Thursday, May 22, 2008

Jump #18

This post was written by my buddy Mike. He's gotten "into" skydiving the past year or 2 and here is a blog he wrote about his latest jump:

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My First Off Landing (Jump 18, May 18th)

I'm writing this mostly to remind myself not to be an idiot under canopy ever again (yes I'm a selfish bastard). I made 3 fairly uneventful jumps on Saturday and I think I got a little bit cocky. Jump 1 on Sunday, first and only jump of the day (for reasons you will learn later). Winds were somewhere between 10 to 15mph (gusting a little). Normal 10,000 foot exit, pulled at 4,500 and had a nice soft opening. After playing around a bit I started the first leg of a standard left handed landing pattern at 1000 feet. This is when everything went to shit! Instead of paying attention to where I was at I was practicing front riser controls and lost track of how far I had traveled downwind. My brain finally turned back on and I checked my altitude. This was the "OH SHIT!" moment. I'm way low and make an immediate 180 turn to try to fly back to the landing area. No way in hell that was going to happen with the wind conditions.

So now its Plan B time. Where do I land that will hurt the least? I'm over a farm house. Power lines here and there. Really tall pine trees..... Etc. Well I spot a nice little field over to my left and decide that's my only semi-safe option. I landed barely clearing a barbed wire fence (I forgot that's what they use to contain cattle). Speaking of cattle.... I was also lucky enough to land in the biggest pile of cow shit that mankind has ever laid eyes upon! I'm exaggerating a bit but it was a pretty impressive deposit! Luckily the 2000 pound beast that left the cushion for me to land in was nowhere around.

Well of course the landowner comes out the back door of his house (luckily without his shotgun). The empty stare on his face was beyond priceless! I'm still not sure if it was a look of concern for my safety, if he thought I was an alien, or if he was simply still absorbing the fact that a human just fell out of the sky and landed in his backyard! So I gather up my gear, apologize to him for landing on his property, and explain to him why I had no other option. He was very understanding and just smiled. I start walking........

Moral of the story. Don't be a dumbass like me or you may end up walking back to the DZ with a bruised ego smelling like cow shit!

P.S. If you are reading this Woolly, thanks again for hopping in your car to come and make sure I was ok. VERY much appreciated!

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