Skydiving | Mishap | Self-confidence
How A Near-Fatal Skydiving Mishap Increased My Self-Confidence Part 1
Setting the scene and ground school
SETTING THE SCENE
I had been researching taking skydiving lessons for a while, the types of options available, and where I could do so around my area in the US. There were three main jump options available to civilians:
1. Tandem jump, where the trainee is tied to the instructor for the entirety of the jump, which typically involves going out of the airplane at around 10,000 feet, free-falling for around 30 seconds, after which the instructor would deploy the parachute and navigate it all the way down the ground
2. Static-line jump, where the trainee’s pack (pilot chute) is tied to a cord that is anchored to the aircraft itself and will be used to deploy the main parachute when the person jumps as it catches the wind and pulls it out
3. Instructor-Assisted Deployment (IAD) jump, where the same set-up as in #2 is present except that, this time, the pilot chute is held by the instructor (jumpmaster) who deploys it after the student has exited the aircraft to jump
In the Tri-State area of the East Coast, where I lived, and which is defined as the states of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, there was only one practical option for me in terms of distance. An established company offering tandem jumps and Accelerated Freefall (AFF) skydiving courses. And the prices were fairly high regardless of the chosen option. I was considering something like the AFF course, but first I wanted to experience a jump or two to see how it would feel to me. I.e.: I wouldn’t want to pay for a course only to find out that I might be the kind of jumper who vomits all the way down, each time… That’s no good.
And, call me crazy, but the static-line or IAD jumps were far more appealing to me in this context! While the 10,000-foot 30-second free-fall portion of a tandem jump seemed like it would no doubt be very exciting, it still didn’t sound as good to me as if I was actually responsible for my own jump and what happened during it. And that is the exact opposite of tandem jumping, where the trainee is little more than a passenger who is there to “enjoy the ride”.
And, at US $250.00 for a single jump, I wanted to get the most out of my investment. Not only in terms of thrill but even more so as it related to learning to do more and the greater feeling of accomplishment I expected would come from doing it that way. The learning part I refer to occurs during the required ground school training that comes along with these types of jumps and isn’t included with tandem jumps.
And so it’s with the above mindset that I decided to keep looking for options.
A LUCKY FIND
Sometime later that year, a close friend of mine was getting married in my hometown in Canada and I was invited to attend. So I decided to have a look around that idea to see if I could make my skydiving dream happen. As it turns out, my hometown’s local General Aviation (GA) airport happened to host a company that taught the IAD jumps. I corresponded with some of my close friends, and two of them wanted to come along and opted-in.
GROUND SCHOOL-WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
It’s Saturday morning and my friends and I are meeting at the airport for our ground school training. It would last around 3 hours, then we would go up to jump. But, first, we sign the obligatory waiver and we share our weight. Thankfully, all of us are within limits.
The training consisted of the following:
- An explanation of how the parachute works
- An explanation of the difference between the main parachute (larger, packed in around 30 minutes by the experienced instructors, and always very reliable) and backup parachute (smaller, emergency-use parachute, packed by a master rigger who goes over every little bit of it to ensure even more that there is no possibility of failure since this is the last resort option. It takes him around 4 hours to pack the backup parachute*)
- Explanation of the types of problems that may occur (twisted lines, spinning out, etc) and how to react to each. This was drilled using large flashcards that the instructor would show and the trainees must respond with what the correct actions were for each
- Practice time on the ground using a wooden mocked-up airplane with true-to-life Cessna 182 spacing
*It’s worth noting that, if called upon to use the backup parachute, the jumper must first pull the release cord for the main canopy which will detach and fly away, then the backup parachute guiding lines and pull-cord may be used. And because this backup parachute has a smaller canopy (the kind used by experienced certified solo skydivers), it requires more precise control because it can go down faster and is used to do more acrobatic movements and such.
The ground school practice mimics what will happen up in the air. Just as with the real jump, the procedure involves doing all of the following:
- Each jumper goes to the back of the plane, sitting on their feet with their knees forward (This is somewhat cramped)
- The instructor that would be going up with the jumpers sits in the plane facing them where the front-side passenger seat would normally be
- When the time comes, the instructor attaches the pilot chute cord to the first jumper (discussed only)
- That person walks out by stepping on a small wooden step, then grabs the wing*, steps off the wooden step, and slowly shimmy themselves down to about the middle of the wing with their hands and holds there
*Note: Cessna Wings are uniquely positioned above, as opposed to other types of aircraft which normally have wings positioned below.
- The plane will be flying at 80 mph (~130Kph) and, counter-intuitively, the person’s body will literally be hanging there vertically(!)
- The instructor calls “let go now” And the person must form a star shape while letting go and falling to ensure proper body balance and parachute deployment. At the same time, the instructor lets go of the pilot chute which catches the wind and deploys the jumper’s main parachute canopy
- The jumper counts to 5 (“one-thousand one, one-thousand two, etc”) and looks up to confirm that the main parachute was deployed and the cords are not tangled up. In case the cords are tangled up, we were instructed to move around using the legs first to try and untangle them. If this wasn’t possible after some time, then the release would need to be pulled and the backup parachute used instead
- While coming down, each jumper was meant to use the two handles* on each side of the parachute to control its direction and gradually make a large “S” shape pattern in the sky to slow down the descent over the drop zone (DZ)
*Pulling one side closes parts of that air pocket and results in the parachute dipping down some and also turning in that direction when held long enough.
- Once close enough to the ground* we were to pull both handles hard to “break” the forward momentum and land using a specific posture with both legs at the same time
*If memory serves me well, the speed of descent is always 120Mph or 15 ft/sec, and the “break” has to occur at around 15 feet up in the air such that it’s not too high because the momentum will largely stop and the skydiver will come down vertically with slight forward movement to allow for “running on the ground” during the landing.
- Finally, the last piece of crucial information is that the instructor who is on the ground is responsible for keeping an eye on each jumper and offering guidance whenever it’s needed, using a one-way radio that would broadcast all of his instructions and that all jumpers can hear. This includes sending queues as to when and how much to execute the “S” and break maneuvers
TIME TO GO UP AND JUMP
I’ve signed up to be the first person to jump out, so I’m the last one to get into the back of the airplane and I’m sitting closest to where the door would normally be, except that, as I recall, it had been removed from this plane in order to not get in the way during the jumpers’ exit procedure. Sitting on our feet was somewhat uncomfortable on the ankles due to the metal floor, but no big deal. Sitting next to a hole on the way up was also an experience on its own. The pilot, for his part, would be zigzagging above the DZ in order to let the jumpers out one at a time, a few minutes apart from each. We would be jumping from an altitude of 3500–4000 ft, which is standard for this type of jump.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Be sure to read PART TWO to find out how this turned into a DO or DIE ordeal for me.
Q. Have you ever gone skydiving? How was your experience?
All the best,
Pascal
PS: You can go here to read other personal growth and development-related articles and stories, or read more about me here.
