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Philly215

Skydiving in the winter?

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It depends on what part of the country you're in.
In Colorado, California and Florida, and other "warmer/not as severe winters" - Yes.

For places like Michigan, as long as the temp. on the ground is above 40 degrees and its not a blizzard, yes...

Otherwise no. I can only speak for those places cause i've only jumped in those places. It may be different for other DZ
Puttin' some stank on it.

----Hellfish #707----

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I could've sworn you guys jump year round, but now that I think about it I've never noticed seeing jumpers around the winter over here.

Is it just cooincidence? Skydiving is year round, right?



I dont jump as much in the winter, but I do jump year round at Cross Keys
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My mighty steed

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Jumping is year round at Cross Keys, IF enough people show up. Never missed a jumpable day yet.


Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, Shouting "...holy shit...what a ride!"

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we jump all year at baldwin ontario. my personal guideline is down to -12C (that is about 10F) at ground level.

rm


Since our field elevation at Mile High is about 5200 ft MSL to start with, we jump on winter days when the ground temp is 50F or above. Below that it is less than 0 degrees at jump altitiude (18,000 MSL) and you are rather susceptible to frostbite. Fullface helmets, layers, and turtlenecks/gloves/ dickies to cover exposed skin are a must some days, but we jump all winter.

Just burning a hole in the sky.....

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Since our field elevation at Mile High is about 5200 ft MSL to start with, we jump on winter days when the ground temp is 50F or above. Below that it is less than 0 degrees at jump altitiude (18,000 MSL) and you are rather susceptible to frostbite. Fullface helmets, layers, and turtlenecks/gloves/ dickies to cover exposed skin are a must some days, but we jump all winter.



Some of us will NOT be jumping all winter in conditions like that . . . . Squarecanopy just hasn't been the same since he got frostbite on the brain from jumping in those crazy temps! :P
TPM Sister #102

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we jump all year at baldwin ontario. my personal guideline is down to -12C (that is about 10F) at ground level.

rm


Since our field elevation at Mile High is about 5200 ft MSL to start with, we jump on winter days when the ground temp is 50F or above. Below that it is less than 0 degrees at jump altitiude (18,000 MSL) and you are rather susceptible to frostbite. Fullface helmets, layers, and turtlenecks/gloves/ dickies to cover exposed skin are a must some days, but we jump all winter.



?? Seems like you'd never get acceptable winter conditions then.

Even in California it's not unusual to get sub zero on the exit altitude, and 50-60 on the ground (sea level) is typical. I do recall a December day that was 40 on the ground and fucking cold at 18000, after a long ride in a C206.

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one of my jumps from my log:
date: january, 28th
equip: round canopy, chest reserve
exit: 3750m, -22C
everything ok, just frozen fingers, i think less blood in risen hands under canopy affected it a lot. landed about 500m from target but there was river, woods, road, fence and snow to my knees between me and dropzone :S

pictures are from another winter jump

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At my DZ in Quebec, Canada they occasionally do a January jump, but normally the DZ shuts down in October or November... Someone told me that I'd need a C license to do a winter jump. I don't quite know why but since I'm not even solo yet it's still a way off.

-Michael

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Where is "over here"?

But yeah, skydiving happens year round in a lot of places. I did 100 jumps between November and March last year in Wisconsin.



Ditto here. If its warm enough for the planes to start its warm enough to skydive, and the grass runway is take-off-able/landable. The days are much shorter so obviously you end up doing less jumps.

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We jump all winter here in Wi..

lets just consider for a moment..., you go from a warm building, to a warm airplane, spend aprox. 3+ min exposed to very cold conditions then back into the warm building. It's not so bad. All you have to do is dress accordingly.

lets all just pull up the skirt a little and step up to the plate.

Winter is not so bad. I have at least 1000 jumps below 32 on the ground.

It would be nice if it was always 72, but thats not how the world works. Sorry:(

I am unwilling to give up the sport I love for more then a few days, so here I will be, jumping all winter.

HPDBs, I hate those guys.
AFB, charter member.

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