BobB 0 #51 August 15, 2003 Saturday 7/5/2003: Riding motorcycle back to Fayetteville following a nice trip out to Southern Pines. Riding back to town, out of the blue, I remember one of my friends saying something about his aunt doing something called a "tandem jump" once. A moment later, another recollection of somebody saying something about skydiving and Raeford. I decide to ride home and see if I can validate any of this info on the internet. Yep, there it is...something called "Raeford Parachute Center." Okay, sounds good...maybe I'll just ride out and watch. Sunday 7/6/2003: I'm there at 10AM...some guy (Chuck Blue) looks at me and says "You ready to do some skydivin'?" I respond with, "Yeah man!" The past five weeks (AFF, solo-self-sup. and working my A-Prof-Card) have been less of "I'm trying to do something with my life and my career" and more of "I'm working toward a career, but I LOVE this skydiving stuff." It has changed my perspective completely. Bob Yes, I know it is snowing. No, we are not putting the top up. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turtlespeed 212 #52 August 15, 2003 I was watching TV at the house, bored, tired of ...well we can't discuss that here...(no, nothing to do with kittens)...and said that I thiink I want to jump out of a plane....Ok, sounds like a plan...So, phone book...hmmm, no help...Internet...nope, nothin local....Internet hit, plane went down at local dropzone 3 years ago and shut the thing down....Thought, what am I gonna do now. Well maybe someone knows, that was there before...sure enough....someone that I know said they saw parachutes at the airport...that was tuesday, September 17th 2002. I went out and watched the tandem video, paid, and then the winds picked up...wednesday was fog, well I wasn't giving in, thurday it rained...Friday...Dum Dum Dummmmm the boogie starts...AOTMB Aggies Over Texas Memorial Boogie..for the plane that went down. Anyway..Finally Saturday I made my first jump, a tandem, and my second tandem and my ground school, and my first solo!!! Boy was I tired....from carrying all that beer...now i have 155 jumps in just under a year...and I'm gonna keep goin' and goin' and goin' and.....I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vnver 0 #53 August 15, 2003 nobody knows even me blue sky Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PilotMike 0 #54 August 15, 2003 Saw a special on skydiving when I was about 10 years old. The majority of the show was freefall with some canopies landing at the end. (I thought they were just floating there until they decided they were done). Told my parents I wanted to do it. They said you've gotta be 16. First jump was the weekend after my 16th birthday, that was 7 years ago... -------- Benefitting from the 'free capture of verticality.' Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RUWILLN 0 #55 August 17, 2003 Funny, I was a bit of a chicken growing up.. joined the army no interest in airborne school... many years later made friends with a longtime skydiver... Then last Christmas eve a close friend who was 10 yrs older than me decided to kill himself by gunshot down the throat. His wife went over the edge and I decided that life was just too damn short not to live. So my 34th b-day came around and I told my skydiving friend that I was jumping for my b-day.. I did (that was late April) and now I start groundschool and all the following jumps mid september AND my mother who will be 60 will be doing her #1 tandem about the same time I do my solo jump! Blue skies Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EricaH 0 #56 August 19, 2003 Since I was a little girl about 5 yrs old, I wanted to jump off everything. houses, cliffs, antenna, school bldgs, anything. When we went hiking, my parents would tye a rope round my waiste cause I would climb over & hang off the safty bars. Once I stacked leaves about 4 ft high under my fav tree & jumped into them from almost 2 stories high in the tree... leaves DO NOT cushin landings (much)!! When I was about 10 I realized people ACTUALLY DID THAT STUFF, they really jumped from everything. it only took me 27 years to finally get here. I skydive, but am a BASE jumper in training. perhaps by the time i'm 30 i'll actually get to the place i've always belonged. launching myself off a fixed point, pilot chute in hand - YAHOO!! There is no can't. Only lack of knowledge or fear. Only you can fix your fear. PMS #227 (just like the TV show) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymonkey 0 #57 August 19, 2003 Some instructor Threw me out of a plane at Military Freefal Shcool.. Miguel Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScubaSteve 0 #58 August 20, 2003 I was tricked into it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimmytavino 16 #59 August 20, 2003 I picked up a copy of the student newspaper and saw an add which said " Get High ! Go Skydiving" ...( Ok Ok I SAID it was 1972.... ) anyway the college had a club,, the airport was 4 miles away, I had never been in a plane before, and the whole Static line course, gear and First jump was only 50 bucks........ so I went to a meeting where they showed Carl Boenish's classic.... Masters of the Skies........ It was on a pair of 16 millimeter FILM spools and shown on a Movie PROJECTOR.hahahahaha... anyway a class of about 25 were trained on a friday night and we all jumped the next day..... I completed my next 4 static line jumps, ( @ 10 dollars each ) and then did my first freefall $ 6.00 ,,,,,all within 2 weeks...... never been in a plane before that, ( so I was having SO much fun just looking out the window) and I had over 200 jumps before I ever LANDED in a plane....hahahaha A few years later I composed a poem which summed up my feelings during that time in my life,,, I edited the poem, fine tuned it, and completed it sometime in 1977.... It is titled JUST ONE,,,,,,,and I will share it with my fellow DZ dot commers.......... There was a voice inside me I'd hear it now and then when days were warm or skies were blue or I was with a friend.. It started soft with gentle urges but grew and grew in leaps and surges,,, til from my mouth as if a Shout,,,,, one day I said, ,,, or BLURTED out !!!! "For Sure! Why not ??!!! It might be fun !! A parachute jump!!, from a plane!!!, Just One............ I'd heard about it once or twice and always thought it would be nice, to float around,,,,, and look way down check out the ground,,,,,,, not make a sound. Well the chance arose one free fall day and some friends and I , we made our way through what it was one had to do,,,, to safely make a jump or two.. I can tell you now, it was preety hairy. The time was near,,,, my mind unclear,,,, and things were looking scarey... " What are you doing? Is it safe? Are You sure? " Said that little voice inside me. But I reassured Myself and said, " I have my head to guide Me " " For just this once, I'll DO this thing and leave a plane in flight and make some friends and have some laughs and it'll be over by tonight. " So....up I went,, and out the door and to my surprise, came back for more !!! Well it's been a while since that Autumn day, and many jumps have gone their way. The early days of aprehension ,,,, are GONE my friend, there is no tension. Now jumping's MORE than lots of fun !!!!! and think..... it started with,,, Just One... jimmy tavino uspa # 9452 skydive softly skydive often skydive with friends Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tbrown 26 #60 August 20, 2003 This guy, Jimmy Tavino, who wrote this poem, was one of my Jumpmasters in my student days. I'd already got beyond static line by then, I think the first time I met Jimmy I was making a 5 sec. delay. He's the real thing and we've had more fun over the years - and recently reconnected for the first time in over twenty years through these .com forums! I just always ALWAYS wanted to jump. Parachutes enthralled me. If we ever saw skydivers on a drive in the countryside, my dad would pull the car over, just so we could watch. I watched "Ripcord" faithfully on Friday nights. Jumped off swing sets, out of trees, off garage roofs. It was in my genes I guess. Like Jimmy, I also started in college and even founded a club on my campus. Eventually I moved out west, went hog wild and even made a BASE jump before I finally hung it up and got married. Now 22 years later, I'm back. It really IS in my genes, I started having dreams about putting a new rig together five years ago! It just won't leave me be, thank God. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ksjumper 0 #61 August 20, 2003 When I was a kid we use to have an old military parachute hanging in a shed to keep sparrows from shitting all over stuff. We would cut out pieces from it and tie some twine weighted down by some rocks or army men to them and throw them off the top of a hay stack......... Some years later in college I was standing around a keg getting drunk while someone described a malfunction he had had on a recent jump. That sparked my interest but I was unable to make it to a class because my idiot roomate bounced a check to the phone company. I Bucked up to get the phone turned back on instead of jumping........ I ended up quitting that school and tranferred to a school that also happened to have a jump club(Kansas State). I came up with the jump money($85 in 1987) and the rest is history. JM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve1 5 #62 August 20, 2003 When I was a kid the thought of jumping from a plane scared the hell out of me. In High School I read a book about Smoke Jumpers and knew that someday I had to try it. After graduating from High School I went to Alaska and almost started jumping up there. I was about to be drafted in 1969 so returned back to Montana and joined a Special Forces National Guard Unit. Made my first one out of a C-141 jet at Ft. Benning. Then completed all three phases of S.F. training at Bragg. I loved military jumping and became a jumpmaster, but it wasn't enough. Started skydiving in 1972. B.J. Worth was one of my instructors. After about four years of jumping (300 jumps) I quit jumping to rodeo (bareback bronc riding) and pursue other interests like hunting. Started up again in 2000. Now I have almost as many square jumps as round. It's great to be back!........Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freesoul 0 #63 August 20, 2003 That is so right Man ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freesoul 0 #64 August 20, 2003 Quotenobody knows even me blue sky Sorr, my previous reply was directed to you ! and yes ou are so right ! I know it for sure ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
