Parachute Jump

Just finished a tandem parachute jump with Falcons Parateam, Hacketstown, Co Carlow. Here is a quick description of the experience for anyone that is considering doing it. Freefall from 10,000 feet fun.

Its about one hours drive from Dublin. They have a small grass airstrip and a Sesna plane that has been modified with a clear Perspex sliding door. The place has a number of cabins/huts and a large caravan for tea/coffee and food. You have to register and go through all the paperwork while a DVD player in the corner lets you know what you are in for by showing previous jumps. On the walls are various pictures of previous jumps including someone jumping with their dog strapped in.

From the minute you sign the "risk serious of serious injury or death" paperwork you start to feel the adrenaline pumping and nervousness kicking in. We were lucky with the weather and because I got there early I got on the jump sheet quite early so was one of the 1^st to go up.

They provide a briefing by one of the instructors who I would guess is in his mid 40's. He said that he was over 5000 jumps done and has never been injured in any of them. They go through the harness which is pulled uncomfortably tight on you. The instructor then clips himself onto you. He has the 4 stone weight parachute pack on his back.

The parachutes are interesting in that there are 2 chutes and a sensor built into them. The main chute is manually pulled and if it gets tangled it can be cut free. The reserve chute is in a smaller area of the pack. In the 5000 jumps the instructor or "jump master" told us that he has only ever had to use the reserve parachute twice. He was quite a funny guy and joked that "I must be due a reserve chute jump soon…". With 10 nervous people in the room with him as you can imagine he didn't exactly get a roar of laughter. The sensor acts on barometric pressure and in the event that the instructor gets knocked unconscious it will automatically deploy at around 3000 feet. Also the packer of the parachutes used to be in the air corps and has packed over 100,000 parachutes. This all puts your mind at rest a bit. Then you get the instructions:

• Arch your back with your head back and your legs tucked behind you so that you freefall with your body straight. If you forget to do this the instructor will have to arch extra big for both of you so its to make his life easier
  
• Hold onto the straps when falling out of the plane, he taps you on the head when you can let your hand go free as if you have to put your hands up in a bank robbery
  
• Don't put your tongue out because you don't know when he is going to pull the chute and you could bite down when the chute opens
  
• Don't grab the instructors hands because he kinda needs them to open the parachute.
  
• Relax and enjoy yourself
  

After arriving at around 9am we were up next at around 11:30 after 4 people went up before us. Approx 2 every 30 minutes. Only 2 can go up at a time so another girl called Adrienne went up with me. She was there with a large group who were raising funds for charity. She was the "victim" when the instructor was explaining things to us and looked as terrified as I was. I was in good company.

When you get into the plane you are once again struck how small it is. No in-flight service today was one of the comments. Thankfully I was sort of prepared for this after the flying lesson last year in a similar Sesna plane but this time I was concentrating on being able to jump out of it. Take off was very smooth on the grass runway and after about 15 minutes of gaining altitude and getting more instructions from the instructor we were nearing the correct altitude of 10,000 feet. They circle around to gain altitude to get to the jump area 10,000 feet up but only 1 mile away from the takeoff strip so that the wind will carry you back to the landing area. The instructors all have watch-like altimeters on their wrists. You are loosely tethered to each other before getting into the plane and at around 7,000 feet he gets you to sit closer and pulls the harnesses together very tightly. Reassuringly tightly though. I was calm enough on the way up and was chatting to the instructor, Dave from Drogheda and the camera man.

Because I was getting a video of it Adrienne was 1^st out. They pulled back the Perspex door and the noise of wind was very loud and she shuffled her way to the door. My heart got a lot faster at that stage when I saw her falling out. The built in fight or flight instincts were not prepared for this kind of flight. The camera man jumped out and we shuffled over to the door. You have to pull your head back onto his shoulder and tuck your legs behind you under the plane. This was a bit of comfort because during the apprehensive weeks before it the jump I could not imagine myself looking out into thin air and pushing myself off. 1-2-3 go.

What happens is akin to a fall on a rollercoaster except after about 5 seconds you do a double take when you are still falling. The feeing cannot be put into words, amazing etc. doesn't cut it. I remembered to do the arching thing but forgot that the tap on the helmet meant I could put my hands out. Then I saw the camera man floating near us and made some vague gesture that I think was supposed to be a thumbs up. I await the video with interest to see what I actually did. Just as you are getting used to the falling sensation the chute was pulled and you feel a strong pull on your harness. Your legs fall forward as you go from essentially lying on your stomach on a cushion of air to a standing position. All together it is about 30 seconds of falling before the parachute opens. As you can imagine this is a major relief when it does. It is about 10-15 minutes after that of floating which is quite peaceful. He then hands you the straps and says that your steering it. Pulling a little bit left and right makes a huge difference. He then asked if I wanted to do a spin, ok, pulling hard on one side makes you do a spiral turn so quickly that when he straightened up you feel like you are going upwards again.

For landing because you are lower in the harness you have to pull your legs right up and let him land on his feet. You have to look at the horizon when doing this because you will instinctively go to put your feet down if looking at the ground. We had no trouble and both stayed upright.

It took about 20 minutes for my heart to calm down afterwards. Fingers shaking from the adrenaline rush. Great feeling of achievement that I had done something I had always wanted to do. I'd both recommend the experience and the Parateam in Hacketstown.

After effects?

Because your adrenaline is pumping most of the day you will feel exhausted that night when you get home. Although the actual jump is all over very quickly a few days afterwards I am still having flashbacks to the seconds before leaving the plane and the freefall.

Update: I know I'm going to get slagged about this but here is a cutdown version of the video DVD they sent me, sorry about the baywatch like slow motions ;-)