Air Force pararescuemen from 103rd Rescue Squadron, 106th Rescue Wing, New York Air National Guard, and West Coast-based Navy SEALs leap from the ramp of an Air Force C-17 transport aircraft during free-fall parachute training over Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Jan. 21
Good find! That's a cool picture. Those guys are lucky, getting to see such beautiful scenery from up there.
That pic is the culmination of how many flutter kicks, hours in the pool, miles carrying heavy stuff/ people, etc.? :)
Awesome picture. I'm a pussy though. I'd never do anything closely resembling what these guys are doing.
I fucking HATE flying, sudden drop's and that sudden stomach in your throat feeling are what kills me. Having said that I'm willing to push past that and jump out of a plane to get the job done. Helps when talking to a PJ on here he also talked about how he's fucking scared to death of heights, and that jumping is diff than what you might expect. Regardless, to quote the dune series, "I will not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
Flying, I don't mind. I love being on higher floors in hotels. Falling from these heights and the sudden stop at the end is what scares the shit out of me. I have quite a few buddies and a wife who have done the sky diving thing and loved it. Not me.
Before we all leave my group of friends has decided to all go skydiving together. I think it will be a good gut check on heights though I have never had a problem with it before.
I'm the exact same way when it comes to falling from heights, though never stopped me from plunging off the high dive during swim qual. As far as sky dive goes, figure if anything happens its not the fall that kills me but the sudden stop. Out of my hands anyway so screw it!
Skydiving is much easier than you'd think. Other than the long minutes of anxiety as the plane is getting the altitude, the only real feeling you get is about 3 seconds of "falling" sensation as you exit the plane. Then everything catches up to you and you feel like you're floating and everything becomes awesome!
That's pretty cool. I've never heard it described that way. I just can't imagine that free fall doesn't feel like falling. I'm definitely going to have to find out soon.
yea amlove on here was saying something similar when I asked about freefall school. that honestly put's my mind at ease more now that I think about it! would NEVER wanna be the guy who freezes at the door.
In my 450-ish freefalls I have never had a falling sensation upon exiting the plane and you are the first person I've ever heard/ read of describing it like that.
I only got the falling sensation when we did helo jumps with really low airspeeds. Never from any fixed wing platform.
I'm always more anxious about how much it's going to hurt hitting the ground after my 'chute opens, than just about anything else. But all of my handful of jumps are static line, not freefall.
Around jump 120 or so I was helping a buddy obtain his tandem rating and did my one and only tandem with him and did not experience any falling sensation. The a/c is traveling around 85 or so mph, maybe faster for some platforms. Terminal velocity for a skydiver or tandem under a drogue is about 120. I'd estimate a tandem without a drogue is around 160. Leaving the a/c at 80-90 mph and transitioning to terminal takes about 4-5 seconds. What is happening in that time is that you don't drop straight down. You travel with the a/c, slowing transitioning from horizontal flight to a vertical fall, all the while accelerating over this 4-5 second period to your terminal velocity which means you gain that 40-ish mph in that 4-5 second period. In short: I don't know how you felt anything but prop blast. A drogue-less tandem could in theory give you a slight sensation, but you are looking at a second or two, maybe, but your body s still dealing with the forward throw of the a/c.
