Posted on 06/09/2024 9:05:36 AM PDT by RandFan
Clearly, the “falling” part was not the problem...
“Oops. D’ya mean those bungee straps don’t connect to the other flap?”
Never let ANYONE ELSE pack your bag.
Lesson #2: Never jump out of perfectly good airplanes.
I was involved with skydiving for a short time many moons ago and we always packed our own main chutes. But I don’t remember packing the reserve chute. The skydiving club was a on the Army base and I think maybe we had official Army parachute riggers for that.
As long as the vertical descent is less than my terminal velocity, I would stay in the plane.
It had to be a near crushing experience.
After seeing your post I found the article below, which references FreeRepublic from 20 years ago which I also linked.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1071076/posts
“Lesson: Always pack your own parachute.”
She did.
It’s about 45 years since my brief experience with sport parachuting, but as I recall reserve chutes had to be packed by a licensed rigger.
Gory, gory what a helluva way to die!
Actually a Tom Petty song came to mine.
Thanks for the links. I read through the FR comments; interesting that the last comment was posted 7 1/2 years after the first.
“And [s]he ain’t gonna jump no more!”
I remember that song.
It seems like her marriage was in a free-fall.
IIRC, the British tail gunner had a sprained ankle and a broken wrist.
Tom Petty:
Free Falling
I was only mostly dead.
“Lesson: Always pack your own parachute.”
Perhaps. But I can’t help but admire US Navy jet pilot Charles Plumb’s attitude about it, in another great war story from this article, “Who Packs Your Parachute?”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kareanderson/2015/11/18/who-packs-your-parachute/
Why do they call it a terrible fall? The fall was painless. It was hitting the ground that causes the damage.
Good point, but then there’s the state of mind during the fall?
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