Ziplining
11-26-2014, 07:37 PM
#1
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Ziplining
Going on a Caribbean cruise next week, visiting all the saints and their French and Dutch cousins. There are many shore excursions featuring ziplining. I'm deathly afraid of heights but would love to do this just once.
Any tips or advice before i try to give myself a heart attack?
Any tips or advice before i try to give myself a heart attack?
11-27-2014, 02:32 PM
#3
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Joined APC: Jul 2009
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Not much to it. Just pay a bit of attention when they tell you how to brake - and don't ever put your hand in a point where it can get pinched into the apparatus.
You fly a C172 and are afraid of heights??
You fly a C172 and are afraid of heights??
11-27-2014, 03:40 PM
#4
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Thanks. I think I'm going to go for it. At least if i have a heart attack, i would be having fun.
Yes, afraid of heights. That's probably why i pretty much gave up flying and back to bossing around lawyers and litigants alike.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Seahawk game starting soon. Whee!
Yes, afraid of heights. That's probably why i pretty much gave up flying and back to bossing around lawyers and litigants alike.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Seahawk game starting soon. Whee!
11-27-2014, 04:29 PM
#5
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Joined APC: Sep 2007
Position: 777 Captain in Training
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Vagabond,
I am afraid of heights also but I and my family zip-lined in Belize and Cave tubed and had a blast. In Belize they started out not very high and worked there way up, my wife loved it also. in Belize we used this company Butts Up!! Cave-Tubing.com - Belize Cave Tubing, Zipline, ATV Tours
Butts Up Cave Tubing - Belize City - Reviews of Butts Up Cave Tubing - TripAdvisor
I am afraid of heights also but I and my family zip-lined in Belize and Cave tubed and had a blast. In Belize they started out not very high and worked there way up, my wife loved it also. in Belize we used this company Butts Up!! Cave-Tubing.com - Belize Cave Tubing, Zipline, ATV Tours
Butts Up Cave Tubing - Belize City - Reviews of Butts Up Cave Tubing - TripAdvisor
12-03-2014, 04:34 PM
#6
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Joined APC: Mar 2006
Position: Lying Groaning in the Wreckage
Posts: 130
Actually, Professionally-supervised ziplining is pretty safe. So are most cable cars- at least the ones that are big tourist attractions. Bad accidents are VERY rare, if you don't count the shaky 3rd-world local operations. We pretty much have cable safety tech (borrowed from ski-lifts) down now. The Brits call them "funiculars" - probably for the same reasons that they always spell 'aluminum' wrong & an elevator is a 'Lift".
My old Instructor had a fear of heights, too. He ran an air taxi operation & had most ratings in the book, finishing up with a Citation type rating & then working as a ground school systems instructor for FlightSafety. He's in his 80s now, and his YEARS of yelling at students in roaring Cessnas have badly affected his hearing. Once long ago, he got a little aerial photo job where we had to take the R door off his 172 & hang out there to shoot an oilfield patch, to help some Co. locate where the producing gas wells were so they could plan their drilling & leasing better, in LRD (Laredo, TX). He was fully belted of course, but anything more than a 10-15 deg. bank to his side would get me some really choice Marine language (there are NO ex-Marines). Steep banks to port were fine. I'm scared of cliffs- I get vertigo and have to CRAWL up to any long-fall edges. Trained myself to get over that by flying a lot w/ the door cracked in my C-150 initial PPL training, looking down past the wheel. I'd drop a pencil & watch it just fall & fall until it vanished... But when I checked out in an unfaired Spitfire ultralight, (a real 3-axis airplane, Rotax 45-hp up front, even had 3-position flaps, nosewheel steering & toe brakes) it was OK, just really breezy. Hardest part was keeping it between 60 & its 85-MPH Vne. So draggy that when I flared on the little turf field & cut the power just a couple of feet up when I felt weeds brushing the gear, he later told me he had to really get on some fast back stick to avoid a wheelbarrow landing. The odd thing was that my lousy PPL ranked his Sport Ultralight Instructor certification. I just said, "Well, you should have told me I had to "fly it on" and touch down under power." We spotted a Canada goose right at our altitude & I tried to loosely formate on it, like that guy in the movie. The goose took one look, firewalled himself, and actually PULLED AWAY from us. Easily, too- that's what REALLY hurt.
My old Instructor had a fear of heights, too. He ran an air taxi operation & had most ratings in the book, finishing up with a Citation type rating & then working as a ground school systems instructor for FlightSafety. He's in his 80s now, and his YEARS of yelling at students in roaring Cessnas have badly affected his hearing. Once long ago, he got a little aerial photo job where we had to take the R door off his 172 & hang out there to shoot an oilfield patch, to help some Co. locate where the producing gas wells were so they could plan their drilling & leasing better, in LRD (Laredo, TX). He was fully belted of course, but anything more than a 10-15 deg. bank to his side would get me some really choice Marine language (there are NO ex-Marines). Steep banks to port were fine. I'm scared of cliffs- I get vertigo and have to CRAWL up to any long-fall edges. Trained myself to get over that by flying a lot w/ the door cracked in my C-150 initial PPL training, looking down past the wheel. I'd drop a pencil & watch it just fall & fall until it vanished... But when I checked out in an unfaired Spitfire ultralight, (a real 3-axis airplane, Rotax 45-hp up front, even had 3-position flaps, nosewheel steering & toe brakes) it was OK, just really breezy. Hardest part was keeping it between 60 & its 85-MPH Vne. So draggy that when I flared on the little turf field & cut the power just a couple of feet up when I felt weeds brushing the gear, he later told me he had to really get on some fast back stick to avoid a wheelbarrow landing. The odd thing was that my lousy PPL ranked his Sport Ultralight Instructor certification. I just said, "Well, you should have told me I had to "fly it on" and touch down under power." We spotted a Canada goose right at our altitude & I tried to loosely formate on it, like that guy in the movie. The goose took one look, firewalled himself, and actually PULLED AWAY from us. Easily, too- that's what REALLY hurt.
12-03-2014, 08:21 PM
#7
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Joined APC: Feb 2006
Position: 767A (Ret)
Posts: 6,248
The Ultimate Zip Line
Visitors to the Apollo/Space Shuttle launch pads may have noticed long cables stretching from the top of the gantry to an opening in the ground far away. They are zip lines, for a backup method of emergency escape from the spacecraft. Simply jump in the basket, zoom away to the underground bunker, and hide .... or choose to board the armored vehicle parked there for you and high-tail it. 
12-07-2014, 10:31 AM
#8
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In St. Kitts right now. Still not brave enough to Zipline. Got corralled into several duty free shops instead. I'm thinking of buying some of cheap tax free cigarettes and booze even though i don't smoke or drink.
Anyway still many islands to go so still have a chance to do it.
Anyway still many islands to go so still have a chance to do it.
