parachute jump

Well October 8th was the day, and what a day it was. Myself, my 2 brothers, my cousin and a friend finally got to do our tandem parachute jumps at the third attempt due to the erratic british weather. Our first journey to the airfield (about 2 hours drive away ) was on august 19, we left birmingham (uk) at around 6:00am and got there at 8:10am and registered, we were numbers 46-50 in line to jump, we later learned to arrive a bit earlier. Anyway all was going well and 40 jumps (4 hours later) had already been done when an announcement over the tannoy was made, " due to increasing gusts, the aircraft will be temporarily grounded" one of my brothers was already suited up ready for the next take off. We waited until around 6:00pm.To cut a long story short, no more jumps were done that day and we had to reschedule. [:(!]
So september 10th was the next date we booked and we arrived at 6:00 am at the airfield. We queued up and were numbers 2-6 to jump [:D] . The skies were blue and there was hardly any wind so we thought this was it. WRONG, yes old mother earth decided to get flatulent again and the wind started to pick up [V] , to cut another long story short, there were no jumps that day so again we rescheduled for october 8th thinking we were never going to get to jump this year.
So october 8th arrives at the end of a week which the uk recieved the tail end of a hurricane so we feared the worst. Got there at 6:00am again and got numbers 1-5 to jump, the weather was looking good and we were confident that this was the day so we were randomly shouting out "we're first" to a bemused and envious spectator area. 8:30am comes and we're called in to suit up, here goes. we're in the pre-boarding area and i can see the plane's engines firing up and the adrenalin was really pumping now. In the plane we go and taxi down the GRASS runway. The instructors were a great laugh and were really buzzin', we take off in what seemed hardly any runway and off in to a steep climb we go, 13,000 feet later and 4th out, it was my turn. So I (along with the instructor)shuffled to the door of the plane and 3-2-1 [:O] oh my god. Without a doubt the most intense, euphoric experience of my life hands down. Hurtling through the sky at 120mph just seeing a calm sea of clouds below you and feeling like your standing behind a jet engine was absolutely insane. 30 seconds later the chute opens just above the cloud layer, as we descend through it i can hardly see my hands in front of me and then we're through and i can see the ground. After a scenic 5 minute descent we've landed nice and soft even though it was butt to ground first for me and it was over. I can't stress enough how much of an amazingly unbelievable experience this was and any coaster fan should do this at least once in their lifetime, we're already booking for next year.
After a nice breakfast and at around 11:00am we headed back home. While we were leaving we were shouting from the car "we're going home now because we were first". I could imagine all the smart remarks and one finger salutes we were getting but we had every right to be cocky (in a non offensive way) after 3 visits and weeks of anxiety.

Here's the link to the video my cousin had of the jump, that's me 2nd last of the 4 peeps on the ground with all the gear on and then in the plane on the back left saying hello.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IXlhZOBjwg

Job done and you've gotta do it folks.

pauly

Sounds VERY cool. I'm doing it this summer with my friends.

Man..,that looks AWESOME! Looks like tons of fun!! I am definately doing this when i get old enough...

[coolbeans326]

Originally posted by SFMM homie

Sounds VERY cool. I'm doing it this summer with my friends.

don't you have to be 18 for that?

Not if you're strapped to an instructor...

I did this for my 18th birthday...and everything you said about the experience is so true...one of the best experiences I have ever had.