Most Memorable Vision?

[mccurley 0]

From the time I first jumped in Aug 73, I have always loved to hear peoples special experiances.

What's your's.

To start off one of my favorites was a jump at Togoolawha with a couple of B Rel students back in the mid 80s, the spot was a bit long so we broke off a bit early and dumped a little high.

After opening and clearing end cells I turned toward the DZ and cranked on a bit of breaks. Just then at a bit over 3000 ft, a rather large Wedge Tail Eagle coasted by about 100 feet in front of me. Being a fool, I made what I thought was an eagle noise. Much to my surprise this big bird turned it's head to look at me and then procedeed to park itself just off to my left side about 20 feet away and right at eye level.

It stayed there with me (Iwas just flying a straight line back to the DZ) down to about 1000 feet, and during that time changed it's position a couple of times, cruising back and forth over the top of my canopy a couple of times, I swear nearly touching it, and cruisinng over to the other two canopies and back, and then parking it self back in beside me.

When it broke off and cruised away from me I couldn't help but feel a bit sad that it wasn't an everyday thing to to able to do EagleRW after every dive.

What's that old poem, i think it was by Al Miller
Wolves howl and Lion's roar,
Only Skydivers know why birds sing.

Watch my video Fat Women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWkEky8GoI

[Kramer 0]

Nice idea for a thread. That's cool that you had an eagle soaring with you.

I've only made five jumps, so I don't have much of a visual encyclopedia to browse through, but I do have a small something:

I jump at a DZ about a half hour away from my home town. On my third jump (the jump where I was finally able to sit back and enjoy myself under canopy since I wasn't so nervous), I looked way the hell to the south, and I could see my hometown off in the distance. And I just remember sitting there in the saddle filled with joy thinking to myself "not one person in that entire town of 15,000 is having as much fun as I am right now". That was a neat site for me...

-Kramer

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

[jumpinjackflash 0]

I'm sure it will grow as I only have a small amount as well.

However, last week I did my first solo, and the feeling diving out of the Otter (I LOVE THE OTTER!!!) alone, hitting the relative wind, sliding down the hill...

Then I did something I've never done. Hit my arch and looked down. For 6,000 feet. Arch, Alti, Ground...

Watchin mother earth grow in size, feeling the wind.

THE SINGLE MOST INCREDIBLE THING I'VE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE.

I'm sure they'll all continue to get better. I'm glad to have you guys to share with as well.

BLue Skies,


Jack

It's a gas, gas, gas...

[base698 1]

I got my first eagle RW jump several months back after a solo tracking dive. I was able to stay with it to about 1000 ft when I finally realized I'd have to start heading to the dz or I wouldn't make it back. It flew off then anyhow. It looked at me several times as I was following it. It stayed left front of me the whole time.

[ifics 0]

I don't have very many jumps but so far it was the sun setting when I was about 4k. Sometimes I get so busy I forget to stop for a second and appreciate (Q the ocean sounds and cheesey music)

[airtwardo 6]

Years ago...

A bunch of us were lucky enough to get to jump at Midnight on New Years!

I opened a bit high over the lake at Elsinore...
and watched the fireworks going off as far as the horizon,
...in all directions!

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

[DrewEckhardt 0]

1. Falling through my shadow on a cloud at noon.

2. First night jump with the Hale-Bopp comet and lunar eclipse.

[DBCOOPER 1]

Sunset at Lost Prairie on the 100 way cross country.Sunset normally takes about 100 seconds from the time the sun "touches the horizon" till its fully below the horizon.Under canopy its about 30 seconds.

Replying to: Re: Stall On Jump Run Emergency Procedure? by billvon

If the plane is unrecoverable then exiting is a very very good idea.

[jerry81 10]

-back-tracking into a valley and seeing the mountains rise up on both sides of me before I turned to pull.

-tracking over a cloud after a great ff dive and seing my shadow inside a rainbow (a glory, to be exact) rushing to meet me.
To quote a better known skygod; "I don't think any human being has ever experienced that!"

-doing my first or second "successful" 2-way sit, orbiting around my buddy like mad, seeing his grin in the light of the setting sun and knowing mine is just as big.

-just hanging in the air on my first wingsuit jump this saturday, seeing people in freefall getting smaller way below me.

-and of course, seeing the needle move (so slowly, it seemed) from 1,5 to 1,0km on my first "real" freefall. That actually brought tears to my eyes. I was flying!

---

[tbrown 26]

Once on a wintertime jump in upstate NY, there were many micro fine ice crystals suspended in the air. They caught my own shadow (I think) and turned it into a brilliant phantom "rainbow man" who was flying with me in freefall. That and the white snowy landscapes on winter jumps in the north are always beautiful.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[Vertifly 0]

Z-Hills 1997:

While approaching some "industrial haze" in freefall, I fell through a RAINBOW sitting just on the top. The rainbow wasn't shaped like a half-moon, rather, like a circle - and I went directly through the middle of it on my belly.

I only had like 50 (or so) jumps at the time. I saw the rainbow and had to suck it a bit low to make it below its altitude. At the time, 2500ft was pretty scary.

[selbbub78 0]

My first time i ever really LOOKED out under canopy. It was a great jump, and I pulled as I normally did, and I just looked out at the horizon. It was beautiful looking at the mountains, then turning towards the dz, and just wondering how so many people on the ground will never know the feeling of being thousands of feet above the ground floating back to the ground.

"Women fake orgasms - men fake whole relationships" – Sharon Stone
"The world is my dropzone" (wise crewdog quote)
"The light dims, until full darkness pierces into the world."-KDM

[Dagny 0]

Today, my good friend who started AFF with me jumped and did her level 7. I told her I'd watch her jump from the plane, so I left before her and flew on my back until she exited and got stable. She did an amazing job, passed level 7 with no trouble. It was a really great thing to share her excitement on the ground and tell her that she looked great coming out the door...and mean it!

Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.
-Salvador Dali

[Nick 0]

Earlier this year launching a fun 8-way from our Islander. I was rear, rear float, as I was standing on the step waiting for all the others to climb out I just looked over the top of the wing, all I could see was "industrial haze" streaching to the horizon all below us (there was a hole honest). Bizzare thing was that It felt a totally natural place to be..

End up with a great dive.

Nick
Gravity- It's not just a good idea, it's the LAW!

[mr2mk1g 10]

I have just made a long, futile attempt to express my memory of a beautiful canopy flight along and through a jagged crack in cloud; following its unexpected twists and turns as if flying down an unknown canyon, grazing its edges with the wing above my head.

I cannot express this image, although this failure is in itself a metaphor for what I experienced that day. For I have long searched to repeat that same experience; a similar break in the cloud through which I can fly my canopy and follow that unknown trail through some cottony canyon. I have found breaks in cloud, and flown them… none seem the same… I never stop looking.

God I love this sport.


[Safety first – never run cotton canyons with other canopies in the air]

[michaelflying 0]

seeing a King air and at 14 000 foot

www.skydivekzn.co.za

[jejejelle 0]

my first cut away , the feeling you get when you decide to cut away, the feeling of getting back in freefall
i cant really explain this , but it felt great

[abyumper 0]

jumping at sunset in the fall....absolutely beautiful

[Designer 0]

It's kinda strange.Of course all the time I saw my reserve when I had to,ranks right up there at the top.I really enjoyed Covington,La.,Deland Fla.,Z-hills.Even the few jumps I made at Lake Wales mean quite alot to me.It,s the places,people that make me want to stay in the sport.

[Casch 0]

The first time doing a H&P and watching another experience jumper jump right after me. It was awesome to watch him fall another 800ft or so below me all the while doing back loops and barrelrolls. 'twas really cool

[skypuppy 1]

Hmmm.... There's so many of them... I too had a bird fly by me under canopy. It was on a sunset X-country jump at Coldwater in the late '80's. I was about 2000-2500 feet when a heron flew by about 30-40 feet away, almost in slow motion - it's statuesque almost prehistoric appearance was exhilarating, to say the least.

Another jump that stood out was a sunset PFF jump over Grand Bend Sport Parachute Centre in the mid-80's. Sliding down the hill as the sunset reflected off Lake Huron and the fusillage and wing of the plane almost gave me sensory overload on that one - and I was one of the instructors!

Sitting alone in the blue sky on a tv tower at 750', surrounded by a vast 300' thick layer of ground fog so that all you could see anywhere was the tower and guy wires disappearing into the cloud below you and a couple of other towers poking their heads up some miles away... That jump was on a Sunday morning, and I felt closer to God that day then most of the people sitting uncomfortably in their church pews bored to tears...

And of course, looking down at terminal from somewhere south of 400' after pulling all the handles that could be pulled, and knowing the reserve had gone out but hadn't opened up yet...

Ours is one of the most visual sports their is...

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[skydyvr 0]

My first night jumps, done last weekend.

The sight and sensation of falling through the cool dark sky with stars above and city lights below was an amazing experience I will never, ever forget. I don't even have the vocabulary to describe what I felt.

. . =(_8^(1)

[schattenjaeger 0]

If you don't mind me asking, how'd that south of 400' jump turn out? Not to badly obviously since you're here to tell us about it, but I'm still curious...

[darkvapor 0]

1) Leaving a King Air last and deploying out the door. Then watching the pilot roll that baby over and match fall rates during my snivel.

2) Breaking off from a 3-stack on a sunset load. The clouds were amazing: smudgy and indistinct below 3k, high and majestic all the way up to 10k. All glowing that bright orange Georgia sunset color. Then looking back over my shoulder to see the remaining 2-stack flying out of the sun back to the DZ.

3) Almost all of my CRW jumps have been fucking amazing visually. I think the view doing CRW is so much better! Nothing beats chasing a 2-stack dodging puffy summer clouds. Or being in a large stack high above the earth and seeing all the distinct cloud layers and how fucking amazing they are looking down.

[Erroll 49]

-Last out doing a solo at Sibson, I see this enormous white cotton ball slide in underneath me. I enter the cloud at about 9k and spend the next 6000 feet surrounded by nothing but this almost ethereal white light. It was a very 'spiritual' experience. Then, the 'groundrush' as I suddenly exit the cloud base at 3000 feet - the fastest I have ever thrown my PC.

-Doing a sunset dive at Carletonville, watching the African sun set in the west while a huge red full moon is rising in the east. Truly an amazingly beautiful and memorable vision. Was fortunate to experience this more than once.

-My hundreth at Mmabatho - 31 December- last load of the day (and year!). Exit at 15k, open at 10 to cruise a bit, and looking out over the African bush I see way in the distance a typical violent summer thunderstorm moving away. The sun was shimmering brightly on the tops of the clouds, and stunning lightning bolts were flashing below. Awesome sight!