Monday, July 26, 2010

Dirt dives and skydives

Yesterday at Skydive Snohomish, I made four really wonderful skydives. The first two were with Linny and Christine, along with Smart Guy. Somebody showed me these three little guys, barn swallows who have not yet fledged, who have a nest right above the entrance to the bathrooms. Aren't they cute? Soon they will also be in the air showing their stuff. I'll bet they would love to know about "dirt dives," but for them when they leave the nest I don't think they get to come back. It's learn to fly or die.
The next two skydives were a 9-way and a 10-way. When you get as many as nine or ten people paying $25 each to ride up to altitude, we like to see the skydive succeed, so we do what is called a "dirt dive." What skydivers do to help this process is to have a mock-up of the door of the Caravan, as you see here. We learn who will be in what position to create the best exit position to build the first formation as quickly as possible. Here you see the organizer telling each person when to climb out of the airplane, and those left inside the plane are gathered near the door in order to leave as little time as possible between the first and the last to exit. Remember, we only have about a minute in freefall on each skydive.
Now you can see where each person should be when the person in the middle gives the count, so we can all leave together. (That's the person with his leg out.) When the climbout begins, everyone's eyes should be on that person. And if all goes as planned, we should have minimum separation. The formation always builds from the inside out, so once the middle is complete, the others can take their position in the formation.
And then we run the dirt dive out onto the grass, making sure there are no traffic problems to get into your slot. Hopefully the dirt dive will help the skydive to be successful. That guy with his arms out is the camera man; you can see him in the previous picture hanging on the back of the "plane" so he can capture the exit. He has a camera mounted on his helmet that he turns on before leaving the plane.

If the dirt dive is well planned, you can imagine how much it helps the skydive to succeed. On our first one yesterday, we were able to build three different "points" (i.e., make three different formations) before it was time to break off, separate, and track off before opening our parachutes. The second one was ten people, and we made two different formations before it was time to leave.

Today I am a little sore and tired from jumping and packing my parachute four times, but it is a good tired. Ninja Linny and Christine stayed to make probably another three jumps after we left, but I knew we had a good hour and a half drive back home, and I wanted to be sure I wasn't too tired to watch the season premier of "Mad Men." After all, I DO have my priorities.
:-)

19 comments:

  1. What do you expect from Ninja Linny, go home after the jump? She's a superwoman. Well anyway, glad you're safe after the dive and take a rest then blog later!

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  2. I now know what a dirt dive is, had no idea DJan!

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  3. This totally amazes me. Wow! I never tire of seeing these pictures and reading about it.

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  4. You are insane, I am in complete awe

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  5. Well you all are very organized that's for sure! I am glad you had a good time:)

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  6. Thanks for explaining the process... not that I'll EVER consider it. You have far more guts than I do!

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  7. I just cannot imagine people doing this. They must feel like it is OK and the proper thing to do. It would scare the dickens out of me.

    I must say, though, that I have dreamed about being able to jump out of a jetliner and make wings out of my arms and I could just glide, in control, all the way back to earth and slide in for a stand up landing.

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  8. The barn swallows look so big though. Really cute all huddled together. Just a little sore? Gads, I would not be walking. Or moving.

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  9. Love to see the barn swallows peeking over the edge of the nest. They remind me of little bandits. This year we've had at least two rounds of babies and possibly a third. There is a "mud" condo on the back porch and they put on a daily dive show in the early evening for us.

    Now, about your dive. A dirt dive is as close to skydiving as I'd ever want to be. I get queezy just thinking about your dives. lol

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  10. The birds are gorgeous little guys. I have such a weakness for birds. I can't even contemplate free falling and skydiving. I keep thinking about Jim O'Brian, local weatherman from Philly who jumped to his death over N.J. in 1983. His daughter was on Frazier, played Roz. I would worry too much about my mortality and how an early demise would affect my family. I could never enjoy it, but I'm a pessimist. It's good that you enjoy it and do it well.

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  11. What a great post! To relate the birds and your dives.

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  12. Amazing. Glad you had a good time.

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  13. I'd have thought a dirt dive is one that ended quite badly! This is great stuff. So who has pictures of the formations?

    The birds are adorable:)

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  14. The little birds are adorable, I wonder what they think when they see humans skydiving?

    It is interesting to learn about dirt dives. In a sense the formations are like a ballet. It takes practice if each dancer is to know their part in the performance.

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  15. It sounds complicated, but since you have skydived so many times, it is nothing to you.

    Have you ever skin dived? That's a different type of dive, a completely different experience.

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  16. Yup, this did it, LOVE the pictures. It scared me so much I got a case of vertigo putting my brain in the pitures. I'm skydiving vicariously through you!

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  17. You people are all crazy. I love crazy people. I wish I had the guts, body, fitness, and chutzpah, to do what you do! And I've always wondered how they do this without killing each other. Thanks for explaining all this!

    P.S. I had no idea my other page loaded slowly. Thanks for telling me this one is faster! Yet another bonus! :)

    P.S.S. I could NOT figure out that top picture until you explained it. (BTW, I love that feeling. Sort of a vertigo when you don't know what you're looking at. I thought, "Why does DJan have a picture of an elephant's foot smashing something that looks like birds?) Bwahahahahahaha!

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  18. i think it would be so cool to skydive...

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  19. The little swallows are so cute and look so interested in their world. I wonder if they know they will have to jump? Perhaps they do and perhaps they don't. You all know you are going to jump and feel the exhilaration even before you leave the ground. It must be very thrilling but not for me. I wouldn't want to do it, but I like hearing about your adventures.
    Blessings, Star

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