I headed to the drop zone.  The weather yesterday was perfect for skydiving, so I was hopeful about getting my first skydive in today.

Got there about 15 minutes before they actually opened (I must stop doing this, that’s an extra 15 minutes I could have been asleep!), and met a couple of other AFF students. One guy was there to do his fifth jump (I think) and another was there for the Ground School day, though he was hoping to get a jump at the end of the day too.

Once the place had actually opened, I got my name up on the manifest (the board where you put your name if you want to get a skydive that day), then a bit of waiting around.

Eventually I got told to grab a parachute (a Navigator 260 if I remember correctly), some goggles, a helmet, and an altimeter.  Once I was all kitted out for the day, I went through some malfunction drills with one of the instructors for about 10 minutes, then waited some more.

At that time the weather was decent enough to get a plane up, unfortunately someone beat me to the manifest first thing, so 2 other AFF students got their jumps in.  It actually turned out to be a bit too windy, with one of those students landing just off the drop zone.

There was around 5 of us by this point, waiting, being told that it was too windy.  Up to 15 knots at ground level, but above 500 feet it was more like 25 knots.  The limit for AFF skydiving students is 15 knots.

Two of the students were there to do their level 1 jumps just like me, although they’d been here about 4 times before, and never got to jump due to the weather.  By lunchtime they took off, no point in hanging around all day again… or so they thought.

I chilled out for the afternoon, waiting for occasional weather reports, but had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be jumping today.

All the while the plane was going up taking tandem skydivers up, I guess they can jump in windier conditions since the instructors HAVE to have at least 1,000 jumps before doing a tandem.

By around 4pm, the last lift of the day headed on up, my instructor said he’d get the pilot to keep the plane out if I was hanging around, just on the off chance that the wind calmed down.  I’d waited this long already, so why not another hour.

Half an hour later, nearly nodding off on a sofa, I looked up to see my instructor giving me the thumbs up and telling me to get ready!  Holy sh*t!  I’m jumping!!  🙂

The wind had calmed, and we were on!  The student who had just finished his ground school day was also coming up on this trip.  Bit soon for my liking, but hey-ho!

All kitted up we went through a couple of drills perfecting the arch position on a crash-mat, then headed out the plane.  That was one hell of a long walk!  Coupled with more and more “what the f*ck am I doing” moments!

I’d opted to get this first jump video’d, bit expensive at £95 to do them all, but for a one-off, I figured why not.

On the plane we went through the exit drill to make sure I knew what I was gonna do when it came time.  Then strapped in, and up we went.

The ride up was pretty calm, at 1,000ft I was told to check my altimeter, at which point ya can take your helmet off for the rest of the ride up.  At other points during the ride I was asked to walk through the skydive, even though I was sure the moment the door opened I’d forget the lot!

We then reached 13,000ft, 2 experienced jumpers were near the door so they jumped first, and dropped like bloody stones if I’m perfectly honest, it’s an impressive sight to see people drop out of a plane!  I then get asked “are you ready to skydive?” by one of my instructors – would love to say “erm, nah!” but we didn’t come all this way to brick it now.

Thankfully there’s not too much “thinking time”, the moment you say yes, you waddle your way to the door, down on one knee, with one instructor physically outside the plane holding on to you, and the other inside.  Then the “hotel check”, where you shout to the primary instructor inside the plane “Check In!”, wait for “OK!”, then to the secondary instructor outside the plane “Check Out!”, again, waiting for the “OK!”, then it’s a simple rocking motion, “Out!” as you rock gently outwards, “In!”, rock back into the plane, then the “ARCH!!” as you throw yourself out the door, with both instructors holding on to you at either side.

Not the best picture in the world, but that’s us on the way out (camera man close behind), and pretty much head-first before I got into the stable arched position.

The skydive went great, my legs were a bit goofy to start with, but with a few directions from my secondary instructor I was good to go.

I then went through the 3 practice pulls, just getting familiar with where the pilot chute is, no help needed on the 2nd grab, so that was cool.

After that we had a bit of “free time”, we were at 8,000ft when I checked the altimeter. On the first few student jumps you pull your parachute at 6,000ft, so we had roughly 10 seconds to hang around. 🙂

Another check of the altimeter and we’re at 7,000ft, “just another few seconds…”

The last check and we’re at 6,000ft, so it’s time to “wave off” once so my instructors, and indeed anyone above me, knows I’m about to pull my chute. Strangely enough, I go to find it, and it’s not there!! I’m saying to myself “it was there a minute ago, I checked 3 times for gods sake!!”

My instructor gave me a hand and I finally found it, thankfully didn’t freak out either, or even worse turn my head and try to actually look for it, that’s one way to get in a right old mess.

So held the position, pulled, and started the count, 1-thousand, 2-thousand, 3-thousand (something’s happening!), 4-thousand, “check canopy”. Yup, it’s there, and it’s big, and it’s square (well rectangle but whatever, I’m alive!)

Then I hung around for a bit, realising what I’d just done, checking my altimeter, at about 4,500 feet prob due to the delay in finding my toggle for the pilot chute. I released the brakes, performed a couple of “flares” to make sure everything was in order with the canopy, then did a left turn, followed by a right turn. Right, I have control now, it’s all good.

Looking down at the fields and farms, then suddenly remembering, “oh yeah, where’s the airfield?!”

We’d been told to hold into the wind to start with, and that way was facing the sun, so I chilled for a bit as I got my bearings. Finally found the airfield, and by that point I heard one of the instructors over the radio giving instructions for a couple of turns. This was more so they could identify which student was which, since they were already on the ground watching me and another student.

A couple of turns later, I get told to head downwind to setup for the landing. This is what you do at around 1,200 feet, yet I’m still at 2,000!! The instructor doesn’t know that, and I can’t tell him, so I head on downwind, only to be told after 10 seconds to turn back into wind and “hold” there for a while – good job I thought!

Then it was time for the final run, turning downwind and getting a bit of speed up, not too much mind, nothing crazy. Then trying to watch my altimeter and not run too far on the downwind leg, I turned for the cross-wind. Literally just a few seconds there and then turned back into wind, was around 400ft by this point, and now thinking about flaring for the landing.

My instructor gave me clear instructions, “wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, half flare, full flare”. Personally that was a lot of “waiting” as the ground got ever closer! I guess that’s something to learn tho, not flaring or braking too early.

With full flare on, I suddenly just halted in mid-air, about 10 centimeters from the ground, just hovered, until a final plonk down, and straight onto my arse!

Ah well, sod it, I’ve just jumped out of a plane at 13,000ft and done my first skydive! I really don’t care if I landed on my arse!

A well earned Corona later, while we watched the DVD back and got some feedback from my instructors.

Today’s been a good skydiving day.