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Jethers203

What was your most expensive jump?????

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For me, it was not a high altitude, specialty aircraft, or even my first jump. It was not a jump where I ended up in the hospital with broken bones or the sort, but rather, a nonpaying (yes, Jimmy Tavino, nonpaying) DEMO jump into Ft. Bliss army base yesterday.

It is a DEMO we (Skydive El Paso) do every year for Armed Forces Day and it was my third year / time doing the jump. The difference between this time and the other times was that the guy (my dad actually) who usually organizes the DEMO was out of town on business, so I took his place as organizer.

So, we get the plan set, which is to launch a 4 way at 5 grand. I was to jump smoke and the Texas flag and another jumper smoke and the American flag, we would dump at 3 grand, stagger the landings in right in front of the crowd with the American flag landing last. After getting geared up and checked, we get in the plane and head for the DEMO site. We get there already at 2 thousand feet AGL and I was getting the 3 WDIs ready to throw as I was communicating with the ground crew to check the winds and to see if we were still a go for 10:30. I hear we are a go for 10:30 and it was around 10:15 so I line the plane up and throw the WDIs, but I forgot to take off my damn sunglasses (after already forgetting my croakies). So, I throw the WDIs and off goes my $190.00 Oakleys. After a split second of me saying "what the hell were you thinking" to myself, as well as grieving for my awesome sunglasses, I instructed the pilot to make a slow turn so we could watch the WDIs.

The rest of the jump however, went as good as any of us could imagined. We planned the dive and we dived the plan and I got it all on film. After a nice swoop and landing on the target in front of the cheering crowd, the 4 of us were greeted by the Post Commanding Two Star General with a "good job / well done handshake" and we each got one of his Challenge Coin's (4 of the 10 or so we later heard that he gives out in a year).

All in all, it was probably the best DEMO I have ever been on and it will definitely be one I will not forget. Although it was my most expensive jump thus far, it was worth every second of it and I will always remember my damn croakies in the future.

Clint D-24352



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Had a line over after shooting a tandem video. Chopped it and realized my only landing option was in the opposite direction that my canopy was going. I lost my 93 FX (only 70 jumps on it ), d-bag, PC, risers, reserve free bag and reserve PC. That jump cost just about $2000, not to mention hearing my wife bitch at me for 6 months about it.

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My first Jump by far was my most expensive - it cost a total of $145 and Included gear rental for an entire semester, my first Static Line Jump, and the First Jump Class.

After that, my most expensive was $60 from the C-130 at Rantoul.
=========Shaun ==========


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Here’s some that may qualify as expensive:

1973, lost Altimeter on opening – cost around $75 (may not sound much, but jump costs were only around $3 in those days.

1976, on vacation in the US, broke femur after a gust induced / turbulence stall on my original long-lined ring-and-rope Strato Star – hospital bill was around $4,000 (this represented around 50% of my annual salary so think of the amount in those terms)

1980, broke wrist, pelvis at bottom of a CRW jump in Australia – cost 3 months lost wages

1983, broke ankle in Jamaica – cost in dollar terms not too much – but my wife was particularly unimpressed, as we were flying to Britain the next day and it meant she’d have to carry all the bags. I was “paying back” that cost for years

1985, third jump on brand new canopy, in Hawaii – load mis-spotted – landed in ocean – new main canopy sank and was lost – that was around $1,000 at the time. My Dytter was also ruined at the same time.

1998 – vacation in Japan – made 8 or 10 skydives there, each at around $100 a pop. But the high cost (relative to other countries) was well worth it.

2002 bought first BirdMan suit – which caused me to become a wingsuit addict – now own 3 wingsuits – cost must approach $3,000.

2003 Balloon wingsuit jump - $160

1973 to 2004 – have gained 3 or 4 lifetimes of great experiences and friends due to skydiving, at no cost to me other than being a part of the sport. So how does that American Express go? …..Memories, priceless!!!

fergs;)

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Hmmm. Depends on how you look at it. Two that stand out.

#1 - When they tell you BASE if free, "They" are inexperienced. A certain Tower ended up costing me over $4,000.00.

#2 - A panic turn when I had about 130 jumps ended up costing me a broken pelvis and L4 and about $35,000.00.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peace and Blue Skies!
Bonnie ==>Gravity Gear!

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#1 - When they tell you BASE if free, "They" are inexperienced. A certain Tower ended up costing me over $4,000.00.

Four guys did a few BASE jumps and cost Red Bull $600,000.00. Beat that.
"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

Click

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#1 - When they tell you BASE if free, "They" are inexperienced. A certain Tower ended up costing me over $4,000.00.

Four guys did a few BASE jumps and cost Red Bull $600,000.00. Beat that.



I don't want to beat that! I've had enough! UNCLE!!!!!!!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peace and Blue Skies!
Bonnie ==>Gravity Gear!

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my chop last year.

skydive *ch-ching*, lineover, threw my handles *ch-ching*, reserve repack *ch-ching*, bottle for rigger *ch-ching*, 6pack for main chaser *ch-ching*, month waiting on custom soft-handle (why it took so long i'll never know) *ch-ching*

that about sums it up. :P

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I am SheeToh from Singapore. No DZ in Singapore so far, so every jump trip to Indonesia cost me approximately $900(flight, 2 nite hotel, bus, meals, jump tickets...) and usually jumps for 6-10 on Sat and Sun. That works out to be approx. $112.5 per jump assuming 8 jump total.

This is 6 times more expensive than jumping in USA.>:(.

SheeToh

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Tandem w/ video costs more than that Clint.

As for me -

cessna to altitude - 18, left half of my digitude on the strut - 225

so I guess that would be $233
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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Let's see, long night partying, sunrise load the next a.m., no coffee, somewhat hung over, landed downwind on paved runway in 15kn winds, under a Sabre 190, STUPID!!

Jump Suit 300.00
(Came from together in the first 3ft)
New Harness for Talon 300.00
(Came from together at the buckles in the next 10ft)
New Gloves 30.00
(Came from together as soon as I put my hands down in a futile attempt to decelerate from the previous 18 ft)
New FT-40 145.00
(Looked like Godzilla had chewed the face off)
All the skin I lost, No Replacement Value
All the shit I took over it, Still Paying (This was seven years ago)

Learning to never again jump that hung-over, PRICELESS

"The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few, or the one" - rehmwa


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Man, talk about time-value of money. My ground school/level 2 cost $210, which is more than much of what was posted.

Actually, I paid for all of AFF up-front and got a 10% discount, so I guess it was actually only $189 if you want to count that way.

Luckily I've yet to break, lose, or cutaway anything. Hopefully it stays that way!

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Luckily I've yet to break, lose, or cutaway anything. Hopefully it stays that way!



Keep bringing that good beer and i will help you look for everything if you ever do cutaway.;)

Never look down on someone, unless they are going down on you.

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Used to be the jump where i lost my Pro-Dytter, but just got a mail from L&B stating that they will ship me a brand new one.. Sure, they are not that expensive but for a student a gesture like this is very much appriciated :)

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Most expensive jump would be the one on June 1,2002. Doing a video of a tandem everything was fine till about 100 ft when i turned in to land the left side of the canopy folded under and spun me into the ground. I shattered my left anke, cracked my right heal, bit the side of my tounge off, split my head open after the helmet was ripped off my head, broke my sacrum in half and seperated my spin. I was life lined to Indianapolis Hospital. I have a bar and 9 screws in my left ankle and 2 screws holding my back together. Total was $300,000 dollars for the doctors bill. So I beleave that was one of the most expensive dives i have ever had. Thats not including the expense for the camera helmet and cameras and jumpsuit.

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