So yesterday was my first successful exit from an aircraft while in flight. How did it go you ask? Well it was a blast. I jumped out after only waiting for about 5 hours in a harness and spent 45 seconds in the air. In that 45 seconds I fell a total of 1250 feet to land safely back on the earth. I landed very softly and had a great first time experience. I then got back to my bed at about 12 midnight and got up at 3:45 am. Hence the lack of update the day I actually jumped. We only made the one jump due to a wind issue and they lost a guy in some trees and had to spend 4 hours searching for him. So today we did 2 more jumps. One was with combat equipment and one was without. Both were Hollywood jumps meaning 15 people out each side of the aircraft at the same time. The first jump was good in that I didn't get close to anyone and hit a soft spot, but I hit much harder than the day before. My second jump was with a ruck (big backpack) and weapon. This jump was much more chaotic. 2 people got stuck together and had to land together. 2 people colided with each other but recovered and landed fine. 1 person broke a leg. And I hit harder than both times before combined. I had steered to avoid some marshy ground and then prepared to land. I let down my gear on its extension line and I was coming in backwards... fast. I got my feet and knees together, eyes on the horizon, held my slip and waited for the inevitable. I smashed into the ground with about a 2 story building drop force and fell properly, but it hurt like a ... bad. I realeased my chute and just laid there stunned and disoriented with what had just transpired. After a few seconds I tested my legs by lifting them and everything appeared to be fine. I got out of my harness and gathered all my gear and walked about a half mile to the rally point. Tonight I have a "mystery" bump on my wrist, my butt hurts and I'm still feeling like I'm swaying. We get to sleep in tomorrow so hopefully I can recover from this "fun" I had today.
Today's Lesson:
An object in motion remains in motion until great pain has brought it to a hault
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
An Object in Motion...
at 7:27 PM
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5 comments:
I think you are ok because Seven and I prayed for you. You are a crazy man but I'm proud of you and glad you had fun.
Oh dear, I'm not sure that sounds like much fun! I will be praying that you get good healing rest tonight so you can begin fresh tomorrow and have two more soft landings! Love you.
Good Lord! That was something.
In cartoon movies, you could blow the parachute with your mouth and you will go up again... :P
That was intense, too intense for me.
I know you are strong enough for your next jump, be strong!
-wien.
Glad you are alive. Proud you made it! Dad
well, so much for two more soft landings... Glad you are alright, and I'm also proud of your effort down there.
Who would have thought a year or two ago, that you would be running many miles with tons of gear on, jumping out of perfectly good planes, and learning how to shoot rockets that cost more than my house!
Any way, I know that something good is up the big man's sleeve, just hard to see sometimes. Like I said earlier, I'm proud of you, keep it up! take care of yourself, and get well soon! JP
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