(no subject)
So, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane yesterday. I ended up jumping late in what had been a very bright and sunny day, so my face and neck are a bit sunburned (in addition to my face being a little windburned). The guys from work and I met at the office parking lot around 7AM. Overcast, chilly, it did not look like a promising day. Even so, we went north of Frederick to the jump site. When we got there it was a wonderfully rural spring morning. Clear, hint of warmth later in the day, partially turned over fields abound, and so on. One of the guys I was with jumped quite soon after we got there, having done it before, but then things clouded over. Completely overcast. Bummer.
We hung around for a couple hours hoping it would clear up so that the rest of us could go. During this time, a few other jumpers, much more experienced than we were, had the pilot take them up to the bottom of the cloud level and jumped from there. They were quite successful and it was fun to watch. Around noon, after we'd gone to a local subway for lunch, they went on another low jump. Gusty winds had started after a fairly calm morning. One of the three fellows jumping landed with his legs straight rather than raised up, somehow managed to cross them, and broke one of his legs in three places. So, if you're thinking about doing this, realize that it's not completely safe.
That gusting wind did begin to break up the clouds, though, and it quickly became sunny and clear. As the plane we were jumping out of was just a single-engine Cessna, it could only take a few people at a time up to jump. We newbies were jumping tandem with an instructor, so went up one at a time with the instructor and usually one other jumper. We drew straws and I ended up being last to go up. While waiting, we shot around a basketball and the like. Between standing around watching people fall and playing ball, I was quite tired by the time I jumped.
The ride up was a great view of the surrounding area. I'd never been in such a small plane before; it was a lot like being in a small boat. The plane wasn't completely sealed, so there was air flowing past my head. The gusting wind made it feel like cresting waves at points. The jump itself was exhilarating. We did a front flip out of the plane to push away from the wing before flattening out. To get into a flat drop you arch your body - hips down, arms up, head and feet up. If you're a mouth-breather it's nearly impossible to breath with the wind whipping up into you. The instructor having screamed "in through the nose, out through the mouth" into my ear just before we dropped helped lots. As the chute opened it felt like we just stopped in the air.
I don't think that I will be adding this as a regular activity, no matter how fun it was. When we landed, a running stop, my knee made a wet "szlerk" sound and I collapsed. Nothing is out of whack, but it was excessively weak going home and it's still sore today. My entire body is sore, in fact. I suppose I was tenser than I realized. There wasn't any fear involved in my mind, just a sense of "neato".
We hung around for a couple hours hoping it would clear up so that the rest of us could go. During this time, a few other jumpers, much more experienced than we were, had the pilot take them up to the bottom of the cloud level and jumped from there. They were quite successful and it was fun to watch. Around noon, after we'd gone to a local subway for lunch, they went on another low jump. Gusty winds had started after a fairly calm morning. One of the three fellows jumping landed with his legs straight rather than raised up, somehow managed to cross them, and broke one of his legs in three places. So, if you're thinking about doing this, realize that it's not completely safe.
That gusting wind did begin to break up the clouds, though, and it quickly became sunny and clear. As the plane we were jumping out of was just a single-engine Cessna, it could only take a few people at a time up to jump. We newbies were jumping tandem with an instructor, so went up one at a time with the instructor and usually one other jumper. We drew straws and I ended up being last to go up. While waiting, we shot around a basketball and the like. Between standing around watching people fall and playing ball, I was quite tired by the time I jumped.
The ride up was a great view of the surrounding area. I'd never been in such a small plane before; it was a lot like being in a small boat. The plane wasn't completely sealed, so there was air flowing past my head. The gusting wind made it feel like cresting waves at points. The jump itself was exhilarating. We did a front flip out of the plane to push away from the wing before flattening out. To get into a flat drop you arch your body - hips down, arms up, head and feet up. If you're a mouth-breather it's nearly impossible to breath with the wind whipping up into you. The instructor having screamed "in through the nose, out through the mouth" into my ear just before we dropped helped lots. As the chute opened it felt like we just stopped in the air.
I don't think that I will be adding this as a regular activity, no matter how fun it was. When we landed, a running stop, my knee made a wet "szlerk" sound and I collapsed. Nothing is out of whack, but it was excessively weak going home and it's still sore today. My entire body is sore, in fact. I suppose I was tenser than I realized. There wasn't any fear involved in my mind, just a sense of "neato".