The first jump!

[mpflies2]

Did my first tandem skydive today. Was the most incredible thing I've ever done. Kind of a celebration for gettin the CFI this week. Might have some pictures up in a few days. Did it at skydive sebastian in sebastian florida.

Anybody have any good jump stories?

Marc

 

[navigator72]

Congrats.... I did my first jump while working as a jump pilot. It's one hell of a first step. I was wound up on adrenalin for a good solid week.

Skydivers are a crazy bunch!

 

[mpflies2]

me too...didnt end up going to sleep until like 4 am last night...still too excited
haha

marc

 

[Waldom]

Well done, Mpflies2. With your C.F.I., you are about to embark on the most important job in the industry. Regarding your first jump, now you know why the birds sing (they don't have to repack their parachutes).

One cautionary tale for you: A long time ago [this was in the day of static lines and round parachutes], I went out to make one jump to see what it was like. I was flying freight in Twin Beeches then and had no interest at all in pursuing skydiving as a sport, especially with all the crazies that seemed to be involved in it.

That was 3000 jumps, a lifetime full of great friendships (met my wife at the drop zone), untold quantities of cash, the odd monumental hangover (the only injury I've suffered in the sport), and 26 years ago. So be careful.....its easy to get hooked on it. At least you can fly the jump plane when you're not instructing to help defray the cost of the new hobby.

 

[FN FAL]

It is an interesting and exciting sport. I think I'm retired from the sport...I'm too lazy to loose 20 or 30 lbs and my feet and back aren't what they used to be.

I had fun, enjoyed a few situations, met a lot of cool people, got to jump out of a 727 a couple of times, jumped out of the SAC Super Constellation, hot air balloons, helicopters (R-22 and Bell 412), a Westwind Beech 18 turbine conversion, THE "Mr. Douglas" that was in military colors just after it was used to film "Mulholland Falls", many jumps out of Mike Mullin's "super king air", a gaggle of Caravans and Pilatus PC-6's. Plus, I got to do New River Gorge Bridge a couple of times during bridge day, I even got to carry a film crew's equipment on several jumps off that bridge for a show called "AXN Action Television" a Fox Family channel production.

Lots of good times and great people.

Congratulations on your first jump.

 

[mpflies2]

thanks regarding the CFI....as far as jumping in the future....i'm definetly hooked, but...first things first, gotta spend my money appropriatly to further my career and save. Will def. be doing again in the future though

marc

 

[Van Hooydonk]

Well, you've done it now. You will spend the rest of the week contemplating skydiving, and how soon you can get back up there. Your condition will only deteriorate, and the prognosis is not good. Nobody ever went to the DZ for that first jump thinking, "This looks like a suitable hobby, and a way to meet the up and comers of society, let me spend every possible waking moment hanging out here with these fine chaps" or "I desire a hobby that will inexplicably compel me to the miss the weddings of friends and family [why must they marry between May and October?], abandon my girlfriend every weekend (and then permanently), and instead spend 20 minutes 5 or 6 times a day wedged on the floor of a Twin Otter with 20 other like minded individuals and a stranger's rig compressing my crotch, the stench of smelly feet in Tevas permeating the air, and people emiting noxious fumes as the plane climbs through 12K."

Of course, when that lexan door slides up and the cold fresh air, mixed with Jet A fumes fills the plane, nothing else in the world matters. The bad day at the office, that review you have next week, the money you should be saving to get a new car instead of skydiving...all melt away. For the next 60 seconds or so, your obligations, your concerns, your focus, become immediate--and your daily cares/stress have no part of it. There is some intangible, liberating quality, about jumping from a plane at 15K feet, that I've found hard to duplicate [legally]. In a society where you are told what speed to drive at, what line to stand in with 15 items or less, that you must press #1 if you have a question about your current balance, and for your safety to please keep hands inside of the rails while the vehicle is moving you are master of your own destiny when you step out the door of that plane.

Oh yeah, and don't worry about your current friends/girlfriends understanding. You will make many interesting new ones--people that you would likely not run across in your daily life if it weren't for skydiving. These are people who will drive a half hour out of their way to give you a lift to the DZ. People who let you crash on their couch so you can sleep closer to the DZ, and treat you as if you are a member of their family. People who will drive you to the hospital and wait with you for 4 hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon, after you dislocate your shoulder on a funneled exit. Then, some of the courser of these miscreants will make an unannounced "bandit jump" into your wedding reception, stealing the show.

I'm not sure if any of this is really true, it's just what I have heard. So you have been warned.

Cheers.
Blue Skies and Black Death.

 

[Almerick07]

Im getting ready for my first jump....Im currently a jump pilot in hawaii and need to make the schedule line up with the other pilot so I can actually jump out of it for obvious reasons. I cant wait and just know it is gonna lead to a new addiction....

 

[spacecadet1]

Flew jumpers; did a tandem jump. Those were some of the best times I had flying and meeting great people. Funny how once you achieve the goal of getting to an airline (or whatever your goal), the best times were on the road to get there. If only I could go back in time....

 

[cessna_driver2]

congrats on both. My first jump was on the 4th of july in '99, I spent that night in the hospital. It was the best thing I have ever done. 3000 ft static line. If I could get away with landing on my arse I would keep doing it.

Congrats on the CFI.