Just a few photos (not feline) for you all...

noni

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I was just flipping through some photos of me skydiving, and I thought I'd share a few with you all. (I was supposed to be jumping today, but because I'm sick, it's stay on the ground time for me until after Christmas).

Me just after exiting plane:


That was a fun jump!

Me landing my parachute:
Right off the deck:


Touchdown:


Very smooth landing there. Often, it's not that smooth. But at least now I can *prove* I can land on occasion without using my bottom or my face as a braking system.

And yes, I know I look like a Smurf'ed out Pillsbury Doughboy, but some of that is cold-weather clothing...three layers on my legs, 4 on my top....but still...some of it is me. I'm not a skinny marink.


Hope you enjoyed! And have a great day! I'm off to the office in a few hours.

Michele
 

flisssweetpea

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WOW! Amazing pics. You're very brave. Unless my life depended on it, someone would have to knock me out and throw me out of the plane door before I found myself doing something like that
 

blondiecat

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Very Cool
I have often thought about doing something like that but alais I am a scaredy cat from the word go. All I can think about would be my chute wouldn't open and I would make a less than graceful landing
 

snosrap5

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Originally Posted by flisssweetpea

WOW! Amazing pics. You're very brave. Unless my life depended on it, someone would have to knock me out and throw me out of the plane door before I found myself doing something like that

Thats me all the way!! only way I'm going is if someone pushed me out.
 

mferr84

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wow, that gave me chills looking at the pictures! what fun! i would love to have the chance to go skydiving... maybe someday
 

jcat

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Somebody would have to push me off the plane! I've always been too chicken to even try bungee jumping.
 

mrsd

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I get nervous on an airplane, so I couldn't imagine willfully throwing myself out of one.


It must be a total rush!
 

kittylover4ever

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I give you so much credit. Jerry skydived when he was in the Navy, but there is no way in heck that I would ever ever ever ever be able to do that!!
 

fwan

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Now i am extremely afraid of heights
I cant even rock climb, i get scared by standing on the 3rd step of the ladder.
So if anyone pushed me out of a plane. i think i would have a heart attack!
 

lorie d.

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Fantastic pictures!!! Just wondering, do you look down at the ground right after you jump out of the plane? Or do you concentrate on something else like the horizon? The ground looks sooooo far away in the first picture. About what altitude was the plane flying at when you jumped? Sorry for so many questions.

 

pooky

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Ooh!Do you go down quickly?I am scared enuff on planes.
 

mrsd

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Originally Posted by Lorie D.

Fantastic pictures!!! Just wondering, do you look down at the ground right after you jump out of the plane? Or do you concentrate on something else like the horizon? The ground looks sooooo far away in the first picture. About what altitude was the plane flying at when you jumped? Sorry for so many questions.
Great questions Lorie D.!
 
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noni

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Pooky asked:
Ooh!Do you go down quickly?
Yes, while in freefall. Average speed is 120 mph, but often you can exceed that. I average 135 pmh.

Lorie asked:
Fantastic pictures!!! Just wondering, do you look down at the ground right after you jump out of the plane? Or do you concentrate on something else like the horizon? The ground looks sooooo far away in the first picture. About what altitude was the plane flying at when you jumped? Sorry for so many questions.
I look at the ground before I leave the plane, to make sure I don't have any obstacles below or around me. Obstacles in the sky? Yup...other jumpers, other planes...a collision with either of those in midair can be very harmful - to all parties. So before I get out, I check thoroughly...and if I can't see, then I don't go. Simple.

While during the freefall, I don't look at the ground much at all. I know where it is, and I know no-one's gonna move it, so I occasionally check to make sure I'm not too close. Gotta use a parachute to land safely, and since my chute takes about 1000 feet to open fully, I like to deploy it at about 4000; that gives me time to make sure it's working correctly before I get too close to the ground. If it's not working correctly, I need to have time to trade parachutes. So yes, I pay attention to the ground, but I don't really watch it.

Horizon watching will let me know if my body is in the right position in relation to other people I am jumping with, and it also lets me know if I'm "spinning."

In the first picture, the ground was about 2 miles away from me. I usually jump from 12,500 feet, often 13,000 or 14,000 feet. To go much higher would require oxygen, and while I would love to do a high altitude jump (something like 25,000 feet), and while my jumping partner teaches HiLo jumping, that's not in the cards in the immediate future. Perhaps next summer...

In that pix, I was about 3 seconds out of the plane, maybe 450-600 feet below my exit altitude of 12,800 (I looked at my log book.
).

And yes, I'm scared of heights, I'm not fond of planes, and I don't particularly care much for falling. So why skydive? Because there is a freedom inexpressible as you're dancing through the sky. An immediacy which cannot be captured on the ground - there is no past, no future; simply and only a NOW. It is a vital, true expression of living in the moment. It brings to me a soul-joy that I've never found anywhere else. I am whole, more me than at any time other. I am complete, in touch with something so far bigger than myself as I sail under my parachute, looking at the world spread below my feet. I dance on the breath of God, play with the falcons and touch clouds. That experience, that joy far far outweighs any fear I have about planes, falling, or heights.

Glad you all enjoyed the shots...I just want to share with you all my other passion.

Best-
Michele
 

abby7625

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Great pictures!
I would love to skydive. It looks like alot of fun!

The only experience I have with any sort of jumping was when I was 7 and my cousin was 9, we tied kites on our backs and jumped off the garage roof at his house.
Not something that I would recommend doing again!
 

mrsd

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Originally Posted by noni

I dance on the breath of God, play with the falcons and touch clouds. That experience, that joy far far outweighs any fear I have about planes, falling, or heights.
Nicely written.
 

rapunzel47

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Awesome pics, Michele! I love flying, and not too queasy about heights in general, but I don't know if I could screw up the courage to jump. Rob used to fly gliders, and I loved going up with him -- the world at 5,000 feet, with no sound but the whoosh of air and an occasional eagle sharing the same thermal...So I have some understanding of the passion you are expressing. Don't think I could expose myself that much, though. More power to you!
 
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