What is parachuting like?
I’ve done it! A few years back a bunch of my girlfriends and I went to Skydive Chicago together to celebrate our college graduation. Unfortunately I’d been out drinking all the previous night – it *was* the last day of classes, after all – so I was never really quite clearheaded enough to be afraid. (Not drunk, just a little hung over.) We were doing tandem jumping, where you’re strapped to a professional jumper. The training class was short and before I knew it we were in the plane. I don’t remember being scared at all. I sorta had this vision, based mostly on Mountain Dew commercials, that we’d just push off from the plane and gently sort of fly away. In reality, we plummeted. My stomach jumped into my throat. We had a full minute of free fall and all I kept thinking was, “Don’t puke on your jumpmaster. Don’t puke on your jumpmaster.” To be honest, I didn’t like the free fall that much. The wind was screaming in my ears and my eyes were watering despite the goggles. And it’s really c
I’ve been at it since 1998 with about 650 jumps now. Home base is Sky Knights in East Troy, WI, but I’ve spent time at drop zones in IL, TX, FL, MO, WA, CA. I’ve never done a tandem — I went with Accelerated FreeFall instruction where you have jumpmasters in the air with you but you are responsible for every step yourself. The first couple of jumps were hard to remember due to acute sensory overload. I think tandems are a bit less susceptible to this since you don’t have to pay so much attention to details. Most people don’t feel a plummeting, dropping, stomach-heaving sensation as you might on a roller coaster. Each part of your body is falling at the same rate. It feels more like floating on a cushion of air, and unless there are clouds nearby you might not have a sense of falling at all — just lots of wind in your face. The kind of stomach sensations web-goddess describes are usually due to anxiety and a heavy breakfast on top of too
it has one of the highest accident/death rates in the country for drop zones Well, that’s a bit like saying you’d never go to the Skip Barber Driving School if it was held at a track with several racing fatilities in its history. The people having accidents are running on a completely different level. Skydive Chicago has had several deaths of experienced, envelope-pushing jumpers in recent years. It’s a major destination for people looking to learn from the most extreme players in the sport. They know they jack up the risk by flying tiny high-speed canopies, performing ground-hugging swooping landings, etc. At the same time, their student program is very complete and thorough, and some gear and training innovations pioneered at Skydive Chicago have since become widely adopted. Grads are some of the best-prepared and most safety-conscious jumpers around.
I wouldn’t go to Skydive Chicago – it has one of the highest accident/death rates in the country for drop zones. I did two static line jumps – the first one was incredible, but I felt like I missed a lot of it from the pure shock of it all. I would recommend trying to take it all in the best you can. The hardest part for me was actually leaving the plane. The way we did it, we had to crawl out on the wing strut before letting go – on the first pass, the door was open and I was looking down the entire time until the instructor told me it was time to get out. I couldn’t do it. We made a second pass, and that time, the instructor held the door closed except for a tiny crack for him to look through, and I didn’t look. When he opened the door, I just went, without looking down. Just grabbed the strut and went for it. Don’t psyche yourself out! I imagine it’s harder to chicken out if you’re strapped to someone. Also – don’t let your instructor bully you into doing anything you don’t want to
