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Today I did my first static line skydiving jump. The scariest part of it for me was climbing out of that plane!! The reason being (no, not because its stupid to jump out of a perfectly good plane , ) the wind was roaring up there and you had to force your legs over and set them on a small metal plate. Then when the jumpmaster told you, you had to pull yourself up, using the strut of the plane, and had to hang from the strut in mid-air, plane going 80 mph, wind blowing HARD, and legs dangling, till told to go. In the air, I did fine till it came time to land. Your supposed to pull down on your toggles (steering mechanism of the chute) at around 10' to brake the chute, which lifts you up and slows down your fall. Guess what I did? NOTHING!! I never what they called flared or put the brakes on my chute. There is a circle of 2b stones about 8'in diameter that I was going for that the more skilled divers land in. I was so preoccupied with that, that I didn't do nothing but landed and rolled pretty hard. I did make it to the edge of the circle.

Well I had to redeem myself, so I had to do it again. Everything went well again, climbing out was still somewhat scary, but I did it. Landing time I flared the chute but at about 25'. Another hard landing but way less than the previous one. Again i didn't get hurt at all. They do put a radio in your velcroed shut pocket but I don't know, I overcompensated cause when the jumpmaster said 1 on the radio, I was supposed to just pull the toggles to my shoulders, instead I pulled them all the way down. he said if I would of listened to him, I would of made the experienced circle. I had a BLAST, only wish the radio was in the helmet, had a little bit of a hard time hearing him. I don't know, maybe I had sensory overload. Was a heck of a great time though!!

My sister is small and when it was time to hang from the strut, she couldn't hold her weight in midair and went before they had a chance to tell her to go. It didn't affect anything and she did well.

Oh yeah, this makes me want to try sky diving.

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In the air, I did fine till it came time to land.

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It's not the fall that kills you it's the sudden stop.

Seriously though, Rick. Glad you enjoyed it and congratulations. I don't think I'd ever be able to convince myself to do that even though I love the of just floating in the wind like that.

Congratulations Rick. I'm sure you've heard this already, but now tell me................Wasn't that the most fun you've ever had w/ your clothes on?
Wait untill you get those static line jumps out of the way and start freefalling. It's an expensive hobby, but well worth it.

Cool

When i was younger I always wanted to have a go at parachuting, but as ive got older i started to chicken out.

Im now at the point where im not even sure if i want to go up in one of those little propeller engined planes. Let alone jump out of the darn thing.

Just think, if you go up in the right little prop plane........... with a chute already on your back..........what's there to worry about?

Skydiving is on my list of things I want to try at least once.

Soren

I am lucky enough to have had 35 military jumps and about 17 sport parachute jumps-have not done it for a while (I had real difficulty ever getting stable in freefall, and our local club folded.) Anyway, I heartily recommend it to anyone-there is just nothing like the feeling of floating under that canopy.

I took a static line jump with a bunch of buddies 20 years ago.

Thrilling? Yes. Did I do it again? No. I did determine as did all of us that day that the idea of leaving a perfectly functional aeroplane for no other reason than to get a thrill was just barmy.

Good timing! I'm taking my static line jump together with the wife in two weeks and we're getting pretty excited!!!

You will find that this will RAISE your heart rate just slightly. LOL.

I remember as we boarded the litte cessna in small groups and taxid out and took off the ole ticker starts to thumpity thump a little harder and your mind starts to play tricks on you . (example given.....you idiot this is a perfectly good aeroplane...why would you want to jump out it?)

My feet felt like lead when it was my turn to step out onto the wing spar and prepare to launch myself.

Its a thrill even if you only do it once.

Matt,

Don't forget to post how you liked it and how you all did. Its a blast! If I can figure out how to put my video on Youtube I'll post it.

Rick

A few months before I moved to the country, a little old granny across the street decided to try a jump. When it was time, she stood at the door for a bit, then fished up her tranceiver thing from around her neck and shouted, "Help, I;ve gotten up and can't fall down!"

Here's a pic my buddy took from the ground.

Back in my Army days, we had a saying:

"Only 2 things fall from the sky, Bird sh*t and fools".

Now granted that was the classic reponse when they came looking for voluteers to go to jump shcool. (no offence to any Rangers or Paratroopers past or present who may be memebers).

But I guess there is a big difference between military and sport jumping. Maybe if I was 20 years younger I'd try sport jumping, Then again maybe I wouldn't

sticking to muff divin'