Jumping out of planes at night.
People sometimes ask why I go to Burning Man. Usually its an amusing task to try to sum up the possibility of things that exist out there in the high desert and for the most part, its simple enough to dismiss most folks with a simple, “ya just gotta see for yourself”. But then there’s the people that do go. And while there is such stimulus overload to be had there, no matter how hard ya try, there are still some things that are bound to be taken for granted. Perhaps its not taking life for granted that pulls me back year after year.
Of all the wonderment to not take for granted while out there, Civilians jumping out of a fucking airplane at night is one of them.
But before we get to that, this is Ken (with the hat).
There are lots of people who bring the most amazing shit to Black Rock City. And by amazing shit I mean The Truly Amazing. And maybe its more than lots, perhaps its in the order of loads of people, on a good year, tons. But then there are the one percent. The gifted. The determined. The possessors of vision, ingenuity, and the distinct skill set to make things happen. And this fellow, if there ever was one, is a one percenter.
Ken is the guy that runs Burning Sky. If you’ve ever gone to Black Rock City and have seen people hanging in the air under open parachutes, chances are extremely high that its because of Ken. Burning Sky has been on the playa since before Ive been going, maybe ten years. One of my first memories of my first year in the dust is sitting next to the stranger I was getting to know over dinner, who was kinda showing me the ropes, and seeing some dudes parachute down near center camp.
what the fuck, people parachute here?
Instantly I was mistified.
Burning Sky arranges a pilot, few hundred gallons of Jet-A, a plane (and a PAC 750 on top of it) and provides as many loads as the weather and fuel allocation will allow up over Black Rock City.
Before you ask, you’ve gotta be a very experienced skydiver to jump at Burning Man. Why? It’s a great open desert, what could go wrong…
There are drop zones all over the country. And all of them are free of people, moving vehicles, objects of varying height protruding into the sky and of course then there is the weather which can change on a dime faster than any place Ive been in my life. Making a safe landing involves dodging a variety of things to avoid injury to the skydiver and the people and art on the ground.
So yeah, Dangerous. And that’s with the sun shining.
And while that seems like it would be more hardcore than most people could handle, one night, every year, there is a load of folks at Burning Sky that cork screw up the eighteen minutes to 12,000 feet and jump out of that plane into the inky black sky over Black Rock City.
I showed up at Burning Sky Friday evening just in time for the safety meeting, the night load was full and everyone was at complete attention.
What makes the night jumps really special is the fact that each of the skydivers wears a rig which trails a magnesium flare. The flare flies maybe 25 feet behind the skydiver and sprays a long tail of sparks streaking through the night.
It would be awesome enough to just jump out of a plane at night, anywhere, let alone over neon wonderland. But these guys step it up a notch and provide a synchronized pyro show from the air for anyone lucky enough to be looking up once it gets dark enough.
After the safety instruction on the proper mounting for the electronic ignition system that would set off the pyro units mounted on the skydivers was concluded and the preparations for the drop zone outlined, Ken biked out to the airport to set up lights on the runway.
Via those lights, its possible to take off, but the pilot would have to fly to Reno for the night (probably his favorite night at BRC…) as its too dangerous to land there without a properly marked runway.
The plan was to line up a bunch of art cars a bit out from the man to create the drop zone with their headlights.
You get used to seeing lots of things at Burning Man, fireworks are definitely one of them. In this case, however, the fireworks were set off for the sake of the night divers to mark the drop zone once their altitude was low enough to see.
Standing out there in the shadow of the glow of the man and the headlights of a makeshift drop zone, ya just have one of those “what the fuck, how did this get done?” moments that are often common in Black Rock City and tragically devoid of my daily experience the rest of the year that I spend in the USA. How did this get done. Slowly that turns to simply, this got done. And Im standing here. Part of it, one way or another.
It’s why so many of us go to Burning Man, to be part of this thing that is just entirely bigger than all of us. But it starts small, with focused effort from a truly elite bunch of people. Burning Sky is one of those institutions at Black Rock City that not only makes BRC a better place, but ultimately makes it what it *is*.
If you are out on the playa this summer and you see some skydivers, take a second to appreciate the hard work and determination poured into the skydiving camp allowing for a safety first experience from the air over Black Rock City. Burning Sky is located on 5 O’clock around G, if you happen to be walking by, stop in and say hello to this amazing bunch of people. Ya need at least 100 jumps logged to skydive over BRC with Burning Sky.
There is a Man. Fucker’s gonna burn in Twenty Six days.