Skydiving?

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Anyone ever been?

I was making a home visit to a client the other day and he was showing me videos of a quadriplegic skydiving. (This client is in his early 20's, but is dying from muscular dystrophy and a quadriplegic himself. Someone told him some instructors are trained to take quadriplegics tandem diving, so now he's making arrangements to do it himself. Really excited for him).

It videos looked amazing. I must be highly suggestible or something because now part of me really wants go skydiving, although I'm probably too freaked out by the idea of having just one parachute and one back-up to ever do it. (Personally, I'd want, like, ten or twenty back-up chutes).

Just curious about other peoples' experiences, so I can live vicariously though anyone who's gone ...

I've always wanted to skydive, and one day I will. When I was in university I tried to become qualified, which requires learning to navigate and land the parachute via low-altitude static-line parachute jumping, and then, after your instructors think you're ready, successful performance of multiple 'test' static-line jumps where you show your instructor that you can do all the required actions for deploying your parachute after freefall.

Unfortunately you need to do the test jumps within a certain period of time (say, a week), in order to become qualified, and the airbase where I was learning only had one plane, which gave priority to the higher-paying tandem jumpers. Also, the weather was often too windy and cloudy for jumping. The airbase was an annoyingly long and expensive bus ride from the university, and I got tired of spending my time and money travelling there, only to have to wait for 6 hours before being told that the weather prohibited jumps. In the end, I never got my qualification.

However, once I have some money saved up, I plan to take a course somewhere with better weather and better equipment.

Never been, probably never will. Not my kind of thrill.

I've done a number of mindless things in my life but I haven't gone skydiving yet! It's definitely on my "to do" list!

I tried a RAPS static line course aswell but after 5 jumps It wasnt happening either, so I did Acelerated free fall AFF instead, I had issues trying to get the landing pattern sorted, prob to do with having ADHD aswell, anyway I'v done 51 jumps now, but lack of work means no jumping atm, £20 a jump ticket and need to buy own rig @£950 second hand (minus an automatic opening device AAD, which would cost £900 itself), but great feeling!

I'm too afraid of heights, to try something like that.

I have never been skydiving because it's too expensive. However I really want to do it because I went bungy jumping, liked the falling sensation and want more of it.

I've always wanted to go skydiving and some day I will. It's near the top of my list of things to do, and it's one that I feel strongly about doing.

You will see me jumping out of an airplane under one and only one circumstance: if my engine is on fire. Ditching in a cornfield is preferable to jumping out.

Jumping out of a perfectly fine aircraft... well that's just plain crazy!

Not necessarily. I learned how to jump (it cost me a bundle). Then I jumped once. I had a single purpose: to convince myself that gravitation is not a force. I did my (one and only jump) and for a few seconds I felt no force acting on my body. After which the only force I felt (on the way down) was the air pushing against me and then finally the impact of hitting the ground at low speed.

Einstein was right. That convinced me. I never jumped again.

ruveyn

I am so jealous!

WWWOOOOO WWWEEEEEEE! Is that a RUSH or what!! ! I LOVE that feeling too!