Mike goes Skydiving

We got to the airport at 1pm on Friday (8/17). We watched a short video that explained how skydiving is dangerous and we were going to die and then I signed so many papers I think I accidentally bought a house. After that we went outside and waited around for the instructors to start calling us. We were a group of 7 and there were 2 instructors so we went 1-2-2-2. The first guy went and said it was awesome. Then the second group went up. When they came down, the instructors just picked up the packed parachutes and took the third group.

You see while one group is up, the riggers on the ground pack the parachutes that were just jumped. This makes the turn around to get the next group up faster. But this time they noticed that one of the "hard links" that goes up from the shoulder strap (riser) to the canopy was broken. It was one of those little screw down carabiners and it was bent open. So it wasn't safe to use. The rigger said it was fine, they would just wait for the group to come down and then repack one of those parachutes.

When they got back down they told them it was broken and I guess the pilot disappeared somewhere. I don't know where he went but even after the other rigs were ready to go we were just waiting around. There was a thunderstorm rolling in and we wanted to jump before it got too close. One of the instructors looked up and was pointing out how if the clouds moved one way it would be fine but if it went the other it would be bad. And she pointed out a nice clear spot we could hit.

At about 5:30 the pilot came back and after talking with the instructors for a few minutes they decided to go. Awesome for us. Ed and I had our harnesses on and we went to get into the plane. The plane taxied down the runway, turned around, and...  the pilot said "it's a hold" and then taxied back to the loading area. He thought the storm was too close or bad. We had to reschedule for the next day.

Saturday we showed up at the dropzone at 10 am with 2 of the other people that jumped the day before that wanted to watch. We talked with the instructors again and Ed and I got on the first load for the day. We went up to about 14,000 feet and I jumped (well, got pushed really) out of the airplane. Freefall was pretty awesome. It was basically what I expected based on how Erin had described it to me but the whole thing was way more intense, exciting, and awesome than I had expected. We freefell into a cloud where the instructor opened the parachute and then we came down doing a few maneuvers in the air.

The whole thing was so fast and I had so much andrenaline it was just awesome. Looking out from under the canopy was cool. It was neat to be looking down at high point monument and to try to pick out other familiar features on the ground. I'll need to do it again to take it in more.

On Sunday I heard in the news that the plane we jumped from had crashed later in the afternoon on Saturday. We had exited around 11 or so.  The plane seems to have landed with its gear up at about 1:50.

http://www.njherald.com/story/19313025/plane-damaged-on-landing-at-sussex-airport

There's a video also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPjnFH5nA_E