The best response I’ve seen to the question ‘Why would anyone jump from a perfectly good aircraft?’ is ‘For the same reason I’d jump from a perfectly good diving board’ – skydivers view jump planes simply as vehicles to get them to altitude. If I’m in one and there’s an aircraft emergency close to the ground, then chances are that like you I’m staying on board if the pilot thinks he can deal with it and put it down safely.

Even if the airplane was less than perfect. I think I’d stay inside and take my chances putting her down.

I understand HALO exits are normally between 25k and 35k -although 35K is still pretty damn high! – and opening heights are typically no lower than 3.5K, which if anything is marginally higher than a typical civilian skydive (I aim to be open by 2K at the lowest). I think the military use the term ‘low opening’ to distinguish HALO from HAHO, where troops both exit AND open high.

I don’t see how your gear hitting the ground first on the end of a bungee is going to do anything to lessen your (or its) impact. Can you explain what you mean? Cheers!

1)Military practice jumps are at 1300 feet, static line extration of the chute. Combat jumps are at 300 feet, no reserve due to lack of time for the chute to deploy.

2)HALO normally happens at 45,000 feet, with a 20 minute oxygen “Pony tank”, the jump is done at night, and a cal-lume stick is in each jumpers helmut. Also, each jumper has a tritium lit GPS unit military accurate to within 6 feet of the landing zone. Chute deployment is normally about 1000ish feet- but once the main deploys the combat gear slams into the ground first on a very large bungee cord- this absorbs most of the impact velocity.

3)”Pulling Low” can be a courts martial offense no mater what your rank or your attitude is.

Good Luck

What aircraft type – little Cessna?