Survival Instinct?

[crashdive123]

Saw a news story this morning about a guy doing his first jump out of an airplane (tandem jump). The instructor he was tethered too died mid air. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28965630/

[Pal334]

Saw an interview of the Troop. He credits his Army training for keeping him calm. A good ending to a bad story.

[trax]

further evidence that a certain fellow in Manitoba should never jump out of airplanes unless absolutely forced to, someone check if enrollment suddenly dropped (ohhhh a pun!) at the skydiving school.

[higgy]

I wonder what would have happened if the rookie died instead of the instructor. I'm cuttin him loose. Bombs away! Sorry, I'm an ...

[higgy]

Yes, I'm kidding

[welderguy]

And yet another very good reason to NOT jump out of a perfectly good airplane

[dbldrew]

I wonder if he pulled his own chute or if the safety deployed itself. The first time I skydived the instructor taped me on the head as a little reminder to check the altitude and pull the chute.

After free falling you get a little bit of sensory overload and the brain turns to mush a bit. In the class you are taught that right after you jump and get stabilized you do 3 checks. This lets the instructor know you are still conscious, the checks are, you bring your left hand up my your face to check the altimeter, and your right hand goes back to grab the ripcord. The funny thing is that I did that just fine, but my brain was only working on a very rudimentary level because although I looked at the altimeter, I didn’t actually comprehend what it was telling me. I did pull the chute and steered down, but it was like my mind was in a fog.

It was a little unnerving to lose control of your mind like that, which is why I think I went back and did it a few more times (better results). The good thing with the chutes is there is a safety that if your altitude drops down low enough the spare chute will automatically deploy.

The thing that is a bit odd is that he said that TV taught him to steer. That should have been taught in the class, it was for mine, the guy was lucky he didn’t panic and he still had control of his brain.