If it's a struggle and not working out. Come back and try again later. There's no fixed time limit. This is supposed to be peaceful and restorative.
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Good skydiving companies?
- Thread starter nikiter
- Start date
That’s the beauty of a trip like that in your situation. If you have no timeline, or need to be somewhere by X date.
You Start, go, and end as you please. When you’re ready you’ll know.
Snap decisions for the win.
I have a close friend in exactly your situation , he and his wife had a plan, health issues modified the plan and he has been on his own for 4 ytrs now.
He has made a few false starts , also had some amazing adventures , made some decisions that left us all scratching our heads ( sold gorgeous Oakville house and bought a hobby farm north in Berkley) ( he is not a farmer) . But he kept doing stuff, eventually dating , will travel more and understands his head space is HIS head space. Its ok to have a **** day, and have a better day tomorrow.
My point is , GO. if your home in three days so be it. Next ride might be five days.
He has made a few false starts , also had some amazing adventures , made some decisions that left us all scratching our heads ( sold gorgeous Oakville house and bought a hobby farm north in Berkley) ( he is not a farmer) . But he kept doing stuff, eventually dating , will travel more and understands his head space is HIS head space. Its ok to have a **** day, and have a better day tomorrow.
My point is , GO. if your home in three days so be it. Next ride might be five days.
Is that a good thing?
Tandem jump will normally be around 10,000 ft give or take a thousand or so. It will depend a lot on the plane... Some places have better aircraft or will use a bigger one if there is enough people, these can go higher up to ~14,000 ft.
We went bargain shopping for the lowest price in Ontario, in hindsight... On my jump the shoot was tangled when deployed (packing problem). Basically when the shoot was pulled we didn't really slow down much.... The instructor was cursing up a storm (understatement) fighting it and then told me to get ready for another free fall as he was cutting it free and going to the backup (you have a knife strapped to your back for them to use)... I thought cool, another free fall, not because I am a total adrenaline junky or super brave it was just happening fast and that is what registered to me. Right before he cut the lines it came untangled so we never went to the backup. My buddies said it was pretty exciting from the ground and the guy that packed the shoot ran to his car and took off before we landed. Once we landed the instructor "went looking for him"... Landing was a textbook numbers perfect though...
We jumped out of a Cessna 182, took a while to get up there. All the seats were removed except the pilot's, it had a roll up door on the side to jump out of. There were six of us total plus the pilot. You shuffle to the open door and jump from a seated position. They paired heavier guys with lighter instructors, heaviest guy was around 250 lbs. We went up in a couple of groups as there was a bunch of us, I was in the first group and surprisingly the other group still went! Talking to the pilot, he said his biggest fear is people will not jump as the plane is so heavily loaded he did not want to land it loaded like that (he said you are safer to jump). It was the only time I have seen a pilot wearing a parachute BTW. I have big issues with heights. I had no problem jumping, the best I can describe it is the height is so high it just did not register to me. I did focus on the floor of the plane until we got to around 1000 feet. I have been up many times in even similar and smaller planes (I lived with a bunch or pilots at one time).
I would still do it again....
We went bargain shopping for the lowest price in Ontario, in hindsight... On my jump the shoot was tangled when deployed (packing problem). Basically when the shoot was pulled we didn't really slow down much.... The instructor was cursing up a storm (understatement) fighting it and then told me to get ready for another free fall as he was cutting it free and going to the backup (you have a knife strapped to your back for them to use)... I thought cool, another free fall, not because I am a total adrenaline junky or super brave it was just happening fast and that is what registered to me. Right before he cut the lines it came untangled so we never went to the backup. My buddies said it was pretty exciting from the ground and the guy that packed the shoot ran to his car and took off before we landed. Once we landed the instructor "went looking for him"... Landing was a textbook numbers perfect though...
We jumped out of a Cessna 182, took a while to get up there. All the seats were removed except the pilot's, it had a roll up door on the side to jump out of. There were six of us total plus the pilot. You shuffle to the open door and jump from a seated position. They paired heavier guys with lighter instructors, heaviest guy was around 250 lbs. We went up in a couple of groups as there was a bunch of us, I was in the first group and surprisingly the other group still went! Talking to the pilot, he said his biggest fear is people will not jump as the plane is so heavily loaded he did not want to land it loaded like that (he said you are safer to jump). It was the only time I have seen a pilot wearing a parachute BTW. I have big issues with heights. I had no problem jumping, the best I can describe it is the height is so high it just did not register to me. I did focus on the floor of the plane until we got to around 1000 feet. I have been up many times in even similar and smaller planes (I lived with a bunch or pilots at one time).
I would still do it again....
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Knife! What? Cool story bro.
Yes, a knife, it was actually a hook knife if memory serves me correct, designed for the purpose I imagine.
On a tandem, the instructor is behind you so they have it on your back (on the harness) instead of on them.
Ok. That's better. A hook knife would be the last resort in the event of a malfunction. First action would be the cutaway of the main with the rsl deploying the reserve.
I’ve worn a parachute flying a plane. Years ago as an air cadet I was flying with a Jaguar (fast jet) pilot who obviously didn’t want to ferry about air cadets in a boring slow (to him) single engined propellor craft so he decided to spice things up a bit. After flying for a bit he switched off the engine and told me to prepare to bale from the aircraft over the intercom. WTF? He went through all the directions “pull the canopy back, unbuckle from the seat, jump over the edge of the wing, pull the cord once clear etc”. Then last minute he said “only joking”. Then kept the engine off and glided the plane to a landing. I didn’t appreciate his sense of humour.
A friend has a Harvard. The parachute is the seat cushion so you have to fly with one. Passengers get nervous when they are being fit with a parachute before climbing in a 70+ year old plane. It is an awesome plane and he is an awesome guy.
The plane I was in was a Chipmunk. It’s rated for aerobatics too (which are a ton of fun) but I guess that’s why you have to wear a parachute. I just remember it feeling massive and awkward when trying to waddle to the plane. It’s funny but I also flew in an open cockpit glider that seemed like the sketchiest thing ever to leave the ground. It felt like someone had cobbled it together in a garage somewhere. No parachute.
Chipmunk is another cool plane.
Edenvale Classic Aircraft Foundation is hoping to have their airplane/car show on Aug 13. No official word yet. They had this awesome fox moth there a few years ago (flown by Chris Hadfields brother Dave). Also chipmunks, harvard, arrow replica, helicopters, ultralights and lots of private planes.
My first and second jump were at Skydive Burnaby (just outside Niagara). First jump was actually a group ride from GTAM about 10yrs ago. Had a great time and first jump was at 13,900 feet. Comfy ride up, larger plane with all the seats still in it, took a while to get up that's for sure. 63sec of freefall recorded on my video. Awesome view of the water from up there.
Second jump was a bit lower.
Third/Fourth were at Toronto Parachute School. Tiny plane, no seats, doors open (or missing actually). I don't like heights and this was the only jump it bothered me on as I was pretty much a leg out the door on the entire way up to make room for everyone. Wouldn't go there again. Will definitely jump again though, maybe next time it'll be with my kiddos if they want to go.
Second jump was a bit lower.
Third/Fourth were at Toronto Parachute School. Tiny plane, no seats, doors open (or missing actually). I don't like heights and this was the only jump it bothered me on as I was pretty much a leg out the door on the entire way up to make room for everyone. Wouldn't go there again. Will definitely jump again though, maybe next time it'll be with my kiddos if they want to go.
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