Jim's response to an inquiry by one of the regulars as to whether or not he is an instructor really had me ready to hop out of a plane with this guy.
Jason and Jim are my instructors for this jump, level 1 of the AFF program! I had come running back to Sebastian as soon as I could to begin my training. First was the ground school from Dee. After 4 and a half hours the other student and I were VERY ready to get a jump in. I hadn't eaten anything all day and had only drank coffee, but I was so preoccupied with learning everything and the apprehension of my first jump with my own chute that the butterflies kept the hunger away.
So, here we are making final preparations for the jump and another nugget of stress comes this time from Jason's lips- "If you pull, you pass". I thought over the other option for the next few minutes as we board the plane and taxi to the runway.
I don't remember much of this jump at all. They told me I got hand signals to arch more and extend my legs, but I have no recollection. They showed me video of my practice pulls which were a laugh. I was reaching back and grabbing Jim's hand. He would try to help me reach the handle and you see me frantically fighting him off. It was really very funny.
Next thing I know one of them has shoved their altimeter in my face. I have a hard time reading it for some reason, and had never actually read a dial style alti before so I spent several seconds trying to figure out what it said.
At 5,500 one of them gave up on me and gave me the pull signal. I frantically waved off and began twisting around to reach the pull handle. After fighting Jim again for a few seconds I did finally throw the pilot at about 4,600 feet, 900 feet low.
I cannot describe the feeling of relief once I looked up and saw a normally opened canopy over my head. The emergency training we were given was great, but knowing all the possible failures is a little scary at first. I spent some time visually checking the chute, then grasped the brake toggles. I performed each of the control checks very methodically to ensure I did them correctly. Great, it steers both directions and brakes fine, whew.
Uh oh, this is when I realized that there was no airport in front of me. As a matter of fact, there is no airport anywhere near me! We were the last out of the plane and my control checks took so long I had spent a good time drifting the wrong direction.
I was many blocks into a residential area. I turned around and saw at least 8 blocks of houses, a full golf course, and after that, the airport. Oh, the WRONG SIDE of the airport. I turned myself around quickly to start heading back.
Did I mention that at this point I am just above 2,000 feet! I have no idea how far I can fly this thing before it reaches the ground and I need to make a landing decision pronto! Oh, one more thing- the wind is at my back. That sounds good and I'm sure it helped me fly further, but it means I've got to pull a 180 to land into the wind.
I keep my heading and hope the thing will fly me far enough to land an opposite landing pattern on the wrong side of the airport. They taught us to make a landing decision and stick to it, so this was my decision.
Around 1,800 feet Jim came on the radio. I couldn't have been happier to hear his voice telling me to keep my heading and prepare to land on this side of the airport. He walked me through flying in and essentially turning a 180 into wind just before hitting the ground. This was similar to my plan, but more or less gave up on a landing pattern all together.
I flared the chute at about 2' (should be done at 10 - 12') and came down very hard directly on my butt. This hurt very much. I stood up and waved to show them I was okay. Amanda had the wonderful task of driving the van across the airport to pick my dumb ass up.
Well, that could have gone better and I spent the next twelve hours or so really worried that I had hurt my lower back. So, I decided to be logical about it and jump again as soon as they would let me. :-)
I planned to return the following morning.
Jason and Jim are my instructors for this jump, level 1 of the AFF program! I had come running back to Sebastian as soon as I could to begin my training. First was the ground school from Dee. After 4 and a half hours the other student and I were VERY ready to get a jump in. I hadn't eaten anything all day and had only drank coffee, but I was so preoccupied with learning everything and the apprehension of my first jump with my own chute that the butterflies kept the hunger away.
So, here we are making final preparations for the jump and another nugget of stress comes this time from Jason's lips- "If you pull, you pass". I thought over the other option for the next few minutes as we board the plane and taxi to the runway.
I don't remember much of this jump at all. They told me I got hand signals to arch more and extend my legs, but I have no recollection. They showed me video of my practice pulls which were a laugh. I was reaching back and grabbing Jim's hand. He would try to help me reach the handle and you see me frantically fighting him off. It was really very funny.
Next thing I know one of them has shoved their altimeter in my face. I have a hard time reading it for some reason, and had never actually read a dial style alti before so I spent several seconds trying to figure out what it said.
At 5,500 one of them gave up on me and gave me the pull signal. I frantically waved off and began twisting around to reach the pull handle. After fighting Jim again for a few seconds I did finally throw the pilot at about 4,600 feet, 900 feet low.
I cannot describe the feeling of relief once I looked up and saw a normally opened canopy over my head. The emergency training we were given was great, but knowing all the possible failures is a little scary at first. I spent some time visually checking the chute, then grasped the brake toggles. I performed each of the control checks very methodically to ensure I did them correctly. Great, it steers both directions and brakes fine, whew.
Uh oh, this is when I realized that there was no airport in front of me. As a matter of fact, there is no airport anywhere near me! We were the last out of the plane and my control checks took so long I had spent a good time drifting the wrong direction.
I was many blocks into a residential area. I turned around and saw at least 8 blocks of houses, a full golf course, and after that, the airport. Oh, the WRONG SIDE of the airport. I turned myself around quickly to start heading back.
Did I mention that at this point I am just above 2,000 feet! I have no idea how far I can fly this thing before it reaches the ground and I need to make a landing decision pronto! Oh, one more thing- the wind is at my back. That sounds good and I'm sure it helped me fly further, but it means I've got to pull a 180 to land into the wind.
I keep my heading and hope the thing will fly me far enough to land an opposite landing pattern on the wrong side of the airport. They taught us to make a landing decision and stick to it, so this was my decision.
Around 1,800 feet Jim came on the radio. I couldn't have been happier to hear his voice telling me to keep my heading and prepare to land on this side of the airport. He walked me through flying in and essentially turning a 180 into wind just before hitting the ground. This was similar to my plan, but more or less gave up on a landing pattern all together.
I flared the chute at about 2' (should be done at 10 - 12') and came down very hard directly on my butt. This hurt very much. I stood up and waved to show them I was okay. Amanda had the wonderful task of driving the van across the airport to pick my dumb ass up.
Well, that could have gone better and I spent the next twelve hours or so really worried that I had hurt my lower back. So, I decided to be logical about it and jump again as soon as they would let me. :-)
I planned to return the following morning.
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