Hello from sunny Oklahoma

[Eule 0]

Hello all!

Well, about 29 hours from now, I start my AFF class, and if the weather holds, I'll be jumping out of an airplane for the first time ever on Saturday afternoon.

I've thought about it off and on for several years. A few weeks ago, the idea popped into my head again and wouldn't go away. I've read about it, checked out a couple of DZs, checked with my friends and my other half to see if they thought I was nuts, and haven't found anything to stop me yet, so about the only thing left is to do it.

My plan right now is to at least go all the way through AFF and possibly further, if I don't scare myself sh-tless on the first jump. :)

I'm in the Tulsa area, and will be jumping at Oklahoma Skydiving Center in Cushing (approximately haflway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City).

I think I'm about set. I bought some shoes with no hooks on them, I found out what kind of beer they like at the DZ and will be stopping by the liquor store later today, and I've made up a little sign on a stick that says "Yipe!".

Eule

[thesaint 0]

Hello hello

Welcome to the sport. I think you will have a great time. Relax and enjoy your first freefall. Come back and tell us about it.


Blue Skies.....

"If a thousand people agree on a dumb ideal, it's STILL a dumb ideal."

Skully Bro #1 - POPS# 10440

[Peej 0]

Hey there! Welcome to our world, let us know how your jump goes.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[skymama 37]

Welcome to the forums!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT 0]

Welcome, my first is tomorrow morning. have fun in AFF. funds hold me back till end of july for aff and A liscense training. If u ever get a chance to come towards the DFW area in Texas. there is Skydive Dallas about 3-4 hours away from you. I forsee myself being there alot even if its just to watch. If ur ever going out there pm me in advance and i can be there. its about 1.5 hours from me so at least a day in advance. a week would be even better lol good luck on the first jump. and watch ur step its a doosy

ExPeCt ThE uNeXpEcTeD!
DoNt MiNd ThE tYpOs, Im LaZy On CoRrEcTiOnS!

[WatchYourStep 0]

Good luck tomorrow. I'm just north of you in Kansas. You gotta love the weather in the midwest. Hopefully for both of us the weather clears up for tomorrow.

"You start off your skydiving career with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience up before your bag of luck runs out."

[skydiverbry 0]

Hello Welcome to DZ.com,but most of all welcome to your new ADDICTION!!!!!!!!! BLUE SKIES and please remember Be Safe

--------------------------------------------------
Growing old is mandatory.Growing up is optional!!

D.S.#13(Dudeist Skdiver)

[Kris 0]

You're going to love Cushing! That's where I got licensed at. The new owners are really great people, so you're going to have a blast!

I usually jump at Skydive Hinton or Skydive Dallas, but will definitely be hitting OSC on occasion, too.

If you ever see a 5'8" Messican, in all purple gear, with the body of a god (okay, yeah, so it's Buddha!), come over and introduce yourself!

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

[Eule 0]

Well, I jumped on Saturday afternoon, and I'm still here, so I must have done something right. :)
The quick summary is that I didn't do everything I needed to do during freefall. Once the parachute was open everything went fine. Landing was fine... I fell backwards but not so as to hurt myself. Read on for all the exciting (?) details...

There were thunderstorms (and a nice rainbow) in the morning as I drove to the DZ but I knew it was supposed to clear up later. At the DZ, the staff mentioned some people had called in to cancel because of the weather; I ended up going through the AFF class with two other guys (Kevin and Charles) but I think there were supposed to be a few more. The other two guys knew one another; one is getting married next week and his buddies "kidnapped" him to go skydiving - they didn't tell him where they were going until they got a few miles from the airport! They had brought lunch supplies with them and were kind enough to share it with me at lunch time - thanks guys!

Our instructor was Chris and class went pretty well, I think. The sun came out during class, but the wind also came up, so we had to wait a while after we were out of class. All three of us practiced some more with a practice harness and ripcord, clock altimeter, and a creeper. Kevin and Charles wanted to go one after the other, so I ended up scheduled first. After a bit the winds settled down and I got into my jumpsuit, got a rig, helmet, etc. I am wearing different clothes and there is a bunch of hardware strapped to me... I just might jump out of a reasonably good airplane here in a minute.

After getting the plane (182) fueled, we all got in and got in the air. It gets kind of small in there with five people. My instructors (Bobby and Andy) talked (well, shouted) to me on the way up about altitudes, things on the ground, etc. Hey... the stuff on the ground is getting smaller and this thing on my wrist has started to work and the needle keeps going up...

Three minutes. Two minutes. One minute. Door is opened and it gets breezy in the plane, but not that bad. Chris (also the camera/video man) gets out, Bobby gets out, and then it's time for me to get out on that little step. Once I get out the door, the breeze is just a little stronger. I get out and Andy gets out; I start out up high but get down on the strut like I am supposed to. As I get down on the strut I am looking down at the ground and I get a bit stuck on "I am about to LET GO OF THE AIRPLANE and go DOWN REAL FAST", such that I didn't check in or out. Then I feel both of my instructors tugging up on me and I kick into the sequence... prop, up, down, arch!

Well, at least my arms did the right thing. My legs didn't at first - my body was in the same position as sitting in a chair, but with my chest parallel to the ground. I got my legs pushed back up and felt myself level out. The first circle was OK, and as I looked ahead again, I saw the camera man level with me but relatively far out in front of me (20 feet? 30 feet?). First practice touch, I put my left hand almost flat on my helmet, and got a little wobble from that. Second one I got it up above my head and didn't wobble. The cameraman came in closer and I looked at him. I should have been able to look at him for a second or two and then go on to the second circle, but I let myself get fascinated by this guy falling through the air in front of me.

I became aware that my left side instructor was slapping my wrist. I looked at the altimeter and it was 5500...time to go. I started to go for my ripcord (and my right instructor actually grabbed my hand to get me to it) but I remembered I didn't wave off and put both hands up above my head to do that. When my right arm went away from my ripcord, my right instructor grabbed it and pulled it. As soon as that happened I knew I screwed up, but I didn't get hung up on it.

I did know that my parachute should be opening and I had a split second of "NOTHING IS HAPPENING!" before I settled into my count. I quickly felt a little bump (line stretch? chute coming out of bag?) and then I felt better that it was working. As I kept counting, it opened, and when I got done counting and looked up to check it, it was fine.

Flying the canopy was fun. I thought that swinging out to the side during turning might be a little weird, but it felt fine - I wasn't making any sharp turns anyway, but I also wasn't completely vertical all the time. I started getting "turn... OK, stop turning" over the radio and doing them, then I got a "turn" without a "stop turn". Figuring that they knew best, I went through 90, 180, 270, almost back to 360, when the radio came on with "stop turn" with a hint of laughter. I wasn't spinning out, just making a really complete turn. From then on, the directions were "90 degree turn" and I didn't forget. I could look down and see my feet hanging in space... my instructors landing... people standing in front of the hangar looking up at ME! It took me a bit to remember I could still look at my chest altimeter, and when I did, I was at about 1300 feet. I noticed how they were talking me in to the landing pattern, and how things on the ground were getting closer, but not scarily so.

I came in to land, put my feet and legs together, flared, and landed pretty lightly. I didn't stand straight up quick enough and the canopy was tugging at me so I fell on my butt, but not hard at all. I had to haul one toggle way in to get the canopy collapsed, then I stood up and hollered for a little bit. :) Bundled the lines, gathered up the canopy, went back to the hangar to debrief. I knew I had spaced the second circle and that my ripcord got pulled for me, but I didn't remember that I had spaced the check in/out until I started describing the dive back to Andy.

I got back into my civvies and watched Kevin and Charles leave and land. They did a little better than I did; they had their own ripcords with them when they landed. I think they both enjoyed their dives as well. Chris got my video edited and my stills to me; I watched the video and noticed some more about things I had done and not done. (I didn't remember that I had tried to wave off until I saw it on tape.)

I had jumped at about 6 PM and I watched the other jumpers come in until close to sunset. The staff started breaking out the beer, so I went out to my car and got the cooler I had brought. Chris' comment: "We love you." I had a couple of beers and shared KFC with the staff. We BS'd and told stories; it was good. I didn't think they had gotten too many beers out of my cooler, but when I looked, about 4 of the 24 were remaining. :) Finally I took off. I slept in on Sunday and went back out to the DZ in the afternoon, hoping to get another one in (partly to do better, partly on the theory "get right back in the saddle"), but I missed the good weather while I was sleeping. Next weekend.

Besides the things that I messed up during the dive, if I was going to do this for the first time over again, I would do two things differently: definitely get more sleep the night before, and probably do a tandem as a first dive, to have that first experience of "oh s--- we let go of the plane and are hurtling towards the ground" happening when you don't have to _do_ anything else.

I've attached one of the pictures that Chris took - I have reduced its size and put a caption on it.

I do intend to continue and see what happens - I didn't scare myself out of it on the first jump. Since I jumped, I've been thinking about it nearly constantly. I've told some of my friends and I am slowly breaking it to my family, none of whom know I went and did this. :)

Eule

[WatchYourStep 0]

Eule-

Congratulations! I hope you keep with it. I didn't get any jumps in this weekend due to weather, but that means I get to do 3 or 4 this next weekend. Isn't it an amazing feeling?

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Since I jumped, I've been thinking about it nearly constantly

I know exactly what you are talking about. I hope I never lose this feeling. It makes the work week go a lot quicker when you have something to look forward to.

Keep us posted

"You start off your skydiving career with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience up before your bag of luck runs out."

[HorrorWriter 0]

Congrats, Eule!

Just finished my AFP this weekend. Can't wait for my first legitimate "solo" on Sunday.....and the cooler I will fill with beer:-)

Tim

[Eule 0]

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Congratulations! I hope you keep with it.

Thanks! I am getting ready to make the ~1 hour drive again Saturday morning, so we will see...

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I didn't get any jumps in this weekend due to weather, but that means I get to do 3 or 4 this next weekend.

The DZ staff have been almost apologetic when they explain that the wind is too high, or whatever. I understand that it isn't under their control but some people must get really bent about it. No rain scheduled for this weekend, but possibly too much wind.

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Isn't it an amazing feeling?

Yes! Having said that, it'll hopefully be less "shock" and more "this is cool!" on the next one. :)

Eule

[Eule 0]

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Congrats, Eule!

Thanks!

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Just finished my AFP this weekend. Can't wait for my first legitimate "solo" on Sunday.....and the cooler I will fill with beer:-)

Here's the $0.64 question: are you working skydiving into a story so you can write off the jumps and beer as "research"? :)

Eule
(North American serial rights only)

[HorrorWriter 0]

Hi Eule,

Not a bad idea;-) However, I am considering writing a non-ficiton piece on the experience of zero jumps to getting my A license. I've been taking notes just in case...

[Eule 0]

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I am getting ready to make the ~1 hour drive again Saturday morning, so we will see...

2 jumps on Saturday, 1 on Sunday. On the jump Sunday I finally figured out how to arch correctly.

I've now done a couple of other things, as well: a) stayed overnight at the DZ and b) postponed a trip to see my family because the weather was going to be good for jumping.

I went to see my parents on Monday (for Father's Day); I hadn't told them I was jumping - I just told them I had a tape I wanted to show them. I put in the video of my first jump last weekend and hit "play". After the initial shock, they took it pretty well, and asked a bunch of questions. Then they asked if I had any still pictures that they could show off to their friends at work. I printed some off and I know they were paraded around both workplaces on Tuesday. Both of them are cool with it now.

The weather is supposed to be good this coming weekend... :)

Eule

[HorrorWriter 0]

Sounds like you're having just as much fun as I am! I gave a copy of my video to my folks and they show it to everyone they meet...even my mom wants to jump! Gotta love it...