Biomedics 55 and Skydiving

captainneo · #1 (**permalink**) 09-17-2008, 02:37 PM

If you ever decide that you were going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, how will your Biomedics 55's react?

Like this?

Have you ever tried it?

odile53 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011, 05:19 PM

Yes, I wear goggles over my lenses when skydiving. At terminal velocity in freefall, 120 mph windblast would probably dry them out pretty much instantaneously. Not a happy thought if you're trying to read an altimeter or pick your ground landmarks out. Even the bare-eyed twenty-twenty gang wears goggles while jumping, their eyes tear up otherwise. Goggles are pretty much de rigeur at my DZ. You don't want to be dealing with debris in your eye when you're making your final approach under canopy in case the ground wind suddenly shifts.

I put wetting drops in while climbing to altitude, just before we turn on to jump run (before the door is opened,) then put the goggles on. Haven't had a problem in over two thousand jumps.

Oh, and by the way, if you saw our club's Cessna Skywagon, you'd probably want to jump out of it too, even if you never took a skydiving class in your life! A lot of these club planes AREN'T perfectly good airplanes!

Nichobec · #3 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odile53

Yes, I wear goggles over my lenses when skydiving. At terminal velocity in freefall, 120 mph windblast would probably dry them out pretty much instantaneously. Not a happy thought if you're trying to read an altimeter or pick your ground landmarks out. Even the bare-eyed twenty-twenty gang wears goggles while jumping, their eyes tear up otherwise. Goggles are pretty much de rigeur at my DZ. You don't want to be dealing with debris in your eye when you're making your final approach under canopy in case the ground wind suddenly shifts.

I put wetting drops in while climbing to altitude, just before we turn on to jump run (before the door is opened,) then put the goggles on. Haven't had a problem in over two thousand jumps.

Oh, and by the way, if you saw our club's Cessna Skywagon, you'd probably want to jump out of it too, even if you never took a skydiving class in your life! A lot of these club planes AREN'T perfectly good airplanes!

I Googled "Cessna Skywagon" and found this picture with the caption "Cessna C180." Same thing?

Thanks for all of your first hand accounts of skydiving with contact lenses in. As for me, I'll stick to Extreme Napping.

odile53 · #4 (**permalink**) 08-03-2011, 11:33 PM

It's one model. The club's aircraft is a 185 E; six seater stock. Because it's a jump plane, the seats were taken out a long time ago. There's a club nearby which hosts an annual boogie (skydiving meet/event) and has an ancient DC 3. That one will hold about 30 jumpers, plus pilot and jumpmaster.

ThaMaster · #5 (**permalink**) 08-04-2011, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odile53

It's one model. The club's aircraft is a 185 E; six seater stock. Because it's a jump plane, the seats were taken out a long time ago. There's a club nearby which hosts an annual boogie (skydiving meet/event) and has an ancient DC 3. That one will hold about 30 jumpers, plus pilot and jumpmaster.

Ah, the venerable DC-3.

(This is becoming an aircraft forum.)

odile53 · #6 (**permalink**) 08-04-2011, 01:30 PM

Yep, and we'll let it derail for a few more. For the aeronautic noncognoscenti, the DC 3 is the aircraft in the airport scene of the equally venerable film "Casablanca." In other words, older than dirt. Not quite as old as a Sopwith Camel, but manufactured well before jets. And yes, the real ones chuff into life and sound exactly like the one in the movie. That calm prop drone is music to a skydiver's ears. One of the pilots will, when faced with a first time student who is reluctant to exit, feather the prop which makes it sound as if it is running out of fuel. They always leave in a hurry when they hear that noise!

To get it back to contact lenses, if you're wearing your lenses, you will be more easily able to pick out the tail numbers on the airplane, as well as see ground-based landmarks which will give you a clue of your altitude (is it time to deploy that pilot chute, and which way is the wind blowing so you can line up for an easy landing.) My old late summer hint it's time to pull was when you could see the apples in the orchard adjacent to the grass landing strip. I'm stuck with the altimeter now because the orchard was sold and cut down, therefore, no apples. Failing those, wearing your contacts will give you a great appreciation of "ground rush," but hopefully it will not be so hypnotic as to prevent you from deploying your reserve!

How's that for a thread save?

Anazak · #7 (**permalink**) 08-04-2011, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odile53

To get it back to contact lenses, if you're wearing your lenses, you will be more easily able to pick out the tail numbers on the airplane, as well as see ground-based landmarks which will give you a clue of your altitude (is it time to deploy that pilot chute, and which way is the wind blowing so you can line up for an easy landing.) My old late summer hint it's time to pull was when you could see the apples in the orchard adjacent to the grass landing strip. I'm stuck with the altimeter now because the orchard was sold and cut down, therefore, no apples. Failing those, wearing your contacts will give you a great appreciation of "ground rush," but hopefully it will not be so hypnotic as to prevent you from deploying your reserve!

How's that for a thread save?

Nice work, odile53. There's so much I don't know about skydiving. I'm glad your contacts helps you see your altimeter better.

Can you see this one?

Bio38_Fan · #8 (**permalink**) 08-20-2011, 07:58 PM

Odile - Where do you jump at? I recently did a tandem on my 29th b-day in Sebastian Fl. It was awesome! I'm doing another one in about a month. But yeah OP goggles will be required. Not only would your contacts dry out but I think they'd fly out of your eye hahaha!

odile53 · #9 (**permalink**) 08-20-2011, 08:47 PM

Frontier Skydivers in Niagara County, NY. I also jump in Burnaby, Ontario on occasion.

I go way, way back to the days of static line progressions for students, and round T-10 canopies (huge but steerable, at least theoretically.) Ground school used to be several weekends before you even got near a plane. They don't teach that way anymore. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. The equipment has made quantum improvements, so it's much easier for a newbie to get started, and the auto deployment devices have made recreational rigs a lot safer. But back in the day, you actually learned about wind drift, cross breezes, and reading the wind at different levels. Those of us who were around in the old days and transitioned to the newer equipment and schools of thought are dropping out of the sport as age takes its toll. If you have some real old goats around your DZ, learn something from them before they stop coming around, especially if they're the old instructor/jumpmaster type, with a few thousand jumps in their logbooks.

A great book to read, if you can still find it somewhere, is "United We Fall," which will give you a good idea of relative work back in the day. Maybe Amazon or someplace else?

Bio38, are you doing a tandem progression, and actually learning to skydive? Or is this just something you want to do once in a blue moon?

odile53 · #10 (**permalink**) 08-20-2011, 09:02 PM

Actually, some old skydiver was nice enough to format the book to an online format. Here's the URL

http://users.cis.fiu.edu/~esj/uwf/uwf.html

Enjoy, Bio38, but remember, this stuff will start to make sense to you when you are actually skydiving on your own, without benefit of a tandem master!

Bio38_Fan · #11 (**permalink**) 08-20-2011, 09:19 PM

Yeah I've read the equipment has become much safer, so that was a major plus when I was researching where to go to do it. It was one of those things I always wanted to do. Always wanted to experience the feeling of freefall. Before I jumped I thought it would be more like floating, but nope, I definitely felt like I was falling at 120 mph. It's such a huge rush and I love it!

I don't really have any set plans with it for now...once in a blue moon type event but eventually I would like to do an AFF course and skydive on a more frequent basis. Although TBH I think I need a few more tandems before I'd feel comfortable doing an AFF course. It's kind of funny but I was really excited to jump all week before going and even during the 2.5 hour drive to the DZ. But that last second right before I had to jump out the plane, I definitely was thinking "Wow, I'm really high up here. Is this really a smart idea?" hahahaha. But once I was out it was the best feeling.

I'll check that link out...thanks.

Bio38_Fan · #12 (**permalink**) 08-20-2011, 09:38 PM

Whoa that book is cool. I must admit some of it doesn't make sense like you said. But I wonder if when I go next time they'll let us do some of these even though it's tandem. When I went in July we did a "stairstep" hook-up, if I have the terminology correct. My cameraman guy reached out his arm and when I grabbed it we started spinning...really fun! But I'm looking at the Murphy's 3 person hook up and that looks interesting too. Hmmm I'll have to call them up and see if they'll let us do it.

Bondjamesbond · #13 (**permalink**) 08-22-2011, 12:23 PM

This is all very interesting, even to a person like me who would never, ever jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but can we get back to talking about Biomedics 55 contact lenses?

ThaMaster · #14 (**permalink**) 08-22-2011, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odile53

Yes, I wear goggles over my lenses when skydiving. At terminal velocity in freefall, 120 mph windblast would probably dry them out pretty much instantaneously. Not a happy thought if you're trying to read an altimeter or pick your ground landmarks out. Even the bare-eyed twenty-twenty gang wears goggles while jumping, their eyes tear up otherwise. Goggles are pretty much de rigeur at my DZ. You don't want to be dealing with debris in your eye when you're making your final approach under canopy in case the ground wind suddenly shifts.

I put wetting drops in while climbing to altitude, just before we turn on to jump run (before the door is opened,) then put the goggles on. Haven't had a problem in over two thousand jumps.

Oh, and by the way, if you saw our club's Cessna Skywagon, you'd probably want to jump out of it too, even if you never took a skydiving class in your life! A lot of these club planes AREN'T perfectly good airplanes!

Thanks for those insights into the need for goggles at terminal velocity.

Anazak · #15 (**permalink**) 08-26-2011, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odile53

Yep, and we'll let it derail for a few more. For the aeronautic noncognoscenti, the DC 3 is the aircraft in the airport scene of the equally venerable film "Casablanca." In other words, older than dirt. Not quite as old as a Sopwith Camel, but manufactured well before jets.

I found a picture of a Sopwith Camel:

Nichobec · #16 (**permalink**) 09-22-2011, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anazak

I found a picture of a Sopwith Camel:

Note also the flight goggles. I wonder what kind they are?

Anazak · #17 (**permalink**) 09-28-2011, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThaMaster

Thanks for those insights into the need for goggles at terminal velocity.

Looks like she strapped a man to her back instead of a parachute. I hope he's got one.

Adric · #18 (**permalink**) 09-29-2011, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odile53

It's one model. The club's aircraft is a 185 E; six seater stock. Because it's a jump plane, the seats were taken out a long time ago. There's a club nearby which hosts an annual boogie (skydiving meet/event) and has an ancient DC 3. That one will hold about 30 jumpers, plus pilot and jumpmaster.

So a skydiving event is called a "boogie"??

I'd be a little reluctant to jump with contacts in. I saw a guy in TV lose his dentures during a jump.

Anazak · #19 (**permalink**) 10-05-2011, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adric

So a skydiving event is called a "boogie"??

I'd be a little reluctant to jump with contacts in. I saw a guy in TV lose his dentures during a jump.

Yeah, I can see why that might make you a little nervous, Adric.

captainneo · #20 (**permalink**) 10-20-2011, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adric

So a skydiving event is called a "boogie"??

I'd be a little reluctant to jump with contacts in. I saw a guy in TV lose his dentures during a jump.

Yeah, if dentures can come out, why not contact lenses?

I wonder if skydiving organizations have rules regarding contact lens wear?

ThaMaster · #21 (**permalink**) 10-26-2011, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captainneo

Yeah, if dentures can come out, why not contact lenses?

I wonder if skydiving organizations have rules regarding contact lens wear?

Thanks for bringing this thread back to contact lenses. Now maybe we can get back to Biomedics 55 contact lenses specifically.

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Biomedics 55 and Skydiving

Contact Lenses