Setting aside any fears of a "jinx," who here has never landed off?

[ladyskydiver 0]

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I landed about a mile away this morning and it was my first reserve ride!

psssttt...

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[2cmyzx 0]

I know, just when I thought I had all my FIRST'S done for a while! Bwhahaaaaaaaaaaa!

[Punky_Monkey 0]

BEER

*******
Punky Monkey
You may never get rid of the butterflies, but you can teach them how to fly in formation

[pilotdave 0]

Geez this poll makes me feel silly... I'm definitely in the 11-100 range (though much closer to 11...so far!). I haven't kept track, but I can think of a lot of off landings. Once on a 12 NM cross country. Well turned out I only made it about 10 NM back. Once when I had a brake fire... ended up just a little low and picked a back yard near the airport. I was on the first load at a boogie in FL... entire caravan load landed WAY off... I never even saw the landing area under canopy...airport was a few miles away. One day I landed off (mighta been airport property) 3 times in a row in the same field of very high weeds. I was in the first group out all 3 times and let experienced jumpers talk me into getting out short to not screw the tandems 3 times. Learned my lesson after that. My favorite off landing was just a normal jump with a long spot. Realized I wasn't making it back and chose an alternate field. It was long and narrow, but aimed perfectly into the wind, which was pretty strong. At maybe 500 feet I noticed some people at the far end of the field. At 200 I realized there was a huge crowd of kids running right toward where I was gonna land. As I touched down, they arrived and surrounded me. It was apparently the coolest thing they'd ever seen. They were just cheering like crazy. One kid just kept yelling "you're cool!" over and over again. An adult finally came over and offered me a ride back to the DZ. I asked her what was going on... "tractor races" she said. I didn't know what that meant until we were pulling out of the parking lot and I spotted a couple lawnmowers, with numbers on their sides and everything, driving around a racetrack. Who knew that happens so close to where I grew up....scary.

Dave

[bob.dino 0]

Three times:

Once after a long spot.

Once after an aircraft emergency - had to bail out of the Skyvan and landed in a field, dodging the camels!

And once after a two-way sitfly jump - there was cloud from 8k->5k, and my mate corked at about 6k. There was no way in hell I was pitching 'til I saw him come through the cloud, so I ended up open at 2k, about 3-4km off the DZ. Picked a nice field and landed safely. No big deal.

[monkycndo 0]

Had my first(beer) out this weekend on jump 57. Opened a bit low and had power lines between me and the landing area and the normal out. Didn't want to chance it trying to make it back, so my only option was a tiny backyard. Snuck it in and PLF'd like my health and wellfare depended on it. Only hurt my pride and won't be pulling low again.

Monkeyboy

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[Peej 0]

WFFC.

Apparently the Indians refer to it as: "Place of many outlandings". Especially when you're jumping a wing suit.

With so many planes on jump run and people in the sky you get out and make turn towards town and just keep going. The folks in town are pretty cool about giving lifts back but i never landed far enough away to need one. Most of the time we'd just walk down a street, hop a fence and be back on the airport.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[mdrejhon 8]

Four here.

Realistically, I'd say only one "true" offzone landing, since I consider the farmland adjacent to the landing zone (The edge of this farmland is less than 100 meters away from the landing bowl target), as a convenient alternate landing zone. Winds transpired against me, so I landed in that adjacent farmland three times on Sunday. So "technically", 4 offzone landings.

The wind layers of different speeds really confused me. One moment, my huge fluffy canopy was blowing me backwards, and the next, I was moving forward. That was a learning experience. It was just simply much easier to aim for the adjacent empty farmfield, so I was no more than about 100-200 meters away from the from the target bowl even though it was technically offzone.

Edit: Actually, now that I think of it more, make that 3 offzone. I landed in dropzone grass near the "dirt driveway" boundary between the farmland and dropzone grass. So I was inside the dropzone only 5 meters from being "offzone", as I wasn't standing on the adjacent farmfield.

[livenletfly 0]

over a thousand jumps and never landed off.

>

[NWPoul 1]

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over a thousand jumps and never landed off.

I applàud you and your pilot

Why drink and drive, if you can smoke and fly?

[Joellercoaster 6]

Twice in about ten jumps.

First one was my fault, just misjudged the winds and landed next to the DZ.

Second one was pretty funny. Winds at ground level were within Student tolerance but the uppers were, uhh... a little stronger. Since I opened high and was very lightly loaded, I had no hope.

After realising I was going to be out, I looked down and realised not only was I over a lake, I was flying backwards and getting further away from the shore. Hightailed it downwind and was over the lake in no time, and the ground-level winds were still low so as soon as I arrived over land all was calm and nice for a stand-up landing.

The sheep were very impressed.

Got back and discovered that my GF had been watching the whole thing and laughing at "whoever that last guy was - he was doomed!"

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[sum1mom 0]

The sheep were very impressed


Sorry, I couldn't leave that one alone.

I've had my share of off landings. I can think of one where I probably could have made it back...but "probably" isn't a good option in my opinion.

I'll take landing off versus trees and powerlines anyday.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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And with (only) 175 jumps, it's not like I've been through everything that can happen.

As long as you keep jumping, sooner or later you too will need to land off. It happens to almost everyone. Being the last out at the WFFC or the Eloy Holiday boogie helps increase your odds of landing off (I love to quote Bryan Burke right about now "If you don't like the spot, it's not getting any better"). Plus make a balloon jump, you're almost guaranteed to land off on one of those. I also believe that you jump a fair amount at Sebastian right? Dang now there's a DZ that you really need to be careful at in terms of landing off. Outside of landing on a road (and avoiding power lines) there really doesn't seem to be too many easy places to land off at that DZ (tons of trees surrounding the DZ). Either way, know where you're going to land by the time you hit 1000 feet AGL on each and every jump you make.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[heidihagen 0]

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Second one was pretty funny. Winds at ground level were within Student tolerance but the uppers were, uhh... a little stronger. Since I opened high and was very lightly loaded, I had no hope.

After realising I was going to be out, I looked down and realised not only was I over a lake, I was flying backwards and getting further away from the shore. Hightailed it downwind and was over the lake in no time, and the ground-level winds were still low so as soon as I arrived over land all was calm and nice for a stand-up landing.

The sheep were very impressed.

Got back and discovered that my GF had been watching the whole thing and laughing at "whoever that last guy was - he was doomed!"

haha!!!! i can relate! that happened to me last weekend.
opened at the wrong end of the runway an was not penetrating the wind at all, just sinking slowly. so i turned around downwind and found a nice large green area (this was at 2000+) and had a nice stand up landing...that a bunch of cattle saw (they were on the other side of the fence thankfully... but i'm SURE they heard it!).... then quickly found out this piece of land was surrounded by barbed wire.
my friends came and got me (but they were looking for a while-- eeek!). when i got back to the dz, my boyfriend, who i hadn't seen in a while (long distance thing) had finally arrived while i was in the air. i got a "why'd ya land over there?" from himthe first time i landed out, i landed right next to the dz/but still "out" ...i didn't drop out of a cloud until 1000, so i just flew my pattern ...off! luckly i was at a different dz with a lot of vacant surroundings and it's a good thing too b/c it was my second jump and i was probably still more worried about wind direction than obsticles

i didn't lose my mind, i sold it on ebay. .:need a container to fit 5'4", 110 lb. cypres ready & able to fit a 170 main (or slightly smaller):.[/ce

[heidihagen 0]

Jump #29 Eloy, AZ..8-10miles north of DZ...landed safe but in the desert.

yikes! what did you do? how did they find you?!? i didn't even know which way to start walkin (once i got past the fence i mean-- that was the big obsticle!)

i didn't lose my mind, i sold it on ebay. .:need a container to fit 5'4", 110 lb. cypres ready & able to fit a 170 main (or slightly smaller):.[/ce

[JUDYJ 0]

I had driven to the DZ that morning and had landed close to one of the roads I took to get to the DZ. I knew which way I thought the DZ was so I walked that road in the direction I thought I should. Then saw one of the planes overhead taking off and knew I was headed right. I am sure the pilot is the one who let them know where I was. I didn't have to walk for long. I did get a really great ground review when I got back..about which mountains were which...were the all male prison was, etc. Made all the difference. Even on my balloon jump, I knew which way to strive for and where I wanted to land.

It's not that bad at all to land off...kind of adds to the adventure.

IF you are going to be Stupid - you better be tough!

[mattjw916 2]

Eloy is the only place I have landed out and have included the following improvised landing areas: the parking lot, south of the concentration camp (RV park ), middle of nowhere south of the DZ, and one of the fields near the new tunnel construction (which wasn't there at the time).

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[Frenchy68 0]

Landed off once, on a reserve ride in MOAB. I knew I wouldn't make it back, so picked a spot, which incidently was also the spot where my free bag decided to land.

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[Antidote 0]

I'm with you Dave. I've landed off a bit more than ten times too. If I don't think I can make it home, I'll land off.

If I'm stupid enough to not check the spot when a newbie spots (Cessna DZ), there's a higher chance I'm landing off.

Lots of good reasons to choose not to try to make it back, really. I gather it's just about picking the best spot to land given the situation at hand.

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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And with (only) 175 jumps, it's not like I've been through everything that can happen.

As long as you keep jumping, sooner or later you too will need to land off. It happens to almost everyone. Being the last out at the WFFC or the Eloy Holiday boogie helps increase your odds of landing off (I love to quote Bryan Burke right about now "If you don't like the spot, it's not getting any better"). Plus make a balloon jump, you're almost guaranteed to land off on one of those. I also believe that you jump a fair amount at Sebastian right? Dang now there's a DZ that you really need to be careful at in terms of landing off. Outside of landing on a road (and avoiding power lines) there really doesn't seem to be too many easy places to land off at that DZ (tons of trees surrounding the DZ). Either way, know where you're going to land by the time you hit 1000 feet AGL on each and every jump you make.

Thanks for that quote -- I laughed out loud! Such simple sarcastic wisdom...
Yeah, I'm a Sebastian regular, and yeah, there are challenges if you have to land out, there. Honestly, I need to do more thinking about what I would (will?) do if and when I need to do so. I am seeing now that I may have sort of gotten "spoiled" by how easy it has been to get myself back to the DZ effectively; as nice as that has been, it is not something that grooms one to be able to handle a challenging situation.

This thread and the responses are causing me to get ready to really take a better look at my preparedness to land out in unexpected places. Thanks, all.
Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[SkydiveNFlorida 0]

Oops, I voted before I read. I landed "off" but still on the airport in the Keys twice. Well, actually, one wasn't "on" the airport, but right beside it on the sidewalk, and I would have easily walked the one minute back in, but a truck pulled up on the streed and offered me a ride:D Very friendly locals!

So, discounting those, i've never landed off off. Guess i've ruined your poll now.

-A

[ACMESkydiver 0]

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Personally, I feel that landing out has made me a better (safer) skydiver. I'd know that if it comes down to it , I'll land out in a safer spot rather than becoming fixated on the DZ at all costs

KEEP THIS IN MIND.

My friend just died a few weeks ago now from this very mistake.

I have never landed out, knock on wood...but I'd take it rather than push a dangerous position. Now more than ever.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.