Just Curious....how many BFC members have actully skydived?

[Slam]

BASE jumping appeals to me for the adreneline factor. It looks a total rush. I'm guestimating at least another two years of regular freefall jumping before trying out BASE.

There was a European woman on Transworld Sport who did some sky surfing then used the board to snowboard when she hit ground. It was damn impressive. I think she achieved some sort of record with it.

[Bronco]

My wife and I went on our first date. She had never been in a private plane before so she tells people that she went up in a private plane but has never landed in one.

We took along a black friend and warned him that they had special chutes for him...and he got a Mae West..with his shrouds tangled across the top of the chute. He kept pulling shrouds until the chute popped open and landed happily.

My wife wanted to know why anybody would get paid to do something that was so much fun.

[Prodigal Son]

I tandem jumped once at a place called SkyDive Chicago, where, much to my chagrin, the owner subsequently died in a, you guesed it, skydiving accident.

I would never do it again -- and I wholly support paying paratroopers a hell of a lot more than they make now.

[jonas]

The closest I have come to BuildingAntennaSpanEarth jumping is hot air balloons and hovering helis. From a stationary platform you WILL feel like you are falling where as was mentioned when coming out of an aircraft that is already moving you don't.

Remember the closer you are to the ground (ie BASE) the less time you have to do things...this is exactly why people really should have some experience jumping first. Flying the canopy is often overlooked as an important skill in jumping and takes a while to develop proficiency at. Taking an inexperienced person and requiring them to make split second decisions about flying/landing the canopy is asking for broken bones.

There is a culture of unsafe jackasses within the sport so be careful who you get involved with. I'm all for fun but why bait injury with stupidity.

J

[Chelly]

tried it, liked it, tried it again.
did 13 in total over two summers - just enough to get a taste of freefall .
definitely recommend it, but the place i was going seemed to constantly be in court on wrongful death charges - and once i've stopped doing something for a little while, i tend to lose interest in it.
one of those been there, done that kinda things.

[crotalus01]

hehehe...no shit Jonas. as i type this i am nursing my hand...2 fractured knuckles, compression fracture in my wrist, dislocated finger. and why? because i flared too low...but fuck it, im jumping again on saturday anyways.

[Leena]

I paid for several tandem jumps the year I turned 17. (Utah, Chicago, and Nevada) I'd wanted to go for years and for some reason, launching myself out of a perfectly good airplane seemed like the most natural thing in the world. I had planned to do the AFF routine, but I joined the Corps and managed to lose my log book in my travels... so these days I just hang out with crusty old jumpmasters and pilots who have no qualms about giving me free instruction.

My very first solo jump, I had some issues with my rip cord. I hear Crotalus knows all about how those things can happen.

I've since jumped in Montana, California, and Texas, but I'd be hard pressed to choose a 'favorite' DZ

Yo, Dawn... Skydive Chicago is a decent outfit, although I don't know anyone there anymore. We could give it a try when you're out here. The fall colors should make it an interesting jump.

[crotalus01]

yeah Leena my second tandem we had a total malfunction - 5500 feet and the ripcord whistling in the wind. pulled the reserve at 2500 and landed okay. turns out the center pin was not threaded to the ripcord, so the sides opened but the center held everything in. no worries about that now, the place im jumping uses a BOC throwout pilot chute.

[Texas Carnie Roadshow]

That plane better be going down. I'd do it, but not voluntarily.

[svizzerams]

Sorry, but total civilian here....

ah...what's a base jump?
and...what's a static line...?
happily I know what a tandem jump is...

no I haven't sky dived - but would consider it, but after Dan's experience ...welll ... whoa. That would be intense, but seeing how he survived, its a much better skydiving story...

[Texas Carnie Roadshow]

I've done rappelling, but that's the closest I'd get to any of those kinds of things.

[crotalus01]

svizzerams, B.A.S.E. jumps are jumps from the tops of tall objects, it stands for Building Antenna Span (bridges) Earth (cliffs, etc). a static line jump is like the US Airborne do, where a static line is hooked to a cord inside the aircraft, and it pulls the ripcord and deploys your chute as you jump (no freefall).