Have you ever jumped out of a perfectly good airplane??

[gunlover05]

Sound off if you've ever parachuted!!

Yes, I really did jump out of a perfectly good airplane yesterday at an elevation of 14,000 feet (yes, that is 2.65 miles up). A guy I work with (who parachutes all the time) organized a few of us to go jump yesterday afternoon. It was a tandem jump where an instructor was strapped to my back and has the parachute....it was a real BLAST!!!

Flying in a lot of airplanes in my life, the most surreal part came when I was sitting on the edge of the plane's open door, after watching a few people just leap out and disappeared in a flash, when the realization really hits you that you are ACTUALLY, on purpose, about to jump out yourself.....the first few seconds after you leave the plane was a weird feeling indeed, can't describe it well, but a mix between "holy $hit we are out of control" and "WOW"....then you quickly settle into a "controlled" free fall (around 120 mph) for what seemed about 30-40 seconds...didn't really seem that fast though. Then, I got to pull the ripcord and, thankfully, the chute opened. Then we just soared around for 7 or 8 minutes, soaking in the scenery like an eagle who just learned to fly. I got to steer the chute some, and I was surprised at how easy and quick you can turn those things...then the instructor took the reigns and steered us to a completely smooth landing....and there you go, I just jumped out of a plane at over 2.5 miles up, and enjoyed every millisecond.

Now I have a check in that "things I need to do before I die" box

[71T Targa]

Did a tandem jump when I was 18. Loved the free-fall, but the time under the chute made me want to hurl.

[charleskieffner]

there aint no way in hell i would jump out of a perfectly fine aircraft. I WORK AT A ******* AIRPORT...........I KNOW/SEE WHAT GOES ON!

i would much rather and have , scuba dived with sharks!

you gotta be ******* NUTS!


now the true NUT CASES are those in our military, who jump out of perfectly good aircraft with O2 bottles from 50000ft w/scuba on, and insert themselves unbeknownst into our enemies back side with a water entry upon their soil.

currently being trained at kirtland a.f.b. albuquerque new mex. flew back with a few on a south west flight.

not yer sgt rock type.............cool as a cucumber avg. build weight guys.

i'd rate smoke jumpers for forest service right there with them on the "GROUP W" bench. total ******* nut cases!

[Overpaid Slacker]

First off, is there a "perfectly functioning" airplane?

Yes, I've jumped -- static line first time -- and loved it! That "stomach-in-your-throat" feeling of the first few seconds of fall is great.

We were instructed by a guy who walked with a pronounced limp -- because he turned his chute too near the ground (to avoid power lines). You don't notice the acceleration in downward V when you're at altitude, but stalling one part of the foil, too close to the ground, will whip you into the ground. Hard.

I remember feeling like this huge planet was falling at me and not vice versa.

JP

[bt1211]

First time I jumped was static. It was a clear, sunny day, by the time we got up in the air (5 to 10 min) it had turned dark and windy. We jumped anyway, the wind blew me out over a retention pond( I cant swim) I did everything I could remember from that class to steer my butt away from over that pond. Instead I went over some guys cornfield.

I was too excited to pay attention, the instructor was shouting "flair,flair!!!" in the radio . I was thinking that I was higher up than I was (odd depth perception), by the time I started to flair it was too late, I hit the ground hard. I could here the instructor shout to someone to "get the F out there because that guy is hurt" . After that he said he knew I wasn't dead/hurt cause he could hear me laughing.

I stood up and I could see my friends running toward me. I look around and I am standing in what looks to be 1ft tall cornrows, next thing I know the wind knocks me down and is dragging me thru the cornfield headed towards the retention pond. Being dragged hurt more than the fall. I ditched the 'chute and that the only damage I had were some cuts and bruises( and a good story to tell).

I went skydiving again but it was tandum. I dont think they do teather in IL anymore.

bryan

[Eric 951]

Made (3) static line jumps--2 the first day I ever went and the third as part of a bachelor party. Good times.

[sammyg2]

A co-worker was telling me the story of the first and only time he went sky-diving.
Evidently once they reached altitude he freaked out and said no way, I'm not gonna jump.
He described the sky-diving instructor, an ex-navy seal the size of a gorrilla. The instructor told he is going to jump or else. The co-worker said or else what?
The instructor told him that if he didn't jump he was gonna bend him over and have sex with him.

There was a pause, so I said "did you jump"
He said, "yeah, a little at first"

like the old saying, only two things that fall out of the sky: bird *****s and dumb *****s. no way would I ever do that

[motion]

I'm at 77 jumps, although I haven't jumped for 2+ years. Love it! Nothing in the world compares to floating through the air at 120MPH. Sensory overload!

[svandamme]

tandem jump, equipment failure while strapping to the jumpmaster, very funny
went down ( fun when they point a skyvan straight down, then pull )

new harness , right back up again

week after that, solo jump ground training, bad weather
had to wait 3 weeks for good weather

went up, jumped, pulled at 3500, 1-100 2-100 3-100 chute? NAH
flash back to the drill weeks before, common failure: pilot chute stuck in vacuum on your back
rotated, opened up

good canopy ?? NAH
multiple twist
back to the drill, decide, live with it, deal with it, or cutaway
managed to untwist it

now the ground is closing, jumpmaster on the ground is feeding orders
no desert like in arizona, but patches of farmland, trees, houses, all sorts
left, left left, hold hold, left , right
then at about 150 feet, the darn thing goes silent
trees on the left, road on the right, cow field up front, with, off course, barbed wire

first jump, so no idea when to flare, at some point i pass the barbed wire, ground getting awfully close now, so i yank the straps, flare off, way to soon, and then a 10 foot drop or so, and i'm down

great fun
went back a few more times, but since jumpmasters here aren't profesisonals, but volunteers, and weather was crap, i spent more time watching jump vid's in the canteen, then actually jumping... and i quit

[syncroid]

I did it once about 9 years ago. It was a tandem jump from 15000 feet. Our free fall was supposedly 90 seconds. It felt more like ten seconds. What a rush! My instructor was cool. He handed me the reigns and told me to have fun. We did lots of spirals, twists and turns. The landing was perfect. Afterwords the instuctor told me that I was the best tandem jump he had ever had. I think the only thing that I would do different if I ever went again would be to wear some ear plugs. The wind noise absolutely killed my ears.

[rouxroux]

Yes, did plenty of it while in college in the late 70's, loved canopy RW. As they say say, "it's all in how you land"...tore up my right leg and crushed my right ankle very bad trying to stick a landing, resulting in tons of pins/screws and a long recovery. That, along with having a Father of one of my friends frap cut my hobby short. There is NO WAY to describe the freedom & relaxation you experience during free-fall (especially if you have a nice "clown suit"). I never for one second regret doing it, just wish my stupidity had not cut it short.

[Rot 911]

You mean you guys paid to jump? Hell when I was in the 82nd Abn, they paid me. Course people shot at me too. Down side to everything.

[PRE-H20]

yup! i sure did!..... my girl asks me at 10am on a sunday, "were you serious about jumping out of a plane?"....... i said hell yes (i was serious)............... she then says good because in 1 hr you are set to jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet.... i said... LETS GO DAMMIT!......

on the way up the instructor pulls out a cheeseburger as he is talking to the pilot about the night before..... says, "im full but i have an extra cheeseburger".... then he says to me, "want to eat a cheeseburger?"....... i said sure...... i ate it. it tasted good the 1st time, and it was the only time i tasted it.... thank god.

i wasnt sure if he was checking to see if i had a set of steel ones...... either way..... i ate the burger.

[TerryBPP]

I would rather pi$$ glass.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by TerryBPP

I would rather pi$$ glass.

Through my tear duct....

[gunlover05]

My only regret from my jump yesterday was being a total cheapass and not paying the $80 to have another jumper film my jump and take pictures....

PRE-H20, your pictures above REALLY make me wish i paid the $80 for the pics, those are great.

[Joeaksa]

Only about 2200 times so far. Not jumped in a while, need to get back into it.

BTW, there aint no such thing as a perfectly good airplane. I am a licensed aircraft mechanic and can find issues with just about any airplane flying. Only airplanes I really wanted to jump out of more than land was a series of demo jumps in 1988 in Poland using Russian military planes. Seeing how they were constructed made me very happy to have a chute on my back!





Doing the video on a girlfriends tandem. Note the East German An-2 in the background!

[gunlover05]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

A co-worker was telling me the story of the first and only time he went sky-diving.
Evidently once they reached altitude he freaked out and said no way, I'm not gonna jump.
He described the sky-diving instructor, an ex-navy seal the size of a gorrilla. The instructor told he is going to jump or else. The co-worker said or else what?
The instructor told him that if he didn't jump he was gonna bend him over and have sex with him.

There was a pause, so I said "did you jump"
He said, "yeah, a little at first"

HAHAHAAAAA , I 'bout pee'd my pants over that one!!!

[motion]

My fav jump pic:

[PRE-H20]

gunlover,

ya we went as far as having a videographer jump with us and video the jump,.... the pictures i posted are off the CD they burned of the jump..... so i took a picture with my camera as the cd played... it is pretty cool.... im sooo glad i have something to show that i did jump. i have run into a few that SAY they have.......

what a rush it was though..... would love to do it by myself like kurt, with the bullet boogie of course.