Jumping Out of Perfectly Good Things
Some here have actually jumped out of perfectly good aircraft. I planned to do a tandem jump on my 65th birthday a few years ago and even invited Jonn to join me, but it never happened. I wanted to jump into my big field for my birthday party, but the cost was toooo steep. I still aim to try it on my 70th in a coupla years, BUT it sure ain’t gonna be like this!!
“A helium-filled balloon carried him 135,908 feet to nearly the top of the stratosphere — more than 25 miles — above the ground, before he cut himself loose and plunged toward the earth at speeds that peaked at more than 800 miles per hour.”
Of course going faster than the speed of sound has one benefit… no one can hear me screaming.
Category: Geezer Alert!
Old Airborne maxim:
“There’s no such thing as a perfectly good aircraft.”
Perfectly good airplane? C119
SJ…C119, Ugh ROGER THAT!
Aw hell. ShoRtBusSluuurPer41 will try to enter this thread.
Yep. Regardless of ownership, aircraft come in two “flavors”:
1. those that are broken today; and
2. those that will break in the future.
Oh they’ll hear you screaming, it’ll just get there after the thud.
No. Nothing something I want to do. But, will volunteer to watch while you do it, Pons.
(What? Edit that to be “Not something…” please. Or not. Whatever.)
Gonna leave it sis. Made me smile.
OK. Just this once, since you’re older than me and all.
It is the jump that gets you, it is the sudden deceleration at the end… I never jumped from a perfectly good airplane, just Air Force planes.
It isn’t ^
Cement poisoning gets you every time.
“I never jumped from a perfectly good airplane, just Air Force planes.”
HA!
Zero, any time you want to do a tandem jump, I will go with you. Just name a place and time and give me a couple weeks warning so I can make arrangements. I didn’t remember very much from my first jump so I suggest that you plan to do at least two jumps the same day. If you can get to the Denver area, I did my second jump at a place northeast of Colorado Springs. We exited the plane at about 17,000 feet — above the top of Pikes Peak. It was pretty awesome.
I’ve done a whopping total of 6 jumps (5 static cord and 1 freefall). But those were sport jumps done on my own dime. Not the strap-on-everything-and-waddle-off-the-C130-ramp type of jumps that the military does. Plus those happened almost 25 years ago. I’ve put on a few pounds since then. I’d need a bigger parachute.
I don’t know you personally, but uhhh they make parachutes you can drop tanks with you know.
😀
Lol! I’m not THAT big thank God. I run about 265. If I jumped with a chute used for tanks, I’d probably hang in the air for DAYS. 😀
LOL
I’m around 240, but if they strap my wheelchair to my butt it adds an extra 350.
They could L.A.P.E.S. me out the back I guess.
As far as dropping off a helium ballon at 140,000 feet … I’d do it, given the chance.
Fastest quadriplegic in the world.
I had every intention of getting back into the very same aircraft I jumped from, and never bothered with a parachute.
Jumped from a 15 foot hover, over the water of course. Sometimes I brought a friend along on the way back up. Good times! 😉
Ahhh! One of them Wetcrewmen types!
I remember seeing you guys getting tortured, I mean trained, when I was going through NACCS back in the day.
No thank you. I had trouble enough just treading water, then drownproofing in flight gear.
Blood on the Risers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_on_the_Risers He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright, He checked all his equipment and made sure his pack was tight; He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar, “You ain’t gonna jump no more!” (CHORUS) Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die, Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die, Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die, He ain’t gonna jump no more! “Is everybody happy?” cried the Sergeant looking up, Our Hero feebly answered “Yes,” and then they stood him up; He jumped into the icy blast, his static line unhooked, He ain’t gonna jump no more. (CHORUS) He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock, He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt the awful drop, The silk from his reserves spilled out, and wrapped around his legs, He ain’t gonna jump no more. (CHORUS) The risers swung around his neck, connectors cracked his dome, Suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones; The canopy became his shroud; he hurtled to the ground. He ain’t gonna jump no more. (CHORUS) The days he’d lived and loved and laughed kept running through his mind, He thought about the girl back home, the one he’d left behind; He thought about the medic corps, and wondered what they’d find, He ain’t gonna jump no more. (CHORUS) The ambulance was on the spot, the jeeps were running wild, The medics jumped and screamed with glee, they rolled their sleeves and smiled, For it had been a week or more since last a ‘Chute had failed, He ain’t gonna jump no more. (CHORUS) He hit the ground, the sound was “SPLAT”, his blood went spurting high; His comrades, they were heard to say “A hell of a way to die!” He lay there, rolling ’round in the welter of his gore, He ain’t gonna jump no more. (CHORUS) (slowly, solemnly; about half the speed of the other verses) There was blood upon the risers, there were… Read more »
The sadistic thing was the Black Hats made us sing this in the back of S&P’s on the way to the airfield at Benning and the C119’s. circa 1963.
They play that song over the harness shed’s PA system before your first jump at Airborne school, along with this old recruiting video of pure awesome:
Thanks for posting that. Slightly after my time because I had white name tapes and yellow/black “US Army”. And the Jody Cadence was not politically correct then.
Those 250 towers have been there a LONG time…weren’t they in Band of Bro’s? I’ll check it out on my annual 11 Nov Band of Bro’s and scotch marathon.
Fort Benning says the towers have been there since 1941. I think I remember the Army buying them from a World’s Fair in the 30s? But maybe not.
Jonn: I’d heard that too. But Wikipedia (yeah, I know) says that they were “modeled after” those used at the 1939 Worlds Fair.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Benning
It also says that the towers were purchased from the Safe Parachute Company of Hightstown, NJ, after the Army’s initial airborne test platoon had trained there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Airborne_School
This source differs in some details, but also says the towers were not from the 1939 NYC World’s Fair.
http://herbertholeman.com/para/units/jumphist.php
If I can find something definitive, I’ll post it.
I found this link:
http://benningmwr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Toursmallpdf.com_.pdf
Item #28 talks about the towers:
These towers were loosely modeled from a 115-foot-tall tower built by Stanley Switlik and George Putnam, Amelia Earhart’s husband, on Swit- lik’s farm in New Jersey, now the site of Six Flags Great Adventure. The first public jump from that tower was made by Amelia Earhart on June
2, 1935. Switlik then partnered with retired Naval Commander James H. Strong to design larger towers inspired by the primitive wood- en towers used by the Soviets to train para- troopers in the 1920s. In 1936, Strong patent- ed a safer version which included eight guide wires in a circle surrounding the parachute. He built several test platforms at his home in Highstown, N.J., and there the Army’s origi- nal Airborne Test Platoon conducted its earli- est training. Strong sold military versions of the tower to the Army and others were used as amusement rides for the public, including the iconic Parachute Jump in Coney Island, Brooklyn, N.Y., which was first used at the
1939 New York World’s Fair.
The Safe Parachute Company installed four towers at Fort Benning. One
was toppled in a 1954 tornado.
SSG E: thanks. I also found this:
http://books.google.com/books?id=QtcyoC9kY24C&pg=PT45&lpg=PT45&dq=Fort+Benning+Parachute+Towers+History&source=bl&ots=mknvf9BkOV&sig=JA2rAs-5OKFzFs8B6reeNfd0DtE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IjtNVNWUEIOhyQT19oCAAw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwCzgK
While the towers may have been inspired by or modeled after the 1939 World’s Fair parachute ride, I’m now convinced they aren’t the same towers used at that World’s Fair. Rather, they were built new at Benning specifically for use by the Airborne School.
In 1984 I did my first drop from one of the towers. I went the wrong way and over the hood of a car, ladies eyes were wide open, and did a perfect plf in the parking lot. “Are you hurt, troop”? Um..no.”what the fuck are you doing in the parking lot, give me 20 shithead”
I do believe that the sgt was laughing as hard as I was at the look on that ladies face
So, Jonn, has a certain aficionado of random capitalization tried commenting on this thread yet?
haha HS Junior,
thats soo rich. he’s going ” there all going laugh at me”
besides i love the fear of waiting to jump-
This jump is pretty impressive; and nothing that I would ever care to do.
The pioneer for this type of jump is LTC Kittinger. He set a number of records in the late 50’s early 60’s that stood until Felix Baumgartner made his jump a few years ago. What is even more impressive is the state of technology at that time and he was the first.
Here are some links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger