My One (and Only) Skydive

Skydiving was always those things I wanted to do once, but the opportunity never readily presented itself. I guess I needed some sort of prompting to actually go through with it. When I changed jobs back in 1992 I got the chance. I got an email from a coworker who was organizing a group to go skydiving, only they needed a minimum number to get the group discount. I figured, why not, this was my big chance.

About 20 of us signed up for the course, which consisted of a seminar at our office, followed by a day at the jumpsite where we would get all-day ground training and then jump in the afternoon. At the seminar we got a lot of general info on what to expect, and the usual lecture about yes, this is theoretically dangerous, but if you're properly trained then the danger is minimal. This particular school hadn't lost anybody. Yet. We were told about the three options - tandem, where you are strapped to an experienced jumper and jump as one entity; tethered, where you jump and your chute is immediately pulled automatically; and accelerated freefall (AFF), where you jump with a pair of jumpmasters who stabilize you through freefall but you pull your own chute and descend on your own. I definitely wanted to do the AFF method.

We had to be out at the site by around 8AM, which meant getting up around 5:30 in the morning. Furthermore, that day's weather forecast was iffy, so even though before I left they said it was currently OK, there wasn't any guarantee that later in the day we'd be able to jump. Mostly it was a wind problem, but also a low cloud ceiling would also be trouble.

So I make my way out to the site and find out that about half our people have wussed out. This apparently is typical and they build this in when they accept groups. We ended up combining with another group. The site itself is pretty spartan, mostly a big hangar where they store everything, and a small house for administrative things and a place to relax.

The first thing they have us do is suit up. This is primarily a nylon jumpsuit that goes over your clothes, and a helmet and goggles. The suit has all sorts of straps and pockets, and gets pretty hot when you have to wear it all day. The first part of the training is out of a manual, you have to start memorizing the sequence of events that you'll have to do when you jump and what to do in an emergency. The instructor emphasizes that the reason ground training is so intensive (and repetitive) is that by the time you jump they want it to be as close to an 'automatic" procedure as possible, rather than have you think about what you have to do.

After an hour or so of study, we get into a harness to practice pulling your ripcord and then checking to see whether or not your chute has opened properly. There are several types of failures, some more serious than others. The really serious ones (rare) require you to cut the chute away and then pull your reserve. What they do is have you pull your cord, you "drop" a couple of feet, and then they flash a picture of either a good chute or one of the failure modes. You have to quickly call out the type of chute and take the appropriate action. We practiced this for an hour or so and then took a break for lunch.

After lunch we practiced landing. Even though an experienced jumper can land standing up by a controlled stall of the chute, this was not recommended since if you stall too early you will drop straight down and maybe twist an ankle or worse. This actually did happen to one of the people, and I think it was a fairly serious injury. What they teach you is to land and roll, and not try to stand up. We practiced this for a bit, and then moved on to the next phase.

At random times throughout the day, we would be asked to recite the procedure that we would go through upon jumping. This was basically to step out on the wing, check with your jumpmasters, give the signal to jump and then release and go with the proper body position, then in freefall check again with the jumpmasters, do several practice pulls of your ripcord, check your altitude (more or less a continuous process), give the signal that you are about to pull for real, and then pull and check your chute.

The next part of the training was how to get into the correct jump position and how to release and go. Primarily this involves simply letting go of the wing and arching your back and spreading your arms and legs. You want to be in this stable position for most of the freefall. Since you fall at around 120 mph, any imbalance is dangerous unless you know what you are doing. This is one of the main functions of the jumpmasters, to keep you stable while falling. We practiced getting into the proper position over and over until we could do it without thinking.

The last part of training was on how to maneuver your chute once it opens. This was fairly easy, the modern chutes are basically parasails and are very stable and maneuverable, unlike the old round chutes. We were shown how to work the levers and cords, and then got in some practice. While jumping we would be in radio contact with the ground, who would give us instructions for hitting the landing site. After some more practice, we were ready to go.

They had a cool option where you could have a photographer jump with you and take photos and a videotape. This cost extra, but I definitely wanted a record of my experience. So we all piled into this tiny Cessna and I was off. This was the smallest plane I'd ever been in, a single engine job that held 5 people, barely. We all had to cram in in the proper order for exiting, and it took about 10 minutes to reach jump altitude, about 12,000 feet.

Pretty much the whole time I spent in going over the jump sequence. At this point I wasn't terribly nervous, more just mentally preparing myself to jump. In training they told us that you really won't know exactly how you'll react until you actually get out there and jump, but that very few people wimp out once they've gotten as far as getting into the plane.

When we reached jump altitude it was time to get out. What you do is climb out the door and then grab onto the wing struts until everyone is aligned and then you signal to jump. The plane slows down to about 100 mph for this. The worst part of the whole jump was getting out on that wing. Once I was out there, I was wondering what the hell I was doing there, and was it too late to go back inside. But I figured it was too late at that point, so I gave the go signal and we were off.

I sort of remember the freefall portion, but it was all a blur at the time. With the training, you really do know the sequence pretty well by heart, and when I landed I was told that I did almost everything right. The one thing I remember is that my altimeter was mounted too loosely and it was very difficult to read. When I was being suited up on the ground it felt loose but the guy told me it was OK. I remember while in freefall that I wanted to go over and kick this guy's butt when I landed.

Freefall lasted about 45 seconds, then I waved the jumpmasters off and pulled my chute. It came out perfectly, and now I could relax and enjoy the scenery. The radioman on the ground had me do some practice turns but the radio was really hard to hear so halfway down I just gave up trying to listen. Since there wasn't much wind, we had jumped out almost over the landing site, so I didn't have a lot to do. It's really quiet while you're floating down; the only sounds are when the chute ripples if you are trying to turn or slow down.

All too soon it was time to land. I was really enjoying just floating around and looking at the countryside. Float time is pretty much weight dependent, and since I am so overloaded with these huge, heavy muscles I got about 5 minutes. Landing was fairly easy, although I didn't come close to making a stand up landing. I did a good approach, right in front of the hangar, and then landed with a nice roll and immediate recovery to a standing position. Then the only thing left was to gather up the chute and take everything over to the unpacking area.

The whole thing was an incredible experience and I'm really glad I did it (and got pictures and the video). I haven't decided if I'd ever want to do another jump, though. (Actually, they say that it's easy the first time and harder to go back and do it again) I think mostly I just wanted to do it once, just to say I did it, and to see what it was like having to perform like that under pressure. But I'd recommend the experience to anyone. Make sure to wear brown pants, though.

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