SkiD_PL8

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.

Looks like it is going to be rain tomorrow but I just found out I don't have to work so I will be out there in the mourning to get my groundschool out of the way. Greenie in training.

Wow, you put alot of effort into that. The things we do out of sheer boredom lol. I bet you have an office job =P Greenie in training.

I haven't made my first skydive yet, however I have some input that may help. I was working on my private pilots license a few years back. One of the other guys that was going through ground school was afraid of heights, and kept saying he wasn't sure if he would be able to handle it when he actually got in the plane. When we went up for the first time it didn't bother him one bit, he even took control of the plane from the co-pilots seat for a few minutes. The instructor told him he was probably only afraid of "solid heights" meaning things that were attatched to the ground. With any luck you will be the same way. Anyway, sorry for the long drawn out story and good luck with your first jump. Greenie in training.

I will definately be there sunday. Looking forward to meeting you and the rest of the people at the dz since I have a feeling I will be spending alot of time there from now on. Greenie in training.

Yes, you are correct with the static line there will be no free fall. However I am going for their traditional training program as I don't really have the cash to knock out the millenium version in any reasonable ammount of time. http://www.archwayskydiving.com/firstjump/training.htm doing the traditional program will have me free falling by myself much faster which is what I am really after so that is what I am going for. Greenie in training.

I have wanted to skydive since the first time I went bungee jumping, nothing is better than the feeling of free fall. Some friends of mine went skydiving at the end of last summer but I had to miss out. The other day I was just sitting at work and decided that I would go this weekend. I spent several hours researching skydiving and this was one of the most helpful sites I found, and was loaded with useful information. The DZ I am going to (Archway Skydiving Center) only offers tandem or static line as a first jump, no AFF so I decided on static line, and I will be jumping saturday if I don't have to work and sunday if I do. I just thought I would say hi, and introduce myself as I have a feeling as soon as I make that first jump I will be hooked. Greenie in training.