Humans are a crazy bunch, aren’t we?

These are some mediocre shots from today… I had some random girl take them, and the 200mm was a bit short to start with, even on a 1.6x crop.

If you haven’t tried sky diving, do it at least once.

The most surprising thing for me is that it wasn’t scary—at all.

I normally don’t like heights, but this doesn’t bother me, and most of the people I talked to felt the same way. If you walk up to a cliff, and look down, your brain has a defense mechanism to scare you into backing off… But your brain has no frame of reference for being 8000 feet above the ground standing on a tire traveling along at 70 MPH.

It seems you’ll only be scared if you make yourself scared.

Some things did catch me off guard a little… I wasn’t expecting the canopy to take nearly so long to fully deploy, and after a perfect landing, my instructor and I struggled to keep our balance as the wind tried to drag us.

Today was an experience like no other… I hope to go again sometime this summer.

I’ve always wanted to skydive… looks like fun!

It really is… Stop wanting and just go.

My Dad: ‘Why would anyone want to jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft?’

But it could be fun I suppose.

[quote author=“HeadWes”][quote author=“DigitalRebel”]I’ve always wanted to skydive… looks like fun!

It really is… Stop wanting and just go.

Are there restrictions like minimum age/height or whatever?

Every place will have its own policies, but here’s what the place I went through has to say.

http://www.eugeneskydivers.com/havequestions.html#agelimits

Most fun I’ve ever had in the air is doing my own aerobatics in a Grob Tutor plane. I used to be a member of the “Combined Cadet Force” which is basically the Nazi Youth with a very English/Latin motto. I got to go flying up at the University Air Squadron about 5-6 times and gained about 5 hours flying time on a log. For the last three flights I basically got to fly the plane myself, taking the controls 30 seconds after taking off and giving them back 30 seconds before landing. It was pretty damn memorable pulling double-loop the loops and stall turns when my only experience beforehand was a few hours of X-Plane flying! To top it all off I got to miss school for the day on each flight, and it only cost me £1! The good ‘ol british taxpayers did all the rest of the paying.  :D

I’ve always wanted to skydive and fly a plane myself - and I’ve never even been in a plane before.

I’m not sure I could stop making gay jokes during a tandem jump though.

[quote author=“CCP”]I’m not sure I could stop making gay jokes during a tandem jump though.

My instructor was Kim, age 20.

[quote author=“HeadWes”][quote author=“CCP”]I’m not sure I could stop making gay jokes during a tandem jump though.

My instructor was Kim, age 20.

Zing.

[quote author=“HeadWes”][quote author=“CCP”]I’m not sure I could stop making gay jokes during a tandem jump though.

My instructor was Kim, age 20.

Being asian makes him less gay?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist. Actually Kim has been used as a guy’s name over here too though I believe it is far less common today than say 20 years ago.)

[quote author=“Mayhem”][quote author=“HeadWes”][quote author=“CCP”]I’m not sure I could stop making gay jokes during a tandem jump though.

My instructor was Kim, age 20.

Being asian makes him less gay?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist. Actually Kim has been used as a guy’s name over here too though I believe it is far less common today than say 20 years ago.)

It passes for a guy’s name in Denmark too, so it took a while for it to sink in.

But if that’s the case then I’m not sure I could stop making improper suggestions in mid air that would surely result in her deattaching me.

[quote author=“ConEEE”]I used to be a member of the “Combined Cadet Force” which is basically the Nazi Youth with a very English/Latin motto.

I was in the ATC - Air Training Corps, the air equivilent of that.  The sad part is I ended up in the real Air Force for 12 years….

Probably only possible in Oregon and Colorado. Any other place you’d attempt to skydive in the U.S., you’d either land on top of a building or be shot down as a potential terrorist. 

Nice by the way. Flown 6 times, but never skydived. I’d just like to go hang gliding some day, but I’d almost be more afraid to do that because you actually stay high above the ground on a fairly light and open contraption as opposed to the skydiving where you plummet instantly toward the ground and the whole experience is over as fast as a roller-coaster ride. 

[quote author=“G4Jedi”]Probably only possible in Oregon and Colorado. Any other place you’d attempt to skydive in the U.S., you’d either land on top of a building…

It takes less space than you might think…

http://www.headwes.com/skydive/airport.jpg

This is where we went to jump. Notice that the landing area is directly adjacent to the only runway, and is bordered by trees. Also, the entire thing is right next to I-5, the main west coast highway.

This is silly. What’s the parachute for?