SKY DIVE ARIZONA

Eloy Arizona

 

Saturday February 24th 2007

This is quite the facility. And ... of course ... a beautiful Arizona Day.
If you can make it out, this is a map of the area.
This is landing zone one. Note the soft green grass... I'd want more than that "fer damn sure"!!!
Some come in like a jet !!!
Others seem more under control, yet we did not see any crashes during the day even when there were up to 30 jumpers landing within minutes of each other.
Looks easy ...Huh?
This looks good but he ended up skidding on his tush for some yards
The survivors?
Tandem jumping. This is only $75.00 but Elsie refused to do it. I wonder why??? Perhaps we are getting old after all?
The guy in the grey is the beginner ... watch his face
Looks like a good landing .... and it was very smooth
This is the ca mara man. I don't think I would like to see his pictures of this guy!
Face a little pasty .... no????
Down comes his Girl friend ... Big Smile ...
Perfect landing
Ground handlers there to catch anyone
This is the guy with the pasty face ... when he landed he just laid there for several minutes with others landing all around him. Finally, his girl friend got him to stand up. He was shaky, I can tell you!!!
But he did walk off the field on his own. If it were me, I would still be kissing the ground and looking for clean under shorts!!!
This is the strange sky dive dance. This is where they practice the moves they will make as a group during free fall. It sure looks weird on the ground, but in the sky it would be graceful dancing
One person is calling the cadence with his hand and all move to carefully choreographed positions
This is a bit of an old fuselage they use to practice just how to get out of the plane safely.
Everyone has a move and a position
Looks easy here but up there?????
Practice make perfect ... you gotta hope!!!
Shuttle service to the aircraft
One of the Jump Planes. Notice the back end is missing? I guess that is how they get up to 30 out in time to meet up and perform their "dance".
Not a common traffic sign one would see around???
This is the practice site for sky jumping. At the base of all 4 of the funnels is a 400hp electric motor that runs huge fans. Combined, they provide enough power to actually simulate free fall.
We are seated on a grandstand like bleachers and the room is about 5 feet in front of us
They just walk to the door and lean forward. The wind is strong enough to suspend them in mid air.
Here they practice what they will do in free fall. Kind of neat that we can actually see what they are doing in the sky
It is almost a dance. They stay in there for 2 minutes and then switch out for others waiting to the left.
The guy in front of us is the Jump Master. he makes sure that they depart on schedule.
Weird feeling watching ... and the best thing is ... it is free for watchers.
But if you want to try it ... it is not Cheap!!!!
Just to remind ... if they undershoot or over shoot their landings, it is not a comfortable experience. A few slivers to be removed I'd imagine!

 

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