HALO at Quincy

[Pammi 0]

I would love to try a HALO jump, but I saw on the Quincy message forum that you are supposed to have a D license and there are some other requirements I read in the SIM manual. Can anyone tell me if this is true? What can I expect and what is required? Will I even be allowed to do one considering I'll only be B licensed at that time?
Thanks!
Pam
"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live."
http://trak.to/skydivechick

[skymedic 0]

gotta have the D, also helps to have been on a chamber ride to understand high altitude physiology on your particular body, plus you got bail out bottles and all sorts of other equipment nonsense to worry about...HALO is definately an undertaking...marc

[RemiAndKaren 0]

But then again, its Quincy where you can get on a 15 way with 64 jumps! allegedly, of course.... ;-)

[skymedic 0]

Very true, very true indeed....

[mikefarmer 0]

Sweet, on the Safety and training page talkin about sneaking on loads at Quincy!! I gotta visit here more often!
Mike

[Kris 0]

BWAHAHA, good one Mike!
Pammi, once you've got the wrist band, the rest is up to you, your imagination, your ability for creative storytelling and your amazing ability to cutely pout and get your way.
However, that being said, don't think you and Merrick are going to Quincy before you get a safety briefing from Tony or at least me first. Four people out of a C-182 are one thing, 25+ out of a CASA with a max pull altitude of 2500 is another...
Kris
You know I love you guys...

[RemiAndKaren 0]

You have to be carefull... but its a great place to experiment. Make sure you pace yourself and yes, get as many briefings from coaches/experienced/wise people at your DZ...
And make sure you can track : and I mean track, not dive...
Be safe and have fun...
PS: on Quincy, is Carbone still at it there?

[Pammi 0]

LOL! Um, of course...we would never do that!
Just kidding...really...I'll take all of the training, briefing and advice I can get from you guys Kris! I'm looking forward to the Caravan also so I can get a little more experience with more people in the air also beforehand. I guess we'll see what I end up trying at Quincy...there is ssssooo much, that even without a HALO dive, it'll be a blast. Let's see, I've jumped out of a .... C-182. Gee, that leaves how many other things I can do there?? :)
Pammi
"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live."
http://trak.to/skydivechick

[Ralf 0]

A HALO (High Altitude - Low Opening) started as a military operation, and now is sometimes used by Civilians. It is usually over 25,000 feet and often at 30,000 feet or more. At 23,000 ft (I think this is the Quincy jumps), the TUC (Time of Useful Conscience) is about 4 minutes, the plan is to remove the oxygen mask at 1 minute before jump, jump, at 2 minutes after you are off of oxygen, you have fallen enough to for normal breathing. Two minutes safety margin, nice long freefall. Strongly recommended before a 30K HALO Jump.
For a HALO jump from 30,000 feet, the TUC is 60 second to 120 seconds. You must use a bail out O2 Bottle! An breviated outline follows what you must do if you want a 30K HALO jump.
1. 200+ Jumps (and D Licence)
2. Class 3 or better FAA medical check and card (cost about $75)
3. High Altitutude Physiolgy Class (1 day, cost about $35) from USAF, setup by the FAA.
4. Schedule with DZ. I only know of SkyDance SkyDiving, Yolo County Airport, near Davis (Scramento) CA normaly schedulling the HALO jumps. Next ones are June 23 & 24. There should be some in September 2001.
5. (asuming your are going to Skydance, and they keep their past schedule) Friday, first time HALO jumpers receive training, make two jumps as follows.
6. Friday: 13K jump with mask, but no O2. Learn how the equipment, goggles and helmet feel in freefall.
7. Friday: 13K jump with mask and O2. Correct problems with goggles, equipment, etc.
8. Jump Day (Sat or Sun): 30K jump. Pre-breath O2 50 min. before take-off (prevent bends). Climb to altitute (about 1 hour), jump, free fall 150 seconds. Termial velocity is about 180 MPH but decreases as you decend into thick warm air.
9. Don't plan RW for your first time, the air at 30K is thin and fast, you will fall differently. Also remember, it is - 40 degrees (Cent or F). Wind Chill makes it -100 degrees F. Your exposure is short, but you must be covered or you will have flash frost bite!
At that altitue, if you look up, Dark Blue Skies,
Ralf Stinson

[Pammi 0]

So 23,000 is slightly less 'in-depth' then a regular HALO from 30,000 then? Therefore, the ones at Quincy are possible for someone without all of the training required for a 30,000 HALO (but still more complicated then a regular 13,000-14,000 jump of course)?
Pammi
"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live."
http://trak.to/skydivechick

[Ralf 0]

Check this URL: http://www.koyn.com/clouddancer/articles/23KJump99.html.
I found it under WWW.DropZone.COM - FORUM - Safety & Training - High Alititude Jump.
It talks about the brief for the HALO jumps (23K ft) at Quincy in 1999. It is good to read. From that, I said that I think the Quincy HALO jumps is from 23K. Read it, and I think that you might be more careful about wanting to quickly (less than 200 jumps) make a 30K HALO jump. At 27K feet in freefall, when you try to exhale, and you can't, what is wrong, how did you cause it, and how do you fix it? At 15K, some people have sinus and ear clearing problems. What happens at 30K? What do you do when the cold (-40) causes your goggles to shatter?
I also recommend that you go to the SkyDance Web site (www.1800SKYDIVE.com) and check their links to HALO jumps.
Some of the more dangerous jumps are HALO (24K+), Para-Scuba, Night military (drop zone not lighted), smoke (Forestfire, not Demo), and combat (people shooting at you). Some Demo and movie jumps are also dangerous. Dangerous means that they are technically demanding, and if something goes wrong, it goes wrong fast. It also means that it is just plain dangerous (like night military or combat). The army made me practice 2 weeks of PLF's before they let me jump. I don't think expecting you to make 200 jumps before an extreme jump is too much.
Blue Skies,
Ralf Stinson
C-8962, D-23283

[Pammi 0]

No, I absolutely agree Ralf, and I'm not one to push myself past the limits of common sense. That's why I was trying to find out as much as I could about it because I had no idea that it even was an 'extreme jump'. Thanks for the info.
Pammi
"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live."
http://trak.to/skydivechick

[jfields 0]

Quote

Some of the more dangerous jumps are HALO (24K+), Para-Scuba, Night military (drop zone not lighted), smoke (Forestfire, not Demo), and combat (people shooting at you).

I did the night military jumps and (thankfully) missed out on combat. The HALO and para-scuba sound fun though. Justin
"If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

[mattb 0]

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Four people out of a C-182 are one thing, 25+ out of a CASA with a max pull altitude of 2500 is another...

Are you referring to a max pull altitude for a particular dive or for all jumpers at all times? I know many jumpers who prefer to pull around 3000 due to long snivels and such.
Curious,
-mob

[Merrick 0]

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"At 27K feet in freefall, when you try to exhale, and you can't, what is wrong, how did you cause it, and how do you fix it? At 15K, some people have sinus and ear clearing problems. What happens at 30K? What do you do when the cold (-40) causes your goggles to shatter?"

So, having 200 jumps automatically makes me smart enough to figure all these problems out huh.... 200 normal sport skydives gives me all the knowledge I need to do a HALO jump? Tell me, how many "D" license holders know the answers to all these problematic situations? And, of those of you that actually do know, how many of you know simply by experience alone?? My point is that you and anyone else that knows "ALL" the answers had to be briefed on this sort of jump.... whether you got the knowledge from someone else or researched it by yourself. There aren't a whole lot of people at our DZ that are experience with HALO jumps, so that leaves us (Pam & I) to research this stuff ourselves until we can find someone who "knows."
I'm not trying to say that we don't need at least 200 jumps before we even think of attempting a HALO jump, but we don't need 200 jumps to be educated on it.... your magic 200 doesn't make us more intelligent or more susceptible to information.... I know some pretty dumb MFers that were able to obtain a "D" license!
Show me ONE skydiver that isn't absolutely enthralled by the thought of 2 minutes of freefall... so aparently we're all idiots for hoping we would actually be able to achieve it!
"Grab the grass, it's the bounce that kills!"
Merrick
Edited by Merrick on 6/12/01 09:45 AM.

[Merrick 0]

Quote

"Are you referring to a max pull altitude for a particular dive or for all jumpers at all times?"

From what I understand Matt, that's for ALL jumpers at ALL times at Quincy. The loads run so close together that they want to make sure there is plenty of verticle separation.
"Grab the grass, it's the bounce that kills!"
Merrick

[Ralf 0]

Merrick, I hope you don't really beleive that I think that 200 jumps makes someone automaticly ready for a HALO jump. If you read both of my privious post about HALO jumps, you will see that the 200 jumps was the starting point for the training that would lead a person to being ready for a HALO jump. Not everyone will be able to complete the training successfully, and we all know, that some people get through training, but don't really get it.
It is fun to do a freefall over two minutes, but a lot more goes into it than having 200 jumps. Please read both post, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
Blue Skies.
Ralf Stinson

[Kris 0]

I agree with you on all counts Merrick. I intend to keep learning way past the 200 mark.
When me and Bob registered at the main tent at Quincy last year we were told in no uncertain terms not to pull above 2500'.
It's not that they stack the jump runs but more for the fact that there are a lot of people in the air and in the case of a bad spot that does happen to put another jump plane on top of you.
If someone knows of any other reasons, please share with the group!
Kris
--"So there I was. Naked. In a refrigerator. With a potroast on my knees. Smokin' a cigar. That's when it got REALLY weird."

[Iflyme 0]

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I know some pretty dumb MFers that were able to obtain a "D" license!

This is true! Let's face it - at 200 jumps, you are still a novice. There is soooo much to learn -- in fact, I think the learning never ends!

[Merrick 0]

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"at 200 jumps, you are still a novice. There is soooo much to learn -- in fact, I think the learning never ends!"

I agree 100%... Heck, I know that even when I reach a 1000 there will be somebody there that can say, "Hey, now it really starts to get fun!" "OMG there I was, thought I was going to die.. she walks in with a can of motoroil & jumpercables.."

[Shark 0]

Merrick,
I get your drift, but one of my goals is to do a HALO jump. Now that I have over 200 jumps, I know that I don't know shit! Even more than the jump numbers, there are probably better (or more) reasons why. eg. freefall time; 200 jumps is over 3 hours. CReW should probably have a minimum jump number. I got my 8 stack on my 37th jump and was probably not "ready" at the time, despite what my instructors had taught me, and what I accomplished during the coach dives. I'll probably miss the HALOs in September, mainly because I need another chamber "ride" which is difficult to fit in. So, it looks like June of 02, (pun intended.) Guess, I'll see you guys at 30k sometime! BTW, getting to 200 is the easy part. And you are right about the DMFs that are D licensed. Remember, there are also ones with Cs, too.
Shark
C-31575
CCR-2113