I’ve seen photos of that rock but never knew it was behind a barrier or that there was nothing beneath you it you fell. Sometimes, you can use forced-perspective tricks to make it look like you’re sitting on the edge of a building when you’re really sitting on a low wall. Or the ledge of a cliff when there’s flat earth three feet beneath you. I always thought that’s what was going on at that site.
I get weak in the knees just thinking about some of those places.
A few years ago, I saw the exact site where 3 people went over one of the falls at Yosemite: a woman slipped in the fast running brook, then two men tried to save her...they all went over.
There were signs everywhere highlighting the dangers there.
OTOH, I remember being in the third "stick" during one of my 5 jumps at Airborne School. I was sitting about 10 feet of an open door on a C-141, with a great view of the terrain below. The thought that struck me at the time?
What in the hell am I doing here?
I was ok when the jump commands began, they kept you focused on your job, not about the unnatural thought of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.
