Your First Jump

[PabloCruz2 0]

If any of you wrote about your first jump like I did, I thought it might be fun to read about it. If you kept a copy of it, please post it. The following was my journal entry. My home DZ was OSC in Cushing, OK. Unfortuneately I'm not currently very active in the sport, but hope to return to it in the not too distant future!

Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 23:03:21 -0500
Subject: I Fell! I Flew!! I Walked Away!!!

Hey everybody,
After a day like today I really have drop you a note ( no pun intended) =:-) After a few more hours of training this morning, I climbed into a Cessna 182 and took off with three of my friends, our jump master, (and of course our pilot)! It was about a 10-15 minute flight to an altitude of 3500 feet at which point our jumpmaster opened the door ( it is just plain wrong to open the door of an airplane flying about 90 mph at 3500 feet). The heart really starts pumping at that moment! Bryson and Keith jumped ahead of me. Then it was my turn. After each jumper left the door was closed and we circled the airfield for another pass. I was sitting with my knees to my chest and back to the control panel (the pilot on my right ) with the jumpmaster on his knees straddling my feet. He opens the door (let me again emphasize that this is just plain wrong)! He has me swing my legs out the door and place them on a small platform right above the main landing gear with my right hand on the door frame and my left hand on the wing strut. He turned my radio on (My instructor on the ground was on the ground watching me and radioing instructions to me as needed. Showed me my pilot chute ( a two foot diameter parachute which pulls your main chute out of your backpack ) and instructed me to step out and stand up the platform and hold on to the wing strut with both hands as far out as I can reach. I am now standing OUTSIDE an airplane flying 90 MPH at 3500 feet (this is really, REALLY wrong!!). The jumpmaster then instructs me to hang from the wing strut. I step off the platform. Now I am hanging from the wing strut of the airplane flying at 90 MPH with nothing but 3500 feet of air beneath my feet (Have I mentioned how REALLY, REALLY wrong this is?)!! I look at him (I'm supposed to smile at him as an indicator that I am ready.................I didn't). He says, "Ready"? (Stupid question!). Then he says, "Go". At this point I let go of the aircraft ( I have only been hanging for a few seconds ). Now at this point words can't describe how so VERY, VERY wrong this is!!! Words also can not describe the next 4-5 seconds. If their was ever a time in my life that I experienced what faith and trust (Both in God and man) are. This was that time. 4-5 seconds after letting go my chute opened. I have very few conscious memories of those seconds. The feeling of relief and joy that I experienced upon looking up and seeing a fully open and functioning parachute was amazing!! Once I had determined that I had a good chute and had reassured myself that I was safely secured to it ( I had already figured that out before I ever got into the airplane, but it was a good time to reconfirm it. Considering that there was still 3000 feet of air beneath my feet!). I really enjoyed the flight down. It was the single most amazing experience of my life. I am really looking forward to doing it again!! =:-) There was one guy there today that jumped twice. He now has 5,690 jumps under his belt spanning 29 years!! He had 1500 jumps under his belt utilizing the old round parachutes before they designed the square airfoil parachutes. Out of all those jumps, he has only had to cut away his main chute (due to some form of malfunction) 15 times. Statistically it is very safe! Many times safer than driving to the airport this morning. Time will tell but I doubt this was my last time. If you are adventurous, I would highly recommend it. Do your research and find a Skydiving center that has a really good safety record and all the latest technological safety equipment and take a major step into faith and trust. It is mind boggling!! One of our guys had a digital camera so I might have some pictures to share later. I did have my jump videotaped. Due to the altitude the cameraman didn't jump with me. The tape was made from the moment of opening the door. To the letting go of the aircraft and opening of my chute as the plane flew off without me. The look on my face is hilarious!! I better get to bed. I'm feeling a little tired. Talk to you later.

In HIS grip, Paul Fockler / [email protected]

[SkiD_PL8 0]

Mine was last weekend and I will be back out at the DZ this weekend for sure I am totally hooked. Here is what I wrote about it.


Well guys, I did it. I went out this mourning and did my first jump course. I was the first one out on the first load and hanging from the strut of the plane looking at my jumpmaster I think I had the biggest smile on my face I have had in my entire life. My canopy deployed flawlesly and I had a beautiful ride down. I was a litte affraid to play with my toggles alot but had some fun once I started getting guided by radio. I flared imediately when I was told to and I guess it was about a second to early as I ended up landing on my heals and falling to my back at wich point I let go of my toggles (yes both of them) and my canopy started to inflate but I reached around and grabbed my left riser and started reeling in lines as fast as I could. I liked it so much I had to go again before I left the second time was twice as much fun, I wasn't so worried about doing everything right because I had allready proven to myself that I could do it. I got some line twists and sorted them out then had a great canopy ride down even played around up there for a little while. On that jump my landing was great, don't even think I took a step forward pulled one toggle to full break and let go of the other one and the chute just folded in on itself like it was supposed to. Hate to ramble but I have just been going over it all day in my head. Moral of the story is I am hooked.

Greenie in training.

[Kris 0]

Heh, it's bad when I can see just the JM's foot and I know that it was probably Dave Johnson who was your instructor.

Congrats on your first jump, that was a well told story!

I did my student training at OSC and was there all the way through getting my instructor rating.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[PabloCruz2 0]

Hey Kris,
That is a great pic. Dave might well have been my instructor. I can't remember. I'm loooking forward to getting back over to Cushing some day to jump again.

[skybytch 259]

My first jump story is here.

• Quote

[tfelber 0]

One of my coworkers, who had been transferred from Mexico to the US, asked if I wanted to try skydiving. Hell YES!!! (I'd been wanting to for some time.) Let's go Saturday.

Partied late Friday thinking about it, but arrived at the DZ early Saturday morning ready to go. Had a bit of a hangover. Kept hoping the headache would go away before I had to jump, but I was ready to jump. My friend, Victor, and I finished the training and got geared up. Loaded up in the 182 and still had no apprehension about jumping. Started thinking about people in my life and wondering if there was anything I wanted to communicate but hadn't...decided my life was pretty complete.

AND THEN the door opened! I now had reason for concern and I was the first out. I set there for a second and made my move. Carefully out the door, let my feet slip off the step, and there I was, hanging off the strut of a 182, at 3500ft in the air. I struggled with a smile and looked over at my JM. Robin smiles and yells "GO!!!" I hang there, looking at her, and think "Yeah Right..." She gets a more stern look on her face and yells "GO!!!". I think "Well this is what you came here for..." so I look up at the X on the wing and let go. The very next instant I think "Oh my god, you just let go of the plane!!!"

About three seconds later (not that I was counting), I feel a tug and my feet swing up in front of me. I look up to see a fully inflated canopy. Release the breaks, turn left, turn right, flair...yeah baby - I'm smiling now. Radio comes on "Gimme a right turn...have some fun..." I look around for Victor and see him off in the distance under his canopy so I decide to try some turns. Turn left, turn right, whoa not so much! Get near the ground radio says "Flair, Flair, Flair". My feet touch down, I stumble to my knees, the smile never leaves my face.

The chase truck picks us up and I ask Victor "What'd you think?" "Wow!" he responds. "Want to go again?" I ask. "Let's go"

During debriefing th JM asks me "Did you see the plane?" I said "No." She says with a smile "You were looking straight at it the whole time."

I did 13 jumps over the next couple of weeks and met several really good people. It's great thinking back about how it all started. I sure miss that DZ and the times I had there...

[unformed 0]

I don't remember much of my first jump except that the shock and exhilaration made me not notice anything. I remember jumping out, probably had my eyes wide open. Don't remember if I did any PRCPs or not. I'm sure my logbook has it listed. Anyways, Next thing I know, the jumpfaster is shakling his fist. I'm wondering what the hell is he doing? The he reaches and grabs my ripcord. Oh yeah, that's right ..... The fist means pull your ripcord. I looked up and there was my canopy.

Since then I started being far more aware.

This ad space for sale.

[dzdiva 7]

My first jump was a tandem. That was the day that changed my life. Loved every minute of it. The day of my AFF1 I was a nervouse wreck. I couldn't remember the count, so I just looked at my JM grinned and dove. Did everything I was supposed to and loved every minute of it. Here's a couple pics. One of my tandem and one of me after my AFF1. The smile on my face says it all.

"It's not just a daydream if you choose to make it your life..."

[Snowbird 0]

I used to write about almost every jump, but now a days only the unique/specialest ones. But this is what I wrote the night after my first jump...

DIVING

From three thousand feet, all the comfortable elements so familiar on the ground could be children's toys, small and impermanent. The wind from the open door, however, is real and strong and somehow both joyful and terrifying.
I reach out the open door of the Cessna, slowly edging out onto the wheel strut, keeping close eye contact with the jumpmaster. The wind pulls at me, wants company in the wide open sky, so blue it feels endless. For a moment I hang there, holding on easily, until the jumpmaster says 'GO!'
The carefully learned lesson, finished just an hour ago, disappears into the oblivion of fear. For three endless seconds nothing holds me; the world has deserted me and even gravity has signed a betrayal. A tug at the shoulders reclaims presence of mind, and you count '3000, 4000, 5000, checkthousand, canopy check'. Look up! The parachute is open, a welcome rectangle of white and yellow penetrating the blue.
A voice on the radio prompts me to test the controls, and then welcomes me to the world of skydiving. Tony, standing 3000 feet below, watches and coaches me from the radio, and his voice is my mantra. Go left, go right. The world turns below me and I turn above it, we dance.
Too soon the earth wants me back, willing to lend me to the sky, but not relinquish me completely. The target - white tarp stretched across green grass - welcomes me and I wait... wait... flare! and I slow, touch the ground, and whoop for the joy of it all.

September 15, 2001
***
This thread rocks! Putting a much needed smile on my face.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
-Robert A. Heinlein

[pccoder 0]

My first jump was a tandem, 2nd and 3rd the same, then finally commited to AFF. The rest is history. Oh well, here are few pictures from that first tandem jump.

PcCoder.net