Sat, Sep 6 2008 - First Jump - SOLO Parachuting (View Original Event Details)
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A Cessna 182, a pilot (who doesn't say much), an instructor and 4 TOC members took to the air, near dusk. We ascended to 4,000 feet. Soon after, the sky was filled with Toc'ers, scattered to the winds. Ahhh, yes, the winds. They had kicked up quite a fuss all afternoon and the only jumps allowed were licensed jumpers or tandem. It was gusty alright and some of the professional's landings were pretty hard. But by early evening, the wind had died down just enough that two of the three solo groups were allowed to go up. The TOC4 (one saved his jump for another day - previous evening committment - but finished jump school and will be jumping this Sunday) marched toward the small plane, the parchutes heavy on their backs and shoulders. Up they went......down they came. One landed in the bean field (it was still a little windy) and had to cross over the runway to get back to the drop zone. The rest touched down several hundred yards away from one another. All landed safely and soundly. They gathered up their chutes and met back near the radio instructor. It takes a while for the experience to sink in....
"WHO, AND WHO ALONE....is responsible for getting you back on the ground safely....?" At first we quietly mumbled....uh, um..."You are? (WRONG!!)....um..."I..I...I..am?". (Someone said "Marco" was....?)
Later, with more teaching, we loudly and proudly took responsiblity for ourselves - "I AM!"
(The test) Except for the jump itself and the conversation in the car and at dinner, Brenda - our jump school instructor - was the most entertaining part of the day! Jump school is designed to scare the bejeebers out of you so you'll change your mind, if you're reeeeally not ready to jump out of a plane by yourself. They DON'T WANT YOU TO JUMP, if you're not reeeally ready. And she tried, subtly and not so subtly at times, to convince us not to. She mixed an excellent blend of humour and horror to keep us on our toes and paying attention to her instruction. It was a day of stories and scary photos of what might happen to you or your chute or your radio and what to do - The "What ifs".
It's not a playground and so you're not treated with gentle persuasion, no hand holding, no encouragement. In fact, they don't treat you all that nicely a lot of the time. It's an initiation and it's rough and can be a little brutal. Part of the test. This is a very dangerous sport and they treat it as such. It's not tandem - you're on your own. This is serious stuff. And so, Brenda watched and listened all day. She's sharp as a tack, you could tell, and knew EXACTLY why each person was there and if they could do it and how well they'd do.
All day on the ground, we practised exiting the plane on mock-up door exits: "Door - left foot - left hand - right foot - head up!". And we practised our arch (backbreakingly exhausting!) and checking our parachute had opened properly: "Arch, 1,000 - 2,000 - 3, 000 - 4,000 - 5,000 - Is it there? Is it square?" We hung from harnesses while our partners shook and spun us around violently to learn how to react quickly in case of emergencies (i.e., no chute, twisted or tangled chute). We learned how to land the parachute ourselves, should the radio not work and we're on our own. We learned to AVOID obstacles, but if not, how to crash into them....properly....
(Another test?) And then we met Big Steve. He was to be our instructor for the jump. Big Steve - who is a military policeman - doesn't like it when you interrupt him and he isn't fond of questions. He straps you into your heavy gear with all the warmth and delicacy of a....well...a military policeman doing a take-down, actually.....But he learned to respect us. After our jumps, he was fun and friendly, and a big pussycat, really.
(The biggest test of all) Brenda was able to get us all on the same plane. And then, we were each at the door of the plane looking down 4,000 feet at the countryside. The wind and noise are considerable. You can't hear YOURSELF calling out your exit mantra. You can't hear STEVE. Getting that first left foot out is the most difficult as the force of the wind knocks it immediately from the small step you need to plant it on. Once into position, out in the wind, hanging onto the wing strut, he taps you on the thigh and....you let go of the last solid object you'll feel until you touch the ground again. Wheeee!
I was the last one out and got to see everyone's exit. Kwan got a perfect arch! Very, very difficult to do! Wilson also had a momentary perfect arch before the twisting started. All of us, except Stacy, had twisted lines and had to kick them out before checking for square and flaring, to inflate the parachute fully. Watching from the plane, I thought Wilson's chute hadn't deployed fully for several seconds (he would later recall when first looking up at his chute and thinking, "Didn't Brenda say there was over 200 sqare feet of canopy? - I saw maybe....10 square feet...?!"), and I mentioned this to Big Steve. He merely said, "Yeah, it did" - without looking at Wilson's chute. As soon as he said that, Wilson's chute was big and rectangular....whew! On my way down, I heard the radio talking to Jumper Number 3 and saying TWICE, "Stand up (out of the bean field) and wave, so I least know you're okay...." I thought something had happened, but again, all landed safely and soundly. Double whew!!! You can't look at the ground because you get ground rush and can't tell how fast you're going and have to flare (brake) 6 - 10 feet from the ground for a stand-up landing. But the temptation to look down and brake early is much too great....
We got our certificates from Smiling Big Steve and proudly went to dinner. Two of our group, I think, were feeling the "I can do anything now, don't mess with me!" machismo/machisma and decided their meals weren't quite up to par and got a refund! Teehee. I had so much fun with this group all day. They were cool and collected and recalled their personal (and our collective) experiences with laughs and good humour. I hope it fully sank in that they'd actually crawled out of plane and jumped from it and landed themselves safely on the ground.....and woke up giggling as I did......
I'd jump out of a plane with this crew again, anytime!
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