August 1998 / May 1999 / August 1999
25 August 1999: I'm very sorry to let you know there is no way of making pictures during my Accelerated Free Fall course I did between 9 and 23 August, 1999. But of course there is a nice little story about it. Read it at the end of this page.
Since my 30st birthday on August 18th I don't know any fear at all. That was the day I jumped from a plane for the first time, above Paracentrum Texel (PCT), at 3500 ft. Fortunately I had the ground training from Joris, so I knew what to do:
Arch, 1001, 1002, 1003, Parachute check: is it rectangular, is it going forward? Yes?
Then check whether I have a twist, pump twice, check the slider and end-cells, look around
to see the others, look down to see where I am and check the altimeter.
This is me during my harness test.
And then the great day has come: check in for the first jump: dress in my fancy overall, put on my helmet, altimeter and goggles and of course tie myself into my gear. We feel like astronauts, can't even walk properly because of the leg belts that have been fastened *very* tightly. The visitors and tourists on the other side of the fence gasp in admiration.
After the so-called pincheck (they check the pins that lock all vital connections in the gear, so your spare parachute won't go off in the plane, and you stay attached to the main parachute) we get a steering briefing to make sure we all take the same route for landing and nobody will land somewhere in a potato field. And then, we step into the plane, a nice and cosy 14-seat Cessna 208 without seats. After the take-off, we have a free sight seeing flight over the island Texel, but we're not really interested - the only thing that counts is the jump at 3500 ft. I look at my altimeter: 4000!!! The jump master is joking, filming us with a video cam. The door opens... oops, 4000 is very high what am I doing here I need to go back down oh please close that door oh no the first one has to go ready yes go next ready yes go next ready yes go. Next... That's me! I go to the edge, stick out my feet, which are immediately blown to the left because of the speed. I don't even remember if I took the right exit position. Ready? OK. This is ridiculous. Yes. Can't say no anymore. Go.
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I realize the plane has gone.
I'm off, up, down in the sky. It's silent, a distant roar of the plane's engine moving away is the only thing I hear.
I need to count to three. 10............
Bang! That's the chute opening up. Look up, it's perfectly rectangular, no twists, no other problems, my flight down can begin. Looking up I can see the parachute and slider:
And looking down i see ... oh my god, that is far down!
Slowly I start to navigate around PCT, and after a few minutes I enter the 1000 feet-area, I turn my back to the wind. Entering the 500 feet-area, I need to turn around into the wind, and then the ground comes closer and closer. I assume landing position and when I touch the ground I perform the roll Joris tought us. Again, I hear nothing.
After field-packing the chute that brought me down safely, we are collected by the staff who leads us across the landing strip. We're ready for folding the parachute and going for the next flight.
Others, who don't have the guts to jump alone, can jump together with an instructor:
When the wind is too heavy to jump we hang around at PCT, talking about jumping, watching skydiving videos and play Vier Op Een Rij.
The second year of my parachute career I tried something more exciting: the AFF, Accelerated Free Fall, course at the Paracentrum Texel, between 9 and 23 August 1999. More exciting because we learn how to make free fall jumps, more exciting because the demands are higher than the A permit course we did last year.
AFF consists of 7 jumps you make accompanied by one or two instructors (7 levels), and 5 jumps, every time from a lower altitude. Each of the levels needs to be passed individually, and level 7 is a kind of exam jump.Level 1 only is to check if you are conscious enough to free fall - you need to check you altimeter several times; in level 2 you also need to do a forward and a backward move, by stretching or bending your legs; level 3 contains a solo free fall of several thousand feet, during which you need to be stable, and be able to make some corrections; level 4 includes turning (by bringing your arm down, thus letting the air flow by in a different way); level 5 is turning and altitude awareness; in level 6 I had to dive out of the plane and get stable without the instructor (Gary) by my side, wait for him, make a back loop and a tracking. Level 7 was about the same: dive exit, back loop, turning, tracking. After my seven jumps I was an AFF graduate. I started doing the 12500, 12500, 7000, 5000 and 3500 feet jumps.
On a rainy day I asked instructor Iwan to make spaghetti of my parachute, in order to do my pack test, which I passed. This, and eight more jumps made me the B permit graduate.
Most of the jumps were done from the LET 410 plane from Ukraine. The pilots' English is not really good, which is evident when we reach the dropping area: it's always "Open the door please, open the door ... standby standby standby ... exit! exit! exit!". Even when the door did not open one time, the pilots went on with their lyrics.
And then, after the pilots' "exit" we go, five seconds separate the skydivers. You can dive out, step out, hang on the plane and let go, as long as you become stable again ("Arch ... arch ... arch"). And then the program begins: the exercises you have in mind must be done, you work until 6000, 5000 feet, wave off at 4000 and pull at 3500. Free fall is like swimming: you can float in the air, make movements, feel the air do all kinds of things with your body. You can dive from the plane as if you were diving into the pool. You won't reach the water though :-) After a free fall you feel your ears trying to get used to the difference in air pressure.