Wendy and her friend Melanie went skydiving yesterday over Dundas. Wendy wasn't very nervous (it was also her birthday), but any residual anxiety instantly melted away when she caught sight of the hot guy she would be strapped to for the event.
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| Wendy won the coin toss to be strapped to Konrad... |
After some on-the-ground training, Wendy got suited up for her jump. Because they had arranged for it to be video recorded, they would not have been able to fit everyone into the one plane, so Wendy went first.
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| Jumpsuits are quite slimming... |
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| Getting the harness prepared - the weather was gorgeous |
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| Ready to get in the 1956 Cessna 182 |
Wendy found that the aircraft was both incredibly hot and incredibly close. At least she was sitting in Konrad's lap the whole time...
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| Close quarters in the aircraft on the way to 10,600 ft |
Also on this flight was the trainer ("hottie" Konrad), Mark (the videographer), and Jason (a young training videographer). The plan was for Mark to get out of the plane and perch himself on the spar until Wendy and Konrad were ready to jump. After a count of three, the first 3 went out at the same time, then Jason followed as fast as he could and tried to catch up (he overshot a little...).
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| And away they go! |
Mark and Jason ran their still cameras at about 5 frames per second the whole time in free fall (about 35 seconds), so there were a lot of frames to see. He and Jason also recorded on video the whole time.
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| Half a second from the plane |
Jason had to hustle to catch up, and ended up diving too far. He missed some of the last few seconds and had to break off an pull his chute at the required altitude (~6,000).
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| Jason scrambles out to catch up to them (they will soon reach 200 km/hr) |
The drogue chute was deployed after about 2 seconds to slow down Wendy and Konrad - they would accelerate faster since they were heavier than the single jumpers (same wind resistance though). They look like they are pointed head down because they still have some forward momentum from the plane. The wind was straight at their chests, so it apparently didn't feel like they were pointing more towards the ground.
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| Konrad pulls a drogue chute to slow down, so Mark and Jason can catch up for pictures |
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| This is the 'money shot' (notice Konrad's face in the wind) |
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| Breaking formation and ready to pull the chute (Dundas Quarry below) |
The sudden deployment of the main chute was a little surprising for Wendy, but not particularly painful. The wind was straight up at about 200 km/hr at this point.
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| Chute deployed - check out the effect of the wind on Wendy |
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| Wendy says the noise suddenly stopped and all was peaceful |
Wendy says the view was incredible (I told her that was why I enjoyed flying). There was nothing to do but hang there and look around at the scenery.
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| 8 minutes later, it is almost over |
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| Coming in for a butt landing (on purpose) |
The landing was gentle as they slid on the ground on their rear ends. If they had tried to put their feet down, they would most assuredly fall flat on their faces.
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| And she arrives safely back to Dundas |
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| Perfect landing, no injuries |
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| Wendy receiving her first skydive certificate |
Mel went up for her adventure about 30 min later and also was thrilled about the experience. It was a wonderful birthday gift to Wendy from Mel and one that they will never forget.
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| Chris (Mel's trainer), Mel, Wendy, and Konrad after a successful day |
After landing, we asked Wendy if she would do it again - she said "
no", even though she had a wonderful time and wasn't nervous at all. The worst part was being in the small plane (she hates flying), but there was no real sense of falling while in free fall or on the chute since the ground didn't really move very much as you were heading toward it.
Apparently, Adam now wants to go (we kept him apprised of the jumps by text).
Mark prepared a DVD video (with music), but it would be difficult to post it on YouTube and link it to this post as I have done in the past. I have added the video in a 'blogger video container', but this might not work on some systems. It also is quite low resolution. Try this first and see if it works, then go to plan B if necessary. For plan B, I have also provided the video as the original
.mp4 file and it is available to download from the two different links below. These files are at a higher resolution than the embedded video below. You might be able to download it and play it directly on your computer or mobile device. I'll cross my fingers.
Alternate download links (if you can't see the video) :
http://home.cogeco.ca/~seidlitz/downloads/skydive.mp4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZyqom6DVjOUG1iRnZzVUkzYzQ/edit?usp=sharing
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