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jackwallace

OK- HOW COLD WAS IT? jumping no door aircraft

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It was so cold:
the guy I'm doing a two man with has a ski mask on, no goggles. Blinks and his eyes don't open. He rubs his eyes and they come open. Eye lashes froze together.
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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Coldest I've ever jump in;

It was minus 65F at altitude. No eyelashes freezing shut, though.

Was out of a Porter whose door would not stay closed climbing. The person on the bench would have to hold their foot on it all the way to altitude to keep it closed.

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Hi jack,

Quote

It was so cold:



I've had a number of jumps where my fingers were so cold/frozen that it would take a couple of minutes on the ground to get everything moving again. B|

I remember one jump: 23,500 ft in a 206 without a door & -27 F at altitude. But it did not seem that cold in freefall; but I did land in a neighboring town. :S

Here in the Pacific N/W you deal with the cold or you miss out on a lot of days of jumping. :o

JerryBaumchen

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My dad flew jumpers in Great Falls, Montana back in the late 60s. They had a 172 with no door. He was the only person in the plane with a seat belt and with out a rig (he didn't wear an e-rig). He stated that even in the summer he would wear his winter jacket, heavy winter gloves and a knit cap. This from a guy who had previously lived his entire life just outside of Minneapolis.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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January 1, 1986 around 10am. Cleveland SPort. Half the blood in my body came from a scotch bottle. Beech 18 with a plywood door that sealed about 2/3rds of the cargo door opening. -11 in the plane at 10.5. Stupid dares you agree to on New Year's Eve.[:/]

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

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I missed winter of 1978, but apparently there was a Beech at Turner's Falls some of the time that winter. I was told that folks wore paper bags over their heads and hands for the trip up, and stowed them before jumping out. That's pretty cold.

Wendy P.
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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Hi Jack!!,
My bud Gordo Foster (Guardian Parachutes) said they were doing some filming for one of Carl Boenish's films up at Taho in the snow in winter (the clip is in one of his movies) At the time Gordo said he had a handle bar moustache and it "Froze" when they were in the 172 (door off). Gordo said that Keven Doneley reached over and tweaked the end of his moustache and it "Broke!!":ph34r::D:D

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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Well, it was Tommy (Shetland Pony) and Tim Pond who told me about it, but yeah, you were definitely included B|

Wendy P.

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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We jumped a 206 without doors in Montana. Sometimes we'd all try to huddle under a blanket. The guy squatting next to the door had it the worst. The wind was hitting him full force all the way to altitude. Man, were we glad to see an honest to god jump door installed.

Our pilot (Walt Mercer) was like 80 years old. We figured if an old guy like him could take it....us young bucks could too....

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Christmas day 66' -31 at 16,500. Xenia's 650HP Howard without a door. I think everybody had beginning stages of frostbite and my hands to this day don't like the cold. Just pulled the ripcord and let the lead ripcord stop hold it because I couldn't close my hand on it. The 20 degree temps on the ground felt like FL. After that I swore off of really high jumps in the winter.
GUNFIRE, The sound of Freedom!

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Quote

January 1, 1986 around 10am. Cleveland SPort. Half the blood in my body came from a scotch bottle. Beech 18 with a plywood door that sealed about 2/3rds of the cargo door opening. -11 in the plane at 10.5. Stupid dares you agree to on New Year's Eve.[:/]



I remember that plane! How many doors are in the woods still? Or the swamp?

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Jump more, post less!

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Wisconsin, New Years 1966, 182, no door, doing the ever popular exit in one year, land in another. I was flying loads and relatively sheltered from the wind blast but the guys in the back got nailed big time with wind.
Even with snowmobile suits on, long johns, thermal layer under the suit and the suit itself your hands and feet would get numb, the aircraft's heater was a joke, fortunately the jumps were only to 3k or so but still brutally cold for all. I was usually good for maybe three or four loads but after that had to warm up a bit.
In those early days aircraft doors were few and far between, if you were lucky you got a Snohomish door or something similar.
Ahhh, those were the days my friend, those were the days.....what fun.....would I do it now....fuhgheddaboudit......

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When we jumped the Beach in Hinckley, we'd make Pirate sit in the back and hold the card board up against the door with his wooden leg.
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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Hi Jack!,
When Shark Air first showed up at Perris, Ben was leasing it from some dude before he bought it. At the time it had no inflight door and we were using it at one of the Turkey boogies and it was "COLD" upstairs so we had a blanket to put over the people closest to the door. The plane had that funky shark face painted on the front but the "SA" in the "N numbers" were not for "Shark Air" but "SIERA ARCTIC!!!"

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