Are You Interested in Skydiving?

[Ben]

These videos may change your mind. 

One of my seemingly random youtube recommendations yesterday was a "skydiving gone wrong" video. Man, was that a rabbit hole for me. I thought about skydiving - at least tandem or static line - years ago, but these videos definitely change my perspective. 


https://youtu.be/3FJp0Ku-6gg

Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F723rIlW_No&list=PLS0eYrI6GvkNSxyACtWakteT4amucdVyQ

[K Frame]

I generally avoid getting into a plane.

I sure as hell am not going to jump out of one.

[Lennyjoe]

I’ve been considering giving it a try.  These videos don’t help……lol

[Northwoods]

Did a tandem jump in college.  Jumped from 14,000’ and fell through a cloud.  Amazing experience.  But once was enough.

[Boomhauer]

My cousin is big into it. She jumps every weekend with good weather and is a master parachutist.

I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to step off into space, I have a hard time forcing my body to do something my mind is screaming for me not to do.

[Fly320s]

I did about a dozen jumps way back when.  I enjoyed it, but I had to decide whether to spend my money on skydiving or flying lessons and I chose flying.

Today, I'm more interested in paragliding or hanggliding.  The fun part is the flying under the canopy.

[HankB]

During WWII my Dad was an Air Commando. Though he wasn't a paratrooper, during training he had to make a few parachute jumps. He didn't like it much - bailing out of a perfectly good airplane made no sense to him - but he said he was proud of the fact that unlike a few other soldiers, they never had to actually push him out of the aircraft.

[HeroHog]

I never jumped out of perfectly good planes for "fun" and avoided boats that "sank on purpose".

[Fly320s]

"Perfectly good" and "jump plane" are never used at the same time.   

You could say, "good enough" or "we haven't crashed, yet."

[Jim147]

Skydive KC comes down to the local airport a lot during the good weather months. The little girl and I used to go watch them when we could. I've spent thousands of hours in planes but the only chute I ever used was hook to the back of a car.

[MechAg94]

My Dad went through jump school as part of his military service.  If I had joined the Army, I would have liked to have done that. 

I doubt I will ever mess with it now.  The only airborne stuff I would like to do is hog hunting at some point. 

[K Frame]

I had a great uncle who was in the 82nd during WW II.

He made every combat jump that they did and was never wounded.

[RocketMan]

We lived in Issaquah, WA when I was in jr. and senior high school.  There was a small grass airstrip down in the valley not far from Lake Sammamish.  It's gone now, but they used to run gliders and skydiving flights out of it back in the day.  We enjoyed watching the gliders and skydivers from our house up on Squak Mountain.
My maternal grandfather offered to pay for basic parachute lessons and my first jump when I was but a young lad of sixteen.  I was all for it.  My mother, not so much.  Now that I am older and a small fraction wiser, I don't have the interest.

[230RN]

No.

If I had to use a parachute, I could steel myself to do it, but never voluntarily.

One of my first jobs was assisting an air conditioner installer and I sometimes had to lean out an upper-floor window.  I did it, but I surely didn't like it.  Dropped a screwdriver into a courtyard once and I could swear it bounced back up two floors,

Born in Manhattan, raised in NYC, never been to the observation deck of the Empire State Buiding to admire the view.  That's what photographers do for me.

[RocketMan]

I will admit that we did wear parachutes during my later warbirding days when I lived in Colorado Springs.  I belonged to a loose group in COS that was not affiliated with the CAF.  We flew an old Lockheed PV-2D Harpoon.  I have no idea who packed the chutes we wore.  Hell, they may not have even been funtional.

[RoadKingLarry]

Did a bungee jump way back in '92 at the Sturgis rally. The height was 180'. Kind of cool and a major adrenalin rush.
My rush was kind of spoiled though.
I was watching the guy that went next and they sort of bounced him off the ground, pretty well ruined his day.
He rebounded a good bit and just sort of hung there in the harness convulsing as they lowered him down.

[fifth_column]

Did a bungee jump way back in '92 at the Sturgis rally. The height was 180'. Kind of cool and a major adrenalin rush.
My rush was kind of spoiled though.
I was watching the guy that went next and they sort of bounced him off the ground, pretty well ruined his day.
He rebounded a good bit and just sort of hung there in the harness convulsing as they lowered him down.

You must have stretched the cord . . . .

I've done one tandem jump and loved it. I'd enjoy doing some really high jumps with lots of freefall, but I don't want to spend the time and money on getting there.

[230RN]

My cousin is big into it. She jumps every weekend with good weather and is a master parachutist.

I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to step off into space, I have a hard time forcing my body to do something my mind is screaming for me not to do.

How do you get to be a "master" at parachuting?  You fly up, you jump out, sooner or later you pop the chute, you drift down, you land.

Is it just an arbitrary number of jumps?  If so, I declare the arbitrary number to be zero.  Hey, I'm a Master Parachutist!