So, is it noisy during the free fall? Is there a horrendous whooshing of air?
mmm
Yes, it’s very loud. I usually wore earplugs when I jumped.
Skydiving is awesome. I don’t like heights either, but it seemed like fun. The feeling is indescribable. Just force yourself to do it, you’ll not regret it
I did it once back in about 1979. You spent some time learning what to do if something went wrong. I had no idea so many things could go wrong. How to steer. What to do if your parachute didn’t collapse when you landed. Practicing your roll for touchdown. I got downgraded for “not making an aggressive exit”. I fainted and only woke up when the chute opened. My roll practicing notwithstanding, I landed flat on my back. The chute, of course, did not collapse and while I was trying to remember what to do if that happened it drug me several hundred feet through the brush. I am only glad nothing went wrong, since I was not awake to do anything about it if it had. I doubt I would have remembered what to do anyway. I had another jump coming that day. I did not take it. The experience did, however, cure me of my quest to find the world’s scariest roller coaster.
Johnny L.A. - that’s where I went to skydive way-back-when! Perris in California. It’s something I’m glad I did, but I’d never do it again.
I did back in October. It was a tandem. Scary as hell when the door opened at 14k feet. I was hanging off the edge plane a few moments before my host jumped with me attached. My mind was just racing. It was a bit hard to breath with the relative wind in my face as we were falling. Once the chute opened it was very peaceful and quiet. He instructed me on the landing on the way down. We were in the air at least 5 minutes after jumping. I was on an adrenaline high for a few hours afterward and crashed out later.
I got given a jump for my 30th birthday.
My experience was almost identical to ArchiveGuy’s: a full day of training, followed by a freefall jump (from 13,000 feet) with two spotters and a videographer.
It was awesome.
I’ve jumped at Perris Valley Skydiving; it’s a well-run dropzone with an excellent safety record going back many years.
For over a decade now, more skydiving fatalities have involved collisions and hard landings than any other category. Skydivers are killing themselves (and sometimes others) with open, functional canopies over their heads. :smack:
High performance canopies are very popular these days. They’re extremely fast and a lot of fun. Jumpers build up speed for a swoop landing by doing a 180 degree turn (or 270 or greater) just before landing. Unfortunately, this eats up altitude and the consequence of mis-timing it can be disastrous.
Also, when performing a radical turn it is very difficult to see what’s in front of you until you level out. Jumpers are supposed to make certain no one else is below or in front of them before making such a maneuver. The low canopy has the right of way. Under canopy, a jumper’s blind spot is above and behind them. Jumpers taking a straight-in approach have been killed by people swooping into them from above & behind.
I was always very conservative under canopy. I didn’t do hook turns or swoop landings and when lots of canopies were in the air I avoided the closer, more congested landing areas. I’d rather land where there is plenty of room and little traffic. I didn’t mind walking a little farther to get back.
Not intentionally.
I did four static-line jumps with an outfit in Muleshoe, Texas (yes, that’s a real town name) called High Plains Drifters. Two on each of two occasions. That was 30 years ago. A friend and her husband were going to do it and asked if I wanted to go along. Being a hot young daredevil, I jumped (heh) at the chance.
I recall there was a rule in the US – regulation, law, whatever – that a person must do a minimum of five static-line jumps before his or her instructor can give the green light for a free fall. The static-line jumps were hairy enough. I decided I did not want to graduate to free fall, so I quit while I was ahead. Got a neat little certificate and a T-shirt out of it, too.