My first jump was simply amazing. As I approached the door to the plane, I was scared. I have always been afraid of heights. The view from the door is the most frightening thing I have ever seen. However, I had decided that I was going to do this. So, as I got in position, I forced my mind to ignore the fear. In the video, you can't even see me hesitate. I got into position, ran through the hotel check, and jumped. What I was thinking at the time is in quotes: "Gee, this is loud." A second passed. "My God, I'm not in the plane anymore." You have to understand, almost everyone who dives, experiences 'sensory overload' for the first few seconds of the first jump. I was no exception. However, once I realized I was falling, I was fine. Also, there was no sensation of falling. In fact, it felt like floating on a strong wind. Another second passed. "Ok... Horizon," I looked at the horizon. "Altimeter," I looked at my altimeter. "Secondary," I looked at the guy hanging onto my left side and he yelled "good". "Primary," I looked at the guy on my right, and he gave my the 'arch more' sign. "I'm arching as much as I can!" I pushed my arms a little higher. My primary JM gave me the thumbs up sign. "Ok, time for the practice rip cord touches." "Look," I looked toward the rip cord. I could not see my rip cord, but I knew where it was. "Touch," I touched my rip cord. "Recover," I restored my arch position. I did that two more times. Then, "horizon," I looked at the horizon. "Altimeter," I looked at the altimeter. "Secondary," I looked at my secondary JM and he yelled "good". "Primary," I looked at my primary JM and he gave me the thumbs up sign. "Good, that's over with." I looked at my altimeter. "Wow, I'm still above 12,000 feet! Hey, there's the cameraman." Seeing the cameraman really relaxed me. I'm not sure why. "Why are my hands clenched?" I let my hands go loose. I waved at the cameraman. "This is great! It feels like I'm floating! This is awesome!" For the next 40 seconds or so, I just enjoyed the fall, and looked at my altimeter every few seconds. It was incredible. I can't even begin to tell you what it was like. Then, at 5,500 feet, I gave the JMs the 5-5 sign. Then at 4,500 feet, "look", I looked toward the rip cord. "Reach," I grabbed the rip cord. "Pull," I pulled the rip cord. "Check," I twisted my body just a little as I checked the rip cord. (That gets rid of the vacuum above your back.) "One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand. Parachute looks good. ... That was really easy!" I released the steering toggles and went through the control check. A right turn, a left turn, full brakes, everything was working fine. I could hear the radio. The guy on the radio said, "all right, good job. Can you see the airport? It's almost right below you." I looked down, and saw the runway and field. I floated around for quite a while, just enjoying the scenery. It was beautiful. Then, came the landing. As I approached, the instructor on the radio told me when to turn and when to stop turning. Then, about three seconds before I hit the ground, he said "flare, flare, flare." I flared. That means I pulled on the brakes. I landed very softly. I was not prepared for the forward momentum, so I ended up on my knees. However, it really was a gentle landing. Before I went to Pepperell, I had been under the impression that the landing would be harder.
I was a little nervous on the plane ride up, but once I stepped up to the door, I was fine. I ran through the hotel check and jumped without any problem at all. The first COA went fine. I couldn't see the rip cord during the PRCTs, but I hit it every time. Then the second COA went fine. So, I looked to my left and dropped my left shoulder and turned left. I stopped the turn. Then I looked at my altimeter. We were still plenty high enough, so I looked to the right. I dropped my right shoulder and turned right. I looked at my altimeter. We were still high enough, so I extended my legs and traveled forward for a little while. When I stopped the forward movement, one of my JMs gave me the legs out sign. I readjusted my legs. Then, it was time to give the 5-5 sign and then pull. Everything went fine. I was really excited and really wanted to jump again.
The hotel check, exit, COAs, and PRCTs went fine. After my second COA, the JMs let go. As soon as they did, I went into a left spin. I corrected it, but it took a great deal of effort. I was concentrating so hard on trying to figure out what was wrong with my body position that I forgot to watch the altimeter. Then, one of my JMs put his hand in front of my face and pointed at my altimeter. I was at 4,000 feet! I was supposed to pull at 4,500! As soon as I realized that I was capable of forgetting something so important, I panicked. I reach for the rip cord with both my hands. That caused my body to angle sharply downwards. So, the parachute kind of snapped me up when it opened. It didn't really hurt, it was just unpleasant. The rest of the jump went fine. My landing was the softest I have had to date.
This jump was much better than my third jump. I went into a left turn every time I looked down at my altimeter. However, besides that, I was able to hold a good heading and I had great altitude awareness (I won't ever forget that again). The landing was ok.
Every time I looked at my altimeter, I turned right. Besides that, the jump was ok. I tried to get too fancy on the landing. I ended up flaring way too late. I fell down on my face and skidded across the grass a couple of feet. I was ok, but I'll remember not to do that again.
This time, I had so much torque on my body, I didn't even try to meet the objectives of the lesson. I just concentrated on keeping my body stable. I corrected for the torque, and fell straight. Afterwards, my JM told me that my problem was that my legs weren't in the right position. She gave me an exercise to do on the ground that was supposed to teach my legs the correct position. It really helped.
[I fell straight! I only turned when I wanted to! I was rocking back and forth a little, but besides that I was doing great. Then, near the end of the freefall, I figured out the balance point. From then on, I was rock solid. No rocking at all.]
This was an incredible dive! Everything I did was crisp and smooth. The jumpmaster let go of me right after we left the plane and moved around in front of me. Then I did a 360 in each direction. After doing the turns, I realized that I hadn't thought about what I needed to do to turn and to stop the turn. My body just knew what to do. Then, I moved forward toward my instructor (that was planned, he had purposely moved away from me). I was really moving fast as I approached him, but when it came time to stop, I stopped. I had just decided to stop when I noticed that my body had automatically responded to my decision and had gone into a perfect arch position to stop the forward movement. It was incredible. I no longer had to think at all about what to do, I just had to think that I wanted to do something and it happened. After the forward movement, I was on "free-time". I could do whatever I wanted to do. So, I did some turns and spins. For example, I'd start a fast left turn, then after turning 90 degrees, I'd crank my body even harder and go into a really fast spin. Then, when I had spun 360 degrees (so I was facing the JM again), I'd stop the spin. The crispness of my movements and the stability of my body was simply incredible. The seven jumps I did before this one now seemed boring and uneventful in comparison. WHAT A DIVE!!!
I enjoyed this dive. It was the first time I jumped without anyone holding on. We took the Cessna up to 11,500', but could not go any higher because of heavy cloud cover. When it was time, I climbed out onto the step, hanging onto the strut. I then had to wait there until we could see a hole in the lower cloud bank. That was interesting. However, I am pleased to note that I have gotten over my fear of heights (at least when I'm wearing a parachute). I wasn't scared at all, even though I was standing on a 14"x4" (approximately, I didn't measure it) step in a 70-80 MPH wind, over 2 miles above the ground. Then once the JM thought he saw an opening we could jump through, I jumped. He left the plane right after me. It took me a few seconds to get my body positioned so I wasn't turning. But, once I did, I was falling straight and steady. Then, I watched the JM do a back roll. That looked really cool. I tried a backroll. I got it right, I was just a little tilted to the side. Then I stabled out nicely. I discovered that we weren't going to hit the hole in the clouds. We were actually going to fall through a cloud! Up to this point, I had never had anything to compare my speed to. So, I had never really experienced the speed. However, I got to watch the cloud approach very quickly, then, suddenly all I could see was white, then a few seconds later, everything was clear. It was really cool. Then, I found the airport and turned toward it. Once I was facing the airport, I tried to do a head-down track. That's when you straighten your legs, and bring your hands back toward your waist. That position causes your body to tip down sharply. In that position, you fall much faster, but you also 'track' quickly across the sky. When I tried it, I did it too quickly, and tried to do too much. So, when my body tipped down, it was really, really fast, and the pressure caused my waist to bend a little. Once my waist bent, I rolled over on my back. That all happened in less than a second. Now, I was falling, facing the sky. But, I remembered the training, and flipped myself over without any problem at all. I actually rather enjoyed it. It's nice to know that even when I am completely upside down, I can still return to the proper face-down arch position. Unfortunately, I was already at about 6,300', so I didn't have time for any more maneuvers (during the course, you can't do maneuvers below 6,000'). So, I just enjoyed falling for a little while. Then, I waved off at around 5,000'. I had told my JM that I wanted to wave-off early because I wanted to spend a few seconds trying to adjust my body into a position that would allow me to see my rip cord. I managed to de-arch just enough to see the rip cord. I lowered my left shoulder just a little too far, causing my body go into a slow left turn. However, it was a very slow turn, and I was still in control. So, I ignored it. I pulled the rip cord. The slow turn caused a half twist in the lines, but it spun itself out before I had time to deal with it. The canopy ride was nice. Then, I managed to land really close to the target. I think I was within 15' of it. All in all, it was a great jump. I really, really enjoyed it. People talk about going to New England to see the fall foliage. I say, you should see it from 13,500 feet! On a clear day, you can see all the way from Pepperell (on the N.H. border) to Cape Cod. The fall colors are extremely impressive and beautiful in that view!
This was a great jump. We took the Cessna up to 12,500. Then, I climbed out facing the tail of the plane. Once I checked to make sure my JM was ready, I said, "Ready...Set...Go!" and jumped. When I jumped, I aimed toward the tail, but at a 45 degree down-angle. I ended up doing a full flip. Then, I stabilized, and did a backroll. After I stabilized again, I did a 360 to the right, and a 360 to the left. I was getting close to 8,000', so didn't try another backloop. I then tried tracking. This time, it went well. I had a little head to toe buffeting, but nothing serious. Then, I stopped and went into "neutral". I wanted to feel the deep angle track one more time, so I allowed myself to tip forward, then returned back to neutral. I waved off at 4,000' and pulled at 3,500'. I passed the level, so I'm no longer an AFF student.
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Web site by Carl P. E. dos Santos (carl@tiac.net).
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