Helo Jumps at Elsinore

[Shark 0]

No shit. There I was at 3500'. The JetRanger goes into a hover. I make my way to the skid from the left seat. I hear the siren, look at my jump buddy in the right rear seat as he mounts the skid. "READY - SET - GOoooooo!" And I fall head first as I feel my stomack going up into my throat. I pick up speed and regain my "flight" controls and turn 180 and watch the helo with Chris close by in the background. He pitches, and I follow shortly as I can hear myself scream from the rush. Good chute, no line twist, and stow the slider. I see 3 good canopies around me and make my approach to a great landing in the grass. What a RUSH!!! (I'm doing another; very soon.)
To bad today's weather sucked and the ceiling wasn't high enough for another helo trip. It was, however, fun anticipating the "call" and getting geared up, consulting the pilot to give us 50-60 knots with some last minute advice from our ST&A. (Is that kinda like T&A??? Nah.) We went limp as soon as the local glider pilots reported the 2000' ceiling and we shut down the loads...4 of them. Then later in the day the helo crew bailed when it turned hop & poppable. Well, there's always tomorrow, Memorial Day, one in which we should remember our friends in eternal freefall, and other love ones who have passed.
Peace, out.

[Shark 0]

In never rains in southern california.... As I head out to the dz, I ponder how many drunks would be there today. It is, afterall, raining with 1 mile viz and a low, low ceiling. Same gang as yesterday. It stops drizzling at times, and an hour later it subsides. Unfortunately the cloud base is less than 2000'. We watched the same videos, including some new (new to us) footage of Grasshopper doing RW. His best was a rodeo with Jessica with great video by T1. Finally, Lara Croft bitches about being hungry and we road trip it to In-&-Out. Now, with hour increased exit weight, we look upward only to see glimpses of blue holes. Didn't look like an Otter load to altitude anytimes soon. But WAIT! The rotorheads are pulling the doors of the JetRanger! So we figure if we are to do hop-n-pops we might as well do them from the helo. Me and Recon Rich grab the golf cart and start cajoling the rotorheads and he says he can probably get us upto 3.5. Our ST&A gives us our final blessings and we manifest our load and 3 others. We are to launch a 4 way out. Me and Rich on the left skid, and Mike and Jim on the starboard skid. The pilot gives us a short brief before we strap in and rotate. A little hover and we buzz the packing tents a few times and head for the hills. We get to 2 grand and I motion to the sky; the cloud base is right on top of us. Will we get any higher? As we go the last 1000' we go into the base of the clouds just off the dz, then clear them as we start our hover. We all stand on our skids and everybody waits for my exit count. We're a little south and the pilot side slides over the dz. The anticipation was killing me and I check the faces of my jump buddies. The are just as anxioius as if to give me the "what-the-fuck-look." The pilot finally maitains a good hover and reaches for the siren, our cue to leave. I do the ready set go thing and fall off. No air, no speed, not much control. I begin to feel the pressure and track away, hoping my pals do the same. I do not hear my ProTrack as we went out under 3k and feel that I have been in the air a long time. I pitch and feel the dbag deploy, all the while thinking that I may not have enough speed to inflate the pc. I get the usual snivel of the Spectre, watch the lines and slider. I glance towards Rich as my canopy is still inflating and think GEEZ! he's still in freefall! We all end up following each other in a right-hand landing pattern onto the grass for our so-called demo jump. See, a film crew was out there and got us out of the helo and our cool landings. They also got Rich as he had won the Low-Pull contest. The ProTrack sez we went out at 2900' and I was in the saddle by 1900' in 9 seconds. Remember, he was still in freefall when I was under canopy. (Please do not attempt this stunt at home.) Anyways, the cloud cover wasn't as bad by 330 and we managed to get a few more jumps in with 4 otter loads. Not bad for rainy start, eh?!
L8

[grasshopper 0]

hey, shark. you owe me for sacrificing myself on monday so you guys could have low pull contests from the helicopter. how about a free hop 'n' pack ticket?

[Shark 0]

Quote

hey, shark. you owe me for sacrificing myself on monday so you guys could have low pull contests from the helicopter. how about a free hop 'n' pack ticket?

I'd hardly call it a "sacrifice" as it took over 2 hours since the 1 bottle of "poison" was administered. But, thanks anyway. BTW, see Recon Rich on the Perriscam web pix? Definitely an UglyMug shot....