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http://spiceweasel.net/skydiving/skydiving.html

Say... you weren't jumping in Luverne, MN were you? Just curious, a female student had an unplanned late corn lunch Saturday there. cavete terrae.

While it's still fresh in my mind, I should write about my first jump. At 5am, my alarm clock sounded. At first, I reached for the snooze button, since I normally don't have any good reason to be up.. however, halfway to the clock, my brain reminding me that today, I would be skydiving. Instantly awake, I climbed out of bed and into the shower. I arrived at the DZ around 730 and by 3pm, I had finished the static line training class and practical work, with a perfect score on the written test. Unfortunately, I didn't make the first load of students, so I had plenty of time to watch. Before my class got their first load, we all watched some of the more advanced students do their last load. One of them had a cutaway, and high-flared his reserve into a pretty rough landing. This set some of the students on edge. I was happy to see the reserves work at the school, but I still got a bit nervous, though I would soon forget about it. We all posed for a group photo, and then starting loading up for our jumps. I watched 8 students come down, almost all of them forgetting to do PLFs in their excitement. I counted 6 ass slides, 1 stand-up, and 1 faceplant, and decided with a grin I wasn't going to ignore our order to do a PFL on the first landing, even if we stuck the landing perfectly. Around this time, I noticed the two cute blonde girls watching all the students jump. Myself, 2 other students, the JM, and the pilot all piled into the C206, with me going in last. As the heaviest student, I knew I'd jump first on my load, and this made me kinda antsy. As we began to taxi, the grin finally showed up on my face. We closed the door and took off without event, and I found myself checking the altimeter every few seconds to see how close we were. Around 2,000 the JM had me unbuckle my seatbelt, and clipped my static line in, and had me give it a tug to reassure me. 3,600 feet according to my altimeter: The door was opened, and the sudden rush of wind and noise made my heartbeat accelerate, but I started laughing, because I knew I was close to either mortal terror for the rest of my life, or the most fun ever. "GET YOUR FEET OUT AND STOP!" came the JM's call. I placed my left hand on the 206's wing strut, and pulled myself to the edge of the door, placing my boots on the step. I made eye contact with the JM. "GET ALL THE WAY OUT AND HANG" came the next call. This was where I anticipated having problems getting myself to do it. Without looking at the ground, I moved my right hand to the strut, and was surprised at the power of the wind, though I shouldn't have been. I crouched on the step, slowly slid my hands up the strut, and stepped off the platform, where I realised I was hanging 3,600 feet off the ground, going 80mph. I looked to my JM, who nodded, gave me a thumbs-up, and said "LOOK UP!" I looked up at the red dot, screamed "DOT!" and let go, making a hard arch. Thus began my fall into nothingness. I tried to do the count to myself, but the sensory overload prevented me from doing so. A few seconds later, I heard my canopy open, and looked over my right shoulder to confirm it was a clean opening. No slider hang, no bag lock, no streamer, no line twists. I was good to go, and I let the world know this with some profane screaming and whooping. I grabbed the toggles and unstowed my brakes, doing a few hard turns to get used to the controls. At this point, the radio on my helmet came alive, and began giving me directions. I looked around and got my bearings, and began to laugh. Oh man, I couldn't stop laughing. I could just barely make people out on the ground, and I remember screaming to them: "YOU ARE ALL MIDGETS! ANTS, I TELL YOU!" I did some hard spinning turns, at the ground crew's instruction, and couldn't stop shouting out how fun it was. Eventually, the fun had to stop, so I was directed to begin my downwind leg when I got to 1000AGL. At 600AGL, I turned left into my base leg. At 300AGL, it was time for final. I made my approach, and prepared for landing. When I was told to flare, I did so, and stuck the landing. I then remembered to PFL, and did this, even though it wasn't the least bit necessary. After all, you've gotta follow directions. I stood up, screamed, laughing, shouted, and bounced around for a minute before I daisy chained my lines and picked up my canopy. I walked back to the hangar with a huge grin, and it still hasn't left my face. cavete terrae.

I'm a big guy, 6'3", 225lbs, and 265lbs in the student gear,and when I did my jumps yesterday, the leg straps really bit into my legs once I was in the saddle. I have a lot of student jumps left before I buy my own rig, but do you guys have any suggestions for making the jumps less painful in the meantime, and for a good comfy harness when the time comes? cavete terrae.

(@!*#&(!@#!@

Hopefully you won't repeat my experience of completing ground school at 1330 and finding wind hold, to be replaced by cloud hold by 1700. Ground school isn't any shorter for S/L, is it? Good luck! 6 hours or so, I'm told cavete terrae.

Gar, I'm too excited to sleep. In any case, not military static line, I just tend to think on a 24 hr clock, dunno why. cavete terrae.

Well, I better get to bed. Gotta get up at 0500 to get ready, 2 hour drive to the drop zone, gotta be there at 0800 cavete terrae.

Hockey: My goalie pads must always go on in the same order. If I can't remember, I take 'em off and start oever. I will not skate over the red line. I step over it. Soccer: Same undershirt under my keeper jersey, every game. Dangerous sports (cliff diving, SCUBA, and now skydiving): I never check my mail the day before, or the day of, participation. I don't know where I got this one, I just started doing it. cavete terrae.

I'm so excited, and yet, scared cavete terrae.

Yeah, I joined a couple of years ago, when I was planning on going originally, it just never happened for any number of reasons. Now that I'm committed, I plan on going through to at least my "A" licence over the next few months cavete terrae.

I'm finally going, and I guess I'll be the first to review my DZ cavete terrae.

*ding*, that's the boy. Yeah, I dig his stuff cavete terrae.

Technically, no :D Laptop + 802.11b, so I unplugged teh power when I woke up

I just woke up to go to the dunny and get something to drink, in time for the single biggest electrical storm I've ever seen in my entire life. It's INSANE!!!! House has been hit twice already, mega rain, mega winds, and MEGA MEGA MEGA lightning!!! On another hill a few miles away, I can see a bunch of cop/firetruck/meatwagon lights, so something's apparently going on there, to boot. CRAZINESS!!! Wish I had a video camera! Time to get back to the living room and watch some more! cavete terrae.

Dohhhh, as goose once said "This is NOT good, Mav!". Hope it turns out ok cavete terrae.

OMFG, I can't stop laughing at the mental image! hahhahaha cavete terrae.

Those of you who are big Clancy fans might want to look into Dale Brown's stuff, he's an ex-USAF guy, so a lot of it is aviation-related, but it's really quite good. I've had people say it's too technical, but as a military fiction nut, and player of all games flight simulator, I don't really notice :D cavete terrae.

bloody hell, I agree ;) cavete terrae.

Hm. I have this strange feeling that as a non-drinker, my first jump, followed by my 21st birthday 9 days later, are going to be wierd :D cavete terrae.

A friend of mine mentioned how on his first solo jump, he ended up hucking it about 2 miles back to the DZ due to some sudden winds, anyone have any similar or funny stories? cavete terrae.

Yup, I've been through that before, twice, actually. Once it was rectified during a hockey game, I took a puck to the leg and the problem went away, the second time I went to my trainer and he sent me to...SURPRISE!!! a masseuse, who promptly fixed me up. Good luck! cavete terrae.

Just kidding, you know me, well, I guess ya don't, but heh, I'm a kidder cavete terrae.

Oh Jessica, I see how it is. You'll answer -his- newbie questions, but not mine? Jeeeeez cavete terrae.

Whoa....you're good :D In bed with a book Mac's mail client makes "that sound" reply to my post. velvet skies hold stars I hope to drift through twilight a night jump calls me drone of the engine I hear a plane overhead does it hold jumpers? sky coloured by silk the man I want to be floats at peace in the skies a strange thought occurs family scared of the extreme will I be disowned? cavete terrae.