Skydiving.....

Aebous

Elite
 Okinawa
I recommend it.

Freakin WOW!

Almost better than sex!


And here is the quick version of my story (quick because I didn't describe half the feelings I went through)

Ok, you can read my jibber jabber if you want, or scroll to the bottom for the short (and boring) version of my skydiving adventure.

Well, so my Dad's visiting in Vegas right? Right. So anyways he has always wanted to try skydiving and hang gliding. So at first i'm like no way, not me no how (read wuss). Though after mentioning it to people at work and then thinking harder that I'll be damned if I'm going to let my Dad do something and me not be there with him.
So I took the plunge (pun intended). Honestly I didn't have the money to a tandem jump, so Dad had to pay my way (Thanks Dad!!!). So we suited up, got our safety, what to do briefing and walked to the plane. Oh I'll also point out that we were told that should anything go wrong we would be allowed to get another parachute after impacting the ground.

So the little airplane that could climbed and climbed and climbed some more. It was quite cramped in that tiny little bugger. We had 5 adults. Well anyways, it is really something else when they open the door and you start staring out at the ground way way way way way what the hell am i thinking way below you. Thankfully my uhm instructer (read pusher or otherwise the guy that shoves us out that i'm hooked too) is not one of those that like to do countdowns. Countdowns are good for many things but not when i'm about to jump (get pushed) out a cramped airplane. Whether by incident or just the instructor letting me have a great ride, we flipped over a little as we disembarked. That was awesome. Then we got righted and I got to feel/hear the wind rushing by at 120 mph. That was quite fun, better than being in the car topless at that speed for sure. Then we were free----freefallin! (well technically doing that the whole time) A short time later, the GIB (guy in back a.k.a. instructor type) pulled the rip cord and we got yanked around quite nicely to see a very beautiful chute open up.

It simply was breathtaking once the chute was open, the roar that was the wind dies down to nothing and you hear very little. Very peacefull being up there where eagles dare. Then the instructor let me grab the uhm ropes (guides....i think they are called outriggers?) and told me to pull hard on the right one, which sent us into quite the tight spin....that was almost as much fun as the initial jump.

Overall and the short version of this story,
-Nothing has ever been similiar to the feeling of skydiving IMO....this includes those rides at amusement parks that drop you straight down.
-There were in fact NO heart stopping up in your throat moments, I was rather surprised by that
-Skydiving is hella fun and I could see myself doing it more.
-The ride under the chute is as fun if not more than than the freefall
 
:thumbsup: , but after being in the aviation community for so long, I am quite content to keep my feet on the ground :)
 
There is very little I have not tried, but getting out of a perfectly servicable aircraft has never done it for me...

It's on my list to tick off though
 
I did my 10,400 ft, freefall to 4000ft then the abrupt slow down in a NON-TANDEM jump. If I didn't have this other expensive hobby, I'd jump every week if not more. Untethered and totally free.
 
Fun, but a trifle brief for the money. You might want to try paragliding or hang gliding if you want your ride to last hours instead of seconds. (and just to add some Z4 content, I'm pretty sure you could fit a full paragliding rig into the trunk of a Z4 - a hang glider might be more challenging...)
 
Jump out of a perfectlly good plane, on my own free will. The plane better be on fire, out of gas and nowhere to land or headed towards the ground at a speed faster that 120 mph.
 
IMZ4N said:
Jump out of a perfectlly good plane, on my own free will. The plane better be on fire, out of gas and nowhere to land or headed towards the ground at a speed faster that 120 mph.


I used to think the same, but I just couldn't let my Dad do it and not me. Plus he felt the same, so off we went. Pride goeth before a fall....literally. But it was fun, suprisingly in no way gave that sick feeling in the stomach (aside from nerves) And yeah I sure didn't like putting my feet out of the aircraft.....
It is alot for the money. It cost 159 for the tandem jump. I did ask how much to get qualified etc so I could jump on my own, the feller there said it's about 1600 bucks to get fully qualified to jump solo. Then it's like a 40 dollar rental for gear and I forget how much to go up in a plane. I doubt I will get around to ever qualifying to jump on my own, but man I'm tempted.
 
Uh, Youtube :poke: :P


Whoops, just saw that it was over a Gig in size,,,,compress it down to a smaller level.
 
DivX is good for compression, but having available for playback via an online source is a pain. Try rescaling down to a smaller level (ie 640x480).
 
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