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Joe Chritz
08-02-2008, 6:04 PM
A picture is truly worth a thousand words.

If you haven't I highly recommend it.

First tandem, approximately 11,000 feet. My ears still plugged but a very cool ride.

Joe

Jerry Thompson
08-02-2008, 8:21 PM
I used to do that when I was in the Army. That was before the Paracomander and other type canopies came out.
I jumped a 7 gore TU with Murphy lips. We modified it on the gym floor and a friends wife sewed the lips.
In those days the new types were just coming out. They were $300 and way over my budget as a PFC.
I am too old to give it another try and frankly now that I realize I am a mortal I would probably not jump out the plane and I would have airplane parts in my hands if someone pushed me.

Rich Engelhardt
08-02-2008, 9:25 PM
Hello,
I jumped twice almost 30 years ago.

I did it twice because I was scared so #*$less (#*$@less) the first time, I wanted to see what I missed ;).

Static line both times - this was before they did the tandem thing.
IIRC, 2500 feet -open door, step out on 2" wide 1 foot long step, hop to the end, chage feet, bend over the strut and wait for the pilot to slap you on the arm to signal you to push off - then 1-2-3, look up to see if your canopy was a nice round shape - if not,,well, the day got real long real quick :D.
(The place I jumped used surplus round T10 chutes)

Anyhow - welcome to the "short list" of those that have done it.

Bruce Page
08-02-2008, 11:58 PM
So Joe, are you the one with the helmet? I signed up for Airborne when I was in the service but my knees couldn’t take all the knee squats.
Probably just as well…

Don Abele
08-03-2008, 12:33 AM
So Joe, are you the one with the helmet?...

Bruce, in tandem jumping the instructor is the one with the chute attached to him. You are actually only attached to his harness. So Joe is the one with "less hair".

When I did this back in the late '80s they made you sign an FAA waiver because there was only ONE chute for two people and the FAA required two per person.

I loved it so much I continued on until I got my license and jumped for many years (recreationally). Never got to jump with the Marines :( Of course, as soon as I got married jumping out of perfectly good airplanes was a verboten event (both because of the danger and the expense). The same was true for bungee jumping (I did cranes, bridges, and even a hot-air balloon).

Ahhh, to be young (unmarried) and invincible!!!

Be well,

Doc

Mike Henderson
08-03-2008, 1:01 AM
Like Rich, I did one static line jump just to do it. When I was going through OCS at Benning, we were right next to the jump school* and I decided that I wanted to do that one day - but as a civilian and not through military jump school. So I did it and got it out of my system.

T10 chute with a static line but two panels removed so you could steer it.

Congratulations, Joe. I'm sure you'll remember it.

Mike

*In three weeks, they made you airborne. Week 1 was physical, week 2 was towers, and week 3 was airplane jumps (5). Almost all the people who washed out did so in week two. The towers were not that high, but if you were really afraid of heights, they were high enough. But the time they got on the plane, they jumped. All static line.

There were a lot of jokes about airborne, some which can't be told on this forum. There was a song they sang, "Blood Upon the Risers". I can't remember the words any more, but the refain was something like "...and he ain't gonna jump no more."

Glenn Clabo
08-03-2008, 7:23 AM
Ahhh, to be young (unmarried) and invincible!!!
Be well,Doc

Not to mention DUMB! ;)

Rich Engelhardt
08-03-2008, 8:36 AM
Hello,

The same was true for bungee jumping (I did cranes, bridges, and even a hot-air balloon).
Now THAT'S just crazy! :eek: <--coming from someone that jumped out and airplane 1/2 mile up!

What's bizarre is that yesterday I was at my son's apartment. He's on the 5th floor. I walked out on the balcony, looked down, and my knees turned to jello.

Weird!
Given the chance, I'd probably jump again, under the right circumstances and not think twice about it.
Heights above 2nd story give me the creeps though.

Matter of fact, the only "scarry time" I had jumping (other than the sheer terror of going up in the rickety old plane the jump school used and climbing out the door to jump) was when I got down to tree top level, and realized how high up I was.

Ken Fitzgerald
08-03-2008, 9:44 AM
I am scared of heights. When I was young and worked on oil rigs, my fingers used to leave fingerprints in steel when I had to go up and help the derrick hand get a drill collar back that he'd lost across the derrick.

Funny thing though I am not scared of flying. Never have been.


Jump out of a perfectly good airplane....not at this stage in life.....


Bungee jump.....too much to stretch, flop, sag and rebound. That's one of the things the LOML and I won't be doing in NZ this coming Christmas!:D We will be taking a hot air balloon ride, however. I hope I don't damage the guy's balloon.

Jim Becker
08-03-2008, 12:25 PM
Wow...great picture with wonderful timing! 'Glad you had a good time.

Curt Harms
08-03-2008, 7:11 PM
Like Rich, I did one static line jump just to do it. When I was going through OCS at Benning, we were right next to the jump school* and I decided that I wanted to do that one day - but as a civilian and not through military jump school. So I did it and got it out of my system.

T10 chute with a static line but two panels removed so you could steer it.

Congratulations, Joe. I'm sure you'll remember it.

Mike

*In three weeks, they made you airborne. Week 1 was physical, week 2 was towers, and week 3 was airplane jumps (5). Almost all the people who washed out did so in week two. The towers were not that high, but if you were really afraid of heights, they were high enough. But the time they got on the plane, they jumped. All static line.

There were a lot of jokes about airborne, some which can't be told on this forum. There was a song they sang, "Blood Upon the Risers". I can't remember the words any more, but the refain was something like "...and he ain't gonna jump no more."

A friend of the family when I was growing up was in the 82nd. I remember the record & song. Here's the lyrics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_on_the_Risers)

Mike Henderson
08-03-2008, 8:38 PM
A friend of the family when I was growing up was in the 82nd. I remember the record & song. Here's the lyrics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_on_the_Risers)
Thanks, Curt. I would have never thought of looking on Wikipedia for that. It's been a long time, but from what I can remember, there were a few different verses that the ariborne candidates sang.

But just think of yourself being one of those candidates and you're coming up to the final week where you make your actual jumps out of an airplane. Maybe as you march towards the planes to load up, they have you singing that song, continuing as you fly to the drop zone. Real confidence builder! Or a warning to get get your stuff in order (check your equipment for the hundredth time).

Mike

[Just to add a story, when I was in OCS, I formed a close friendship with another candidate, Dan Lunsford, who was airborne qualified. Dan had served a tour in Vietnam (prior to OCS) as an enlisted man (sergeant) and had been wounded in the right forearm. He used to tell me stories about airborne school. He had a "put down" to new airborne people - He'd say, "I got more time in a T10 than you got in a T-shirt."

He also had a great story about what they did for rehabilitation after he was wounded. He said they had a woodshop and they gave him a piece of 2 by 4 and a hand plane and told him to make something. So he started planing on that board. After a while, one of the nurses came by and asked him what he was making. He looked at her and said, "A toothpick!" He said to me after relating that story, "What did they expect me to make out of a 2 by 4 with nothing but a hand plane?"

Sadly, I lost contact with Dan. I was commissioned in the Signal Corps and he in the Infantry. There was no e-mail or Internet at that time. Neither of us knew the mailing address of our next assignments. I assume he wound up as a patloon leader in Vietnam but don't know if he survived or not. I wish I could find him.]

Dennis Peacock
08-03-2008, 8:44 PM
I would love to do that and have always wanted to. Just never did.

CONGRATS!!!!!

Robert foster
08-03-2008, 8:54 PM
I can't see any reason to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Course I'm a pilot and if something went drastically wrong it would be nice to have a parachute. I don't.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Bob

Art Mulder
08-04-2008, 1:11 PM
..have always wanted to. Just never did.

So did I, way back in the early 80s when I was in college. Couldn't afford it then.

And now... well, I got over it. :rolleyes::p

One of my roommates did have the money, though, and a bunch of them went out one Saturday, paid the fee, took a half-day(?) class and went up and jumped. His chute tangled. (It was all twisted up) He looked up, remembered his class, and "threw" himself into a spin which untwisted the chute, and down he came safely.

But then, he's never gone up again either. I wonder if he would if he could...

...art

Mark Stutz
08-04-2008, 3:08 PM
I can't see any reason to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

Bob

My sentiment exactly.

Mark

Rich Stewart
08-05-2008, 9:54 AM
They don't make a plane big enough to hold all the bubbas it'd take to throw me out of one of them things.

That was a quote form I guy I worked with in SC. I have actually been twice. Lost a bet with my son and had to go the first time and liked it so I went again. Everybody should try it once.