What is your lowest?

[wingnut 0]

i have a friend that made one of those jumps in russia! he was jumping up there a few years ago and they were drinking the night before and got to talking about making a "real man's jump" well he though they were joking....the next day they go up and jump from 100m. he sayes it was 60m for the chute to open and the rest to wait until the ground cme up.....syas it was scary as shit!....i think he's got balls of steel for doing it......but yet i'd love to do b.a.s.e. sometime.
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[Yooper 0]

Hi all. I have made several jumps ranging from 900ft to 1,100ft and they are fun! No, I wasn't doing military jumps, believe it or not, I was jumping a Triathalon 160. I once had an incident where the pilotchute wrapped around my arm. Was that exciting! If you don't have faith in yourself and your equipment then what's the difference jumping from 10,000ft or 1,000 feet? Be safe, have fun.
Mizhakwit,
Chad

[Pammi 0]

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-I don't recommend leaving with the pilot chute in your hand. Should your exit be a wee bit unstable...

You're prob'ly right SP. I did a diving exit from 5,000 not too long ago and was a bit unstable causing a rather icky deployment. All was fine, but I could see the same sort of thing happening perhaps if you're holding the pilot chute. A question tho...don't some base-jumpers do something like that?
Pammi
"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live."
-Joan Borysenko

[slotperfect 7]

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A question tho...don't some base-jumpers do something like that?

I'm not a BASE jumper, but yes I have seen pictures and video of many BASE jumpers do just that. But, they are usually dealing with altitudes in hundreds of feet.
Respectfully,
SP

[FallDown 0]

i've often gotten out at 1800ft to 2000ft and don't consider it to be a situation where i'd need to pull the reserve. i'd personally be willing to cut away and pull my reserve at 1000ft and if the pilot wanted me out lower than 1500ft i'd go straight for the reserve.

[Zennie 0]

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I have seen pictures and video of many BASE jumpers do just that. But, they are usually dealing with altitudes in hundreds of feet.

Plus they aren't moving forward at 80-ish MPH like us when we leave the plane.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[ramon 0]

I left a Cessna directly over the DZ at just above 2.5 (maybe 2.8) and I did a three second delay. No biggie, but I definitely prefer 3-5k so I can play a little more under canopy..
My main opens so slow though I would not want to go any lower.

[tonka 2]

I did a 2,100ft jump once. Clouds were low so we sent a Cessna load to see just how low they were. Either get out or ride the plane down. It was a lil freaky since I only had like 50 jumps but it all ended up good. I have no problem doin em that low as long as I am able to repack my main to open a lil faster.

[Carpediem 0]

Lowest plane hop involved getting out of a casa at 2k. I watched for 3 more people to bomb out and pull, then i pulled. Was open at 800 feet.

I've seen a cut away and reserve deployment (no skyhook) at 400 and be ok, so I'd bomb out of a plane as low as 300ish. You are hardly moving vertically at that moment and with the forward speed you have from the plane you're reserve would open in plenty of time to flare.

Those who do, can't explain. Those who don't, can't understand.

[hukturn 0]

Survival rate on the 300' static line rounds should be pretty good. In the Army, static line training jumps are supposed to be at 800' and real world is supposed to be 500'. I have gotten out lower than that, AGL. Having alot of jumpos before Jumpschool, I was a little more reserved than most. Most of the guys are saying "look how high" and I was thinking "look how low".
To the original question, I have exited 1700' on a main in an emergency. I would go a little lower because you are opening into the realative wind then transitioning into vertical descent. I would exit to reserve at any altitude in a true emergency if the pilot wanted me out. 1000' plus, I am going to main, 1000' feet and less straight to reserve, but that's me.

-Matthew

[lekstrom10k 0]

About 4 1/2 years ago as fund raiser for M.S. I made 60 jumps for my 60th birthday. It took 7; 1/3 hours only the last one was all the way up to 2300 .The rest were between 1500 and 1800 I was landing almost exactly 4:00 minutes. I didnt have to wave off or look for landing traffic I dont think there were any other DZ 's going either, they all had better sense. We collected almost $6000. MS was happy,I was happy There was only one rig with a pull out pilot chute of the 8 I used. The record still stands and maybe in 5 1/2 more I'll try 70. No malfunctions or bad openings either I was amazed at back to back Sabre 190's jumps the flying and penetration etc differences 4 minutes later. After I landed on 60 someone gave me a beer Then the sky cleared up. Iwasnt allowed up because of the news media so close. It can be done no problem but not recommended. Especially AFF graduates,
PS We did a demo at 1200 in the rain jumping a PC and even got paid $5 to boot. Again not recommended but possible

[porpoishead 5]

lowest H&P 3500'

no way in hell I'd pull my main under 2K my spectre is one snivelly s.o.b, wouldnt want the risk of a two out due to a cypres fire, granted with the higher airspeed of a low pass 2500' would be my comfort zone for a H&P.

know your equipment, and it's opening characteristics at terminal and sub-term. and if applicable your AAD's arming and firing parameters.

knowledge is key, especially in an emergency, leave yourself room and live by your pull priorities 1.pull 2.pull on time 3.pull stable in that order, is what was drilled into our head at our DZ.

40 jumps on my spectre so far, only 3 H&P's

some guys I know dont have any H&P's on their new canopies big mistake IMHO.

edited to add: WTH is this doing in bonfire

if you want a friend feed any animal
Perry Farrell

[labrys 0]

2500 is the lowest I've done so far and I'm not enthusiastic about doing it again. I spent too many feet trying to unravel my pilot chute from my ankle to call that one a fun jump

Owned by Remi #?

[BillyVance 34]

I have done 1800 feet twice... first time from a King Air with full cloud cover at 1900 feet, some 10 years ago.

Second time from a C182 on an air show demo because of the same cloud cover, last year.

However, I have gone lower in freefall a couple times on other jumps from full altitude....

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[porpoishead 5]

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2500 is the lowest I've done so far and I'm not enthusiastic about doing it again. I spent too many feet trying to unravel my pilot chute from my ankle to call that one a fun jump

how did you end up with that horseshoe? bad body pos.? bad throw ?

if you want a friend feed any animal
Perry Farrell

[BillyVance 34]

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2500 is the lowest I've done so far and I'm not enthusiastic about doing it again. I spent too many feet trying to unravel my pilot chute from my ankle to call that one a fun jump

how did you end up with that horseshoe? bad body pos.? bad throw ?

I also had one jump where I got hung up on another jumper on exit as rear rear floater, after pushing off him, I didn't know it until breakoff and I started tracking when I felt my left leg strap flapping against my leg. I found it had been pulled out to the end of the strap! With a 1.5 : 1 loaded canopy, I had no way of deploying that or my reserve cleanly with a flapping legstrap like that! It took me a while but I managed to grab it and cinch it tight, then pull my main at the same time I'm looking at my altimeter going OH FUCK! Thank god my main opened fine. I was in the saddle at 700 feet. This was 9 years ago.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[skydemon2 0]

Between 2000 and 2500 ....... I did a ballon jump from 2700 and I had a really really slow opening it was 800ft when i was under canopy....

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone!

I like to start my day off with a little Ray of Soulshine™!!

[L.O. 0]

It depends. If I am jumping one of my hot rods I will jump from 2ish but I will be scared. If I am on the Fury or the Maverick I will do 2 or 3 seconds of head down before I deploy. As long as I am above 1800 when I get out.

HPDBs, I hate those guys.
AFB, charter member.

[gearless_chris 1]

I went 5th out of our 182, jump run started at 2,300' so I was probably 1,500' actual exit. I watched Scary Larry exit at 1260' once. You guys that are concerned about 5,000' exits are overly cautious, we do RW from 5,000 all the time. Back before my time, going all the way up meant 7,500 .

"If it wasn't easy stupid people couldn't do it", Duane.

My momma said I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a$$hole.

[vtskydivescott 0]

I jumped from 3K and it seemed low to me but that was when I first started out. I prefer to jump out high, I love the fall. Sometimes I am out at 13K and pull right away. Really nice at sunset to see the sun go down etc... It's about 15 - 20 minutes just floating around up there enjoying the scene.....However if the pilot said get out, I am gone at 1,ooo feet.

[Royd 0]

I think if you get out at lower than 1.8K (i.e, in an emergency) you're supposed to skip your main & go right
for your reserve.

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That makes sense, but exiting at 2.5, I would be a little concerned about deploying my main, but judging from the responses so far, exit at 2.5 and deploy the main. Am I wrong in thinking that on a hop n pop exit, the time it would take to fully inflate your main would be increased due to sub terminal speed?

I recently went from 2.5 because of a ceiling. Thinking about it was worse than doing it. After all, the old guys love going out that low.

They didn't cut the engine so that there was more forward speed on opening.

[Taylor610 0]

Wow, I guess back in the day there was the time that I did the two-way at 1600 feet out of a cessna that had an oil pressure problem...

It was not planned, it was dumb and "it sounded good at the time" is no excuse. We did it, turned a couple of quick points, and both sat in above a grand. (And yes, it was very stupid)

I do , however, have a video that Steve gave me (yes, Dead Steve) of him exiting a Cessna at 240'. I know we have actually talked about this particular video on here before because I am not the only one who has a copy. If I remember correctly, from exit to landing was 7 seconds, but I may be wrong. It was packed for base, and Steve was a big base jumper of the time...


Steve was always doing something...

[pinkfairy 0]

OMFG

How low can you go?

Should really be the title of this thread.

And I'm sure there are many others like it.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

[Scubadivemaster 3]

I'm amused by the different opinions on this. Our dropzone has many of the "old-time, make-your- surplus-round-more-sporty-with-a-hot-knife" jumpers. They still think 2000 is high. We also teach static line progression, a dying art. Static lines START at 3200 feet, so that isn't going to seem very low to someone who has jumped static line.

I've jumped at 2200 due to low cloud cover. This low you should make it a true "Hop and Pop", meaning no delay to get stable, you LEAVE the AC stable and pitch. Even jumping a spectre, I'm open in plenty of time to still go to reserve if I have a problem. No big deal.

Of course the forward airspeed helps a lot. In an emergency, if the pilot were dead sticking it and telling us to get out really low, I would just pop the reserve. Why watch my spectre snivel through 1000 feet wishing I had pulled the reserve right out the door, and wondering if you can hear the cypress cutter fire?

[Skydiver187 0]