Wife's 1st jump

**Abax** · 8th August 07, 12:56 PM

I stopped jumping shortly after college . . . it didn't turn out to be familially (that's probably a word) responsible. But anyway, in 500 jumps, I had to jump out of imperfectly working airplanes a number of times. A DC-3 had an engine fire a couple of times, a C-185 ran out of gas and the engine was not running anymore (twice). One time over Denver, an occupant had such a case of gastrointestinal distress that the pilot went on oxygen for comfort and we all jumped out early for the same benefit.

Skydiving memories recall some of the best times in my life.

Abax

**Frank McGrath** · 11th August 07, 06:12 AM

Originally Posted by Mike1

I'm still not convinced of there being any reason to step out of a perfectly-running airplane. At least until the pilot has turned out the seat belt light at the gate.

Amen. Frank

**ChromeScholar** · 8th August 07, 09:18 AM

Beat me to it, Mike1...

**acstoon** · 8th August 07, 09:28 AM

Ahhh... the view, the freefall, the utter silence of gliding under a 'chute... can't be had IN an aircraft!
That's why we keep going back, year after year.
(My one niece made a comical, yet true statement, recently: "Ya' know, I've taken off many times in an airplane, but I've never LANDED in ONE."

**demobud** · 8th August 07, 09:32 AM

So is kilted sky diving next? Might be a bit cold...

Seriously, that is cool; the closest I have come to actual jumping was on the practice jump range at Fort Bragg.

**Kiltman** · 8th August 07, 07:45 PM

As an Air Force guy, I still don't understand why anyone would want to jump out of the perfectly good airplane.

**BonnieT100** · 8th August 07, 08:09 PM

I jump out of planes for a living. There's not much serenity involved. You have engine noise the entire time in the flight. Then there's that noise when the doors open and your heart starts racing. About this time your brain is asking why you do this and if you remember the pain from the last jump. Next you exit the aircraft, get tossed around and then yanked really hard. If you're lucky, you aren't swinging like a pendulum in a grandfather clock. Once I looked up and saw a C-17 (cargo bird slightly smaller than a 747) coming straight at me. I'm sure he was a couple hundred feet above me, but the mind plays tricks when you are screaming toward Earth at 15ft per second. Once all this fun and relatively peaceful part is over, you know what's coming next. If things are going well, you are drifting ever so slightly in a favored direction - for me, this is to the left. You make sure your feet and knees are together and relax. Yeah, relax knowing in a couple of seconds you are going to know what gravity is. Then it happens. This can be mostly summed up in one word - WHAM! quickly followed by OOOOH, and possibly some expletives. I've seen flickers of light 3 times when I hit. That would be my brain slamming into my skull. Usually this is following me hitting the ground on uneven terrain, having the wind change direction on me right at the last minute, or just general bad luck. I do this for an extra $150 in my paycheck. Crazy people do it for fun!

**MysticMead** · 8th August 07, 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by BonnieT100

I jump out of planes for a living. There's not much serenity involved. You have engine noise the entire time in the flight. Then there's that noise when the doors open and your heart starts racing. About this time your brain is asking why you do this and if you remember the pain from the last jump. Next you exit the aircraft, get tossed around and then yanked really hard. If you're lucky, you aren't swinging like a pendulum in a grandfather clock. Once I looked up and saw a C-17 (cargo bird slightly smaller than a 747) coming straight at me. I'm sure he was a couple hundred feet above me, but the mind plays tricks when you are screaming toward Earth at 15ft per second. Once all this fun and relatively peaceful part is over, you know what's coming next. If things are going well, you are drifting ever so slightly in a favored direction - for me, this is to the left. You make sure your feet and knees are together and relax. Yeah, relax knowing in a couple of seconds you are going to know what gravity is. Then it happens. This can be mostly summed up in one word - WHAM! quickly followed by OOOOH, and possibly some expletives. I've seen flickers of light 3 times when I hit. That would be my brain slamming into my skull. Usually this is following me hitting the ground on uneven terrain, having the wind change direction on me right at the last minute, or just general bad luck. I do this for an extra $150 in my paycheck. Crazy people do it for fun!

yeah... but that's a completely different type of parachute...it was made to get you down to earth as fast as possible and not kill you on impact...150 amonth extra isn't nearly enough... but then again... how many jumps a month do you make for that 150?

**BonnieT100** · 8th August 07, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by MysticMead

yeah... but that's a completely different type of parachute...it was made to get you down to earth as fast as possible and not kill you on impact...150 amonth extra isn't nearly enough... but then again... how many jumps a month do you make for that 150?

Depends. Some months 0, others way too many. We have to do 1 every 3 months for pay. The most I did was 3 in one month - all in the same week. Yeah, that sucked.