Captain Insano jumps out of Plane-Os
 Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm home, I'm safe, and I walked away from my jump... it was a good jump.
The instructor kept trying to get me to change from IAD (Instructor Assisted Deployment at 4000 feet) to AFF (Advanced FreeFall at 10,000 feet) and finally at about 9 or 10 am, I had changed my mind and paid the difference to do AFF. AFF is typically a 45 second freefall and then you deploy at 5500 feet and steer your chute to the landing area. At noon, we found out there were so many jumpers they'd brought in a bigger plane so we were informed our jump would be more likely at 12,000 or 13,000 feet. I was the last to exit the plane, so I actually jumped from about 14,000 feet and I was in freefall for a full minute! OK, anybody that has asthma knows it is more difficult to breathe at higher altitudes. Well, my asthma hasn't bothered me since I was a child, so I didn't even think of it. Let me tell you, at 14,000 feet, I could barely breathe. That was probably the scariest part. Actually, there were quite a few scary parts... walking to the door realizing that I'm actually doing it... that was pretty scary. I had a good exit but then the fact that I couldn't breathe had me quite distracted. I did everything I was supposed to... Circle of awareness (horizon, altimeter, jumpmaster 1, jumpmaster 2), 3 practice touches, circle of awareness again, then horizon, altimeter, horizon, altimeter, horizon, altimeter until 6500 feet, then lock on to altimeter, wave at 5500 feet, pull, check for Square and stable canopy... nope I had a line twist so I had to fix that (very common). Got my line twist fixed, checked for steerability... could steer ok, so that means it's a good canopy. Then find the airport... find the airport... FIND THE AIRPORT... WHERE IS THE FREAKING AIRPORT?!?!?! Once I FINALLY found the airport, I got into my flight pattern... the instructor on the radio was talking me through this at this point. Had me do a couple of turns to make sure I could hear him, yea I could hear. Had me get into my flight pattern, but the problem was, NOW I forgot something very important and that was what to do with my hands at landing. OMG! I pulled them down cuz I knew that slows the chute, but he didn't want me to do that so he started saying, "Hands up! Hands up! Hands up!" Then I hear, "Flare, flare, flare, flare!!!!" and at this point he's yelling (not mean, just making sure I was listening I guess) and at that point I was right by the ground and my feet hit and I went face down into the ground at about 25 mph. Ground check... can you move your legs? Yes. Roll over and relax. Man, it was hard to roll over. I'd had the wind knocked out of me (after having difficulty breathing in the first place) and then I'd twisted my legs at 25 mph and though nothing was broken, I'm VERY SORE. I walked away from a HARD landing, so I count myself lucky. I didn't stick around to pick up the video (I'll pick that up next week) because I'd planned to jump at 3pm and I didn't actually jump until about 5pm and I hadn't had lunch... was not good for my Hypoglycemia. I was getting really shaky from not eating, so I told the jumpmaster I would be back for my video later and my family and I went to dinner. Having a hard time walking, but OMG I'm so glad I did it. I don't know at this point if I'll ever do it again simply because of the breathing problems I experienced. A jump at 4000 feet like I'd originally planned would probably have been fine. Perhaps I'll do that next time (if there is a next time). But let me tell you, if you are afraid of heights, the view as you are about to push off from an airplane is not something you should ever have to experience, because I've never been afraid of heights in my life and always wanted to go higher and higher and higher... which is why I chose AFF after all. And it was even a little scary for me. 
Thanks to all for your prayers! Since my rear will be plastered to this seat for the next couple of days, I plan to play a lot of TT... when I whisper a "Belly Flop" to you, you'll know that it was for REAL.  _________________ Why did Max McWoof give me this salt shaker for Christmas????? And why is it engraved, "WOOP!"????? Fishertoons/Gardeners: Dizzy Twinklemuffin ... 128 laff ... HW50/RB50/BW50 McZilla ... 123 laff ... HW50/RB50/BW Little Dizzy Twinklemuffin ... 121 laff ... HW50/RB50/BW Landlubbers/Blackthumbs (Ubers): Mousewife ... 83 laff ... RB50/HW50 Super Dizzy ... 74 laff ... RB20s Miss T. Fied ... 39 laff ... HW50 |
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