Parachute

[Guest Air_chompers]

what is it like. How hard is it? Can you still compleate it if you are afraid of hights?

[M2]

It's like stepping off the side of a very tall building and falling, then you either pull your ripcord or your static line does it for you, then you find out if you put all the straps in the right places. After that it is like floating, very calm and relaxing, as long as no one is shooting at you. Enjoy this time while it lasts. Then the ground rushes up and you find out if your PLF technique is correct or not. If it isn’t, hopefully you’ll be lucky (better to be lucky than good any day!) and none of your injuries will be permanent. Then it is all over.

I hate heights, but jumping is how you find out if it is a fear or a phobia. If the former, than you can easily overcome it. If it is the latter, then you will likely never go out the door.

Last bit of free advice, do it while you are young. It will take its toll on your knees and ankles, so it is best to do so while you can still recover from it in a reasonable amount of time.

Have fun!

Cheers! M2

[Guest Wxpunk]

I went to Raeford Skydive (Raeford Co., NC) and jumped tandem from 12,500 feet. It was incredible. You jump, pop a drogue chute to limit your speed to around 120 mph and freefall for 50 seconds. Then, you pop your chute, around 4000 feet, and, ever so gently, glide towards Earth. Our touchdown was something like stepping out of a car.

I loved every minute of it. Of course I'm not afraid of heights, but those are just details! :D

Just do it!

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Wxpunk

[Guest jeff1234]

My biggest fear was the airplane ride up. This thing was the biggest piece of stuff Iv ever flown in my entire life. And I should know, Iv freight dogged before. My instructor made the push so quick that I did not even have time to think, next thing I knew we were falling and the whole time I thought, "wow even if the shoot does not open this is still gonna be a great ride and Ill not even feel the splat!" Next thing I know it was time to pull the cord and it was all over. The most dangerous thing that happened (beside the plane ride) was almost landing on a desolate road on which, of course, a car was coming. And of course the maximum security prison next door to the landing site.

Well worth the money and signing my life away from all liability.

[ 31. July 2004, 22:32: Message edited by: jeff1234 ]

[M2]

Jeff

I jumped with the Slovak Special Forces out of Mi-2 HOPLITE helicopters in the Tatra Mountains...

(no, they don't normally smoke like that, I just found this photo on the web and thought it was appropriate!)

Talk about a scary aircraft, but the worse part was the guys flying it were out drinking with us just a few hours earlier! They didn't share our love of safety standards (this was 10 years ago), as a matter of fact, they joked about how over-cautious we were (we sent one of their teams to jump with 10th Mountain Division at Ft Drum). There was no better feeling than when the Slovak jumpmaster indicated we were at the minimum altitude to jump in case of an emergency...I would have probably gone out the door anyway if that HOPLITE gave any indication of a malfunction.

Still, it was a blast and I highly recommend it, even if you can't jumpt out of Soviet-made hardware.

Cheers! M2

[Smokin]

Little off topic, but why would they name a chopper "hoplite"? It dosen't make too much sense to name a light, flying machine after a heavily armored acient greek infantryman.

[M2]

Most NATO designations are not meant to be flattering...FISHBED (Mig-21), FLOGGER (MiG-23), FARMER (MiG-19), FAGOT (Mig-15), HIND (Mi-24), HIP (Mi-8), GROUSE (SA-18)...they just have to following the naming convention ('F' for figher, 'H' for helicopters, etc).

It wasn't what the Soviets named their aircraft...

[Guest skipplet]

Originally posted by ENJJPT2B:

Little off topic, but why would they name a chopper "hoplite"? It dosen't make too much sense to name a light, flying machine after a heavily armored acient greek infantryman.

You're thinking too much.