falling script flaws

found a script to detect player falling but there are two problems maybe someone can help with 1. the ray casts from the very bottom of the player - the capsule collider I imagine - and no matter what I do to the parameters of that capsule collider a little bit is always just a tad below the ground so the ray cast is reading below the ground to start with. So mesh colliders are out. I fix this by using a thicker box collider for the ground so that isn't the real problem. the real problem comes when I want to jump from one platform to another. The script works fine if the jump is a fail and I miss the other platform and...fall. BUT, even if the jump is going to be successful, midway across the gap the raycast hits the ground far below and thinks I am falling - thus triggering my fall animation. ANy ideas on how to fix this?. the script is suppose to detect if I am falling thus triggering my "falling" looped animation, playing a scream audio file and also enabling a box collider trigger zone on the ground so when I land - that trigger zone "crashland" takes away all my health as well as triggering an animation of the player crumpling in a heap of broken bones. 2. My work around for the problem of the raycast hitting the ground below mid jump is to have a box collider in that gap to block the raycast from hitting the ground. this box collider is a child of another collider which is a trigger that if i hit it while jumping ( and failing) the trigger gameobject is destroyed - along with the child collider I had blocking the raycast so the ray will then hit the ground and do the whole fallTo My Death bit. But I don't think that is the best solution by any means.

 using UnityEngine;
 public class newFallCode : MonoBehaviour
 {
     public float fallingThreshold = 1f;
     public float maxFallingThreshold = 20f;
     private float initialDistance = 3f;
     private RaycastHit hit;
     private Animator anim;
     private BoxCollider boxCollider;
     GameObject crashland;
     AudioSource scream;
     void Start()
     {
         crashland =  GameObject.Find ("crashland");
     boxCollider = GameObject.Find ("crashland").GetComponent<BoxCollider>();
         var dist = 0f;
         GetHitDistance(out dist);
         initialDistance = dist;
         anim = GetComponent <Animator>();
         scream =  GameObject.Find ("crashland").GetComponent<AudioSource>();
     }
     bool GetHitDistance(out float distance)
     {
         distance = 0f;
         Ray downRay = new Ray(transform.position, -Vector3.up); // this is the downward ray
         if (Physics.Raycast(downRay, out hit))
         {
             distance = hit.distance;
             return true;
         }
         return false;
     }
     void Update()
     {
         var dist = 0f;
         if (GetHitDistance(out dist))
         {
             if (initialDistance < dist)
             {
                 //Get relative distance
                 var relDistance = dist - initialDistance;
                 //Are we actually falling?
                 if (relDistance > fallingThreshold)
                 {
                     //How far are we falling
                     if (relDistance > maxFallingThreshold)
                         //Debug.Log("Fell off a cliff");
                      anim.SetTrigger ("Falling");
 
                     //How far are we falling
                     if (relDistance > maxFallingThreshold)
                         scream.enabled = true;
                         
 
                     if (relDistance > maxFallingThreshold)
 
                     boxCollider.enabled = true;
                     
 
                 }
             }
         }
         else
         {
             //anim.SetTrigger ("Falling");
             Debug.Log("Infinite Fall");
         }
     }
 }