Insane experience. After five static line jumps this is what I needed. I was in good hands with my instructor Tom. 6000 jumps he made. Wow. Only had to pull his reserve four times. Of course you only need one wrong jump in this sport and it's bye bye. But most of the accidents happen because of stupidity and so it can be a safe sport if you follow the rules.
Very nice drop zone. Its big so no problems with landing. There are some basic instructions before the jump. Crossing your arms in front of you during exit. Body like a banana shape. This means arms in the shape of a'u' and legs in a 90 degree angle at the knee. Pelvis out and head up.
We are walking to the aircraft. There's this team with five formation jumpers all rigged up. Pretty impressive. They will jump out first and we go last. The aircraft is getting ready and we are taking off. Tom is strapping me up to his rig. And its is tight. Goggles ready. And now we are climbing to 14000 feet. It takes some time. Clear blue sky. Adrenaline is flowing.
We are at the right altitude. The formation jumpers exit the airplane and now its our turn. We head for the door and Tom is counting down. Four, three, two and we are out. Whoa !!!!
We went out of the airplane front flip and came out stable. So cool. Made some turns in the air and saw Tampa Bay in the distance. The resistance of the wind is amazing when your doiing 200 kilometers per hour. And before you know it it's all over. The parachute opens and your gliding. Very quiet and such a great feeling. We did a canopy check which basically means that you check your lines and see that everything is in order. Then you check the surroundings for other jumpers and look at the target where you are going.
Very smooth. What a rush. I want more.
And thats its. Basic evaluation of the jump and a certificate.
Next stop will be level 1 of AFF Training on sunday and I can't wait.
Dit is de weblog van Peter Dierx. Gevuld met artikelen en berichten over Ruby on Rails, Mac OS X en hier en daar een Apple nieuwtje.
