Bay, and this time we brought with us a new bunk bed frame. We already had mattresses, since we were going to replace the old bunk bed that was worn out. The new bed was a blue steel frame. Just before 9pm we picked up the new bed from the store, and tied it securely onto the roof rack on my car. I drove carefully and slowly the entire way, expecting no difficulty. It was a rather windy night, but I did not pay too much attention to that.

When we arrived at the cabin, we were feeling quite good about getting there without difficulty. But that soon changed when we were shocked to find out that the bed was not on the car, nor was the roof rack. At some point in the journey, the wind had caught under the bed and lifted it up and off the roof of my car. I say up, since I have some antennas on the back of my car and none of them were damaged, so it had to have cleared the antennas. The bed must have got about eight to ten feet into the air to do that.

The time was now around 10pm and we backtracked our journey, looking for where it could have come off the car. We found nothing. Since we crossed a couple of bridges over some rivers, I wondered if the bed was now underwater somewhere. By now we were tired and somewhat stressed out.

We checked in at the gas stations along the route, asking if "anyone had seen a flying bed go by." The second one we visited reported a man had picked up a bed and attached roof rack, and took it to his place rather than leave it on the road.

By the next day we arranged to collect the bed and finally got it to where we had intended in the first place. Here is a photo of the bed assembled. It has some dents, but nothing that is obvious in the photo or interferes with its working. It was a fortunate recovery from what seemed to be a disaster.

What I gleamed from this is that you can have too much confidence, that causes you to overlook things. I should have tied down the bed at the front and rear, to the car frame. When the wind caught the bed, the stress exceeded the capability of the roof rack to hold onto the roof of my car and it came off, with very little noise too. When I transport kayaks I always tie them down front and rear. With the bed, I thought it was so heavy that it could not fly. I should have remembered a jumbo jet is heavy and it can fly. The wind on the surface area of the box containing the bed was ample for it to get some "air time".

Duncan

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