High Altitude Low Opening skydiving, or HALO. To do it you’ve either got to be prepared to shed a little blood for your country or pay around $3k and get yourself to Memphis, Tennessee.HALO parachute jump 30,000ft
HALO Jump
Reply
The effects of ‘G’ on the body
Under increasing positive g-force, blood in the body will tend to move from the head toward the feet. For higher intensity or longer duration, this can manifest progressively as:
Greyout - a loss of color vision
Tunnel vision - loss of peripheral vision, retaining only the center vision
Blackout - a complete loss of vision but retaining consciousness.
G-LOC - where consciousness is lost.
(Under negative g, blood pressure will increase in the head, running the risk of the dangerous condition known as redout, with too much blood pressure in the head and eyes.)
The reason why vision is affected before other brain functions is because intraocular pressure within the eyes works against blood pressure in the head. Skilled pilots can use this loss of vision as their indicator that they are at maximum turn performance without losing consciousness. Recovery is usually prompt following removal of g-force but a period of several seconds of disorientation may occur. Brief but vivid dreams have been reported to follow G-LOC. If G-LOC occurs at low altitude, this momentary lapse can prove fatal and even highly experienced pilots can pull straight to a G-LOC condition without first perceiving the visual onset warnings that would normally be used as the sign to back off from pulling any more g’s.
The human body is much more tolerant of g-force when it is applied laterally (across the body) than when applied longitudinally (along the length of the body). Unfortunately most sustained g-forces incurred by pilots is applied longitudinally. This has led to experimentation with prone pilot aircraft designs which lies the pilot face down or (more successfully) reclined positions for astronauts.
Another physiological effect that can happen from high levels of sustained gs is a temporary condition that pilots call the ‘g-measles’, where the skin around the buttocks or other extremities becomes mottled because blood capillaries have been broken from too much pressure.
Differences between Joy Flights
Ranked on a scale of excitement there are a number of different types of joy flights:
Scenic Flight in a general aviation aircraft such as a Cessna or helicopter – relatively inexpensive, comfortable. Sky stays on top, ground on bottom for the whole flight. Suits those who want to enjoy flight in its proper form, not in a pressurized aluminium tube about as far removed from the joy of flight as you can be!
Trial Introduction Flight – again commonly done in a training aircraft like a Cessna, or smaller ‘Light Sports Aircraft’ such as a Jabiru or even ultralights. You fly with a Flight Instructor who will generally allow you to take control of the aircraft, including take of and landing depending on your instructor. Good fun and a great way to experience the world of piloting first hand.
Tigermoth Joy Flight – step back in time to when aircraft were made out of wood and fabric and you had to hand-start the engine. The venerable Tigermoth is very popular for joy flights as it is both a nostalgic trip back to a forgotten age and also capable of mild aerobatics such as barrel rolls, loops and spins. Due to its 1920s design the aerobatics are ‘gentlemanly’ so no violent or abrupt manoeuvres, an excellent way to dip your toes into the world of aerobatic flight. REAL FLYING!
Adventure Flight – conducted in an ex-military aircraft or ‘Warbirds’. These aircraft are generally high powered Air Force aircraft designed for combat or combat training. As such they are capable of sustained high G and rank on top of the joy flight scale, this is what flying is really about, twisting and diving through the sky at high speed at any attitude, upside down, straight up, straight down and more. As close as the average civilian will get to combat flight, happily there is no one else shooting at you!
The Hawker Sea Fury
Almost 2,400 horsepower in a single seat fighter, the Sea Fury was too late to see service in WWII and like its US counterpart the Grumman F-8 Bearcat represented the culmination of everything engineers had learnt during WWII in the art of designing extremely powerful piston engined fighters. Both types still fly today and continue to be the fastest piston engined aircraft in the world.