HALO Tandem... Prior to my last skydive two months ago, one of my brothers mentioned how there was a skydiving school near Memphis, Tennessee where regular civilians could do a High Altitude, Low (parachute) Opening drop that usually only military Special Forces (like U.S. Navy SEALs) do. I didn’t think much about it, till a few days after my jump at Perris Valley. I went online to check out this so-called HALO tandem, and lo and behold, I came across all these pictures—and now I’m achin’ to soar in the sky once again.
[All four images in this entry are courtesy of Incredible-Adventures.com. Click here to watch a brief video clip of a HALO jump (2.4 MB). NOTE: The clip ends at the 1:27 mark even though it is suppose to be 3 minutes, 40 seconds long.]
Just to let you know how a HALO skydive is different from a regular skydive, the HALO jump takes place from about 30,000 feet above the ground (which amounts to about 5 miles above the Earth...or the normal cruising altitude for commercial passenger jets...or a few feet higher than Mt. Everest. Did I also mention that this is in the stratosphere?), the freefalling speed is about 200 mph as opposed to 120 mph for regular skydives, the freefall lasts about 2 1/2 minutes as opposed to 45-60 seconds in a regular skydive, and you have to wear a mandatory jumpsuit and oxygen mask in a HALO...or else you’ll black out within’ 30 seconds because of a lack of oxygen up there, and possibly suffer brain damage from hypoxia.
Ahem—the hypoxia issue aside, I really wanna do this! Darn it, why did my brother have to tell me about this dive?? To make things even more excruciating, the HALO jump is only available in a state that’s on the other side of the country from where I live (California). Not only that, but the jump price is in four figures...and I obviously assume that that doesn’t include the cost of an airline ticket, food, a hotel room, a taxi and a lot of other expenses a non-Tennessee resident would have to pay for. Bah! It’s gonna be forever till I’m able to try this jump...meaning I’ll keep talkin’ and talkin’ about it with other people in the meantime, which is a huge ‘no-no’ for me in the sense that I don’t like mentioning my plans till after I do ‘em. It was a lot easier to keep mum on my two previous skydives (casually mentioning that you’re risking your life by leaping out of a plane isn’t exactly the same as casually saying you’re going out to play miniature golf)...since they took place in-state, cost only a few hundreds of dollars—as opposed to thousands—and I was able to jump within a week of setting up a reservation. I would have to set up a HALO jump weeks or months in advance since I would also need to secure a plane ticket to Memphis (despite the fact that most Tennesse-bound flights from LAX land in Nashville, which is a lot farther from the skydiving school than Memphis is. The school is in Somerville).
Dagnabbit— Why couldn’t that skydiving school be a lot closer?? Like in Colorado?? Or Arizona??
Now, I’m not writing this blog so I could get the urge to HALO jump out of my system. I’m writing this blog to let all of you know (that is, those of you who skydove before and want to try the ultimate freefall) that there’s something out there that’s even better than what you did before, and that you should try it. It’s not everyday that most people wake up and think, "I think I’ll drive to an airfield and jump out of an aircraft 13,000 feet above the ground"...let alone think, "I think I’ll fly out of state to visit an airfield where I can jump from a plane 30,000 feet above the ground". I have no idea how business is doing at that school since I doubt few people outside of professional skydivers and thrill-seekers would do this, and I would like to go before the HALO tandem is unexpectedly discontinued because of a lack of customers. On the other hand, if business is doing so great in Somerville that I could wait a few years to HALO jump (Arg!), then I’m all for it. In the meantime, if the rest of you have the cash and gusto to do it, support my cause and HALO jump! I’ll mail you 5 dollars if you do, haha. I don’t do PayPal, though.
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