I went skydiving with JC on Saturday, and boy was it a blast. I won’t describe it in huge detail, because you can get that already on JC’s blog, but will instead focus on my own experience.
On arriving at Skydive Palatka, we found the place a beehive of activity. Apparently, business was very good; many of the people there were rigging their chutes in preparation to go up. We walked in a half hour early to our appointment, and started the legal prep, which by far took the most time. The only thing notable about the safety video they treated us too was the speaker’s brief description of his first jump and the size of his beard. It was certainly big enough to be suitable for Santa Claus; I wondered how that worked out for him on jumps. Other than that, it was all the standard stuff about knowing I could get myself killed by falling out of an airplane at 13500 feet with just a parachute to arrest my fall. The list of people indemnifyed by the legalese was impressive, though: not just anybody and anything even vaguely associated with the enterprise, like the fuel and plane manufacturer, but even my own parents! It was quite amusing.
Then we got the walkthrough on actual procedure: what we’d have to know to do when we went out the door at altitude. Then we put on jumpsuits and up we went. Everyone up there was nervous; I guess it’s just something that happens to you when you’re about to go out into freefall. I got my mind off some of it by looking out the window at the neat rural squares, which looked like PLSS sections, and wondering if they were all the uniform 80 by 80 chains they were supposed to be. I know, I’m a nut.
And then, out the door. I got tunnel vision immediately as the world spun in crazy directions. Then we stabilized with me looking downward at the ground. The air hitting me was just incredible; open your mouth in the slightest and it would go inside and dry everything out. I could feel my cheeks fluttering when the air rushed through there. Can’t say anything understandable; all you can do is look around and say “wow.” I remembered to look at the cameraman as well as stare in wonder at the ground rushing up at me, and then Art, the guy who jumped with me, deployed the chute.
You have to experience it for yourself to truly appreciate it all. 