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Author
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Topic: Parachuting into water
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mensax
Member Posts: 861
From: Virginia
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 06-28-2005 04:12 PM
   
I was listening to John Glenn's autobiography on tape today. Glenn described how during the war if you had to bail out of a plane you tried to get out over water, as your chance of rescue was greater. I suppose that was because there was less chance of the enemy getting to you first.I was wondering what happens when you parachute into water. A person must be moving pretty quick, and they are heavy with all that gear. If they had any kind of regular lifevest on it would probably be tore off wouldn't it? So, how does it work? Do they hit the water and go under until the chute hits the water, then they try to cut themselves free of the chute, remove the heaviest of the gear, and then have some kind of inflatable lifevest to activate, and then hope that they won't come up under the parachute when they surface? Noah |
drut
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posted 06-30-2005 09:03 AM
I am not a military flyer, but I do have a D license from the the United States Parachute Association. To get this D (expert!?) rating, I had to make two water jumps. Rather than use the sqaure canopy we normally jumped, we used 26" round parachutes that are ex-military rigs used by pilots, though we did use a belly mount reserve which a pilot would not have. When getting close to the water (guesstimate ~100") you look out at the horizon rather than down. As soon as your feet hit the water, you inflate the vest, open the capewells that attach the canopy to the harness and cut the main paracute away, and swim away from the canopy so as not to get trapped under it. Facing into the wind when landing helps push theh canopy away from you. On both jumps I got much water forced up my nose, but other than that they went really well and were a lot of fun. |
mensax
Member Posts: 861
From: Virginia
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 06-30-2005 04:58 PM
Thank you for sharing... I knew there was someone out there that had tried this!Noah |
drut
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posted 06-30-2005 09:30 PM
Happy to share- forgot to mention the zack knife. We all carried somewhere on our harness or jumpsuit(mine was on the side of my chest mount altimeter) a knife designed to cut through lines with no risk of cutting anything else. Glenn would have carried a military issue survival knife to do the job. If you did get drug through the water you were supposed to roll over on your back and start cutting lines until the canopy collapsed. We also carried a 20$ bill, a 1$ bill and enough change for a phone call to use to get back to the DZ if we landed elsewhere (front yards, golf courses, little league fields, etc.) due to a 'Helen Keller spot'. One of my friends did land in a large pond under his reserve and puked up a lot of water he swallowed. He had no flotation (not a normal danger to land in water) and had to get out of his harness since you can't easily detach a reserve from the harness. As a typical skydiver- out of shape, drinks too much, etc. he had a tough time swimming out but the training does kick in. |
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 07-01-2005 04:28 PM
All STS-astronauts train a water landing, pulled by a boat if I'm not mistaken ... |
dss65
Member Posts: 1156
From: Sandpoint, ID, USA
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted 07-01-2005 08:48 PM
A long time ago, when I was a senior at Northern Illinois University, my roommate took up sport jumping. The University was located in corn country. On one jump, he landed in a pig pen. I think he would have rather landed in water. He never jumped again. (By choice.)------------------
Don |
drut
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posted 07-02-2005 07:39 AM
Nowadays you learn under a square canopy which is very accurate compared to the round's which I and the pig pen lander trained under. We have accurcy contests and make soft tippie toe landings on something the diameter of a soft drink can. We had a guy making his first jump under a T-10 (like the army uses, 30' diameter round, not real stearable) land on a cow. The cow made the strangest noise and bolted leaving a cow pie of biblical proportions size wise which this poor guy fell into. We never saw him again, either. |
John K. Rochester
Member Posts: 1292
From: Rochester, NY, USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 07-02-2005 06:09 PM
I hate heights..can't even look out over a hotel balcony..but did go to jump school in the service and had to make 3 jumps to certify.. and loved it! Imagine that.. it's so different when you jump than any other experience I ever had. |
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