Your longest "out" landing?

[Levin 0]

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During the 2002 Texas State Record boogie, we were doing a 6-way with front floater spotting. He climbed out, we took grips, and launched. At breakoff, it was obvious we were gona' be out.

i think everybody got to experience an off airport landing from the purple otter that weekend.

levin
grat#40
vSCR#pending

[BikerBabe 0]

Um, it wasn't that far away, but it may as well have been miles.

It was my first jump at Skydive Suffolk in VA, under my old blue and pink Sabre (that's important, just wait). Well, we had a bad spot, and being new, I was a little shaky on the outs around the DZ. I headed for what looked like a field, but what turned out to be a full-on swamp with 6-ft high "underbrush".

There I was, slogging through the muck in my Tevas (I'll never wear tevas while jumping again), and the undergrowth got so thick that I could no longer move. I wasn't about to take off my jumpsuit and get literally eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was about 90 degrees and about 100% humidity, and I seriously thought I was going to be left out there to die. I was looking down at the inch-deep "water" thinking I'm going to have to drink it if I get thirsty enough...

...then I hear a plane! Larry Pennington, God bless him, had brought the Cessna out looking for me! With my survival training recently completed, I was looking for anything on me to reflect light at the plane, but all the metal on my rig was dull. So I spread my canopy with it's neon pink cells out on top of the underbrush, and they found me!

Of course, I was only like 100yds from some old guy's house with its nice manicured lawn...

LOL...this happened almost 6 years ago, but I bet if you go there and ask the old timers at that DZ about the swamp girl, they would still know the story...

Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

[AggieDave 6]

Hell, Levin, I laugh every time I remember Ramon's face when NacMac pulled his ass back into the plane...

My off that weekend was from one of the CASAs though...*shrug* oh-well, that's what I get for not knowing the area well enough to spot loads.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[TequilaGirl 0]

Well Dave if you would come out more - we might teach you how to spot at Spaceland.......

[weid14 0]

wow, I've had a bunch -- 100th jump, about 6 miles in a corn field other side of the river. The time the DZO said we could go below the cloud layer or we could land in the altermate area. We chose the alternate area. what he meant to say was AN alternate area which ended up being like 12 miles, people were still coming in an hour after sunset, they decided to do a cross country which put them WAY out. I always follow the theory 1 cow = bad, more than 1 cow = OK.

then there was the mal I had and I landed in farmer mcnasty (he threatened to shoot me), the other mal I followed into the many cow area, the time the pilot said, you guys want the GPS spot? sure, why not, that was at least a 20 minute car ride. there have been golf courses, apple orchards, home depots, back yards, shoot we even had an off landing on a demo (that was at least 5 miles around a lake, very bad spot on that one).

[fonz 0]

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anyone have any similar or funny stories?

On my first SL jump, I picked the wrong ditch for a reference, so I ended up landing a couple of fields further downwind. I estimate it must have been about half a mile or so. The worst thing, though, was that the fields at Teuge (which is where it happened) are surrounded by ditches and that these ditches are immediately bordered with barbed wire so you can't jump over them easily. Which means I had to disconnect my main, get out of the harness, step into the water, lift the gear across the ditch piece by piece, then climb out, hike across the field to the next ditch, repeat the entire process etc. Needless to say I was soaking wet by the time I finally made it back to the DZ.

On the upside: I kept the chute dry

And five hundred entirely naked women dropped out of the sky on parachutes.
-- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[glaucus73 0]

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anyone have any similar or funny stories?

I started static line and made it to the 15 second free fall level and could not pass so I switched to AFF at a different dropzone, Desert Skydiving Center Buckeye AZ. Well on my first Jump AFF level 4 I did not look at the aerial view of the place and under canopy all I could see was cotton fields every where. I landed five miles down wind. I felt stupid because it was like my 20th jump and I was at a new place. I didn't think they would let me continue but they came out and picked me up and every thing was good.

[bvsdjumper 0]

At Xenia last year I was doing a two way. Broke off and tracked but had to go thru some IH. Popped out of it a little above 3k, looked around to make sure it was clear, and dumped. Then I look to my right and see rt 35. So then I think "ok, the dz should be to the left." I don't see it. I look back and forth a few times between 35 and where the dz should be before I look past 35 on the other side. There's the drop zone. DOH! A couple of bushels of soy bean never made it to market.
I was about 2 miles out.
Art

[grue 1]

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there was like 20 cows packed together in this tight little herd and this skydiver dude in red and yellow with a white fx swooped in and landed right next to them screaming mooo. i kited my canopy running after them screaming mooo, mooo, mooo. i was able to hang for a few steps but then they stampeded away. it was definetly worth the walk across 2 fields and 3 fences to get back to the dz.

OMFG, I can't stop laughing at the mental image! hahhahaha

cavete terrae.

[ramon 0]

Botched cross country everyone landed in same field.

"Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.", Ambrose Bierce.

[Jabeln79 0]

Longest out was about 2 miles, after chasing an intentional cuttaway. Landed in a bean field I think.

Blue Skies
Joe
"Knowledge is the antidote to fear."
--- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[quade 3]

It was a cloudy, wet day in Perris and we were there for 4-way team training damn it! We rode the Twin Otter up to altitude with the concept that if we couldn't find a hole -over- the DZ, we'd intentionally take any legal hole we could find.

We spotted one about 3 miles to the south and took it. We decided that it would be easier for the bad-spot truck to find us (and safer) if we all landed as a group, so we picked a field near a road and landed there about 2 miles from the DZ.

I've chased cutaways and freebags for people and those have been off the DZ at times, but I don't think I've ever landed off the DZ unintentionally. Of course, Perris is freekin' huge.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[ramon 0]

I didn't..

And you didn't when I spotted...

ramon

"Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.", Ambrose Bierce.

[Shark 0]

About 100 miles... we landed in a vacant lot accross the street from this big 4th of July party. They happend to have a windblade and purple smoke, too.

[freeflydeeva 0]

Cyndi,

Don't forget that you ditched the gear in a barb wire fence. LOL But from the pickup person's perspective... it was funny to see ya'all run from the little ole horsies.

Dee

[freeflydeeva 0]

Longest out landing I had was 2 years ago. We landed about 3 miles out. We had decided to do a cross country jump. We had a brand new pilot and we told him we wanted to go about 8 miles.

Problem #1. He took us nautical miles
Problem #2. Winds died down.

We landed out 3 miles from Rantoul in the middle of a plowed cornfield. Luckily 2 of us had cells.

Problem #3. We called to tell them where we were and they couldn't find us. (Now mind you, anyone who has seen Central Illinois knows that all the roads are in 1 mile squares) You think that if you tell them go 3 miles east and 1 mile north they would find us...nope)

However, the funny part is that as we are trudging down the road, a car approaches. Low and behold... it was my mom and step-dad out visiting friends of theirs and on their way back home. LOL Go figure.

Dee

[freeflir29 0]

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We landed out 3 miles from Rantoul in the middle of a plowed cornfield

Wow...that narrows it down....

[TequilaGirl 0]

Dee - I should have known that part would eventually come out......LOL

[freeflydeeva 0]

Plowed cornfield to the north, plowed beanfield to the east, plowed cornfield to the south and plowed cornfield to the west.

Take your pick.

[billvon 2,400]

Let's see . . .

There was the Arizona state record where the GPS on the C123 broke. We couldn't spot and relay corrections - heck, we could barely hear ourselves think in that plane, it was so loud. Larry made a quick mental calculation as to how much fuel he was burning orbiting around up there with the three airplanes and said "Just drop em." We opened maybe 5 miles from the DZ - you could barely see it in the distance. It was interesting watching 82 people hiking down a road in the desert, then all trying to pile into the first van that showed up.

Then there was the Otter load at the Ranch where a 100 jump wonder was spotting. I had 50 jumps so I figured he knew what he was doing. He gave the pilot 90 degrees of left correction. At one point the pilot turned around and asked "Where are we going?" (Note to readers - this is generally a bad sign.)

We opened maybe 4 miles from the DZ. I landed in the corner of a powerline clearing, not such a good idea in retrospect. The hike out took me past a farm, the barking dog, the farmer mcnasty, etc. When I finally got to the road I got a ride from a carful of women. "Gardiner?" they asked. "That's like 20 minutes away!" But they drove me there anyway.

One year at the WFFC I was doing a nude load with Anita and four Brazilians. We were exiting from the Casa, and I told Anita she had to check the spot and for traffic (she was rearmost on exit.) She hemmed and hawed, said she'd never done that before, etc. I said "Look, stick your head out, if you see the airport and you don't see any airplanes under us, then we're OK!"

On the climb to altitude I had to fend off all the video guys who wanted to film Anita. While I was doing that the pilot turned around and said "Storm coming in, might want to strap in." "You're kidding, right?" I asked him. Then we hit the turbulence, and started bouncing around. Like a bunch of idiots we decided to jump anyway.

On jump run we staggered to the door and Anita took a look. She did indeed see the airport, although it was some distance away. Maybe she can be forgiven for overlooking this problem given she was naked, getting pelted with rain, and trying to not fall down as the plane wobbled around. We exited and had a good dive. After I opened, the question was which farm to land in. I figured I'd land near Anita since she had blown out her knee recently, and it would surely suck to land, hurt your knee, then have to lie nude in a cornfield until someone found you. She landed OK and we had a 20 minute hike to a road. For some reason, no one would stop when I tried to flag them down, but the first car Anita flagged down stopped and gave us a ride. Go figure.

Then there was the time I landed the tandem next to McDonald's primarily because I was thirsty - it was 3 miles from the DZ but I probably could have made it closer. And the time I spotted the whole load in Mexico, or the time that Taz spotted us over the 2500 foot mountains due to clouds. Nothing like trying to land on a mountain path that slopes more steeply than your canopy descends.

[Iflyme 0]

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I was one of 3 who landed off on a heli jump, wicked bad spot, winds changed, no penetration, put it down in the bush about a kilometer away right next to a saskatoon bush.

That's wouldn't have been at the Kamloops May Meet, would it? 'Cause if it was, I landed out -- downwind in the campsite -- on the same load! My buddy landed way up on the mountain under his 78 kaos ... had to hike back. Great video from his camera, though!

[pop 0]

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About 100 miles...

100 miles?!? How do you manage to go that far?

7 ounce wonders, music and dogs that are not into beer

[nws01 0]

The Dropzone and the people involved will remain nameless. Although a couple of people on here will no what I am talking about. It was a pretty cloudy day in Florida and we decided to go up and try to find some holes. On the way up we noticed that the clouds were from 1500 feet to about 6,000 feet. The pilot of the Cessna had a GPS device and told us when to open the door. I looked out the door and all I saw were clouds. GO yells the pilot! We all look at each other in the plane. GO he yells again! We all look out the door and at each other. We see a little hole through the clouds so out we went. We built a formation and we decided to turn and track a little high due to the fact that we were in cloude. I tracked, deployed and was under canopy by 4,000ft. I could not see anything because I was in a cloud so I did not want to make any drastic turns. It was a big airport so I figured if I kept a straight postion I would be safe and not run into anyone under a canopy. I noticed that these clouds had like little paths through them. I tried to take a path out of the cloud but had no luck. i kept going into other paths. It was pretty cool. This was my 35th jump and I took off my helmet and goggles and I was flying in the clouds! At about 1500 feet I saw the ground through the clouds. Next thing I knew I was out of the cloud. I could not see the airport. All that was under me was flooded fields and trees. The only dry space was surrounded by power lines. I did a 360 and saw what looked like the airport a long way away. The only place I could land was on the concrete road. I did not see any cars coming so I set up for final and had a nice butt landing on wet concrete. (ouch!) I was there approximately 15 minutes when the DZO drove up. "How did you get way over here and why did you jump out?" he asked. Only having 30 jumps I replied, "The pilot told us to go!" We drove back to the dz and I was about 4 mile from the airport. I was lucky because if I would have jumped out on the other side of the airport I would have landed in a large lake in Florida that is known to have a lot of alligators in it.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not jump out unless you can see the ground and can make out what is down there. (Like the landing area).

2. You make the decision on whether or not you are jumping and do not listen to pilots with their GPS's.

3. If you are open in a cloud do spirals to get out of it. If you remain in a straight line and follow the tunnels you may put yourself flying downwind in high winds after a long track which may end up putting you farther from the airport than you may want.

[chicagoskydiver 0]

I landed at least a couple miles out at Spaceland in some farmer's field. I guess that's what I get for following Scotty down...lol. Merrick and Pammi were with me on that jump and landed in the same field so I didn't feel so bad..the spot really sucked!

Hackey

[n2skdvn 0]

my longest ....ballon jump quincy 99' 16 miles front yard of a farmers house!

if my calculations are correct SLINKY + ESCULATOR = EVERLASTING FUN
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