Thread: Guys listen but don't want to try.

I had no intention of shaving with a SR. I found a few at a yard sale and cleaned them up a bit. The only problem was that I thought that a clean unused razor was like an unfired shotgun or a trailer queen car. Things are made to be used, so I eventually learned from the guys here and havent looked back. (I only wish that I had learned what not to buy before I bought a bunch of razors that I dont really enjoy.)

I don't really try to convert people, but I will sometimes bring razors up when talking about hobbies, collecting, or knives with people. Maybe some day I'll come across someone with a really nice razor/hone sitting in their closet collecting dust!

Always thought skydiving was cool, but I didn't know parachutes with automatic deployment were commonly used now. I remember seeing something similar in bedthe opening scene of Predators, thinking all chutes should have those. From a quick search it seems like the accidents you hear about are usually with uncertified businesses and/or careless people. There is a skydiving place in Atlanta, maybe some day I'll work up the nerve to go.

As far as most leisure and private pilots not having parachutes goes, I would be in the minority!

I also was with the 82nd, 325 AIR and that is how I started my affair with straights. I carried a straight in my boot in case I got tangled up in my suspension lines. Eventually I grew some fuzz on my face and shaved it off using my jump boot razor and that was the beginning for me.

Originally Posted by MrZ

I had no intention of shaving with a SR. I found a few at a yard sale and cleaned them up a bit. The only problem was that I thought that a clean unused razor was like an unfired shotgun or a trailer queen car. Things are made to be used, so I eventually learned from the guys here and havent looked back. (I only wish that I had learned what not to buy before I bought a bunch of razors that I dont really enjoy.)

Sell them. I just recently sold a bunch of those kinds of razors on Ebay and used the proceeds to buy some razors that I like more. It's easy with USPS Priority Mail fixed price boxes and free pick-up by your mailman. Ebay has free listing so there is no fee unless they sell.

I don't think there is much need for a private pilot to have a parachute. A small private plane is basically a glider if the motor quits. The stall speed is low so impact is usually minimal.

Takeoff's and landing are the most dangerous points in the flight profile and there is no time or altitude to jump then.

JP5,

With most private aircraft doors opening forwards like a car door and no automatic pilot to speak of, I don't think you'd be able to climb out while in flight anyway. The converted Cessna 182's I jumped from all had a vertical swinging door on the right side....once open there was no closing it as airflow would keep it open.

For the heck of it I once rode as an observer on one jump run. They slapped a very small rig on me, so small I'm thinking "hard landing" if I had to use it. They called it a "bail out chute" such as the pilots all wore. The instructor must have thought I had ulterior motives as he told me three times "if you jump with that I will never allow you to jump here again." All I did was sit in the back and take pics.

What I was really along for was the nosedive the pilot would go into to hurry back to the ground for the second load.

One plane they'd borrow from a larger outfit, a Cessna 205, they would remove the right side door and leave it off. Since I had the fewest jumps I was usually the first one out and that meant sitting next to the missing door on the ride up. It could get a bit unnerving.....especially the time I couldn't find a seatbelt to run through a rig strap. I just held on tight to one leg of the pilot's seat in case it rolled onto its right side and I might fall out at low altitude.

All students are required to use an Automatic Activation Device at least until they get their A license. I think all tandem jumps require those. There was a case a few years back of a tandem instructor dying of a heart attack after the main deployed and the student had to land them both. The student landed them fine but the instructor was gone. It made the national and international news.

Skydiving Instructor Dies, First-Timer Lands Safely in Tandem Jump | Fox News

**I don't think a straight razor would be best for cutting tangled rig lines and if lines are tangled that probably means the parachute is going to act crazy, "cutting away" is done by pulling a handle, not physically "cutting" anything with a blade. *At least on sport gear, I cannot comment on military rigs. This releases the main and you fall away, if you have this (forgot what it was called) attached to the main the reverse opens automatically (Reserve Static Line, it just came to me) but you pull a 2nd handle to be sure anyway. Only one time did I think about doing that but I was able to fix the malfunctioning main chute and have an otherwise normal jump.

The crazy thing was that was immediately after another jumper had the same exact malfunction but he couldn't fix it and had to cut away and pull reserve. Everyone was talking about that and I was on the next ride up. We were all looking everywhere for his parachute but we never found it. So I go out next and BOOM the same thing happens to me. I was able to fix it. It did get my heart rate up a bit though. LOL

I was referring to military static line jumping. There was no getting out of the harness except for the quick release plate on your chest. I heard stories of jumpers getting a suspension line tangled up and needing a blade to cut it. I doubt if it was really that practical but comforting to know you had it along with a jump rope for a tree landing and bible in your pocket.

Tony A,

No way to dump the main and pull reserve on the military rigs? You guys jump so low anyway there probably isn't time, I assume you pull that chest-mounted reserve and hope for the best. I have heard of the need to cut lines in case you land and get hung up in a tree.

I actually jumped with a guy that had to land in a tree when he screwed up his BASE jump off the New River Gorge Bridge on "Bridge Day 2010." *I didn't go that day, I was off hunting instead, but we met on a jump later. I think he was the tandem instructor to this girl I had invited and who actually showed up, albeit with her boyfriend. *That was very awkward as we hated each other.* He wasn't hurt and I complemented him by telling him he should audition for "Nitro Circus."

Now that jump was crazy! By the time we took off it was completely dark by the time we jumped. Onn the ride up I was 2nd out, which meant I was straddling the first jumper's legs. No one had gone over the exit method with her and she had never jumped anything less than a twin turboprop. I explained best I could and she clearly understood. She was also DROP DEAD GORGEOUS and that was great UNTIL she mentioned she was married.

The girl I invited was sitting next to her and behind the pilot so she had a front row seat to my hapless flirting. She said later "you ignored me the whole flight UNTIL the other girl mentioned the "M word" then you stopped talking to her and went back to talking to me."

*It was pretty neat doing a jump with a full moon, something I wasn't supposed to be doing at all until I had a B license (night jump). I overshot the landing zone so badly though I very nearly landed in the trees at the other end of the field. I had a bad habit of overshooting on approach but I corrected that later.

I will admit that jumping was fun. After the first time out the door. The first time was fear in full strength! I didnt jump many times, only when i had too. I never did any war time so most the time they landed the plane and we walked/ran out the door, trying not to step on each other.

I wont jump again unless the plane is going down. But then again, if any plane im in now days is going down, there wont be a chute.

Gasman,

I can relate brother! My first tandem jump, I forgot how to breath and had to tell myself in freefall "um, breathe dude."

My first solo jump I wanted to make a good impression so I kept this huge "jackass" smile on my face the whole ride up. I know smiling can make a person happier and I think it can add confidence. Another guy in the class wouldn't talk to me all day but he loosened up after a few beers at the "after party." He wasn't a rude guy, he was just scared to death and wouldn't talk at all. LOL

My first 12 solo jumps I never could get my fear under control although I never hesitated on the "skydive!" command. My 13th jump my fear suddenly decreased a great deal for some reason. I did hesitate on exit about one 1/2 second during a 2-way with an instructor. It bothered him enough to point it out during debriefing. I never hesitated again.

Now on about my 7th solo jump I had advanced to the "saving your life jump" which is the one where you open your own parachute. I WAS TERRIFIED and even considered some excuse not to go. A little girl was at the dropzone with her grandma (the grandma came to feed the ducks at the nearby Ohio River and got talked into a tandem jump). The little girl said "I'm 8 and I went water skiing the first time and I wasn't scared at all!"

I replied, "I'm 34, I've done this before, and I'm terrified."

It seemed they packed my chute in a big hurry...we took off and went higher to stay in the light as it was getting late. That's good as it gave me more time to fix a problem if I had one. I claimed out and hung onto the strut. The instructor pointed skyward and I let go. THEN IT HAPPENED.

I had a full on "out of body experience" where I could see myself as if I was a different person standing behind me. I saw my hand reach down, grab the handle, and open the chute.

Then I was "me" again but everything was going in super slow motion, so slow I recall thinking "why is this going so slow? This has never happened before." I watched the bag go up, the canopy slowly spread out and inflate, and then BOOM, it caught air.

The jolt snapped me back to reality and I had an otherwise normal jump and landing.

The instructor (who watched me fall away) said "you looked very stable." I replied "I thought I looked very stable also" and walked off before he could answer.

Only later did I tell him what happened and he freaked a bit. I did some reading on a skydiving forum and apparently what happened to me happens to about 1 in 50 new skydivers. I feel very blessed to have had such an experience. It didn't happen again and I'll leave it up to you to decide if it was an adrenaline overload causing a "waking dream" (as a psychologist I sold a car to told me) or astral projection, which some people have suggested it was.