A Worrying Thought

[Darkzone 0]

Not likely to happen over here in old Blighty but in the US of A where the constitution allows any T,D or H to amass a small, personal arsenal, has anyone ever been shot at while under canopy?
Whooooohooooo!!! Hahahaha!!!

[Zennie 0]

No, but with a lot our DZs being out in the sticks, the thought has at least crossed my mind.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[DZBone 0]

Well, you know that the USPA requires as part of every first jump course, especially in Montana, Texas, and The South in general, that we learn to avoid crossfire and stray bullets while under canopy. There are also procedures for when one of our many sidearms goes off in the plane, or in freefall.
Hope this helps!
Cheerio, mate!
Carl

[sangiro 4]

Yeah - good idea!
Back in 1997 I posted the piece below to wreck.skydiving trying to start a new movement. For some reason, which I fail to understand, it never took off. I'm posting it again hoping that someone will pick up on it and drive this initiative. Here goes...

Canopy Dogfighting

Dogfighting under canopy is one of the better ideas to have come out of this newsgroup lately. The problem would be finding the right equipment to execute some basic combat air-to-air maneuvers.

- The High G Barrel Roll -
This is a follow up on "the break". When the attacker overshoots, the defender reverses the break and barrel rolls over the top of the defender. (An Icarus EXTreme or Jedei for this maybe?) Hopefully this will bleed off a lot of speed leaving the defender in a good position to attack.

- The Split-S -
An evasive maneuver. The defender roll upside down and dive away and pull out in the opposite direction. (go heavy on the front risers here!)

- The Low Yo-Yo -
When in pursuit, the enemy is breaking, and you don't have enough speed to catch the defender. Roll upside down and dive across the circle, trading height for speed. Employ this when the enemy is running away. If executed correctly you should end up close and in the enemy's blind spot. (this is generally known as "a good thing", as you can swiftly tap him/her off with a clean shot behind the left or right ear - depending on the direction of the initial break)

- The Immelmann -
This is achieved by pulling back into a vertical climb followed by a roll to determine direction. Then pull back to return to level flight and perform a half roll to recover an upright position. (of course this last part isn't really necessary - you can continue to fly the canopy inverted and perform the Immelmann again with positive G's)

Now you go practice this under canopy, clean that 45 and I'll see you at the next dog boogie!

© Sangiro
(24 November 1997)

Safe swoops
Sangiro

[RemiAndKaren 0]

Bull Shit!! Every place in the south I've been to has a box in the back of the plane for jumpers to leave their guns in...
You know what they say: safety first...
Remi
PS: its not the guns that scare me anyways.. its these CReW Dawgs with half a dozen 6 inch knives hanging at various places on their rigs...

[SniperCJ 0]

I cant advise as to the validity of this since I wasnt there, but....
Down at Skydive Houston, they have a running feud with the guy across the street who has land and exotic animals etc. The guy calls the FAA everytime someone busts a cloud or any other damn thing happens.
Its rumored that he once shot at a skydiver who was about to land off the DZ and onto his land.
On a related note, I found a good way to strike back. Im a cop and SWAT guy so on my 200th jump I dressed out on my SWAT gear (camos, assault vest, gun, kevlar helmet) and made my jump like that holding a sign "Go SWAT! Hoo Yaaa. #200"
I dare em to shoot at me!
CJ

[wingnut 0]

that was you that posted that peice sangiro? i rememeber reading that, way back when, it was funny as hell!!!!! and that was even before i made my first jump and was just trying to find info on skydiving.........

"if dreams are like movies, then memories are like films about ghosts"-counting crows

[skybytch 259]

We used to jump into the New Year at the little DZ I learned at - leave the plane 15 seconds before midnight and open in the new year. We stopped doing them after the year that the jumpers on the midnight load heard gunfire all around them while under canopy.
What you may find strange is that it wasn't the stereotypical american redneck/cowboys shooting the guns off - it was some of California's many "new residents" from south of the border...
Oh... and while the US Constitution may say I have the right to bear arms, in reality I am very limited in what types of weapons I may legally purchase and I am also very limited in where I can legally use those weapons.
Key word?? Legally. If you don't care about following the law you can get anything you want anywhere you want it - even in the UK. It's an old saying but it's true - when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
pull and flare,
lisa

[Grogs 0]

Hehe. We have some CRW guys that play this sort of stuff. Sometimes, when they've made a 'normal' skydive, they'll look around for the nearest canopy and then fly over to them and stick an endcell in the person's face. It's particularly entertaining to watch on the ground if the person on the receiving end has never had this happen before. They usually see the canopy coming up behind them and thinking they're about to have a collision they start S-turning all over the sky trying to get away.

• Quote

[Dutchboy 0]

There was actually somebody who shot themselves under canopy a few years ago and tried to make it look like a murder instead of a suicide. What an asshole. Naturally, he went to a DZ were he wasn't known and everyone knows that had a "fatality" there. In case you're wondering, it wasn't my home DZ.
The Dutchboy
http://www.geocities.com/ppolstra

[Kris 0]

Okay, this brings me back to my idea for CCRW, also known as Combat Canopy Relative Work.
Here's the plan, raid a Wal-Mart or K-Mart for some smallish paintball guns and some water-soluble paintballs. Stuff gun down front of jumpsuit and have everyone do hop n' pop's from full altitude. Once under canopy, break it down Red-Baron style.
Who's with me?
Kriszilla
(Hmmm, I wonder if they have this model in a fully-automatic version...)

[Iflyme 0]

I've heard second hand that there has been some gun fire at Kaposwin (near Seattle) in a dispute with neighbours... don't know the particulars, though.

[Cacophony 0]

I don't know Kris. Would you want paint all over your gear? Plus I think it would be really hard anyways because you couldn't stear and shoot at the same time. Its a cool thought though.
Safe landings,
Alex D-23912

[skreamer 1]

I did get quite nervous at Skydance because there is a shooting-range across the road from the DZ - I can only imagine how tempting the canopies must be to those hicks! But then the sound of gun-fire actually made me feel quite at home (as in South Africa, not England)...
/s

[riggerrob 558]

Back in the mid 1980s the Black Forest Parachute Club used to land beside the Rod and Gun Club. We had an agreement with the R&G Club that if any skydiver went in, they would run over and pump both barrels into him. That way we could write it off as a hunting accident!

[skreamer 1]

Rob, I hope they were told exactly what "going in" meant!
PLF, broken leg, "could somebody please help me, I'm in a lot of pain!!!" *run* *run* BANG!!! "Kleetus, I done got me another one a them, hyuck!"