paulca

Snap, but... luckily I only had a single 180* twist. I found it rather calming is a sick kind of way... "Fear, you need to leave me now, as you will be of no help here", then sort out the twists. My first jump load was me, 2 dummy pulls and a 3rd timer. Current DZ is Garvagh in Northern Ireland.... thankfully no rivers around, but avoiding cow pats is "optimal!" in the trainee LZ. My girl friend (2nd Jump) went on the lift before me and had the horrifying experience of watching her mate stall in the door, change his mind about 3 times, decide he WAS NOT going to jump and fell out while clawing at the plane door to get back in! Ughf! Would have put me right off! Paul Edit: spelling.

So... as per my first post here I survived my first jump. I have decided to at least 2, hopefully 3 before I decide if it's for me or not. Basically the flying down in the parachute I love to bits, but the 2-3 seconds of falling on the static line I found totally terrifying. I think it's normal but for my first jump I simply blocked thinking about "what would happen" out the door and just thought about my training and "what I had to do". So I basically got a nasty shock when I found myself falling with my brain screaming in terror and anger at me demanding to know what the hell was I thinking and why I just threw myself out of a plane! All the fear I had suppressed exploded inside me, I even forgot I had a parachute! Now... for the second jump I need to think about conditioning myself to make it out the door, but at least remain compus mentus enough to actually count loud enough for the jump master to here me this time and remember I have a parachute that should start to open soon and not to panic! Third jump I hope to maybe start enjoying it! If there is no hint of that, then I may consider paragliding to me more my thing! Any tips or mantras for regulating the fear to a healthy level, somewhere between blocking it all and scaring myself into being a "no jump"? Paul

Yea, strange they didn't check them, maybe they just looked and they were done up and the excess in it's elastic. There wasn't any chance of me falling out of it though. :)

Hey guys, Did my first static line jump on Sunday (3rd July). Managed to contain my fear and get out the door only by completely blanking, masking and ignoring what would happen after I left the plane, except to count of course. So, it came as a shock when I found myself falling rapidly in the wind blast. Fear like I've never felt it before. So bad I actually forgot I had a parachute at all! When it deployed and tugged me into a big swing I was wondering what the hell was going on, beyond falling to me death! Then I remember what I was doing and that I was okay... well.... "...4 thousand.... oh pants, twists." Kick, swing, kick, no good. So I decided that, given the situation a half ar5ed attempt was not the right approach and grabbed the risers pulled them hard apart and swung and kicked like I really meant it.... and out came the twist. It was then... then... I remember I was supposed to tighten the leg straps before getting on the plane, because my altimeter was up round chin on the chest strap and I couldn't see over my shoulder cause my straps where sitting way up over my shoulders.... DOH! Rest of the flight was lovely, once I found the arrow, I just relaxed and listened to the ground instructors guidance and... managed to land on my feet, 2 steps forward and looked up to find my canopy still happily flying above me. Had to improvise getting it down as it didn't seem interested in collapsing. Just pulled one riser and walked back a bit. So... now I have to figure out how to go up and again AND still get out the door again while now knowing what is going to happen in those 2-3 seconds! Paul