I realized that there's one other thing I attempt to do frequently, and that's falling out of planes. When I think of the huge folklore that exists in the airborne community of fucked-up jump stories, I realized this afternoon that maybe I should start logging mine as well. I'm pretty sure I'll never jump into combat, so I don't have to worry too much about that one.
With that introduction out of the way, my goal is to get to 65 jumps before I leave my current job so I can get master parachutist rated. I'd really like to get them out of the way before the end of the calendar year but I don't think I'll make it quite that quickly. In the interests of operational security, I'm leaving unit identities out of these narratives.
I am including in my title the type of jump as it gets entered in my jump log.
A/NT = administrative, nontactical
CE = combat equipment
MT = mass tactical
T = tactical
N = night
J = jumpmaster
Drop altitude 1250 feet AGL, time of drop approximately 1430.
WX at 1400, 80/27, DP 60/16, winds NE 10, clear. RH about 70%.
What makes today's jump stand out was my discussion before boarding the plane about how I always fall like a rock. Today I ended up catching a temperature inversion and watched most of the rest of my stick land as I undertook the slowest descent I've ever had in any parachute, ever.
As an indicator of just how slowly I was descending, I watched the guy who had exited in front of me land as I continued to descend, some six hundred feet above him. I've never had occasion to pull both toggles of my main at once until today. Normally, that's not a very good idea; most of the time the last thing I need to do is to reduce the size of the canopy and its attendant drag. Doing so is called "dumping air" for a reason - it makes you fall faster. While I had a slow descent, I hit harder than I usually do for an MC1-1D parachute.
No comments:
Post a Comment