TV show asks: How many of you have jumped outside traditional DZs?

[samlukeanthony 0]

Following on from the previous post, I would also love to hear from you if you have experience of jumps outside the conventional arena of skydiving, particularly any jumps that turn just getting home afterwards into an expedition! As before, you can email me at sam@multichromemedia.com, or just post here, and thanks again for your help!

Sam

[riggerrob 643]

Did I ever tell you about the time I jumped and missed the country?

I was jumping at Schweighofen, West Germany, near the French border.
I was testing a new design of canopy for the German Army.
Winds were strong, so we exited the Dornier 27 a long way upwind of the airport.
I opened my main parachute at the planned altitude, but ever before looking up, knew something was wrong because I was spinning. A glance upwards confirmed that the left side of the parachute was knotted up.
I released my main parachute, pulled my reserve ripcord and soon found myself hanging under a small round reserve parachute.
One look towards the airport revealed a row of hangars, a road, a railroad, a fence, a row of telephone poles, etc. between me and my intended landing area.
Then I noticed the main parachute drifting towards a small clearing - not much bigger than a tennis court - in the middle of a swampy forest.
I landed beside the main parachute and was starting to gather it up when a friend arrived to help.
Returning to the airport required crossing a two meter wide stream, so I did a Tarzan routine, climbing along half-fallen trees.
Back at the airport, I thanked my friend for loaning me a helmet, altimeter, etc.
He asked: "Did you see any police?"
I replied: "No. Why?"
"You landed in France."

[billvon 3,116]

>particularly any jumps that turn just getting home afterwards into an expedition!

Well, let's see -

There was the demo for MTV Sports in Cabo, where our trip down (originally scheduled for September of 2001) was delayed by 9/11. When we finally got down there, we had one day of good weather and managed to get all the jumps in. On our way back the winds started picking up; we got out with hours to spare. The next day Juliet, a category 4 hurricane, hit the area.

[JSE 1]

Skydive Tahoe sometimes drops experienced jumpers over lake tahoe. I've had at least one small adventure getting back from an isolated beach.

[billvon 3,116]

Perhaps the most non-traditional DZ I jumped at was Toc Li, an abandoned Vietnam-era airbase in Thailand. It was on the last day of the 2004 world record attempts, and it was dismal and raining in Korat. We had to get it that day or go home, but there was no way we could jump through the rain.

So we loaded up the planes, flew to Toc Li, checked out the landing area and took off again. We jumped, got the record on that jump, and then tried to land 380 people in a place none of us had seen from the air before. Fortunately no one got hurt. We loaded up again, tried to break our own record, but it didn't work.

By the time we landed for the second time the local merchants had heard about us and had pulled up trucks and wagons full of fruit, rice, beer and water. It was a little surreal - drinking a Singha and packing parachutes in a hangar that probably hadn't been opened since the Vietnam War. It started to drizzle as we packed, so we loaded the C-130's one final time and flew back to Korat as the weather got worse.

The flight back was odd. For the first time no one much cared about where they were sitting, since we weren't planning to jump. People sprawled on the benches, on the massive piles of rice they used for ballast, and on the stairs going up to the cockpit. A lot of people fell asleep. I climbed around the airplane, stood in the massive cockpit for a while and talked to people, and looked out the tiny windows at Thailand far below us.

When we landed back at Korat they had a party ready for us, complete with floating paper lanterns and dancers. It was a long night.

[zipplewrath 1]

Key West

This was mid '80s, some guy knew a guy that knew a guy and arranged for a couple dozen of us to do some jumps from a twin beach on an island just up the road from Key West. The beach owner/driver was friendly enough, and took to dumping jumpers quite well. We had beautiful vistas over the clear water. And it made for some interesting flights back to the airport. The landing area was small, and not always well coordinated with the prevailing winds. Plus, you frequently opened over water, flew back over water, and only really saw land under you when you turned on final. A bit strange and really kept your attention on spotting and flight patterns after opening.

Then, about 4:30, when there was easily a couple of hours of day light left, and we were all dreaming of a sunset load, the pilot up and leaves. He has to "get ready for sunset". I wasn't familar at the time with the whole "sunset pier/mallory square" tradition of Key West. I about came unhinged. But what can ya do? So we went into Key West for the night. And then I got to learn, and suddenly I found roughly the second best thing to do with such a sunset. It still woulda been better under canopy though.

[JohnRich 4]

What TV show?

[grimmie 186]

20 minute airplane ride out to the shark infested Blue Hole in Belize. Jump, water landing, SCUBA dive it to 140ft. Then a 5 hour very rough boat ride home in a storm. It was a hell of a party though!

[CSpenceFLY 1]

The RoamingDZ started with New Years and 4th of July partys using an airstrip across from my house and landing in my back yard.

[kimemerson 7]

Are we talking demos or landing out? Or bandit jumps? Or all three?

[piisfish 140]

In Switzerland we do that a lot (jumping home, at BBQ's etc)
we also organize easily glacier jumps, jumping in fields etc...

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[longtall 0]

We were invited to jump into a party and followed the low jumper into the bbq party; except no-one mentioned it was a LLAMA RANCH. (...Say those sure are funny looking horses!)

" 90 right, five miles then cut."---Pukin Buzzards