Anyone ever skydive before?

[Sage97]

Never have and never will....gun to the head included.

[HHP]

Not if the plane was still working.

[Otterhound]

A relative of mine named Jack Cope created the drogue chute .

[The Growler]

Originally Posted by michaeljohnr

Never jumped, but I paraglide.

This is me over Locarno Switzerland recently.

Locarno - what a great place. That has to be a blast parasailing there!

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by The Growler

Locarno - what a great place. That has to be a blast parasailing there!

Try the road to Domodossola .
Little more than one lane wide , but fun on a motorcycle .

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by jpd

Dru.... not me, but my eldest daughter has! They filmed her last jump to the strains of Tom Petty, "Free Falling"....a kick to see and hear!

I should have gotten a video of my jump but I didn't want to spend the extra cash. It's a shame I didn't.

Originally Posted by HHP

Not if the plane was still working.

LOL. Let's hope you never experience that as a reason for jumping.

[DLeeWebb]

I considered doing it for years, and I know that you can get killed crossing the street, and I don't want to be a "debbie-downer" here, but this was a headline just yesterday. I took-up scuba-diving instead...

http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/...s_to_open.html

[dirkronk]

Originally Posted by The Growler

Locarno - what a great place. That has to be a blast parasailing there!

Hmmm. Terminology must have changed in the past 45 years or so. Back in 1967-8, I used to do what WE called parasailing on central Texas ranches: harness up in a war surplus parachute, tether it to the bumper of a pickup with a few hundred feet of rope. You'd billow out the chute behind you and a buddy would drive the pickup against the wind...first just enough to take out slack in the tow rope, then once you were airborne, proceed across fields at about 5 mph. When there was ever any real wind, you needed extra friends just to pull you down even after the truck stopped (well, I was only 135 lb. at the time, so that may have had something to do with it). Probably should have called it human kite flying instead.

Within a few years, I saw people doing similar things behind boats on lakes and along ocean beaches. We called that parasailing, too.

Loved it. But it surely wasn't anything like the thrill you must get from free flight in the newer style squarish chute. Or hang gliding (never mind skydiving).

Cheers,

Dirk

[michaeljohnr]

Originally Posted by The Growler

Locarno - what a great place. That has to be a blast parasailing there!

It is. I have family there in Ticino so I get to go quite often.

The views were amazing but once in awhile, there is a good crosswind coming between the mountains that can catch you by surprise.

It's really popular there, so there are always a bunch of people in the sky.

[bmc]

I jumped south of where Acousticado lives in the summer, back in 78. I have my private license and enjoying landing in airplanes.

[XYRN]

Originally Posted by dirkronk

Hmmm. Terminology must have changed in the past 45 years or so. Back in 1967-8, I used to do what WE called parasailing on central Texas ranches: harness up in a war surplus parachute, tether it to the bumper of a pickup with a few hundred feet of rope. You'd billow out the chute behind you and a buddy would drive the pickup against the wind...first just enough to take out slack in the tow rope, then once you were airborne, proceed across fields at about 5 mph. When there was ever any real wind, you needed extra friends just to pull you down even after the truck stopped (well, I was only 135 lb. at the time, so that may have had something to do with it). Probably should have called it human kite flying instead.

Within a few years, I saw people doing similar things behind boats on lakes and along ocean beaches. We called that parasailing, too.

Loved it. But it surely wasn't anything like the thrill you must get from free flight in the newer style squarish chute. Or hang gliding (never mind skydiving).

Cheers,

Dirk

According to the current Wiki entries, paragliding is free flying, no tow.
Parasailing is when the human kite is towed by a boat/truck.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by bmc

I jumped south of where Acousticado lives in the summer, back in 78. I have my private license and enjoying landing in airplanes.

At least you had the opportunity to try both and pick the one you enjoy most

[TjthePhD]

I graduated Army Parachute School back in 1984. I'm a 5-jump commando, all static line jumps. It was a blast, but I never got the opportunity to jump again before the late onset (age 20) of insulin-dependent diabetes suddenly ushered me out of the Army.