I went skydiving for the first time today. I’m afraid it wasn’t nearly as fun as I was hoping.
Read all about it at my web page on the subject,
http://www.dim.com/~mackys/irregular/current/skydiving.html
Questions/Comments/Flames?
-Ben
You’re gonna have a hell of a lot of responses to this one. I think you’ll have better luck targeting the missionaries of the south congo, maybe one of them will respond.
Sounds to me like you didn’t take a 1st Jump course, you just did a tandem. The two are nothing alike.
A 1st Jump course would have you spending that half-day in training. All sorts of training. Training if THIS happens, training if THAT happens, training how to hold your body, training on THIS, and THAT and if something happens HERE.
What do you do when THIS happens?
Good.
What do you do if THAT happens?
Alright.
What do you do when THIS happens?
…and you get the idea.
For a half (actually more like 2/3rds of a day), they drill all of this into you.
Your first jump, when you do get to it, is on your own. You jump out of the plane solo (but the chute opens pretty much right away). This does go towards your eventual licence.
The Tandem jump (which you did) is a ride. Plain and simple. It counts nothing towards your training or becoming a parachutist.
What you need ot do is go back and explain to them that you have done the tandem jump, and you are interested in getting your licence. You want to sign up for the “1st jump course”.
Now, if you’re anything like me, then skydiving will not really thrill you until you’ve taken the jump (about your 8th, depending on which set of courses you take) that has you pulling your own chute, or at least one where you are falling from 10,000’ and in freefall for more than 3 seconds linked to instructers (not attached).
When you start getting into the phase where the saftey measures are second nature and not part of your conscious thinking, and you realize you’re in control of your own destiny, and you’re out there pretty much on your own for your own ride, when you start enjoying “this ground rush s#1t”, THAT is when the smile widens on your face.
That is the kick.
I noticed that the operation you went to says that a tandem was a required first jump.
Horse hockey!
It’s too abd you didn’t post BEFORE you went and spent your money. Because, unless things have changed drastically since I left, a tandem is NOT required as a first jump. A 1st jump is required as a first jump.
Sounds like these guys were scooping in your cash.
Go to another DZ.
It sounds like skydiving has become a victim of its own popularity and they are doing whatever they can to get as many customers thru the process as possible. It’s become so sanitized that it’s like getting in line and riding a roller coaster. Back in the early 80’s I went skydiving with a local club. We had an hour of video and safety instruction, then out to the field to practice landing by jumping off a 3-4 foot high platform, then into the plane. These were static line jumps, so we only went to 3000 feet and the time to opening was only about 5 seconds. After opening, you check the chute, then look to the ground to find your spotter. They had a large white arrow on the ground on a pivot. An instructor would point the arrow in the direction you should be facing. If you turned exactly like they tell you, you hit the landing target (an area of soft small gravel) exactly. The parachutes appeared to be WWII surplus, big round ones with very sluggish handling. If something went wrong with the main, you’d have to open the reserve by hand. The cost of the first jump was about $50. Subsequent jumps (I did 2 more) where about $35. If you did 15 static line jumps well enough, you could do some more training and then a solo free fall. It was fun, but not so much fun that I wanted to stick with it. The only bad experience I had was on my last jump. I didn’t tighten the leg straps well enough, and during the squirming around in the plane, my left testicle got under the strap. When the chute opened and my entire body weight came down on my left nut, my eyeballs nearly exploded! Squirming around in the harness only made it worse. I really concentrated on hitting the target so I wouldn’t have too far to walk to the car. When I got down, the instructor said something like “you did very well, would you like to come to a competition with us next week?” I could only squeek “no thanks” and limp off.
I’ve never heard of an SD outfit requiring a tandem jump as one’s first jump. I always recommend that people do what I did and spend the extra money and time and do “accelerated free fall” (AFF) as their first jump. I did it at Hartwood Paracenter in Virginia. The jump is from 10000+ feet, off the wing of the plane, and two instructors jump with you and match your speed so they’re with you until you pull the chute thousands of feet later.
You get a certificate, and the jump counts in your [new] jumplog.
Is accelerated free fall is as redundant as it sounds? At least on Earth?