Tuesday, April 30, 2013

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci

Soaring about 30,000 feet above Whiteville, Tennessee, on April 29, 2013.

HALO Tandem Skydive... Almost seven years after I first posted a Blog entry about this awesome jump, I finally got the chance to do a 30,000-foot High-Altitude, Low-Opening (HALO) tandem skydive yesterday. The HALO jump took place at an airfield in west Tennessee (at West Tennessee Skydiving)...courtesy of the awesome folks at HALOJumper.com. Here are the stats from my skydive:

- 25,000 feet: The altitude at which all of the jumpers aboard the aircraft had to activate the portable oxygen tanks on our flight suits, and lower our goggles... (The pilot had to wear an oxygen mask of his own.)

- 29,190 feet: The exact altitude where my tandem instructor and I exited from the aircraft (a Super King Air)...

- minus-39° Fahrenheit: The outside temperature when we exited from the Super King Air...

- 5,500 feet: The altitude at which the parachute opened above the drop zone at the airfield...

- 2 minutes, 12 seconds: The exact length of the free fall...

- 7 minutes: The approximate time it took to descend towards the drop zone and land after the parachute was deployed...

- #121: I'm the 121st civilian to do a HALO jump...


and

- #1: I'm the first Filipino American ever to perform a 30,000-foot tandem skydive!

Needless to say, this experience was awesome! The only downside was that, for reasons I'm too lazy to mention here, my videographer was unable to exit the plane with us...so I only had the cool footage (posted above and below) that were taken with GoPro cameras strapped to both of my gloves to commemorate the jump. Oh well. Check out these amazing pics from this spectacular skydive...and then click on the link below to view more kick-ass photos from my free fall over west Tennessee! And then dish out money that you can otherwise use as a down payment on a new car to perform your own HALO tandem jump... Carry on.

LINK: Click here for more images from my HALO tandem skydive

Getting seated as the Super King Air gets ready to take off for my HALO tandem skydive, on April 29, 2013.

Waiting for the Super King Air to reach 30,000 feet, on April 29, 2013.

The free fall as seen from a GoPro camera attached to my left glove, on April 29, 2013.

Staring at my left GoPro camera after the parachute opens, on April 29, 2013.

Coming in for a landing at the West Tennessee Skydiving drop zone, on April 29, 2013.

Touchdown at the West Tennessee Skydiving drop zone, on April 29, 2013!

My HALO Jump certificate.

"Sometimes you have to go up so high to realize just how small you really are."
-Felix Baumgartner (October 14, 2012)

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