Ok, that was pretty cool...

[agallag]

Did my first freefall today. It was a "Progressive Freefall" from 10,500', so I jumped with two instructors, but I still had to do pretty much everything myself. It went very well, quite a rush. It's surprising cold up that high too, but you drop down to warmer air pretty quickly. It was about 35s of freefall, and I pulled the chute at around 4500', followed by about 4-5 minutes under canopy. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some excitement.

[SitFlyer]

[Marshmallowman]

I have had a few freinds that have done it, they were totaly buzzing for the next week. And they all said they should have booked two jumps instead of one

One of them forget to release his chute at the correct height so one of the instructors that jumped with him did for him...I gues he was just having so much fun he forgot

[Byock]

Since I suffer from acrophobia, I think I would be dead before I got to open the chute.

Would be quite a rush though.

[Dr Mordrid]

agallag

Once you get more jumps under your belt go get the required physical and if you pass look into doing at least one HALO jump. Typically on your first HALO you go out at 24,000, then if all goes well the next one's at 30,000.

There is no substitute and by all means have someone taking pictures

Dr. Mordrid

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Byock
...I think I would be dead before I got to open the chute...

Why would someone with wings need a chute?
chuck

[gt40]

Chickens can't fly!
Don't forget why they called them chickens after all

[cjolley]

Originally posted by gt40
Chickens can't fly!
Don't forget why they called them chickens after all

Well of course agallag didn't fly either!
Surly Byock could at least glide!
chuck

PS For some reason this subject makes me relate strongly to Byock

[mutz]

Uh-oh... err, umm... Something going on here we should know about?

[cjolley]

Originally posted by mutz
Uh-oh... err, umm... Something going on here we should know about?

Just thinking about jumping out of an airplane, for any reason, makes me feel like I am sprouting chicken feathers!
chuck

[Fat Tone]

Congrats and well done Andrew. I'd LOVE to do it, but I doubt I'd be allowed with my BMI.

I could seriously take up hang-gliding, or microlite-ing, but that's another story.

Go again!

T.

[Kooldino]

Cool! I've always wanted to skydive!

[Marshmallowman]

GuchiGuh: could well have been, all I know is they did it locally.

[agallag]

That was actually my second jump, just my first freefall. The first jump was Instructor Assisted Deployment (IAD), where the chute is deployed as soon as you leave the plane. I'm glad I did that one first, since it got me used to the feeling of climbing out of a plane while it's flying and the initial leap and everything. I was much more relaxed when jumping, I didn't even think about the fall.

Strangely enough, there wasn't even that much of a sense of falling. It was just really really windy for a while.

Anyway, I don't think I'm quite hooked yet. I just cant justify the money it'd take to progress much farther. I'm trying to save up for a condo and a new motorcycle, so I can't be spending over $200 per jump during the training process. Maybe I'll continue in a few years or something...