Great story, glad you made it in one piece. Looking forward to the video. I would upload to youtube and post the link.I tried to upload a video and couldn’t make it happen. If @GolferGal is willing to help me, I would be glad to share it. It shows my face just before jumping, the free fall and the landing.
So, here is the summary. I showed up and they have you sign a waiver that basically waives any claim, even if somebody murdered you with a knife on the property, LOL. One portion of the waiver says that the jumper acknowledges that the plane and the chute have to work perfectly in order for the jumper not to be killed. I knew that I had to sign it to jump and figured that there would be some blankety immunity granted, but here is the funny part. In the instruction video that we watched before jumping, some dude with a beard down to his waste was speaking. He said that he began tandem jumping back in the 1980’s or some time decades ago. He said that no plane or parachute ever works perfectly. I almost laughed out loud. Here I had just signed a waiver that said the plane and chute must work perfectly or I die. Then, I hear this guy tell me that neither the plane nor my chute would work perfectly. So, basically, I have been told that I am going to die.
After the orientation, you wait for your turn. Your tandem guide introduces himself and puts your contraption on you. The videographer introduces himself. They were both really cool guys, very low key. About 10 minutes later, we loaded into the plane. It took about 25 minutes to reach altitude. Near the end of the ride up, my guide cinched up my harness and we were very close. I was half expecting him to say that I was going to feel a little pressure (ha ha, I kid). When it’s time to go, you slide up towards the door, stand on the ledge and the guide basically tells you to step out and lift your back legs as high as you can.
It was at that moment that I felt a little anxiety. You can see it on my face in the video. It is humorous. I had asked the guide how many people he had ever seen refuse to jump. He said that he had done probably a 1000 jumps as a guide. he had seen people literally quivering with fear, but only one person had refused to do it at the moment of truth.
We did a couple of somersaults, during the free fall, which lasted about 90 seconds. There is no feeling in your stomach like when you ride a roller coaster, just a feeling of tremendous pressure pushing against you. You can see that in one of the photos I posted. The free fall is by far the best part.
When the guide pulls the chute, it is as if you come to a screeching halt. Then you float for about 5 minutes, as you descend. The guide let me control the chute and maneuver us around. He also did it aggressively and you could feel the G force, which was much more like the roller coaster feeling. If anybody reading this wants to do a jump, but gets motion sickness, this is the only thing that really gave me that feeling and I do get motion sickness quite badly.
Apparently, it is very rare when you get to do a standing landing. I slid in on my rear end, but no big deal at all. Just like that it was over.
It was really fun, something I will always remember. My guide said that 90% of the people who jump do it one time, just to say that they have done it. I am probably in that camp, but would still highly recommend it, if it is on anybody’s bucket list.
