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bbarnhouse

High Altitude Jumps Holiday Boogie

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Here are some things for you to consider if you intend to make a high altitude jump at the boogie.

Exit will be about 21,000 feet above ground level. At the altitude you are operating with about 60% less Oxygen then you would have on the ground. You may be weak and tired. You may be less alert and your problem solving skills may be compromised. Therefor, plan a very simple skydive. Expect that floaters may fall off the plane.
You will be back in denser air within about 30 seconds of freefall. Expect a total of over 100 seconds of freefall.
Symptoms of hypoxia includre fatigue, headache, confusion, and a false sense of well being. In some, lathargy, confusion, slow or inappropriate response to questions, and blue lips and nail beds are good indicators. Oxygen will be turned on at 12,500 feet AGL. If one keeps their mask on until just before exit, remains calm,minimizes movement, and breathes normally, you should be OK. If you feel weak or dizzy you can always ride down with the plane. (we will however keep your ticket if you chose this option) Minimal movement not only makes it easier to withstand the effects of hypoxia, but it minimizes the chance of loosening pin or pilot chute:)Once the pilot turns on the Oxygen, put your mask on and breathe normally. Do not expect to feel a high flow rate. It will be barely detectable if you feel it at all. If you are concerned about not getting enough Oxygen, first check to make sure that your hose is attached to the system and is not pinched or knotted. Do not attempt to operate the Oxygen system for any reason!
As you climb to altitude, you may find that your visual altimeter will stop at some point. Older Altimasters will continue to record with reasonable accuracy, but most others will stop somewhere between 16,000 and 18,000 feet. They should become effective again once you descend below the altitude at which they stopped.
Temperature at 21,000 feet is typically 70 degrees colder than surface temperature. It will almost never be above zero. Winds aloft are typically fifty or more miles per hour. Be sure you are aware of current wind conditions and the requisite seperation time between groups. It will usually be a minimum of 10 seconds between solos and 15 or more between groups.
*You WILL need to attend the official briefing for the high altitude jump.
Full face helmets sometimes fog up in the cold, dry air at altitude. You may want to consider an anti-fog treatment for the lense.
Do a very thorough gear check before boarding. Don't expect someone to perform a competent gear check at altitude (remember hypoxia). Should one experience an inadvertant opening at 20,000 feet one could face serious problems. The obvius one is prolonged exposure to severe cold, and hypoxia. Additionally, parchutes tend to open hard in very thin air.
Not so obvious is the problem of descending into our regular operations area, which is normally occupied by two to four jump planes during a boogie . Before taking you off, you must know where the normal jump run is. If you find yourslef opening high, ity is up to you to avoid entering the jump run operations. Stay at least one mile outside of the jump run corridor, including areas used for 180's and 360's, even if it means landing off the drop zone.
In any case, you should be prepared to land off the DZ. Wind information 21,000 feet is often inaccurate and there is a strong possibility of landing either long or short. If you land off, and gety a ride from anyone other than SDA staff back to the DZ,please check in to manifest.
Remember....there will be alot of activity going on here. Do NOT open above 3,500 feet because other planes will be dropping loads.:)








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[:/]Jeshe...I was thinking about this as yet another first to be performed at the Boogie but you kinda almost scared the poop out of me with all the "warnings"...............hmmm - what to do, what to do!

What is the cost for the HA jump? (sorry if it is stated somewhere else)

Dreams become reality, one choice at a time...

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If anyone wants to warm up for high-altitude, come out to Colorado for a weekend and do some jumps with us. Both Brush and Mile-Hi normal exit altitude is 17,500 ASL. It can be a bit chilly up there in December, though
Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

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And don't forget that we don't use oxygen on the way up to altitude. But that just makes our jumps more euphoric. :) I did a high alt. jump at last year's x-mas boogie and it was a blast. So if any of you out there are looking to a do cool high alt freefly with this camper while in Eloy, I'm game. :$


Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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yup i'm definatly up for a hi alti wingsuit jump!!!!! just have to find some one willing to fly dirty to stay with me....... i suck.. i'm way to fast...... but i hope to fix that durring the boogie.

______________________________________
"i have no reader's digest version"

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does a neptune count more than 119 seconds... I did a wingsuit from 24000 and read 57 seconds on the protrack...

The tandem, open at 5000' was on final to land as I deployed... wingsuits for sure... high altitude...

Chris



What did your exit altitude show on the Pro Track? I think they're limited to 20,000ft....so they act pretty unpredictably above that.

I'm up for some high altitude flocking dives. My S3 FINALLY arrived in Deland....I get to pick it up on Wed(out of town until Tues night)! B|

Mike

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does a neptune count more than 119 seconds... I did a wingsuit from 24000 and read 57 seconds on the protrack...

The tandem, open at 5000' was on final to land as I deployed... wingsuits for sure... high altitude...

Chris



Yes a neptune counts more then 119 seconds. The way it was explained to me was that the neptune has a certain amount of memory, it can all be used on one jump or be used on 100 jumps. I've had some jumps on my neptune read 130 seconds. The protrack chops all jumps off at 119 seconds so you for sure can get X number of jumps on a protrack.

Kevin

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Actually, I ...think... the protrack showed an exit altitude of something like 6400'... meaning it started over... it was borrowed from a friend (before I owned one) and I did not know how to use it or download to jumptrack....

All I know was that it did not read the obvious time...

I do think that I got the exit altitude from it though... later... I seem to recall that he called me later saying that there was a jump listed on there from 23,800.

Not sure about any information from that jump... but I've owned one for about a year (with Jump-Track) and I kept getting pissed when I couldn't break the 119 second time barrier. (No, I still haven't read the manual... Have you?)

WHEN WILL SOMEONE OFFER SOMETHING THAT WILL RECORD LONGER!

Chris

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