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fictionwriter

Help a fiction writer with a skydiving scene

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ryoder

***yes, just like Boogers wrote.
Post the questions here, you will get all the replies you need.

And don't listen to ChrisD



:D:D:D

But I thought I was the best fiction writer around?

C
But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

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mjosparky

After reading some of the responses I am glad I no longer to any stunt work. A guy could get killed with you guys as second unit directors. :P:)
Sparky



Come now, do you think you wouldn't be able to land on this?

http://news.buzzbuzzhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Tour-Odeon-most-expensive-penthouse-1024x767.jpg

or this?

http://icareiwear.com/how-to-create-suitable-balcony-decorating-ideas-for-apartment/futuristic-deck-balcony-design-in-moskow-skyscraper-apartment-contemporary-penthouse/

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Everyone,

Thank you so much for all your helpful replies. I appreciate your thoughts.

Here's what I'm thinking for backstory. My protagonist began diving in college (he's from a well-off family that tries to buy his affection with lavish gifts) and is about 27 now. It seems he could be experienced enough to pull off a jump on the rooftop.

Is the idea of two canopies the prevalent among you guys? Perhaps he could jump off into the street and take a cab rather than the boat idea.

It's supposed to be a tall enough building, but given the kind of people it houses, there probably wouldn't be cameras in the hallways for discretion. Once he enters through the rooftop, it's a pretty safe bet he makes it to the apartment. Then he jumps out to avoid security at the ground floor.

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mjosparky

After reading some of the responses I am glad I no longer to any stunt work. A guy could get killed with you guys as second unit directors. :P:)
Sparky



Oh Hell...I did basically the same 'stunt' into my girlfriends dorm back in college - for 1/2 a pizza and a BJ. ;)










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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A few points on diction: He didn't start "diving", he started "jumping". He's a jumper or a skydiver. He doesn't sky dive; he skydives. He doesn't have a 'chute. He has a parachute or a canopy or the whole setup, including the backpack, is a rig.

Personally I love the idea of landing his main, cutting away, doing whatever the story requires, then popping his reserve and tying off the reserve bridle and jumping. A roll over might look better in a film but in a book tying off the reserve PC will work a lot better. Not sure I've seen it done before in fiction either. If you're going for a Clancy-esque techni-descriptive bit of fiction, you could tell quite a compelling story which would probably still be comprehensible by non skydivers.

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airtwardo

***After reading some of the responses I am glad I no longer to any stunt work. A guy could get killed with you guys as second unit directors. :P:)
Sparky



Oh Hell...I did basically the same 'stunt' into my girlfriends dorm back in college - for 1/2 a pizza and a BJ. ;)

Made me cry with the post in the bonfire, made me laugh with this one.
Made of win. I owe you a beer
There are no dangerous dives
Only dangerous divers

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fictionwriter

Everyone,

Thank you so much for all your helpful replies. I appreciate your thoughts.

Here's what I'm thinking for backstory. My protagonist began diving in college (he's from a well-off family that tries to buy his affection with lavish gifts) and is about 27 now. It seems he could be experienced enough to pull off a jump on the rooftop.

Is the idea of two canopies the prevalent among you guys? Perhaps he could jump off into the street and take a cab rather than the boat idea.

It's supposed to be a tall enough building, but given the kind of people it houses, there probably wouldn't be cameras in the hallways for discretion. Once he enters through the rooftop, it's a pretty safe bet he makes it to the apartment. Then he jumps out to avoid security at the ground floor.



Well, this is a spy novel right? Why leave evidence behind if you don't have to... He can jump the same parachute he landed from the balcony by doing a roll over without having to pack. For added suspense, have him jump a base rig straight off the bat. Slider up for the initial skydive, slider down or off for the jump off of the balcony. Illegal, but the again, if this is a covert op, compliance with FAA regulations may not be top priority for this individual? Plus, he's BASE jumping already. Doubt he got approval from the local authorities for that...

Before there were specialized base parachutes, people jumped their normal skydiving parachutes off of bridges (and even cut away and had reserve rides...). Plus, the larger canopy size preferred for accuracy sizes is also a large canopy size preferred for BASE...

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fictionwriter

How would you do it?



In a book or a movie? For a movie you can story board the thing and then clean it up in post. In the book I would jump the reserve from a helicopter and land on the roof. Repel to the balcony and do my dirty deeds. Jump the main from the balcony and land on the roof a much lower building. Then causally wander out of the area.

Sparky

And collect a large check.B|
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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Question: is it important that he not leave behind evidence of his visit? Or, at least evidence how the visit was done? (I.e., if something is missing, the owner would know someone came in, but if there was skydiving/BASE gear left behind, that might let them know who did it).

I like the idea mentioned by JohnMitchell above about him having to have a cutaway. Always more dramatic when things don't go according to plan, and he has to improvise.

Here's a shot at it:

The plan: Use a skydiving rig to land on the roof (using his main), then rappel (with rope he brought with him) down to the apt. He can either get out by jumping from the apt patio, or he could to climb back up the rope and leave from the roof (allowing him to take all his gear with him). He leaves using his reserve (with the main canopy stuff back into the main compartment). For his exit jump he either ties his reserve pilot chute / bridle to the building railing so that his exit will be a static line, or if he can't leave stuff behind, he fully extracts his reserve and hangs it over the edge and does a rollover (so that he can take the reserve PC and free bag with him).

What actually happens: Complication 1: he has a malfunction on his main parachute (a spinning lineover would be common) and has to cutaway and land with his reserve. Complication 2: he's lost a lot of altitude with his main mal and reserve deployment, and as he nears the building, figures out that he will descend below the level of the building roof before he actually reaches the building. So now he either has to abort, or go for the dangerous penthouse landing (which he does). Now he has to use the rollover exit with his reserve to get out, as he no longer has a reserve pilot chute / bridle to do a static line.

(note: have him unlock the front door so they think he entered and exited through it (and perhaps they waste time looking at survailance cameras in the lobby that might id him.))

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Just FYI he doesnt actually need a plane or pilot. You can run a drone from an app on your smartphone.

Look at the Navy's MQ-8B, or the Army's Hummingbird (Boeing A160). In fact SOCOM has already deployed the A160 which has a payload capacity of greater than 300lbs and a ceiling of 30k AGL so could handle your spy jumping from it.

Might as well use the cool toys the real boys are using.

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fictionwriter

How would you do it?



You should visit the DB Cooper forum in History and Trivia and ask the whuffos there how to do this stunt.

They know vastly more about all facets of jumping than any of the folks who have responded to you here.
Guru312

I am not DB Cooper

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I just have to say, everything else aside, thank you for taking the time to research and ask this question. It is definitely a nice plus to have in a movie/book an accurate description of something you are personally familiar with. There are a lot of people willing to help get an accurate picture but cudos for asking!!

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lyosha

***After reading some of the responses I am glad I no longer to any stunt work. A guy could get killed with you guys as second unit directors. :P:)
Sparky



Come now, do you think you wouldn't be able to land on this?

http://news.buzzbuzzhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Tour-Odeon-most-expensive-penthouse-1024x767.jpg

or this?

http://icareiwear.com/how-to-create-suitable-balcony-decorating-ideas-for-apartment/futuristic-deck-balcony-design-in-moskow-skyscraper-apartment-contemporary-penthouse/

No problem, I'll follow you in. You want me to spot or have you got it.

Sparky
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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fictionwriter

Yes, definitely need help with that. Do you have any suggestions of photos of what that looks like?



Most of the following will be in the how stuff works article.

A parachute is deployed by reaching behind you to the small of your back (right hand side) and taking hold of a small handle (a hackey sack or a toggle or a small pillow shaped handle called a pud). This is attached to the top of a small round parachute called a pilot chute which is packed into a small spandex pouch on the bottom of the parachute container.

The skydiver will pull the pilot chute (aka a PC) out of the pouch and throw it away into the wind stream. The PC will inflate and act like an anchor in the sky that the jumper will continue to fall away from. The PC is connected to the bag the main parachute is packed inside by a length of material called the bridle and the drag of the PC will pull a small pin holding the container closed and allow the bag holding the canopy (deployment bag or D-bag) to be pulled free from the backpack it's all held in (called the harness and container system).

The canopy will then deploy out of the D-bag and inflate into the rectangular shaped canopy you'll see in picture. The D-bag, bridle and PC will remain attached to the top of the canopy and trail behind the jumper whilst under canopy. Refer back to the how stuff works article if nesc. as I'm sure they'll cover the opening in more detail.

Note there's no ripcord - they disappeared decades ago on sport parachute mains (though they're still used to deploy the reserve).

The point is that the deployment bag, bridle and main PC all stay attached to the main canopy.

A reserve (not quite but for the sake of argument) works just the same except the reserve PC, deployment bag (on the reserve called the freebag) and bridle are not attached to the reserve canopy.

Say your chap lands his main on target - he can cut away his main parachute with a simple pull of a single handle on the front of his harness. This will jettison his main and he'll be able to wander around with nothing more than a backpack on his back to any observer. He'll still have his reserve parachute in that container.

When he wants to escape, he can go to a balcony and pull the reserve ripcord. This will deploy a spring loaded reserve pilot chute from the back of his rig. The spring will actually send it flying a good few feet behind him. The reserve is packed inside its freebag which should hopefully not fall on the floor but remain in the rig on his back. Your chap can pick up the reserve PC and tie the bridle off to something - a hand rail say.

The reserve freebag (in which the reserve parachute is packed) is at one end of the reserve bridle and the reserve PC is at the other end. As above, none of this is actually attached to the reserve parachute.

Hero can then jump off the building and as the reserve PC is tied to the hand rail as he falls away, his reserve parachute will be deployed, just as if he's falling away from an inflated PC acting as an anchor in the sky.

The only down side is that you've left a main parachute and reserve bridle/pilot chute and bridle in the place you just burgled. Depends if that is important to your plot. It does make for a nice, technically interesting little sequence for a non-jumper to read however.

If you want to do it without leaving evidence of how he got in, that's also doable in an interesting way though I suspect the average reader may not believe a roll over would be possible.

A couple of photos illustrating above though I don't have access to anything great, these are just from a quick google:


http://www.chutingstar.com/media/catalog/product/cache/3/image/1000x1000/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/a/bag_and_pilotchute.jpg


http://www.skydive-safety.com/Images/Malfunctions/Pilot-Chute-In-Tow.gif

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