“Those little sauce packets”, Dropzone.com Story
I got a kick out of this story on DropZone.com posted by NickDG.
Oh, those little sauce packets . . .
I can never see or even think of those without remembering a time a group of us lived on them for a day and a half.
We were at the old Ramona DZ when the phone rang late in the afternoon. There was a Jeep Safari going on out in the desert on the other side of the mountains and, “Could we send over some parachutists to jump in?”
Spur of the moment demos are never a good idea and this one would be no exception.
We’d already cut loose the FJC class until tomorrow as it was too windy and cloudy. We had a good IFR rated pilot although the front door C-206 had a very stripped down panal and didn’t have all the gizmos one needs for flight into clouds. But the low ceiling was still somewhat broken and we were all wearing parachutes so what the hell, we departed. We got above the clouds easily enough and headed west. There was a small abandoned airstrip about twenty miles from where the Jeeps are and we’d get rides and meet the airplane back there.
Once past the mountains and into the desert it was severe clear. We found the Jeeps and five of us jumped, landed all right, got big cheers, and then drank and drove around in the Jeeps for awhile. We got a ride to the airstrip and the pilot said the WX was looking iffy but we’d go take a look and try to find a hole. We’d packed after the demo, and although it was beginning to get dark we planned on jumping back into the DZ.
We took off and climbed out over the mountains heading west. About ten minutes into the flight one of the jumpers announced he had to pee really badly. We looked around but there wasn’t a suitable vessel onboard and you can’t pee in leather Frappe Hat because they leak. (Don’t ask how I know that). He said he’d just pee out the door but the pilot said no as it would get all over the side of the airplane and also blow back through the door.
He held it for a while but he was really hurting. He then said he’d climb out on the strut and pee and everyone thought that was an okay idea. So he unzipped his jumpsuit and dug out his dong and climbed out on the jump step. We were all laughing our asses off as he was trying to turn sideways away from the door and looking to find some clean airflow.
I was just thinking how shitty it would be if he fell off, and he did, right then. I stuck my head out and just caught sight of him disappearing into the clouds. We all then just looked at each other in disbelief with big wide eyeballs. It was almost dark now and there were big mountains below us. Holy shit!
The pilot keyed his mic right away and called SoCal Approach. “Ah, Approach; we just had a parachutist accidentally depart the aircraft.” I could only hear one side of the conversation but it was a real corker. “Yes, he was wearing a parachute.” Pause. “No, we are en-route.” Longer pause. “No, we didn’t see him open.” Really long pause. And then he gave our position as best he could.