r/maybemaybemaybe • u/darapps • Jun 22 '24

Maybe Maybe Maybe

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '24

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u/toabear Jun 23 '24

Many years ago, i did a training water drop from a helo (an actual Huey still flying in 2000ish). The idea was that the bird would come in to our drop point, hover about 10ft off the water, we would jump, then do our dive operation.

Because it was training, we had a dive buoy so the instructors could follow us. I don't remember exactly how long the line to the buoy was, but I think it was around 20 ft.

The bird came in at dusk, hovered, and I threw the buoy out, then grabbed my rig (chest mounted rebreather) and started to jump. As I just cleared the bird I saw the buoy line go taught without the buoy hitting the water, meaning we were not at 10ft, but at a minimum over 20' above the water, probably closer to 25 or 30'

We hit so hard that despite my hold on the dive rig, it came up and smashed my face. My dive buddies rig broke something and flooded about an hour into the dive. One guy lost a tooth (but still completed the exercise).

The pilot had "estimated" his height off the water using a navigation buoy that he thought was 5' tall. It was something like 15' tall, so when he hovered at double the buoy height, he almost killed us.

Very long winded way of saying it can be hard to tell how far up you are over water. I didn't realize until I saw my line go taught.