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Skydiving

Discussion in 'General' started by Norton 357, Jan 16, 2022.

  1. 27

    27 Well-Known Member

    Are you close to Dowagiac?
     
  2. HPPT

    HPPT !!!

    Nah, I didn't fly for a living. :)

    For some reason, I'm not 100% sure but I don't think I watched Pan Am.
     
  3. 27

    27 Well-Known Member

    Didn’t you get your commercial pilots creds or PPL?

    Pan Am is a Cold War spy series based on pilots and stewardesses set in the 60s with the mad men type of male/female dynamic. It’s pretty ok and easy on the eyes for sure.
     
  4. HPPT

    HPPT !!!

    Yeah, commercial, but other than possibly being a distinguishing feature on my resume when I went to work in finance for US Airways, I've never used it for anything professionally.

    Okay, I definitely have not seen it.
     
  5. 27

    27 Well-Known Member

    oh ok, cool, I remembered somewhat accurately.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2022
  6. Greenhound386

    Greenhound386 Well-Known Member

    It's been quite a few years for me, but I did an all-day class so that I could jump solo. I jumped out with 2 instructors on either side, and we communicated via pre-determined gestures (indicate that I was checking altimeter, wave them off before deployment, etc). They would touch my arms or legs mid-flight to make small corrections. I had an earpiece in where they could communicate to me during the parachute ride down to make sure I was navigating correctly and to help me know when to flare for landing.

    Here was some cool / interesting stuff from that day:
    • Mitchie Brusco was in my class and going through the same program. He's the kid that nailed the first 1260 on a skateboard in the X Games.
    • As I mentioned above, the instructors would make tiny adjustments to my arms and legs. Like, they'd have me extend my legs another couple of inches or so during free-fall. I originally thought they were being extremely nitpicky and didn't think much of it. I did one of those indoor skydiving wind tunnels a couple of years later. Turns out, the slightest difference in body position made a huge difference. A small change in angle with my legs was the difference between staying perfectly still versus rocketing into the clear glass in front of me at 40mph. It made me realize that when the instructors were making the adjustments during the actual skydive, they were just making sure I didn't end up in Mexico (jumped in Southern California close to the border). The indoor tunnel made me appreciate the nuances of proper technique and how it changes trajectory.
    • The free-fell itself wasn't as fun as the parachute trip down. The free-fall was loud, cold, and a complete sensory overload. Once I pulled the chute, it made me realize how high I was, and I had to make sure I was executing everything correctly to make sure I landed where I wanted to.
    • After I landed, and after the adrenaline wore off, I noticed one of my fingers was at a weird angle and hurt a lot. No idea how or when it happened. It kind of clicked back into place, but it still hurt. It created major problems the next day during a trackday preceding a race weekend. It was my right hand, and I had major issues with the front brake. It ended up being fine after some meds and about 48 hours.
    I'd love to do it again! I've got too many hobbies how it is, though, so we'll see. I do live pretty close to a decent operation in Perris, CA (mentioned by another poster already), so that takes some excuses away.
     
    Rehh and jrsamples like this.
  7. IrocRob

    IrocRob Well-Known Member

    You seem to have missed my point. "Tandem" isn't the "kind of dull" part. "Tandem" or "solo" is irrelevant.
    For ME, the visual sensation of speed seems to be the thing that is "exciting".
    Being so far away from that reference makes the whole feeling seem a bit "detached".
    I am not discounting the potential danger, or whatever other people may or may not get out of skydiving.
    As I said it was worth doing, just not something I want to spend my cash on over and over again.
    And base jumping just may be TOO CLOSE to that reference point for me..... :crackup:
     
    Rehh likes this.
  8. twodocs

    twodocs Well-Known Member

    Did a tandem out of WI when I was 18. Wife signed us up for Accelerated free-fall program where you are solo with 2 instructors. I couldn’t see anything, pulled early as I was determined to do it myself. Smooth landing for both of us, but my chute ride was a bit long!
     
  9. ChemGuy

    ChemGuy Harden The F%@# Up!

    Too Close.

    About 1 mile.
     
  10. Rehh

    Rehh Well-Known Member

    I made some jumps there out of their Cesena 182. That's probably the same plane you did SL out of.
     
  11. Hondo

    Hondo Well-Known Member

    Not sure how effective it would be deploying while sliding/tumbling down a vertical face. Hard to imagine the chute catching air in that scenario.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2022
  12. Rehh

    Rehh Well-Known Member

    Pretty typical. I was the head AFF Instructor and taught first jump school. Sounds like you were a good student. I've had to pull the parachute for many students, they would of splattered if I didn't, totally out to lunch, some have even passed out on me in freefall. I've had many students' lives in the palm of my hands literally. Have tumbled out of control with people who have totally lost it, been thrown off the student in freefall then have to dive in to save them and pull the chute for them like you saw in the movie point break. Some of these I have on video. Really life and death situations. Also you have to consider if the parachute is pulled with someone inverted or tumbling end over end the lines will get wrapped around them and they will have a total malfunction with a container lock and total malfunction of the reserve too, which means you dead.

    I've had multiple container locks testing out new rigs by a startup company, on video. I had to reach back and open the container with my hands. Didn't want to deploy the reserve because then they would both deploy and become entangled and have a double malfunction, which is very bad.
    I lost several friends to skydiving, witnessed several faltities and even have some on video but I never lost a student.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2022
  13. Rehh

    Rehh Well-Known Member

    Here's a picture at one of the events I organized. The Panama City Beach Boogie. Jump out over the beach and land right behind the hotel we were staying at. This was a very popular event I put on every year in Florida. I'm in the pic at 1oclock sporting my Teva's...lol. some jumped barefoot.
    I had to becareful who I let jump at this event because every jump was considered a technical demonstration jump which required D class license. Every year I would conduct mandatory safety meetings similar to track days and yet every year someone would screw up and land off the DZ and cause a panic call frenzy to 911 and I'd have to deal with all that.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jan 17, 2022
  14. motion

    motion Nihilistic Member

    One of my fav jump pics. For any of you on the fence, get it!

    heli-jump-high-res.jpg
     
    ChemGuy likes this.
  15. Rehh

    Rehh Well-Known Member

    Oh I gotta tell this story about one of my PCB Boogies above.

    I did let a couple trusted friends operate a tandem concession at my boogies on the beach. They would be booked solid every year with a waiting list. I also was the jumpmaster on all the loads I was on which means I manually spotted the plane and called jump run and climb out. This entailed me opening the door, sticking my head outside and giving the pilot verbal commands to turn left or right and when to cut the engine and engage the flaps. I would spot the plane 1/4 to 1/2 mile offshore for exit. We'll one of the tandems had a cutaway and reserve deployment, they landed safely on the beach but the reserve landed out in the ocean 1/4 mile. Me and another guy jumped on Jetskis to retrieve the main. We were met there at the same time by three lifeguards on other Jetskis who were yelling and screaming and going crazy diving under the parachute looking for the skydivers. We told them there was no one there but they would have non of it, they kept diving off the skis going down to the bottom on long dives holding their breath looking for people. Told us to get F out of their they were professional lifeguards and they would handle this. We started laughing our asses off and it finally sunk in that we had been telling them that was only a parachute and that the people had landed safely under the reserve on the beach.....we laughed about that for years....ROFL 911 had tons of calls and we had like a 5 alarm respone from emergency agencies.
     
    JBraun likes this.
  16. Rehh

    Rehh Well-Known Member

    Not very
     
  17. Rehh

    Rehh Well-Known Member

    Great shot.

    We did Helli jumps at the beach in Panama City, Some more like base jumping, low altitude, 1500ft
     
  18. Hillbillydeluxe

    Hillbillydeluxe Well-Known Member

    alrighty then... if your a story boy then you need to visit tha “craziest girl you’ve ever dated” thread and tell us bout some high flyin plane swinging loose rivit having crazy skydiving snatch... this jumping out of good planes shit has to have all kinds of crazy to it.

    we covered many other types and if you read some of it, ain’t nothin too off for us here it seems

    http://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/most-crazy-girl-you-ever-dated.304221/page-31#post-5943977
     
  19. prm

    prm Well-Known Member

    I did the same thing. Was a great time. Though my main chute did not open correctly. They had mentioned it would seem like it takes a bit to open. I pulled, feel the little drogue chute, then nothing. Knowing how it’s supposed to work I think this can’t be right. Look up and see little drogue flapping in the wind. Begin to pull backup then the main opens. I thought both instructors had peeled away. Turns out one of them was still there and saw that main did not come out correctly. He reached in, gave it a pull and dove away and it did then come out. Certainly didn’t as much time to steer around under the chute but thought it was pretty cool.
     
  20. JBraun

    JBraun Well-Known Member

    When I was going through AFF I watched a YouTube video of an instructor at my DZ chasing a flailing student below 2k’ and pulling for him. He only had a second to track away and pull, resulting in an AAD fire and two-out.

    The next day I was chatting with my instructor and brought up that video. He just laughed and said, “yeah, that’s not me. I’ll let you die”. He went on to say that skydiving is an individual choice and that everyone is responsible for saving themself, no matter their experience. He said he’s saved his share of people but his audible is set to 2.5k and if he hears the beep, it’s time to pull, period.

    At the time I thought it was odd, but now with a few jumps in my log I understand. I’m no instructor, but my number one rule is, I’m going home.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2022
    HPPT likes this.

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