An Excerpt !!! My First Ever AFF Skydiving Experience

I always maintain journals and the thought of blogging experiences of my life could go interesting. So one of exquisite experiences was that of Skydiving.

I don’t think anyone - family and friends - who knows me well, would ever describe me as a risk taker. Normally, I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced anything dangerous. Maybe it’s because I’ve been so protected all my life that I decided to start jumping out of planes. It has been a life-altering experience and different, maybe thrill or may be adrenaline rush.

The first time I ever went skydiving was in Ohio in my School days. I enrolled through Student training Program and opted for Accelerated Freefall (AFF). The training for AFF is extensive, but experienced a 50 second free-fall on my first jump!

I had to plan to be at our skydiving center all day to prepare for this incredible experience. On the first AFF jump one exits from the chopper with two AFF Instructors and the instructors maintain a grip on the harness; giving in-air instruction via hand signals and assist with stability whenever necessary. One opens the parachute around 5,000 feet followed by the instructors loosening the grip for landing and piloting the parachute.

For my first jump, I reached the Skydive Location around 9:30 AM, hoping to return with my mission accomplished.

All the different instructors took their fair share of time describing in detail how the jump would go and teaching me skydiving terms, hand signals and techniques. We practiced the exit from the chopper and body posture during free fall.  I was able to learn and progress through different skydiving skills including free fall turns, landmark spotting, altitude checks with my altimeter, free fall forward dive, and ripcord pull.

As a precaution, I was required to sign away all liability to the company for injury. I was feeling like, Am I consciously letting myself risk my life! and for what? fun! And, then I realize that not panicking in moments like this is what my safety depends mostly on. One of my instructor dressed me into a jumpsuit over my clothes. I’m sure he didn’t even know my name, and I didn’t know anything about him. After he suiting me up, he proceeded to coordinate flight times with the pilots.

With just a day training, I wasn't confident enough about my ability to open the parachute and navigate to the ground. I was walking to the chopper, almost in tears, scared and ready to not jump! And, walking to the chopper, I seriously wanted to leave.

In sometime, the two assigned instructors along with the photographer accompanied me to the chopper boarding area. Not to miss mentioning that the the chopper I was boarding had no doors. But getting this far, there is no turning back. We're in and off. Squashed into two benches that face one another. In this trip, there were 7 solo divers along with 4 of us. We all were sitting on the benches facing each other away from the door area. And so we flew to 10,000 feet and prepared to make the jump.

The instructors briefed me about my Hand Signals again and asked me "How was I feeling?" It was only me who knew what my condition was! My heartbeats raced as I was overwhelmed with nervousness and fear tempted to conceal by smiling and diverting my attention by looking out. It was very encouraging to see all the solo drivers jumping out of the chopper at ease.

At first, the pilot flies to the correct altitude, while the instructors determine the proximity to the drop zone.

The photographer got in position first followed by the instructors and me. It's tough to describe the feeling of the rush of the wind while standing at the door, waiting for the signal light to turn green by the pilot.

After positioning myself at the door while the chopper is in the right altitude above the drop zone, one of the instructor yelled, “Cut!” The pilot then turned off the engines, which puts the chopper into a steady glide at a much slower speed, and I scurried out onto the step just off the wing of the chopper. With a final glance back at the pilot for the thumbs up, we jumped.

When I first jumped out of the chopper, I got the falling feeling for a brief moment, and the rest of the 50-second freefall was absolute bliss. It just feels like flying. And the trip down after the parachute opens was pretty fun as well.

It was a windy day. I remember the instructors helping me to pose for the photographer trying to look infront against the wind. As guided, I checked my altimeter tied to my wrist and opened the parachute in time. Thereafter, my instructors let go off their grip and dived away.

By now, I knew I had to take up with the 2 control toggles of the parachute for landing procedures. I enjoyed my descent in parachute and a surreal view.

On coming closer to ground, I realized due to the windy weather, I would have to land in the farms beside the skydiving area as the landing zone in the ground was against the wind direction.

We had been instructed on this emergency landing procedure; So yes! I landed safely in an open farm area. While Skydiving Team drove to pick me up, one of the man working in the fields gave me some water.

Honestly, if I hadn’t covered pre-exit and landing procedures in class, I wouldn’t have known what to do and even now, looking back on it, I was so nervous that I’m surprised I did everything correctly.

Actually, it’s fun, it’s frightening, it’s beautiful, and it really is a life-changing experience.