I was thinking back at work today about my skydiving adventures. I was driving home from work one evening in the fall of 1994 and happened to see a skydiving bumpersticker on the car in front of me at the stoplight. I wrote the phone number down in the dust on my dash (I work in a stonemill). I managed to round up four other buddies and we made plans to drive the four hours one Saturday morning to the jump site. I told the guys if they would go, I would jump first. Well, we went through about a 3 or 4 hour course and we were ready. I couldn't believe how heavy the new square chutes were. We were to jump from a Cessna 182, 3 the first trip and 2 the second. The plane had duct tape on the sides and I remember thinking to myself,"I will probably be glad to jump out of that thing before it crashes." Well, we loaded up and I took my position next to the pilot and clipped the static line to the ring on the floor of the plane, thinking all along about Rambo when his static line got caught and he bounced off the side of the plane before cutting himself loose. Now I guess I should mention that I had NEVER been in a plane before this moment. We take off and are climbing pretty good. I figure that we are to our chosen altitude of 3,000 feet. I glanced at my altimeter and realized we were only 500 feet up, 2,500 more to go. We reach altitude and the pilot cuts back the throttle to 80 knots. The jumpmater flips the door up, and I am staring into the biggest void I have ever seen. I thought,"What in the hell am I doing this for?" as I stepped out onto the platform. The wind blew my legs rearward pretty forcibly and I had to grip the wingstrut tightly to keep from blowing away. I let my legs swing out, looked at the jumpmaster who gave me the signal to release my grip, focused on the underside of the wing, and let go. No arch, I just spun like a hotdog until my shoot opened. I looked up and felt relieved that it was opened in an untangled state. It seemed like forever until I floated to the ground. I also noticed that it was totally quiet up there. I couldn't hear any ground noise at all. You couldn't have jumped off a kitchen chair and landed any softer than I did. I ended up making a total of 4 jumps (2 static-line and 2 PRCP's) from 3,000 feet before deciding that I had tempted fate enough for one lifetime. I have flown in a plane 4 times, but have NEVER landed in one!I think sometimes that I would like to get into it again, but always manage to talk myself out of it. Anyone else had similar experiences?

I fly 'em C-210, & my wife jumps out of 'em Stiletto-35.

"jumpmater flips the door up",,, on a 180 series? That's different, I take the doors off on the 172/182s. Sounds fancy (& not very windy).

L&L whereabouts in Indiana (I probably fly in now, & than)?
Does the JM use trascievers with you "lawn-darts", maybe three-way - "one-mute"?

AND, WTH kind of pilots do you guys have!?!?
Are they actually licensed?

I did.
Then my jumpmaster screwed up.  On jump #1271, he had a double canopy.  Instead of practicing what he preached, he cut away one at about 650 feet, just in time to speed up and bounce off of the Earth.
Just too much for me to do it anymore....

What next? A bungee cord in case of chute failure? Getting out of bed in the morning is as close to sky diving as I want to get, personally.

Locobob, I jumped in Carmi, IL. My jumpmaster was Randy Simpson. Man, did the ground ever look flat down there!

Wilson, I had a "one-way" radio on my chest to receive instructions from the ground. Yeah, the door hinged up flat under the right wing. All seats were removed except for the pilot's. The pilot was a young guy if my memory serves correctly. I think he came in from somewhere else to help out some.

Nice photos, Lordtrader.  I couldn't bring myself to do all the required jumps to "earn"  higher altitude and freefall. I was told that I needed 5 static-line jumps (with a minimum of 3 perfect PRCP's) in order to qualify for "true" freefall. I did two PRCP's, one with a failed arch and the other with a two-handed pull, neither of which counted as perfect. I just decided that I had done enough, seeing as how I am terrified of heights. My wife says that I can't be afraid of heights if I skydived, but she is wrong. LOL