Do you feel safer flying with a parachute?

[kevin922 0]

For those of you who travel commerical airlines with your rig, do you feel safer? Have you actually thought about "emergency procedures" if the plane did have some problem? Did those emergency procedures include you jumping up out of your seat grabbing your carry on luggage from the bin above you and dawning your rig? (even though the logistics of you jumping out of a commerical jet are slim to none)

Just curious if I was the only one

[jfields 0]

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Just curious if I was the only one

Nope. I've thought about it too. How could a jumper NOT think about that?

[wingnut 0]

it givews me no relief...just head ache.....think about it you'd be better off burning in with the plane than standing trial for killing a planeload of peope cuz if you hadn't jumped out (which just wouldn't be posible) the pilot could of saved the plane and everybody would be alive.........and going through security is a pain in the butt...at least for me.... i had a reserve chute in my caryone....unpacked i might add...damn dude at the security checkpoint had to look through it.......... even when he saw it and knew what it was right away (he told me)

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"i have no reader's digest version"

[hobbes4star 0]

not really, you figure the plane mals at 30000+ ft. by the time you get your rig on all hell has broken lose, plus you would have to wait for the plane to come down to a safe jump altitude, and who the hell knows what will happen between 30000ft and 24000ft.
so no i don't feel safer traveling with it cause it would be usless to me.

if fun were easy it wouldn't be worth having, right?

[faulknerwn 37]

Let me relate to you a story of Steve Morrell. Forgive me if I get any details wrong. Steve was like a cat - he had 9 lives. He flew jets for the military, was a hard-core skydiver and base jumper among other things.

A while back, he was base-jumping in Saudi Arabia. He had an off-heading opening and a cliff strike, His buddy carried him out and he was in a hospital in S.A. for a while. He missed his flight back to the U.S. That flight was the Pan Am flight which exploded over Lockerbie. He always wondered - he said he always kept his rig under the seat in front of him - no gearbag, and he knew he could get it on in 10-15 seconds flat or some such. That particular flight split in half at around 30,000 feet and freefell to the ground. He said he always wondered how it would have looked for him to be returning from Saudi Arabia, happen to have a parachute with him, and to have been the only survivor.

[narcimund 0]

Is it a basic human need to blame and punish the survivors?

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[wlie 0]

Yap! And good luck opening the door on the DB Cooper.

My other ride is the relative wind.

[billvon 2,436]

>do you feel safer?

Nope. Of all the airline crashes over the last twenty years or so, I've only identified three in which an exit would even be possible - and in one of those three, nearly everyone survived anyway, so it would be a lot safer to stay put.

[Sebazz1 2]

I don't think it makes me feel safer in terms of an emergency but in terms of some lame @ss dude hucking my checked lugage around or stealing my rig I do feel safer having in near me in the cabin

[happythoughts 0]

I was thinking about an incident a few years back. A jet going to Hawaii lost 20 feet of the roof. The jet landed safely, but I can't remember about the passengers. Anyway, I was thinking that a missing roof would allow you to spot better. "Could you give me 5 left ?" Imagine the look on the other passengers faces when you put your rig on. "Could you sign my logbook in case you guys don't make it ?"

[Sebazz1 2]

It was over the Pacific Ocean on the way to Hawaii. You'd be shark bait when you landed. I think someone did get sucked out.....

[happythoughts 0]

"shark bait " Hmmm... that would be a down-side of making it. Note to self - only fly on jets crashing over land. I haven't heard of anyone successfully using their seat cushion as a "floatation device" yet. Jets don't seem to impact water in a gentle enough fashion. I guess it's shark bait either way.

[happythoughts 0]

Well, this was not on a jet, but on a hop flight between Quincy and St. Louis while returning from the convention. A little 45-seat twin cruising at 12,500. 15 rows of 3 seats so everyone was chatting. Picture this - 40 ecstatic jumpers and 5 whuffos. Our rigs are under the seat in front of each of us. We start telling plane crash/engine malfunction stories. The plane kept getting near clouds and hitting a little bumpyness and the prop changing pitch. The whuffos would look to see if we were reaching for our rigs. By the time we reached St. Louis, they were nervous wrecks.

[MyUserID 0]

As far as I know, only one person got sucked out, and that was a stewardess. I think the passengers saved the other stewardesses. The other thing that you have to consider is the other passengers. If the plane was going down and they saw that you had a rig, no doubt they'd try to rip it outta yer hands at any cost to save their own ass.

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Remember kids, eagles may soar, but at least weasels dont get sucked into jet engines.

[hobbes4star 0]

that would be funny some wuffo gets your rig on and actually is able to get a good canopy out and ends up with a sub 100 hp canopy and dies on landing. what a story that would make.

if fun were easy it wouldn't be worth having, right?

[lummy 4]

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that would be funny some wuffo gets your rig on and actually is able to get a good canopy out and ends up with a sub 100 hp canopy and dies on landing. what a story that would make

and afterwards thier family would sue our family because we didn't properly warn the F'er about it prior to him stealing it...


I usually like to sit next to the window and there's been a few times where I've either caught myself looking for outs and wind directions or one I caugh myself thinking (Morbid thought) that if for some reason the plane broke up and I was in freefall, I'd try and track for the lake over there...

I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. eat sushi, get smoochieTTK#1

[nicknitro71 0]

If you are a jumper you think about those scenerios every time you fly a commercial plane. I travel with my gear all the time. Got only one problem in London. The security guys kept asking me all sort of questions. I showed them the Cypress card, my log book, license and explained them that I would not let some asshole play basketball with my gear like they do with other luggages. Finally they let me go. It was thought few months after 9/11. I really did not show any attitute just stated my points.

Memento Audere Semper

903

[christoofar 0]

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I was thinking about an incident a few years back. A jet going to Hawaii lost 20 feet of the roof. The jet landed safely, but I can't remember about the passengers. Anyway, I was thinking that a missing roof would allow you to spot better. "Could you give me 5 left ?" Imagine the look on the other passengers faces when you put your rig on. "Could you sign my logbook in case you guys don't make it ?"

It was missing a flight attendent when it landed. The airline and the NTSB presumed she was sucked out of the aircraft somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

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I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

[christoofar 0]

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Well, this was not on a jet, but on a hop flight between Quincy and St. Louis while returning from the convention. A little 45-seat twin cruising at 12,500. 15 rows of 3 seats so everyone was chatting. Picture this - 40 ecstatic jumpers and 5 whuffos. Our rigs are under the seat in front of each of us. We start telling plane crash/engine malfunction stories. The plane kept getting near clouds and hitting a little bumpyness and the prop changing pitch. The whuffos would look to see if we were reaching for our rigs. By the time we reached St. Louis, they were nervous wrecks.

Dude! I was on the first one of these flights to Champaign from St. Louis! :) It was one day before the convention so it was only two skydivers and 8 whuffos. We were talking loud enough for everyone to hear. Got some turbluence near Champaign that kind-of unsettled everyone.

We managed to talk the stewardess (she was a hottie... nice boobies) into doing a tandem.

It is kind of funny... that plane is not much bigger than an Otter... I was checking for a spot, looking at the airport windsock, etc.

____________________________________________________________
I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

[kallend 1,651]

If a jet at cruise altitude, I think you'd be pretty damn cold and hypoxic. If it's able to descend under control to a survivable exit altitude, I'd guess it was under control enough to land.

[Jumperpaula 0]

Im comfy on commercial flights, they don't bump around near as much as Otters.

I like looking out and spotting traffic. I don't see a way to get out safely in the event of an emergency anyway.

[AndyMan 7]

I've thought about it - I've thought about how impracticle it is.

For starters, it's pretty much imposible to open a door on a preasurised plane at altitude. Remember that most plane doors open inwards before folding outwards. This is by design.

Anything short of a catestrophic failure of the fuselage - you simply wouldn't be able to get out. If there was catestrophic failure of the fuselage, you'd be hardpressed to get out without snags, impacts, or impaling yourself...

_Am

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You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[billvon 2,436]

>Our rigs are under the seat in front of each of us.

On one such flight from St. Louis to Quincy, the pilot met us as we boarded and told us "absolutely no parachutes in the cabin - they all get put in cargo." Couldn't argue with him, but at least there was little chance of them getting lost.

[freeflir29 0]

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Anything short of a catestrophic failure of the fuselage

Well...you get try getting on the plane with a crash axe and a rig.....

[Designer 0]

As opposed to flying without one?Spent more time flying airlines without gear just to avoid the hassles sometimes.