A Scaredy Cat’s Guide to Skydiving

[JerryB]

Hi folks,

Just for the record; I never try to talk someone into trying skydiving. I believe that it is decision for each person to make for themselves.

But, you might find this interesting: http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-scaredy-cats-guide-to-skydiving-1461256932

I only found a couple of mistakes in this article.

Jerry Baumchen

[PW2013STL]

I only jumped once back in 1970. Training consisted of about a half hour of climbing up on two 55 gallon drums ( one on top of the other) to learn how to land and roll and told that to count off 4 seconds and if My parachute did not open by then to pull the cord (static line jump) and once it opened to look at the chute to make sure it was not a May West (round chute with a line over it making it look like a large bra)
If I had one of those to eject the main and pull the reserve.
I was also told to steer in to the wind before landing to reduce my speed as there was a 10 mile wind that day and that you land around 10 miles an hour so stearing into the wind will produce a very soft landing
I was the last one in the plane so I would be the first one out and was told that if I did not jump then no one could since it was a small 4 seater.
I climbed out onto the small platform holding onto the wing as the pilot cut the motor. I do remember thinking "do I really want to do this
" just before pushing off.
The jarring of the chute opening moved my helmet down my forehead and I pushed it back in place before I started counting off the seconds.
I got to 2 before telling myself "you idiot the chute already opened"
I look and was releavad to not see a May West as I keep thinking what if the reserved chute had the same issue.
Once those things were out of the way I looked for the wind sock on the bar/ terminal, but I could not find it. I had no way to know from which direction the wind was blowing. I can tell you this wetting your finger does't work.:shocked:
I guess wrong and hit the ground so hard that I bounced and flipped over, but I was alive and very very pumped.
Now I was in a field surrounded by trees not knowing which direction the bar was so I gathered up the chute and started walking and found a dirt road. Some one must have been watching as I was soon picked up.
From the landing I did spran both knees and one ankle, so once the adrenaline started to wear off the pain started and since I drove the 3 hours to get their in my manual clutch car it was a painfull drive home.

It was my one and only jump. I would have jumped again as I really enjoyed it minis the landing, but it took about 4 months to heal up and by then I was getting into motorcycle road racing.