I did it! Yes, me.
All my life I wanted to do skydiving, but have not really necessary thought I will build up the guts and actually do it (then of course there's the financial aspect as I always thought it would be crazy expensive). Then last year, thanks to a Groupon special, I did!
My flatmate, Alastair, and myself went to Robertson Skydive (http://www.skydive.co.za/) on 8 December 2012. There we were trained the whole of Saturday all about skydiving.
Then, the Sunday came and the skies were cloudy. We hoped & prayed and kept our eyes on the skies for any small sign that it will clear up. The jumpmaster (person who trained us) does not want us to jump through the cloud as we can become disoriented seeing this is our first time. Trained/experienced skydivers can however.
Then, at last, as the afternoon wore on and just as our hopes were starting to fade, the skies started to clear... at first only a little and then gradually more and more.
My nerves were definitely there as I knew this is it... I am going to actually jump out of a plane!
So, we suited up (put on overalls and then the parashoot and helmet). And off we went to the plane... approaching it from the angle we were taught the previous day. We embarked the plane the way we were taught to do and once we were all in it was lift off.
At 1000 feet, our jumpmaster went through our 1000feet check where you check again if you have all your gear on and that it is fastened the way it should be, etc. There are a lot of safety checks and this is the last one before you jump out of the plane.
Then, we reach altitude, the jumpmaster opens the door and the jumper first puts his hand out to get a feel for the wind (what to expect when getting out of the plane)...
The exit strategy is as follows:
The plane is a Cessna 206 and has a step outside the door and a handle on the inside of the door... there is a wingspan and a bar underneath the wing.
You are first at the door on your knees with your left hand holding the inside handle. You then say each step aloud that you are going to take (to keep your mind in check as well as you have rehearsed this many a times the day before in training and after training, even in your sleep).
Holding the inside handle with your left hand, you put your right foot out onto the step, then your right hand goes onto the bar (that runs underneath the wing mentioned previously). Then, your left foot goes onto the step, then your left hand releases the handle and goes onto the bar. Then you shuffle along a little bit, then you take a step off the step and hang onto the bar. Then you should look left to the jumpmaster, then up (to position your body right for the next move) and then the jumpmaster should ideally say go, then you release and off you go! (I am again excited as I mention all these things as I remember it so clearly and want to do it again.
This is the point where I was able to look into the plane to the jumpmaster, look up and before he could say GO I went as I could not hold on any longer. My brain was like OH @##$!, here I go (as I thought I had to wait for him to say go)... I know I gave a panicked look to the jumpmaster as I went... but then all you can do is go to the next step...
The next process is to keep counting aloud (to keep your mind calm and going)... ARCH 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, by then the parachute should be open and you continue your safety checks...
ARCH is to remind yourself the position your body needs to be in... you basically have your arms above you wide out and your legs beneath you wide out...
Then, you say CHECK - pointing with both hands to the shoot, looking up, saying FLOAT (are you floating?), SHAPE (is the shape of your shoot right?), SPIN (are you spinning violently?). If all fine, then normally your ropes is a little tangled from the release out of the parashoot bag (this will not be SPIN, as SPIN is violent and you will know it is wrong)... to get the ropes untangled... what you do is put your hands in the middle, push it apart and then kick with your legs, you will go round and round till it is untangled (same as if you were on a swing and you tangled yourself up by going the one way the whole time, you push it apart, kick and untangle yourself that way).
Once that is done, you say FLARE, pull your brake handles loose from their velcro position and pull it all the way down (at down position your arms will be straight down next to your body or a little in front of your body). You then count, FLARE 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and release the brakes (still keeping hold of it, but letting it into a slack position which takes your arms above your head again).
Then, you look right, then bring the right brake down and turn 180 degrees all the while checking there are no other skydivers close to you, once you have turned your 180 degrees, you release the brake. Then, you look left, and follow the same procedure.
Then, you bring both brakes down again FLARE 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and release.
Once that is all done, you check for the landing zone (to know where you are)... and always look below in between your feet as that is normally where it will be. Once you located your landing zone, you float/fly/play around in the air (trying to keep in the area your jumpmaster pointed out to you before exiting the plane).
At this point, I looked down and thought to myself, I am actually flying here, this is sooooo cool!
Then, as you near 1000 feet, you look for the batton man/woman (in my case it was a man). You pretty much follow his instructions on the direction you need to be as he will bring you in to land straight in the landing zone area. Then you should flare and land right near the bottom.
Now, this is where I made a mistake. Due to the fact that I had a knee surgery 1½ years prior to my jump, I asked the jumpmaster beforehand about landing possibilities etc for me to avoid hurting my knee on landing impact. He suggested to me to keep my knees and feet together, then land on my feet, but slide in on my bum (as I would break my bum if I landed direct on it). So, I followed the batton man's instructions all the way, but when I realised, this is it, this is landing time... no more going left or right or anything, now I am going to land, I concentrated... ok ok knees together, feet together, land on feet, slide and land on bum. Doing this meant I looked away from the batton man a little early and thus did not see his instruction to FLARE and concentrating too hard on my knee issue that I forgot to flare... So, my landing was rather hard (I remember thinking, @##$! the earth is coming very close very fast). When I landed, I seemed to instinctively roll into the landing, thus not breaking anything. I stood up soon afterwards and someone else came in to help with my parashoot. I was able to walk away from that... later the day - very very soon after actually my foot/ankle started swelling due to it having been sprained. Then the next few days I had a sore & stiff body.
But it was soooo worth it! I want to do it again!
