On July 12th, 2001 while in Las Vegas at Defcon, Dozer went for his first skydive! It was a tandem jump with Dale from Las Vegas Gravity Zone. They say you must be insane if you're not scared to death when jumping out of a plane for the first time, and I guess you can now put me under the insane column. I was completely amped and sooooo ready to jump, pretty much everyone else in the Defcon Jump got to go before I did, so I was sitting there chomping at the bit in anticipation. The plane was an older Cessna C206 with all seats except for the pilot's seat removed. We took off from Jean, NV and it took about 20 minutes to climb all the way up to 11,500 feet. It was about 110 degrees outside, which reduced the plane's engine output, making the climb to altitude take longer than usual. Once there, we flew slightly past the drop zone, opened the door, I put my right foot on the strut and we were AIRBORNE! It was so easy and smooth, once I was in position Dale just pushed us right out and into the air. Freefall was amazing!!! We dropped well over a mile in 35-45 seconds, going head first and plummeting towards the ground like a descending cruise missile.
At approximately 5000 feet, Dale moved us into an upright position and let one rip (pulled the rip cord), after the initial jolt everything was silent. It's incredibly serene and wonderful floating down from a mile in the air. Before we jumped, I'd asked Dale to give me everything he had, and he started to go to work. First he did a couple smooth turns to make sure I was ok, and then we started doing very tight, fast, high g-force turns, spins, hovering in place against the wind, and diving straight down. We had about 5 minutes under the canopy, and then came in for a pretty decent landing into the wind.
It only took that one jump, and now I'm addicted!!! When we got back to the airport, Bob and I immediately set up two more
jumps, one for Sunday at noon, then again for Monday at noon. The second jump was so much better than the first!!! When
jumping for the first time, you're just worried about following the jumpmaster's instructions to the letter. Hook your thumbs
under the shoulder straps, put your foot on the strut, don't touch the door, head up, arch your back, feet back, etc. But the
second time it's already second nature, and you just enjoy being along for the ride!!! This time I noticed so much more, and
was able to blissfully hurtle towards the ground with confidence.
After the second jump, I knew I'd be getting into skydiving as a sport. The initial tandem jumps are $179-$200 each, and worth every penny, but once you're certified and have you're own rig, it's less than $20 per jump! I can deal with that!! Of course I decided to go for it, and started my AFF training (Accelerated Free Fall). They gave me a log book with information on the program, and I studied it like crazy for the next 24 hours. By noon on Monday, I was ready to go, had the entire manual pretty much memorized, from every part of the parachute to hand signals to free-fall speeds and distances. Dale started testing me, and we immediately went to the full T2/Level 4 AFF jump. This third jump was actually a bit of a disappointment, instead of just being along for the ride, I was working frantically to get through the tasks before we hit 6,000 feet. The drill was: Exit the plane, arch, COA (Circle of Awareness, find a reference point on the ground, check altitude, etc...), then find the rip cord, COA again, do a 90 degree turn to the left, COA, 90 degrees back to the right, then COA and watch the altimeter to 5,500 feet. When at 5,500, move the right hand down to the rip cord, and pull it at 5,000 feet! I actually passed with flying colors, although my performance certainly wasn't perfect. My turns were lethargic (it's tough with someone strapped to your back), and I wasn't as relaxed as I should have been, but I still performed the tasks properly!
Once the canopy was open, he gave me the control handles, and I got to fly us down!!! With two people under one canopy, you really have to pull down hard on the control lines, but it's really very easy once you've tried it. He didn't let me bring us in for the landing, as winds were a bit high that day, but I did pretty much everything else on the jump!
Now I know somewhat how a crack addict feels. After the third jump, we got back into Vegas and the adrenaline wore off. I hit bottom, hard, because I knew I wouldn't be jumping again on this trip (Jason and Dale had to leave the next day for Florida for Jumpmaster Training Certification). I just felt completely bummed and sad. So, the next day before leaving to go back to San Francisco, I went and tried indoor skydiving. Wound up doing 5 three minute sessions, 15 minutes total, which is about the same amount of time in 'freefall' as 30 jumps! It's actually far, far more difficult than skydiving itself, as you need to work pretty hard to stay within the specific 20 foot wide column of air, but it gave me a ton of good experience on freefall movement. It should make passing my full AFF much easier as my turns, frontflips, and backflips should be fine even on the first jump.
Woke up Sunday at around 9AM, a paltry 5 hours of sleep, but I had a date with an airplane and a parachute. Headed down to Hollister to the dropzone, and was on the plane within 15 minutes of arrival. I was trying to finish my skydiving certification, and needed to pass levels 5, 6, and 7 to graduate.
First jump, 15,000 feet, everything went very nicely. Performed all the tasks and skills, passed level 5 easily, and popped the chute. Came in for an absolutely beautiful landing, swooped the parachute at 3 feet and came in for a pillow-soft landing, raised my arms in the air and let out a huge WOOT!!! And then *WHAM*, the wind caught my chute which was still inflated and *WHACK* I hit the dirt hard as it dragged me about 10 feet.
Of course the instructors and other jumpers are literally rolling in the dirt laughing, because they know exactly what's going to happen in 15mph winds like that.
2nd jump, 15,000 feet. I was supposed to do a backflip, but somehow smegged things up and wound up doing a frontflip, did my 360 degree turns just fine, did my tracking across the sky, and he passed me. The landing this time was a bit more interesting, did my normal approach starting at 1000 feet, winds were still pretty high, but that usually makes for a nice landing.
At 50 feet I noticed that I was headed directly for a rather large and ponderous cow. When you're that low, there's not much you can do. You can't turn, as the parachute dives and I'd go *SMACK* into the ground. Can't flare, as you need every bit of forward speed going into the wind. So, I got a full deep breath, cupped my hands together, and shouted as loudly as I could:
The cow looks to the left. Nothing. The cow looks to the right. Nothing. The cow cocks his head to the side a bit and looks upwards as well as a cow can. He then notices me hurtling towards him, and just TAKES OFF. That cow hauled the mail outta there faster than I've ever seen any cow run.
Another student had landed about 30 seconds before me about 30 feet away, he hears my bellow, he sees the cow take off, and he falls over in the dirt laughing his ass off. I think more students and instructors get injured watching me land than during their own landings.
Ok, level 5 gone. Level 6 gone, if I can just pass level 7, I'm good to go!
Hop back in the plane, 15,000 feet, do a beautiful diving exit and sub-terminal velocity turn onto the plane's heading as instructed. I go to do my backflip, throw my arms down, head back, legs up, and POOT, went up about 30 degrees. DAMN! Checked altitude, still above 10,000 feet but falling fast. I can do this. I CAN DO THIS. I try it again, arms down, head back, legs tucked and FOOP! Made it up about 45 degrees, then staight back to level.
Dammit! My instructor is watching this the entire time, and almost loses his goggles from laughing so hard. Ok, 9,000 feet, falling fast, time for one more attempt, I grit my teeth, throw my arms downwards HARD, my head back HARD, and simultaneously tuck my knees up towards my chest.
The sky rolls past my eyes, hey, there's the horizon, it's kind of green, and quite upside down. Neat. I keep rolling, the horizon rolls back into view, they've fixed it this time and it's right-side up again. WOOT! Perfect backflip! 8,000 feet, plenty of time left, I spot the dropzone, turn to it, extend my legs, sweep my arms back, and go headfirst towards it at 200mph. 6,000 feet comes up rather quickly at that speed, I wave off, pop the chute, and come down for another perfect landing. No cows, catch the chute this time, and passed level 7 beautifully.
Awesome day of skydiving. Can't wait to go again now that I've graduated AFF.