any skydivers here?

[Express]

haha it looked fake

[Express]

[Blake]

Originally Posted by express705

lol...i used to rent this little 150 that ran on mogas when i was in school. it had a max climb of probably 200 ft/min on a good day. it was equipped with a STOL kit and would just fall out of the sky at stall. i believe that landing haha

[Express]

Originally Posted by Blake

lol...i used to rent this little 150 that ran on mogas when i was in school. it had a max climb of probably 200 ft/min on a good day. it was equipped with a STOL kit and would just fall out of the sky at stall. i believe that landing haha

those were the days. i have never been in one newer than 1980. what a glorious airplane.

[Blake]

Originally Posted by express705

those were the days. i have never been in one newer than 1980. what a glorious airplane.

i believe that thing was a late 50's model 150. it was such a piece of shit, but only something like $60/hr to rent. in school, that was cheap, cheap, cheap compared to $120+/hr 172's. i would only fly it solo for fun because it would only take 1.5 adults or 2 children haha.

[Express]

those planes are like diesels. gas and oil

[H2]

Originally Posted by Blake

diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks...for me, nothing beat the adrenaline rush of that first jump. well, that was until i had my first malfunction. i keep chasing that rush ever since. beats any drug.

I bet that was exciting! I haven't skydived: I've done just a few static line jumps in the military. My most adrenaline-filled jump was when someone collided with me. Our chutes were already deployed and we just bounced off of each other. I remember seeing him about 10 seconds before we hit. Night jumps are also interesting. I hope to do accelerated freefall (AFF) training later on. Sounds like you're enjoying it.

[Blake]

Originally Posted by H2

I bet that was exciting! I haven't skydived: I've done just a few static line jumps in the military. My most adrenaline-filled jump was when someone collided with me. Our chutes were already deployed and we just bounced off of each other. I remember seeing him about 10 seconds before we hit. Night jumps are also interesting. I hope to do accelerated freefall (AFF) training later on. Sounds like you're enjoying it.

wow you're lucky to have lived to tell the story. were you jumping rounds or ellipticals? for those who don't know, collisions under canopy (well, collisions anywhere, really) are among the leading causes of death for skydivers.

[Express]

so blake what was your experience?

[Blake]

Originally Posted by express705

so blake what was your experience?

my only malfunction to date was on my 12th jump (second ever solo jump). i had what's referred to as a 'lineover malfunction'. basically, one of the lines that attaches to the canopy got twisted over the top of the canopy on opening and collapses part of the canopy. depends on where the malfunction occurs on the canopy and if it's really twisted up good on what happens next. sometimes they clear, sometimes they don't. on mine, i had a doozy. immediately on opening, i felt something wrong, look up, and half my canopy was snarled up and collapsed. i tried a couple corrective actions, but it sent me into a pretty nasty, high G flat spin. we're trained to try no more than a couple corrective actions before cutting away...and that's what i did. my adrenaline level was kicking pretty high at that point, but the reserve did it's job and i made a perfect, on target landing after that. the main canopy was indeed torn up pretty bad when they found it in the woods. they had to reline and patch a rip surely caused from the pressure of spinning so hard. i've flown a pitts special and didn't experience close to the G's that i felt in that.

this is what it looks like on the canopy

this is similar to what i experienced under canopy (the solid white chute is the reserve after she cut away)

i've met guys that have gone thousands of jumps without a malfunction...i just got lucky to have mine on #12. i was so excited after it happened that i wanted to go again right away.

[H2]

Originally Posted by Blake

wow you're lucky to have lived to tell the story. were you jumping rounds or ellipticals? for those who don't know, collisions under canopy (well, collisions anywhere, really) are among the leading causes of death for skydivers.

It happened on my third jump during jump school. They told us if you're ever going to collide to go ahead and spread your arms and legs out wide. We both did that and we/our chutes just bounced off each other. I guess all the air under the canopies stopped the chutes from collapsing any significant amount. We had large round chutes with no manueverability (no toggles or anything). One second I see someone in the distance heading toward me (and me toward him): a few seconds later we bounce off each other and he's off in the distance again. There was also a second or two (before we collided) when we were shouting at each other and waving our arms at each other to get away!

It sounds like you remembered your training well and methodically dealt with that lineover malfunction despite your adrenaline kicking high. I'm glad I never had to pull a reserve.

[Blake]

LOL waving to get away under rounds! haha! it's funny because there's no steering! when i used to jump at zephyrhills in florida, once a month a bunch of old crusty ex-mil jumpers would come out and do round jumps from 1200' AGL...every time they would come, there was someone got a broken something or they were fishing a couple of them out of trees. everyone referred to them as club dumbass. but hey, who am i to judge what some people qualify as fun? i sure as hell would never jump a round.

as far as the training, if you ever go through AFF, you'll be conditioned to do the exact same thing. by the time you make your first jump, you're such a zombie on emergency procedures that it's second nature. they call the initial AFF class as the 'bad news class', because mostly everything you talk about is shit that can fuck up and kill you. identify, attempt to correct, cutaway. only takes about 3-5 seconds of time for all that to happen. also helps that through all the hours i've logged in flight training, i've learned some compartmentalization over the years. plus, who wants to die being a dumbass trying to polish a turd into a diamond. that's why there's 2 chutes!

[McMuffin]

Originally Posted by Blake

do it! you'll love it. skydive perris is near you...one of the best dropzone's in the world.

That's where I'm going. I was actually supposed to go last month, but all three friends flaked! Next trip is scheduled with my none flaker friends!

[Blake]

Originally Posted by McMuffin

That's where I'm going. I was actually supposed to go last month, but all three friends flaked! Next trip is scheduled with my none flaker friends!

well hopefully you enjoy it and make a hobby out of it. most satisfying hobby i've ever picked up.

[3onDubs]

Originally Posted by McMuffin

That's where I'm going. I was actually supposed to go last month, but all three friends flaked! Next trip is scheduled with my none flaker friends!

A while back, my bro bought a groupon on livingsocial.com for the one down in san diego, we're going next month.

[Blake]

i wish i could get a groupon for a block of 100 jumps ;(

[McMuffin]

Originally Posted by Blake

well hopefully you enjoy it and make a hobby out of it. most satisfying hobby i've ever picked up.

Originally Posted by 3onDubs

A while back, my bro bought a groupon on livingsocial.com for the one down in san diego, we're going next month.

What date? How much does it cost down there?

[3onDubs]

Originally Posted by McMuffin

What date? How much does it cost down there?

Didn't set the date yet, but we're probably going mid-march.

This was the deal: http://livingsocial.com/deals/18188-...ive-experience

[McMuffin]

Originally Posted by 3onDubs

Didn't set the date yet, but we're probably going mid-march.

This was the deal: http://livingsocial.com/deals/18188-...ive-experience

I'm down to go as long It's not the weekend of the 12th.

[Blake]

up and at em butt crack of dawn on a saturday...perfect day to jump out of dem planes!

[mainstray]

Airborne!

[shah269]