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This is happening tomorrow! I have to be there at 10AM to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. WHEEEEEEE!
Well I doubt you're not like getting the lousy airplane or anything...
FM
"Nowadays everyone is a fucking DJ." - Jack Dangers
What record did you loose your virginity to?
"I don't like having sex with music on- I find it distracting. And if it's a mix cd- forget it. I'm stopping to check the beat mixing in between tracks." - Tom Stephan
"Nowadays everyone is a fucking DJ." - Jack Dangers
What record did you loose your virginity to?
"I don't like having sex with music on- I find it distracting. And if it's a mix cd- forget it. I'm stopping to check the beat mixing in between tracks." - Tom Stephan
I can't believe I jumped out of an airplane this afternoon! This is going to be a long review, but I can't quit thinking about it... so bear with it and don't bitch about it
I couldn't sleep the night before, of course. The next morning, my buddy and I drove out to the drop site, which was a small privately-owned airport about an hour from Kansas City down a couple miles of dirt roads. When we got there, we had to watch a half-hour video explaining that tandem jumping is still considered an "experimental" activity by the government, and we had to sign a waiver that basically said we forfeited all rights to life by participating in the experiment. Fuck it, I signed the thing. After stressing how potentially dangerous the sport is, they went on to say it has a lower death ratio compared to most sports, then it went on to describe basic landing practices/etc.
I finished the video, finished signing my life away (literally) on about 5 pages worth of waivers, paid my $185, and waited. There were 4 jumpers ahead of us in line, and the planes they had were only big enough for 2 jumpers + 2 instructors. I watched a few people strap up to the harnesses and got a feel for what I was going to have to go through. About an hour and a half passed from the time I got there to our turn to jump. I wasn't nervous or anything... it just never kicked in.
My buddy and I paper-rock-scissored for who was jumping out of the plane first; he won. Our instructors strapped up our harnesses on the ground, and we were both pretty concerned because they were very loose on us. Seriously loose... like the shoulder straps were sliding off my shoulders, etc. We were told not to worry, and to make sure we were pointing north because things were going to hurt once we were tightened down. We shrugged, then bailed into the plane.
The plane was insanely tiny and uncomfortable. We all got in, put a seatbelt on (?), and the plane started to take off with the door open. One of the instructors shut it shortly after takeoff and the sound levels of the plane seemed to be cut in half. We basically talked to our instructors until we reached the 9000 feet drop height. Each of our tandem instructors had jumped over 3400 times! He also mentioned that because I was smaller than my buddy, I'd have a few more seconds of freefall than he would. They started describing the form we had to be in while jumping... keep our feet straight up between the instructors legs, arch our back, and to position our arms and hands as if we were flossing through our ears with our thumbs. My instructor asked each of us if we liked girls, which confused us... And scared me. When we said yes, he said something along the lines of "Act like I'm behind you trying to mount you. I need you to arch your back away from my body as much as you can, so imagine I'm gay and you're trying to get away from me." You got it, man.
At about 8000 feet the instructors gave us goggles and started prepping us for the jump. They attached each end of our harness to theirs and verbally informed us when each was attached. May have been for legality reasons, but it definitely made me feel much better to hear "you are now attached to me by your left shoulder," etc. Once all 4 clips were attached to me, he tightened all straps extremely tight. It definitely felt much more secure and safe than the loose wife-beater form it had when I entered the plane. He verbally rehearsed with me how we were going to exit the plane... and then it hit me.
My buddy's instructor opened the door to the plane. He turned the latch for the door and flew open with a loud whoosh, and suddenly I could hear the engine, the propeller, and the air blowing past us. Everything suddenly turned into slow motion... "i'm about to jump out of this shit! am I fucking crazy?!" I scoot up against the pilot's seat as the instructor told me, and I suddenly watch my buddy disappear with a scream. The instructor and I scooted toward the door, I put my right foot on a step outside the plane, followed by his right foot. I was holding on to the wing strut like my life depended on it, put my left foot on the step, and his followed. He counted to 3, and I let go.
Then I looked down. For a quick instant immediately after I let go, it felt like I was falling. You know, the feeling you get when you roll off a bed or something... but that feeling lasted just about as long as it would take to fall off a bed. The slow-motion feeling disappeared almost as instantly, and it suddenly changed from a falling sensation to a feeling of constant acceleration as we sped toward the ground at 120mph(200kph). It felt like I was watching air zoom past me, and all I could see was the treeless fields below. I was hauling ass toward the ground, but it didn't feel like it was getting any closer. As fast as the fall felt, it seemed to take forever. My instructor pointed out my buddy as his chute opened. I totally forgot he was there, because he was so many hundreds of feet ahead of me. He probably jumped at least 10 seconds before me.
I watched my buddy get closer, closer, closer, then we fell right past him. (When we landed, he said the same thing... he was watching me fall after his chute opened, then watched me fall right past him ) I should've remembered the instructor said we'd fall a little more than they would, but I forgot. A few seconds later the chute opened, and I realized I was attached to this guy by only 4 hooks... the gravity was pulling on me and I had nothing to hold on to. The chute opening felt like a roller coaster just starting to fall at the peak of the rise; I was going a constant (comfortable?) speed, and suddenly gravity was working its magic on me in the opposite direction. After 35 seconds of freefall, everything got quiet and we were just soaring over the ground. The instructor then told me not to worry, and that he was going to loosen the straps of my harness for comfort. I didn't like this idea at all, but he proceeded to loosen at least 3 different straps on me. I felt myself drop a few inches with each one, holding on to the straps like a madman. pshyea, like this was going to save me if I fell.
Even though we fell thousands of feet, the ground didn't seem any closer once the chutes opened. The instructors did what they do best until the 4 of us were right next to each other. My buddy later said that right before that happened, the top of our chute was a few feet from his legs and he yelled at the instructor to pull back. We then veered away from the other two, and the instructor started doing sharp turns and circles, practically turning us sideways at times. I felt more G's during those turns than anywhere else in the experience. We continued this until we landed in the drop zone a few minutes later. As we got closer to the ground, the instructor told me put my feet up so he could get his down to the ground first. We finally landed, and it was over.
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