Quote:
Originally Posted by SleazyDream
wow - you'd think a first jump would be called something different than a first jump LOL
I'm too heavy and tall for a tandom
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Well to be fair, most people do a tandem jump before a "first jump".
The first jump is pretty fun but it's nothing like free falling. Where I did my first jump(s), we would hang from the wing struts and the instructor is actually sitting in the struts with your pilot chute in his hand. You let go, he drops the chute behind you.
After completing a successful first jump you can do the AFF Accelerated Free Fall (sometimes called Progressive Free Fall) jumps. They take you up to about 10,000 feet and you jump from the plane with two instructors literally holding on to you. They help to position you during free fall and hold you in the proper arch and all of that good stuff. After a fairly brief freefall one of the instructors deploys the chute and they let go of you. You pass a series of I think 10-12 jumps and then you're certified. The jumps start fairly expensive as you need two instructors, but after about half of them you're down to a single instructor. The jumps get higher and the free falls longer. By the end of your series of jumps the instructor is basically just hanging out with you in the air to make sure everything goes good.
Anyway, skydiving is the best feeling their is. Nothing else beats it.