Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“But what about the lurkers?”

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Amazing Flying Jackal (Open Thread)

The Amazing Flying Jackal (Open Thread)

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Beloved, indomitable commenter and talented lyricist SiubhanDuinne recently jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. She wrote the following narrative and submitted photos of that adventure just for us:

I’ve been a physically timid person just about all my life, with phobias too numerous to count — but for whatever obscure reason, sky-diving has been on my personal bucket list for years. I was given the opportunity to do my first jump as a celebration of my 76th birthday, a few weeks after the fact. It took place on Sunday, 9/9/18, at SkydiveSpaceland-Atlanta (actually located in the obscure little town of Rockmart, GA, pop. 4,100, about 70 miles west of the ATL). I was with three friends; of the four of us, only one had ever jumped before.

Getting suited up and strapped into the harness. That’s my instructor/tandem partner Nigel doing the honours.

Story continues below the fold…

Nigel putting me through a few preliminary moves.
The Fearless Four: Zack, who was jumping for the seventh time, and the noobs — Maria, me, and Zack’s dad Jeff.
At 14,000 feet (about 2-1/2 miles up), just seconds before jumping out of that open door.
Heeeeeere we go!!
Oh look, I just jumped out of a perfectly good plane.
The scary part is over. This is pure, unadulterated bliss. And the conditions were gorgeous. (There’s no photo of it, but at one point Nigel took us on a little detour to buzz a fluffy cloud. That was fun!)
The landing was gentle and perfect. Not a scratch, not a bruise.
Don’t wanna stand up. Just wanna look up at where we’ve been.

The whole thing was an amazing, gorgeous, unrepeatable experience. I absolutely loved it!

That “holy fuck!” look in the fourth photo? That’s how I feel on planes ALL THE TIME. Anyhoo, SiubhanDuinne is BRAVE, y’all! Open thread.

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  3. 3.

    ruemara

    Good Lord. Celebrating surviving 76 years by… flinging yourself out of a plane. I applaud your bravery. I shall never do that unless required and I will try to never require it. Happy Birthday, Jackal!

  5. 5.

    Eljai

    This has brightened my day immeasurably! Congratulations SiubhanDuinne and thank you for the vicarious thrills!

  6. 6.

    Kenneth Kohl

    Okay, just to start, SiubhanDuinne, you are a far braver person than I. Perhaps in another 9 years, skydiving will be on my bucket list. For now, it’s a round at Pebble Beach. Well done, young lady, well done.

  10. 10.

    Seanly

    Very nice!
    When I was a freshman in college (’86), I got to go skydiving. This was when the tandem chutes were still a new thing so we just did a night of static line & emergency chute training and then the next morning did static line drops out of the little Cessna. The place I went had old WWII-vintage chutes (even them some of the best available). There was a strong tug when the chute opened. It was so quiet up in the air.
    I wanted to go on a second run, but it had started to sprinkle so we had to call it a day. To this day, I’d love to do it again!

  11. 11.

    thruppence

    My mom decided she wanted to skydive for her 80th birthday. I was the only family member to go with her, and we had a blast. Eight years later, neither of us have gone again, but I highly recommend it for a once in a lifetime experience.

  13. 13.

    Fair Economist

    Congratulations! I went skydiving myself once, under the accelerated free flight program, which means I was solo, not tandem, although two instructors jumped with me. My mother said “if you ever do that again, I’m disowning you” so I haven’t gone again.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    For anyone who has ever considered jumping, I recommend that you go ahead and do it. As SD attests, it is an amazing experience.

  15. 15.

    spudgun

    Ok, first of all: OMG, how cute are you?!?! :-D

    Second, you are my new hero – I am terrified of heights and would never dream of putting something like this on my bucket list, but you did it. CONGRATULATIONS!

  19. 19.

    ljt

    Congratulations! Your photos look exactly like my experience when I jumped 2 years ago. Sheer terror as the plane climbs (and for me, seeing my friend Sue disappear out the open door before my turn), followed by sheer joy and an almost calming sense of awe and beauty once you make the leap!

  21. 21.

    TenguPhule

    @John Cole:

    Fuck. That.

    I’m with you, Cole. Jumping from lethally high places with only a large woven bundle of cloth to keep from going splat is not inspirational. Its horrifying.

  23. 23.

    J R in WV

    So — how long is the free fall from 14,000 feet? ‘Cause that does look glorious! When did Nigel open the main ‘chute? altitude, time before ground?

    The landing did look easy in the photo, plus he landed more or less exactly where he intended to, in order for there to be photos like that!

    Would love to do that. Not tandem, though, too independent, too leery of depending on the other parachutist! Want my own ripcord device!!

    Congrats on achieving the birthday and the bucket list event!!! What a great way to do 76 !!!

  24. 24.

    Mary G

    I want to be Siubhan Duinne when I grow up. Fantastic photos! Thank you for the vicarious thrills and chills!

  26. 26.

    trollhattan

    @John Cole:
    Heh.

    Good on ya, lady! You’ll never regret he experience and I expect it was life-altering in a good way.

    Me? Nah, at least not now. I work with a guy who went into Airborne after to The Point and he had quite his fill of jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. I live vicariously through him for the time being. It also doesn’t help that the closest skydiving center has had several fatalities, most due to incompetence and shabby bidnez practices.

  27. 27.

    jeffreyw

    I mostly remember the time the ground coach was yelling “will the jumper with the malfunction please pull his reserve!” After about the 3rd holler I realized he was yelling at me.

  30. 30.

    low-tech cyclist

    Oh look, I just jumped out of a perfectly good plane.

    My next thought would be, “What was I thinking?”

    Glad you had fun!!

  31. 31.

    TenguPhule

    And now the BJ Google-controlled ads have decided we talk about Trump so much we must OBVIOUSLY be Trump supporters and therefore must want to bombarded with Trump political paid ads.

  33. 33.

    Leto

    Way to go Subaru Dianne! Also happy birthday!!!

    There’s a thread on reddit right now about the Oak Ridge facility and it’s role in developing the atomic bomb. There’s a good number of commentators whose grandparents worked at the facility and shared some stories about their time there. It’s worth a look if you get a chance.

    TIL of Oak Ridge, a city built in the U.S. in 1942. 100,000 people lived and worked there doing very specific tasks, most of whom with no idea of what they were working towards.

    Main article from the post (tons of pics here): The Secret City

    This reminds me, I need to read The Girls of Atomic City. I picked it up a while ago but really need to get to it.

  34. 34.

    geg6

    I’m so glad SD did this. I’m so glad I will never do the same. My thrill seeking has always been underwater. Or in white water. I’m much more confident in water situations than with heights.

  36. 36.

    veniceriley

    My mom packed parachutes when she worked at Fashion Frock and they got into the parachute business for WWII. My dad was a paratrooper for Army Intelligence. He jumped onto the top of Guadalcanal.
    I’m not doing it. I don’t even have a bucket. Looks like a great time though!

  38. 38.

    FelonyGovt

    OK, I’m impressed! Good for you, Siubhan Duinne! You looked great doing it! Don’t think I will EVER want to do that myself though.

  42. 42.

    PST

    @Seanly: My experience was like Seanly’s: early 80s, army surplus canopies, an evening of training, and then a solo static line jump. I remember that the school had a huge directional speaker with a big horn. The instructor would point it at you and issue instructions you could hear as you descended.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    The photos are amazing, and thank you for sharing. I’m so glad that you were able to share them with us. Good job!

  45. 45.

    jl

    Congratulations.
    First it’s Lady Cracker with her dang motorcycle. Now SiubhanDuinne is jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.
    Dang kids these days.

    ‘unrepeatable’? This bucket full now, or will SD try it again?

  47. 47.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @spudgun: I went skydiving in my 20s, my fear of heights did not kick in until I was in my 40s. I loved the skydiving thing as an idiot 20 some odd old but the more I thought about it the more I thought “why chuck myself out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft?” I eventually grew out of it. But I have to admit the thrill of it was something to behold.

  48. 48.

    phein55

    Congratulations! Now, seven more jumps and you can spell “A-I-R-B-O-R-N-E”!

    And of course, now you know the truth: Those airplanes aren’t perfectly good, they’re loud! Once your ‘chute opens, that’s perfectly, well, perfect!

  49. 49.

    TomatoQueen

    Congratulations and Happy Birthday and well done indeed, SD!

    (also, too, love the captions on the photos, just in the right place, centered and legible)

  50. 50.

    Philbert

    @Mike in DC: Good idea! I jumped once…someone’s bowels totally emptied during the climb so they opened the jump door to air it out. I was sitting right uphill of the door with with no belt or anchor while looking down 10,000 feet. I didn’t like it. After we leveled off and my tandem attached to me, it was ok. The jump was to celebrate with an early survivor of hepatitis: before the cure she figured, hey, why not.
    Congrats SD!

  54. 54.

    Kelly

    I did a static line jump from around 3000 feet 1976. Round parachute. Very small plane. Pilot, Jumpmaster and 4 jumpers. I sat on the floor in the front with my back to the big sliding door hanging onto the pilot’s seat. When the jumpmaster opened the door behind me was the worst part. Once I turned around and sat with my feet hanging out the thrill set in and the rest was cool. I don’t remember how long it took the chute to open, 300~500 feet. Not much free fall but compared to my previous record of 30 feet from a bridge into the river it felt like a lot. A tandem jump from 14,000 would be a exponentially bigger rush.

  58. 58.

    Smiling Mortician

    I’ve loved you since I first read one of your comments here, SuibhanDuinne! Now I’m over the moon with awe. Here I was feeling kinda full of myself for kicking cancer’s ass this year (so far! ya never know what’s next!) and successfully breaking up with America (just said “fuck it,” retired early, and moved to Spain and I’m loving it). Those things seem kinda bush league now . . . You absolutely rock.

    I’m still probably not gonna jump out of an airplane though.

  59. 59.

    H.E.Wolf

    Congratulations from an admiring (and happily armchair) adventurer! The Dowager Duchess of Medway has nuthin’ on you. :)

  61. 61.

    TenguPhule

    More people were shot, and more killed, when the perpetrator of an “active shooting” in the US had a semiautomatic rifle, according to a new study of 248 incidents published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The study, which examined only a small subset of America’s shootings, found that incidents in which at least one of the perpetrator’s guns was a semiautomatic rifle left an average of 4.25 people killed and 5.48 wounded. Shootings where the perpetrator did not have a semiautomatic rifle, but instead used handguns, shotguns or other types of rifles, left an average of 2.5 people killed and three people wounded.

    Shootings with semiautomatic rifles more deadly than handguns, study says

  63. 63.

    Yutsano

    @Leto: I know there’s some active historians keeping track of everything at the Hanford site in a similar fashion. Dad was second generation to work there, but now retired. My understanding is that everyone knew but no one really talked about it. Plus they designed the city of Richland in such a way as to disguise its actual population size. Lots of interesting things from that era abound.

  65. 65.

    JWL

    “Dick Cheney is Donald Trump”. That is, those times a relaxed Cheney throws back a few few belts and speaks freely among friends, i.e., known associates. Get down to brass tacks, there is nothing whatsoever that differentiates the two beasts except for Cheney’s P.R. savvy. That, and the fact Trump would never shoot a friend in the face. He’d pay to have someone do it for him instead.

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    HE WAS IN HIS HOME. HE DIDNT HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE COMMANDS OF AN INTRUDER. This begins the character assassination f the victim #bothemshemjean . This police officer didn’t have a warrant to be there and this excuse of seeing a door ajar is a common narrative used as an excuse. https://t.co/CilFU4nlCD

    — Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) September 10, 2018

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    They decided the door being ajar is best for the official fictitious narrative because the door would just simply open when she pushed against it with the key.

    So Mr. Jean was silhouetting around his apartment in total darkness with his door slightly ajar when she arrived unexpectedly? How convenient for her.

    Changing stories generally mean someone is lying.

    Let me help you keep track of the ever-changing lies of Amber Guyger.

    1. At first she said Botham’s door was locked and she repeatedly tried to get in until he opened the door.

    2. Then she said his door was shut, but unlocked.

    3. Now she says his door was never even shut. https://t.co/HOx1pYqMUR

    — Shaun King (@shaunking) September 11, 2018

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    Texas Ranger David Armstrong working tips as provided by the shooter seems a little hinky to me.
    Armstrong admitted searching the dead man’s computer for contraband was a tip from the woman who shot him. pic.twitter.com/hyb2F3cxkL

    — PoliticallySpeaking (@politicalteeth) September 11, 2018

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    Nearly 1,000 people incarcerated in South Carolina — and the staff who guard them — will not be evacuated for #HurricaneFlorence, despite Gov. Henry McMaster’s evacuation orders. It is unacceptable for a state to gamble with the lives of those in its care. https://t.co/bdLJAM7kR6

    — Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) September 11, 2018

  71. 71.

    John Revolta

    I can sit way down here and get high
    But I don’t see no reason whatever to fly
    If the good Lord had meant to get me up in one of those things
    He’d have given me a ticket, feathers and a pair of wings

    If you don’t mind I’ll take my chances crossing the street
    “Cause I need to feel the ground beneath my feet
    Put me in a uniform if it come to blows
    But you’ll never get me up in one of those

  72. 72.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah: Is that the new excuse? The old one was “We are searching the victim’s personal computer because we believe he may have been expecting a guest at the time he was shot.”

  73. 73.

    Manyakitty

    Awesome!

    I made three static line jumps with rectangular sport chutes, from about a mile up between 28 and 35. They were…cathartic, but not in the gross way (haha!). So peaceful, and I could see what seemed like forever in all directions Now that I’ve crested 50 and realized I’m not as rubbery as I was in my relative youth, I doubt I’ll jump again.

    The view from 14,000 feet is spectacular! So glad you took the plunge!

  84. 84.

    Keith P.

    Any fans of “Nathan for You” here? He did a bit where he tried to go skydiving but kept finding ways to back out. It wasn’t one of his best skits (but that’s a VERY high bar), but still had plenty of classic Nathanisms.

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Thank you all for the (mostly) very kind words! I feel the love!

    And special thanks to Betty Cracker, not only for front-paging my adventure but also for doing a gorgeous job of formatting. BC gets all credit for nicely centering the captions under the right photos.

    Will answer specific questions later, but am at the library now with work to do.

    Yr Flying Jackal

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    What, no green balloon?

    Happy to hear you had fun and made it through unscathed. I get the jitters just looking at the pix.

    @TenguPhule

    ads for wooden swimsuits

    Plywood thongs are the worst.

    :)

  91. 91.

    stinger

    Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post! You are amazing, SiubhanDuinne! I’ve just been reading through comment sections from the past two days looking for your report, and here it is front-paged with great photos! I’m so glad you did it!

  92. 92.

    cain

    @John Cole:
    LOL! I bet you said the same thing when moving from Republican to Democrat! Anything can happen! (then again, we know why you were Army :-)

    Awesome, SiubhanDuinne I want to do this at one point myself!

  95. 95.

    TenguPhule

    Speaking to reporters at the Gene Snyder Federal Courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky, McConnell was asked if Republicans will hold onto the majority in Congress.

    “We know this is going to be a very challenging election,” he said.

    McConnell said Senate races were “dead-even” in Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia and Florida.

    “All of them too close to call and every one of them is like a knife fight in an alley,” he said. “It’s just a brawl in every one of those places.”

    Two years ago in September, McConnell said close Senate races at that point were “sort of like a knife fight in a phone booth.” Republicans that year held on to their narrow Senate majority.

    McConnell says close Senate midterm races like ‘a knife fight in an alley’

    I’d pay good money for a McConnell in a dark alley. And a knife.

  97. 97.

    spudgun

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Hmm, yeah, I could imagine, I mean…conceptually, I can imagine what an absolutely beautiful, awe-inspiring thing it would be to be floating in the air (I have lots of flying dreams!), but then I think about the reality of throwing myself out of a plane and how high up that is and I pretty much NOPE out.

  98. 98.

    OldDave

    @J R in WV: I’ve never jumped, I have no experience, but just for fun, let’s do a back of the envelope calculation. I read 14000 feet. Let’s assume that’s above sea level and not above the ground. Atlanta is about 1000 feet above sea level, so 13,000 feet to from jump to splat. Open the parachute at 1000 feet above the ground – that ‘s 12000 feet of free fall. “Terminal” velocity is about 120 MPH, or 176 FPS. So 12000 / 176 = 68 seconds. Add to that the slower decent thru the last 1000 feet. This handy site says the descent rate under the ‘chute is about 1000 feet per minute – so another minute of descent.

    I’m sure I bollixed this all up, but it was a fun couple of minutes. Back to work.

  99. 99.

    Brachiator

    Been away from my computer, and recently had some problems accessing Balloon Juice, so I just loved, loved, loved seeing these pictures!

    Way to go, SiubhanDuinne!

    Flying Jackal, heh…

  105. 105.

    Jager

    @humboldtblue:

    My daughters shamed me into bungee jumping once when they were in Jr. High with “Come on Daddy you’ve jumped out of airplanes!” I did. When I got back on the ground the younger one said, “I couldn’t watch.” It was okay but, I’d rather jump out of an airplane any damn day. Congrats SD!

  106. 106.

    CaseyL

    SiubhanDuinne: You go, girl! What a wonderful experience – and I’d say it’s never too late to jump out of a perfectly good plane :)

    I’ve jumped twice – like you, in tandem; the second jump was from 16000 feet. What I enjoyed most wasn’t, oddly enough, the freefall part – though that was wonderful, don’t get me wrong! For me the absolute zen moment was when the chute opened.

    When you’re falling, the wind is whipping your face and roaring in your ears and pressing hard on your whole body.

    When the chute opens, everything just…stops. You are hanging in the air, in quiet and serenity, and there is no sense of falling.

    I loved that.

  107. 107.

    Gin & Tonic

    Perhaps someone can convey to Alain that the CDN chosen by him and/or John sucks donkey balls. Tha problem accessing the site is dependent on who the user’s ISP is, as I can get here from one and not from another. I’m not going to spend my time diagnosing DNS and CDN issues, but this is not something that anyone can fix either at the client end or at the server end.

  109. 109.

    danielx

    The look of “oh shit” in the fifth pic….priceless. Congratulations SD, and I wanna do it too!

    On that note, I wonder many people’s last words have been “oh shit”. I know of at least one – a dear friend who had a massive heart attack at the ripe age of 42. Heard of another – a pilot who lost orientation and pulled back on the stick when he found he was inverted. Ooops….

    Also too, BJ response time is for shit today.

  111. 111.

    trollhattan

    @Gin & Tonic:
    My home ISP didn’t “resolve itself” until sometime overnight–it lagged well behind my phone and that other place I spend time at.

  114. 114.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I’ll add that it’s good to be able to access BJ and read stories and comments wise, funny, and inane again. The last 20 hours or however long that lifetime of blog inaccessibility lasted were HARD.

    And yes, my name is O. Felix and I am a Juice-aholic.

  115. 115.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Gin & Tonic: I switched the primary and secondary DNS entries on my router to Google(8.8.8.8) and OpenDNS(208.67.222.222) and my problems accessing the site disappeared. It seems that some ISP’s are slow to propagate DNS changes(mobile carriers seem to do it the quickest).

  116. 116.

    chrisanthemama

    One of the “You Might Like” stories/ads that display at the end of this story is for adult incontinence underwear–lol. Think I’m about ready for a “change” after reading that story.

  118. 118.

    NotMax

    For Siubhan Duinne (after Gilbert & Sullivan).

    When I was an old I had a bent
    To do something daring off the firmament
    I strapped on the harness and aloft did soar
    Then I stepped into nothing through the open door
    (She stepped into nothing through the open door)
    I soared for miles toward the grass so green
    The oldest flying jackal you have ever seen
    (She soared for miles toward the grass so green)
    The oldest flying jackal you have ever seen

  127. 127.

    Lars Olaf

    Well done! Stopped lurking to comment on this since it’s so awesome. I myself have made numerous jumps and plan to again.

    One of the above sentences is a lie.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    SD, congrats on scratching off another line on the list.
    May I suggest always leave at least one or two items on the list. It’s good to have goals.
    Personally I’m keeping my list full to the brim.

  133. 133.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @rikyrah: Dang, FYWP lost my post. Let me try again.

    Don’t know if anyone else has brought this up, but what bugs me about the shooter’s story is that she claims that after shot the guy, she called 911 and then went to the door to see the apartment number, and that’s when she found out it wasn’t her apartment.

    If she thought she was making a 911 call from her own home, why wouldn’t she just give her apartment number? Who goes outside to check the address if they’re calling 911 to their own home?

    I’m wondering if this is actually premeditated murder and whether anybody is investigating it as that.

  135. 135.

    arrieve

    This is so cool. I’m in awe. I’ve always been physically timid myself, and have pushed myself to do things that scare me. But I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to jump out of a plane.

  136. 136.

    Mnemosyne

    Whoa — this actually makes my bucket list idea of trapeze lessons look a little less crazy. Great job, SD!

  139. 139.

    Anotherlurker

    S.D.! You are awesome!
    What is next? I suggest a SCUBA Dive, with 2 Kts. of current, off the Santa Rosa Wall, in Cozumel.

  141. 141.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Steeplejack (phone): Yes, I know a thing or two about DNS

    1. I shouldn’t have to do that to fix the CDN’s problems.

    2. I can’t do it where I am now without a change control process, and “reading Balloon-Juice” might not make the cut as far as justification.

  142. 142.

    Origuy

    Congratulations, SiubhanDuinne! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more risk-adverse and a little acrophobic. I never had skydiving on my list, but I did want to try hot air ballooning. I never had the chance until this summer. I was at an open air museum called Connor Prairie north of Indianapolis. They had a balloon on a tether. It only went up 377 feet, but the winds were pretty strong. The ballon swayed back and forth as we went up. It was smoother once we stopped going up, but I never had that sensation of gently floating. I guess I can cross ballooning off my list, but I’m not sure I got the real experience.

  144. 144.

    StringOnAStick

    Most excellent! My husband did this before I met him and he said the coolest part was stepping up, standing there, and then just letting go of the plane. I can’t say why I haven’t done this yet, but your story puts it much higher on my To Do list.

  148. 148.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Quick request. My next door neighbor’s in Onslow County are having to evacuate. Mum, Dad, couple of elder daughters and one grandson. Anyone can help them out? Let me know.

  151. 151.

    tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)

    @SiubhanDuinne: That is amazing! I’d like to think I would have the courage and spirit to do what you did at your age. But, as others have said, I’ve found myself becoming more risk averse and acrophobic as I’ve gotten older. It’s great that I can live vicariously through jackals like you! What’s next on your list?

  152. 152.

    SWMBO

    Happy Birthday!
    Congratulations! Well done, you!
    There is no way in hell I will ever step out of a perfectly decent plane.
    The landing would be the best part for me. Not needing medical attention and walking away without injury would be the best part.

  154. 154.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Hope this answers a few questions:

    WOULD I JUMP AGAIN?

    I have now confronted and vanquished my worst fears, so in that sense I’d be happy to jump again.

    However, the entire experience was so surreal, so ineffable, and so beautiful, that I am reluctant to risk diluting it with additional jumps. I’d rather keep that special experience in memory as something unique and unrepeatable.

    WHAT KIND OF PLANE WAS IT?

    The aircraft was a Caravan. I don’t know exactly what that implies, but our plane at capacity had a lucky count of 13: the four in our group; our four instructors/tandem jumpers; two videographers; two advanced solo jumpers (one guy doing his first ever solo jump, one woman on her, I think, 37th!); and the pilot.

    HOW LONG DID THE ACTUAL JUMP TAKE?

    Probably 5-6 minutes total from plane to terra firma. The canopy opened at maybe a minute in, and from then on it was just timeless floating. Drifting. There was no sense at all of gravity, of falling or plunging. It was incredibly gentle.

    WHAT’S NEXT ON THE BUCKET LIST?

    This — leaping out of a plane — was the big one. I’d like to go up in a hot air balloon some time, and maybe hang-glide. But mostly, now, my goals are destinational and completionist.

    ANYTHING ELSE?

    When you jump, there is a secret handshake. I find that very cool. But I can’t tell you more than that. In fact, I’ve said too much already. The

  155. 155.

    phein57

    @OldDave:
    Tactical jumps open NLT 800 feet. [40 years from jump status, so don’t quote me.] Combat jumps open at 500 feet. A T-10 or a -1 has to open NLT 300 feet to be fully open prior to impact. Squares and sails might have a lower minimum altitude. But as much fun as the freefall is, a slow descent from 4,000 feet or so is sublime. You can hear birds from the distance, but little else. So peaceful. That’s what jumps are really about: The rush, and the nirvana.

  158. 158.

    phein57

    I was just a non-electric pop-up target with wings, i.e., an 11B2P.

    My youngest son had an appointment with a Marine recruiter the other day, and I was whipsawed: Yes, of course, recruiters lie. Mine did. Yes, of course: Marines? Fuck that! Yes, of course, now is no time to get involved in the miseries Bush bequeathed us.

    On the other hand, I’ve got a 17-year old trying to find his way in the world, and he’s looking at what’s out there. I don’t want him to think that I think he wouldn’t be a good Marine, I’m sure he’d be a great Marine, but I think he’ll do better at the U of I or SLU than in the service, or at least, hold out for ROTC or the Air Force!

  161. 161.

    phein57

    @NotMax: Sorry, that was way past my bedtime.

    AmeriCorps has loomed large among his and his sibling’s age cohort. A number have signed up (not sure of their status), and others are doing some form of Teach for America in Alaska.

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