A group of seven Explorers club members
drove up to Grove City, PA on Saturday May 11th to go skydiving.
Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to safely jump out of an airplane
from 13,500 feet according to the professionals. So, all seven plus
an extra two rallied for a trip back up to Grove City the very next
day. We split into two groups:
Group 1:
Six of the original crew plus one tagger-along woke up bright and
early, and drove out of the UC turnaround at 7 am
sharp. With four of us in the first airplane load and three of us
in the second, we were each strapped to a tandem master and nudged
out of the edge of the plane for a 55 second free fall followed by a
7 minute parachute ride down safely to the ground, with only one
case of slight nausea due to the common (for first-timers)
forgot-to-breathe-while-flying-120-miles-an-hour-through-the-air
syndrome.
Group 2:
Mike Jehn and a first-time tandem student headed up to Skydive PA on
Sunday and arrived around noon. This was Mike’s first jump since
October 2010, so he was paired with a certified instructor to
complete a required check dive before being signed off as a current
skydiver. His check dive went extremely well from beginning to
end. The tandem student had the time of his life and generously
waited at the dropzone for a few hours while Mike got an additional
solo jump in. Mike was thrilled that his best friend also stopped
by the dropzone to watch him make a jump. The aircraft used for all
jumps (including those on Saturday) was a Beechcraft King Air twin
turboprop plane; the weather was warm and breezy; and cloud ceiling
was high (around 9,000 feet) and light/scattered—in other words, a
gorgeous day for jumping.
I took my friends from Sabanci University to
skydiving. Crazy people, crazy times… All of us jumped off the same
airplane. Ozzy, Serdar, Ahmet, and Sahil did their tandem
jumps. It was such an amazing day! It was a great
adventure!
-O
August 1st, 2010
Gabriel and Maria did their solo jumps. It was
a big moment! Karithi and his friends did tandem jumps. There was a
surprise marriage proposal in the airplane just before the jump.
They told me that it was so amazing and touching! I missed this
event, since I had to work on my project.
It was a cloudy and windy day but it did not
keep us from jumping. Mike and I did solo jumps and landed off field
J Guess what? After my
10th jump there was a thunderstorm and it poured
J Sherry drove and
picked me up where I landed J
Gabriel would do his first solo jump but instructors did not let
him jump because of the high winds. Akhil, Victoria, Joshua,
William, Dan and Jesse did tandem jumps. It was a great day!
I took 7 friends with me and we jumped off an
airplane at 14000 feet. Gabriel and I did solo jumps, Enes,
Nektarios, Chenchen, Rush, Michael, and Qi did tandem jumps. It was
a cloudy day and it was like a dream flying over those beautiful
clouds.
We were hooked up already, and this time, I
took 20 friends with me to skydiving. Craziness is contagious!!! I
did solo a jump, and my friends did tandem jumps. It was so much
fun!
Our dream was to fly and we wanted to make it a
reality on May 30th . We invited the craziest people of
CMU to join us jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. 12 people
showed up. It would be our first skydiving experience, so we were
really excited. 5 of us did solo jumps, and the rest did tandem
jumps. Skydiving requires courage, craziness and determination to
chase your dreams even if they seem scary. Flying is just an amazing
feeling!
Greg MacLean and Mike Jehn brought a nice, manageable group to
Canton
Air Sports: three new Explorers members attended while three others
failed to show up at the UC turnaround--par for the course when it
comes to skydiving trips, unfortunately! The day started out fairly
overcast but transformed to mostly sunny by early afternoon. It was
one of those fall days on which sitting in the sun feels glorious
while sitting in the shade for too long is quite uncomfortable. The
airfield was wet and muddy enough that the pilot elected to take off
from and land at Miller Field, a tiny airport a few miles away from
Canton Air Sports that sports a concrete runway. The three tandem
students each enjoyed their jumps, while Greg and Mike got two jumps
in each, including one that involved a high canopy opening--shortly
after exiting the plane--for more time (and fun) under canopy. Even
with gloves on, spending that much time high up in the air on a day
as cold as this one temporarily resulted in some lingering finger
soreness!
Don Burnette put together the largest skydiving group that the
Explorers Club has ever had: 25 students plus Greg MacLean, Mike
Jehn, and Don.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not play nice; windy conditions and
near-total cloud cover for most of the day prevented a lot of
students from jumping. A brief mid-day period of slightly clearer
skies allowed Mike, Don, and Greg to make two jumps each. The tandem
students who didn't get to jump were luckily refunded, and we hope
that they'll all come back in the future. On a positive note, this
trip brought 25 new members to the club! Don worked really hard to
put this trip together; we can only hope that we'll luck out with
nicer weather on our next trip!
-M. Jehn
Greg, Mike, and Don:
September 5th, 2009
Skydive PA, PA
2-ways with Greg and Don:
August 30th, 2009
Canton Air Sports, OH
Our first big skydiving trip of the fall
semester went off surprisingly well considering the mostly cloudy,
windy conditions; only one solo student did not get to jump because
of the weather.
Since the sky above Canton Air Sports only
cleared up occasionally--and even then only in patches--, loads went
up in irregular intervals throughout the day. Our group was quite
diverse in terms of skydiving experience; it included three students
who'd made their first tandem jumps with us a year earlier; eight
new tandem students, including our kayaking chair Matt Bernstein;
one return student who'd made over 20 jumps in Europe and is working
toward his USPA A-license; and Greg MacLean and me. (Greg and I did
a freefly jump with a non-CMU friend of ours above a solid floor of
white clouds with zero ground visibility, relying on a GPS to
determine our exit location. After having spent most of the day
below the clouds, in gray drabness and chilly wind, it was stunning
to behold a crystal blue sky above an endless rolling floor of
clouds.) Adding a little extra fascination to the day were five
gorgeous month-old corn snakes brought to the dropzone by its senior
rigger, Phil Mihai. The snakes spent most of the afternoon out of
their cage, passed from person to person and getting plenty of
exercise. I took three of them home with me!
-M. Jehn
Mike and
Greg's jump:
May 15th, 2009
Canton Air Sports, OH
Don and Greg made a bit of a spur-of-the-moment trip out to CAS
on 5.15.2009 and spent the day making jumps with a notable group of
AFF students and fun jumpers. After arriving at 1pm, Don & Greg each
made 5 jumps, including some freeflying, RW, and licensing work. 'Twas
another great day of skydiving!
-G. MacLean
Part I:
Part II:
May 13th, 2009
Canton Air Sports, OH
Despite a cloudy weather forecast for the day, Greg and Mike led
a trip around Pennsylhio, joined by 3 new tandem students (P4ND4,
Rhia, Collin) and an experienced jumper from Switzerland (Guido).
After departing from the UC Turnaround shortly after 8am, the group
eventually found a welcoming sky over Canton AirSports and began a
day of many highlights. Among most noteworthy events, the three
students experienced their first skydive, Guido experienced his
first (2) skydives in America, and Greg made his 200th jump! Mike
(and Greg) celebrated his birthday with 4 jumps, including two
hop-n-pop skydives from only 5k feet, and Greg discovered a new,
apparent affinity for obstacles!
-G. MacLean
Check out all the videos below!
Greg's trip compilation:
P4ND4's tandem skydive:
Collin's first skydive:
May 2nd, 2009
Canton Air Sports, OH
Greg MacLean and I headed out to Canton Air
Sports for a beautiful day of skydiving on Saturday, May 2nd. This
was the first time that Greg experimented with shooting footage
using his new helmet camera; he did an excellent job of capturing my
exit into a sit-flying position on my last jump of the day. We also
participated in a three-way formation with one of the dropzone's
most experienced instructors while another first-time camera-flyer
captured our jump quite successfully. Other than a little bit of
midday frustration over the slowness and general inefficiency of
operations for much of the day, Greg and I were satisfied, as
always, just to be able to get some jumps in!
On Saturday, February 28th, we held our first official Explorers
Club skydiving trip of the year. We'd been shut down the weekend
before due to poor weather, and we were suspicious that the same
thing would happen to us on our second try. Such was not the case,
however! The skies were mostly clear from just before noon onward;
the winds were low and consistent. It was quite cold and the ground
was a wet muddy mess, but that didn't stop us. Eric Blood, Aileen
Craig, and Dinesh Ayyappan made their first tandem skydives, while
Mike Stevens, Greg MacLean and I each got multiple jumps in. Greg
tried out his new camera helmet; we're both really excited that
he'll be able to shoot jump video soon. With high scattered clouds,
the mid-afternoon was clear enough to see the skyline of Cleveland
45 miles to the northwest and a decent stretch of the lakeshore. We
were the only business that Canton Air Sports had that day. We're
looking forward to a great year!
-M. Jehn
September 20th - 21st, 2008
Canton Air Sports, OH
Saturday morning, Greg departed from the UC Turnaround with Marco
and Stefan to Canton Air Sports in Ohio, to be joined later by Mike,
Corinne, Sarah, Rosie, and Garrett. The six students made thrilling
first-time tandem skydives and returned to campus early in the
evening, while Mike and Greg stayed in Ohio overnight to enjoy a
campfire and resume skydiving on Sunday. Before finally returning to
campus on Sunday night, Mike and Greg completed 15 skydives between
the two of them, including a notable 100th jump for Mike! Congrats
to all and to all a good time!
This was our first big trip of the 2008 fall semester. Greg
MacLean and I brought out nine students, all of them first-time
tandems. The weather forecast had called for a beautiful, sunny
Sunday, but that's not exactly what we found shortly after we
arrived at Canton Air Sports. The winds kept picking up, the sky was
overcast, and it lightly rained. I knew that the weather would
improve by the afternoon, but that did not prevent me from fearing
that some of the students might not get to jump. Fortunately, the
rain did not last long and the weather cleared periodically, giving
everyone a chance to do their tandem jumps. The weather actually
became quite beautiful by mid-afternoon. Greg and I got two jumps
in; our second was above a high layer of clouds that made spotting
the dropzone impossible. We used a GPS to determine where the plane
was relative to the airport, waited a while to get upwind, and
jumped. It turned out to be a perfectly good spot. Thanks to
everyone who attended!
Alastair Firth, Steven Benders, Greg MacLean, Sarah Shade, and I
spent the whole day at Canton Air Sports. It was a hot and humid
afternoon but excellent for skydiving. The DZ was a lot busier than
we expected it would be; we ended up staying until nearly sunset so
that everyone could get their jumps in. Steven and Sarah did their
first tandems while Alastair continued with his AFF training. Sarah
and I both worked on our respective tans (sunburns!), and I kissed a
toad and a frog--neither of which turned into anything,
unfortunately. Greg and I attempted a two-way maneuver known as a
"Mr. Bill" in which one skydiver hangs onto the other on exit. The
person on top opens his parachute at high altitude while the other
person hangs on, only later dropping away and opening his own
parachute at a lower altitude. It didn't quite work out because we spent too much time getting
into the correct body position (opening should happen within a few
seconds of jumping), and Greg got wrenched away from me with
tremendous force when I opened. However, we're looking forward to
trying again soon.
Nine folks drove out to Canton Air Sports for a beautiful day of
skydiving, coupled with viewing of an airshow across the runway
field. Five students completed their first tandem skydive, and
Alastair and Steve students proceeded through training for AFF
levels 3 and 1 respectively. Mike and Greg successfully launched a
horny gorilla from just below 9,000 feet, but only completed one
jump that day. Due to shifty winds under 1,000 feet beginning during
mid-afternoon, lift turnaround was significantly decreased--then
halted temporarily--and for safety reasons, Steve and Al did not get
to complete their AFF jumps. Mike, Greg, Steve, and Al will return
to the dropzone on Wednesday to follow up, continue jumping, and
expose more students to the thrill of skydiving.
'Twas a beautiful day for skydiving: hot and
humid with scattered clouds, fairly light winds, and only a few
ominous rain-producing thunderheads to dodge around mid-afternoon.
We set out for Canton Air Sports (outside of Alliance, Ohio) at 8am
and arrived before the first load of the morning had gone up. Matt
Buchovecky, Averie Yang, and Lilly Chen all made their first-ever
tandem jumps, while Alastair Firth successfully completed levels one
and two of the Accelerated Freefall Program, currently the most
popular method of achieving solo skydiver status at many dropzones.
(Traditionally, folks went through the static line progression
program, but AFF puts you into freefall from high altitude on the
very first jump.) Averie got a longer-than-usual ride under canopy,
and a shorter-than-usual freefall experience, because her tandem
instructor's parachute accidentally deployed shortly after exiting
the plane. I did my first two jumps with a friend from the dropzone;
we worked on falling relative to each other and generally chasing
each other around in the sky. I exited from the end of the wing
strut each time while he followed me out very shortly thereafter
from the door position. Although we were not close enough to each
other during freefall on either jump to actually do contact relative
work, working on staying relative (on the same level as each other)
was good practice. Having a few fluffy clouds in the vicinity made
for beautiful mid-air scenery. On my last jump, I watched Alastair
and his instructors, Mark Katich and Chuck Bramel, exit the plane
together, and followed them out about five seconds later. I was
close enough to Alastair when he pulled his ripcord (though not so
close as to present a potential risk!) to watch his canopy open,
which was very cool. All in all, it was a fantastic day--and as
always, I can't wait to get back up in the air!
