Getting a Little High...
...But not like one might think.
It was a moonless evening, already dark, and I decided I was in the mood. Preflighted my little single-engined plane, pulled it out of the hangar, stepped into the cabin, and took everything off but the shoes.
It was an incredibly hot, muggy night; but it was clear, and smooth at 3,500' above sea level. It was enjoyable, regardless of the temperature. City lights were bright, stars were twinkling.
Back in the 90s a friend had an ultralight, and he knew I was an experienced skydiver, and he wanted to see what it would take to make his 2 seater ultralight "jumper friendly". He also had pontoons on his ultralight. One day he had added a set of retractable wheels to the pontoons and wanted to see how the plane would fly with the extra weight.
He flew over to my place (I lived next to a lake WAY in the boonies back then) and dropped in the lake unannounced.
I was in the water at the time (skinny dipping of course), and watched him land and taxi to my floating dock. He shut off the engine and explained he wanted a guinea pig to see how the plane would fly with the new wheels. I asked when he wanted to do it. He said right then, if I could. I was in the water to my chin hanging onto the dock so he couldn't see I was naked. I explained that I wouldn't mind, but I would have to go back to the house for clothes. He said it wouldn't matter if I was wet because the seats were nylon covered and would dry quickly. I told him that I was naked. He asked "is that a problem?" I told him "not if it's not a problem for you".
So I climbed aboard the ultralight, buckled in, and we took off and circled the lake once, then flew to a larger lake a couple of miles a way to do touch and goes. So for about a half hour to 45 minutes, I was flying naked in an open cockpit in broad daylight. He joked about leaving me in the other lake, but I told him good luck getting me out.
Another time, the same friend from before with the ultralight wanted to see how good the pontoons were for a platform for jumping off of (normally we used the wheels without pontoons, and had a large wooden step. He thought the pontoons would work as well.
This time, we had an agreed upon time, and I was going to land the parachute on my own land. When my friend arrived, I was standing on the floating dock in a pair of shorts waiting. He commented that I didn't have much of a jumpsuit, and I said since I was landing at home, I was planning on jumping in less yet. When he was ready for his take off run, I stepped out of the shorts, and put the parachute on. Dressed only in the parachute harness. I climbed aboard and he took off.
The weight of the pontoons and my parachute made the climb to altitude take forever. He finally asked me how low I was willing to jump. I told him I needed at least 2500 feet. We made it that high, and as he lined up with the wind to exit slightly upwind from my property, we got an updraft and reached 3000 feet when we go to the exit point.
I stepped off, freefell 500 feet, and opened the chute. From 2500 feet, I could see all my neighbor's houses REAL WELL, and was certain that I was flashing them all and that I would hear about it that evening. Apparently no one even knew I had made the jump;D
Here I sit, green with envy... I would love to just once take a UL up in the buff. To feel the wind on my skin. Nekkid skydiving would be great too, but I'm still not convinced it's a smart move to jump out of a perfectly good airplane (but then again, those aren't called jump planes for nothing!).
We flew from Seattle to Copenhagen, Denmark several years ago. It was a long, long flight and though I wore comfy clothes ... there's something about sitting for long periods of time in anything ... even comfy clothes get bunched up and it's uncomfortable. I wanted to get some sleep so I got up and went to the restroom. When I returned, I placed a t shirt from my backpack on the seat and my wife looked at me and just smiled and said ... "gonna get comfy?" She knew that I was about to slip outta my shorts and cover with our own flight blankets and recline to try and sleep. I did sleep for a few hours and when I woke up, I was still covered, felt refreshed and then had to put my shorts back on between the flight attendants coming back and forth serving water, coffee to everyone around us. :D
Flown plenty since then but that's my only time that I've been able to fly partially nude. We long for the time when we can get on a plane and have the attendantssay it's NOT completely full! We'd love to take a long flight and have an entire row to ourselves.
Can't remember the last time I had an empty seat next to me. Planes are always packed these days.The closest I've come to comfortable is taking off my shoes and socks. Not very close to my normal ultra casual , I.e. nude. KC
Have a bug smashing Cessna that I try to get out in a couple times a month... Nice to go out bare and even better when you have friend to share it with
Well, here's a follow-up to my first adventure.
Decided to go just get away from life for awhile. Preflighted the
plane, pulled it out. got in, then took off the cutoffs and shirt. It
was about 5:40pm, and the sun was behind a high cloud. So, excepting my
shoes, I was naked as a jaybird.Climbed up to about 6,000ft
above sea level, and did some steep turns, and pulled off the holy
grail, which is turning 360*, at a 45* bank angle, and turn back right on
your previous track, and so accurate in holding altitude, you hit your
own previous wake. And I did it! Nude! It was about 13*C, and
so I wondered, where is the freezing line? So, up I climbed to right
at 9,500ft. It was about 2*C there, but I was running into the same
altitude that high cloud was at, and I could see wisps flitting by.
That is a formula for wing icing, so I decided that was enough. (By the
way, that was the highest I had taken the plane ever.)Problem
was *SHRINKAGE*!! LOL. The feeling was exhilarating! Naked, alone, at
9500ft. Well, descended, made my way into the pattern at the local
airport. The sun was low in the sky, the trees still green. But I was reminded of what Amelia Earhart once said: "You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky." I
only wish I had taken my camera so I could have taken a selfie, some
pics of the clouds at altitude, and of the trees while in the pattern.
I enjoy flying and I'd love it if I could do it in the nude! :D
there use to be an air line that you could go nude once it took off. I do not remember what air line it was but if you do some web research it may still be around.
https://miami.about.com/cs/nudistsnaturists/a/aa011603a.htm
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