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neilly

Urban myths in skydiving

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Here are a couple that came up this past weekend...

-- It is warmer up there because warm air rises.

-- If jumping at high altitude, just fill a garbage bag with air on the ground and breathe out of the bag at altitude.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

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We cannot move up and down relative to each other and drogue-less tandems do not fall faster than the vidiot. Regardless of weight, jumpsuit, or orientation, we all fall at the same speed as proven by dropping things off of the Eiffel Tower.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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In our DZ we take a ride with a van from the landing area to back to the hangar. Every once in a while we find a group of tandempassengers (in fluorescent yellow jumpsuits) waiting for it trying to get rid of the pressure on their ears by jumping up and down while holding their ankles.

They are told by the 1 person in the entire DZ they trust (TM) that it is a very effective way of clearing their ears. Whenever we walk up we ask them if they have trouble with their ears. They all agree it's improving after a few tries...



Absolutely awesome! I gotta remember that one. :D

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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How about the one where a guy's friends let another jumper jump the guy's rig while he's taking a nap, and the guy has no idea that his rig has been lent out, and then the guy jumping the rig has a cutaway, and he never finds the main, and blames the guy who owns the canopy ?

And they never find his canopy, nor do they pay him for it.....

But then, its found a few weeks later, and given to a rigger for inspection, who keeps it and says he can sell it for a few hundred dollars on behalf of the owner so that he can get back some money, but then never contacts the guy again, nor returns his phone calls ?

So the guy is out about $700......

Oh wait !!! This is all true ! Its not a myth !

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I don't know if this actually happened but have heard the story a few times.:S

In the mid 70s there was a jumper at Seagpoville, TX named Howard Hughes who's jumpsuit and helmet were black and white striped and looked exactly like an old time prison uniform (having seen him in it, that much I can verify). Also, about four miles north of the DZ there was and still is the Seagoville Federal Minimum Security Prison.

Well, the way I remember the tale, either a very bad spot for a round canopy and/or a reserve ride ended up with Howard landing inside the grounds of the prison resulting in him being detained by prison officials for trespassing, among many other violations of state and federal laws and if nothing else, because he was attired as he was, accused of performing a "very shitty prank". :):):)
In the end however, Howard was released that same day after the prison officials were convinced that it was totally accidental but with the stipulation that if it ever happened again they would throw him so far back in the prison that they would have to pipe daylight to him for a very long time.

Like I say, I wasn't there at the time and don't know how true this is. Maybe efs4ever (Russell Webb) who posts here and who also jumped at Seagoville around that time can shed some light on it.
The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

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I got a couple of real ones from israel.....(Military)
A guy doing static line out of a c-130(hercules) reached back and had the palm of his hand ripped off....the soldiers on the ground searched for it and found it, it was reattached and he has use of 3 fingers or something like that....not full use anyway...

Second one....a friend of mine, while being bored put a small deployment chute on a cat and through it off the third floor of a building...the cat drifted slowly to some electrical wires...hit them....shorted out the hole freaking base plus a couple of blocks around.....all computers fried.....my friend did some prison time for that one.....all well with the cat....when it hit the ground a bit scorched it ran a way....to be seen every once and a while still running......

Both are true.....

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Never said it was the right thing to do.....or that it was good or that the cat enjoyed it.....I'm actualy sure the cat didn't enjoy it.....but it happend....and The dude that did this....sat in a bad place for a long time....not for doing what he did to the cat but still.....he kinda got what he deserved.....he never ever did anything like this again...not to my knoledge at least.....

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heheh, i am new here and to the sport, but you guys missed my favorite urban legend....
Faces of Death - "I looked up, and here he come, right down into the croc pit..."
anyone seen that ridiculous piece of crap so-called "documentary"? its all fake (except for the animal carnage of course, and a few news footage scenes)....

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

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i have heard this one before

"I almost fell into my canopy when i was doing spirals"

Hmmm have not fell into my canopy yet how bout you?



Don't know about the "falling into the canopy" part
But While jumping a Sabre 170 loaded at 1.1 We buried a toggle and after about three rotations the canopy was below us and there was slack in the lines.

Yikes!:o That was enough excitement for me:S.

We tried this experiment with lots of altitude (good if your going to be stupid) after we let up on the toggle the canopy continued to turn by the time the canopy was overhead we had line twists real bad, but were able to kick out of it.:)
I don't recommend trying to recreate this at any altitude due to the extreme line twists which may result in a locked brakeline.:S:S:S

R.i.P.

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I can't believe that everyone missed the "perfectly good airplane" that all whuffos seem to have knowledge of.
:o



Ah yes, my favourite. I am asked this at work at least 3 times a week. "Why do you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"

I always say, "First of all, anyone who rides in these things know they ain't perfectly good airplanes, and the only reason we jump out of them is so we don't have to land with the crazy pilots."

Another thing that has made me chuckle in the past, is the few static line students that don't exit properly "because [they] were afraid of falling off the step"

Oh yes, another one that I heard during takeoff that had me chuckling all the way to altitude. I was going up to do a "fun jump" during my progression, and there was a static line student doing his first jump, very nervous. The C-182s that we jump out of have a little cloth loop above the door for the instructors to hang on to and such. The instructor told the student to not touch the handle under any circumstances. When asked why, the instructor noted, "Well, you know when you put planes in hangars and sometimes they are too big?" The student replies in the affirmative. "Well, that is the quick release for the wings in case we wanna fit more planes in the hangar. Please don't touch it when we are in the air". By the look on his face, he believed it for at least a couple seconds.

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The C-182s that we jump out of have a little cloth loop above the door for the instructors to hang on to and such.



Quote


Maybe Myth... maybe not...:o

I've heard it several times,
slightly different each time so who knows!?

It goes:
4 way RW exit...woman in the door...
Pilot reaches over to close the door on the 182
after the exit...and there in that "loop" is the
woman's bloody finger...
torn off because her HUGH diamond wedding ring
hooked into the loop...

.....like I said,
I've heard several variations of it.
The best one was told at Couch Freaks a few years ago...

Someone asked the story teller, "What did the pilot do?":

"Stuck the diamond ring in his pocket...he figured if
she asked about it~

he'd just "Give her the finger!" :P

:ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r::ph34r:















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

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I had a friend who did leave her finger on the door of the twin beech. It couldn't be reattached.

No diamond; just a gold ring, but enough.

No myth, either :(

Wendy W.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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Don't know about the "falling into the canopy" part
But While jumping a Sabre 170 loaded at 1.1 We buried a toggle and after about three rotations the canopy was below us and there was slack in the lines.


The canopy below you thing is what i was getting at about falling in. I know it cant happen but some people do.


I get my canopy below me most times in a spiral. But man do my leg straps dig in! Im loaded at 1.4( Last time i checked my weight). Never had trouble with line twists on my Sabre 150 though only on opening.(fly it a lot smoother, lots of respect for it). Only time i had line twists from a spiral was on jump No. 8 Had the toggles wraped around my hands a couple of times several spirals to the left then into a long stall and snaped the toggles back up. I was getting end cell closure on student gear(PA 270) with the risers wraped around the back of my head.

(Instructors said they haddent seen that before)
Also told me not to be afraid to give it a bit... so i did

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This was just a typo, but it’s the comments that came later that iced it . . .

After returning home from the DZ in Ramona, California (I think in) 1983, I turned on the local TV news as we'd heard at the DZ there'd been a fatality that afternoon at Brown Field just outside San Diego. (It later turned out to be a bag lock and the jumper rode it in.)

Female Anchor: A Navy parachutist died today when his parachute did not open. FAA officials said the jumper hit the ground at one thousand two hundred miles per hour.

Male Anchor: Oh my, that’s higher than the speed of sound . . . isn’t it?

Female Anchor: Yes, Jim, it is. In other news . . .

Nick :)D-8904

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