What were you thinking during your first pull time?

[ntrprnr 0]

I was trying to explain the entire process to my dad, so I tried remembering my first pull to explain it to him. I didn't send him this, but it's whaat I remember from my IAF Level 4 - my first pull non-tandem. Anyone else have any good ones?

OK, here we go. Waveoffwaveoffwaveoff. OK. Reach back, grab, THROW! OK! THROWN! One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thoOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOMPH! OK. THERE'S THE TUG. LOOK UP. OK. THE CHUTE IS OPENING. IT'S OPENING. IT'S CATCHING AIR. OK. IT'S OPEN. THE FOUR "S's." REMEMBER THE FOUR S's! IS IT SQUARE? YES. OK. IS IT STABLE? YES. OK. IS THE SLIDER DOWN? YES. OK 4TH "S." IS IT STEERABLE? FIND OUT! OK. UNSTOW THE TOGGLES. MAKE A RIGHT TURN. OK. I TURNED RIGHT. MAKE A LEFT TURN. OK. I TURNED LEFT. OK. CAN YOU FLARE IT? YES. IT FLARES PERFECTLY. OK. YOUR CHUTE IS OPEN!!! YOU'RE THIRTY FIVE HUNDRED FEET ABOVE THE EARTH, AND YOUR CHUTE IS OPEN AND IT WORKS!! IT REALLY WORKS!!! YEEEEEE-HAAAA!!!!!

OK. NOW WHERE THE FUCK AM I????????? OK. LOOK FOR THE DROP ZONE. YOU'VE STUDIED IT IN THE PICTURES. OK. FIND THE HUDSON - OK, THERE'S THE HUDSON. OK. NOW FIND THE TWO TINY ISLANDS - THE RACOON EYES. OK. THERE THEY ARE. NOW TURN AROUND AND LOOK - SEE THE DROP ZONE? YES. THAT'S THE DROP ZONE. NO, THAT'S A FUCKING BARN, YOU IDIOT!! THE DROP ZONE IS NEXT TO IT. OK. THERE'S THE DROP ZONE. NOW. GET INTO LANDING PATTERN. LOOK AT YOUR ALTIMETER. MY WHAT? YOUR ALTIMETER! ON YOUR LEFT HAND! OH, YEAH. THAT. OK. I'M AT 2,500 FEET. DOING FINE. OK. KEEP LOOKING. FIND YOUR SPOT. STEER TOWARDS IT...

And so on, and so on, and so on. I wish I had a tape recorder. I actually had the entire conversation with myself.

Now it's a little easier. "WAVE OFF! ARCH! THROW!! comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon WOO! THANK YOU, MR. CANOPY!

_______________
"Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?"
"Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

[Feeblemind 1]

If I had one thing I said to myself besides all the stuff you had.

Wave off
Grab handle "PLEASE GOD LET THIS DAMN THING OPEN"
Throw
All the stuff you said, then...

"Thank you Eddie, Err I mean GOD"

Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

[Orange1 0]

To be honest, I was kind of on autopilot and not "thinking" very much - it was off SL so it was jump, arch-thousand - 2000 - reach-thousand - pull-thousand - 5000 - check, i vaguely remember being marginally surprised that the ripcord was longer than the dummy ones , and that the slider was still coming down when i looked up. had enough SLs under my belt that I knew what to do from there

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[lisamariewillbe 1]

For my first Aff , when I pulled and watched it open all I could think of was...."Un-Fu@kinbeliveable"

Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

[GeordieSkydiver 0]

I was also on auto-pilot .

Now I just go 'barrel roll, wave off, pull, please don't spank me this time'

Then either, 'thank you sabre 1'

or

'oooohhh jesus, god, my kidneys are in my boots, f@ck me, make the pain stop.....damn sabre 1'

Or words to that effect.

*edited because my spoiling is reduckulus.

Lee _______________________________

In a world full of people, only some want to fly, is that not crazy?
http://www.ukskydiver.co.uk

[MB38 0]

"6,000... 5,500...5,000. Wave off, reach... where's that damn hackey? Oh, there it is. Pull!

Uh.

Uh...

Oh, there we go---OW, MY NUTS GOD DAMMIT!!!"

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[indyz 1]

holy shit, I'm on my back

[JoeG 0]

I had never jumped before AFF 1. I was like you but even more.
I was SOO glad when it was pull time and it actually opened.

I did all my manouvers but forgot to put my left arm up as I reached for my hackey, so went head down as I pulled - THAT was interesting....

AFF 3 this weekend weather permitting.

_________________________________________
"Knowledge is Power!"

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT 0]

i think i asked my AFF instructor about 3-4 times if the harness ws tight enough around my legs b4 we got on the lane. I was so terrified that I was going to end up with a ball uinder malfunction. I would have gone limp. so happy that the opening was so smooth! but then it was shape,stability,steering. all good. ok were is the dz. oh there it is way over there... im so not going to make it to the holding area. if i make it at all. going into the wind and atleast floated it over the runway. wound up being a straight in landing. to hell with a pattern. i was seriously looking at the other corn fields to see which one looked the best. I was dreading a corn cob up my ass. but thankfully everything worked out and i floated. SLOWELY to the dz. I still dont know if they herd me on the radio or not. but i was giving myself a I can do it peptalk the entire time. If they could hear me i hope noone else could

ExPeCt ThE uNeXpEcTeD!
DoNt MiNd ThE tYpOs, Im LaZy On CoRrEcTiOnS!

[Cloudi 0]

Pleaseopenpleaseopenpleaseopenpleaseopenpleaseopenplease!!!

Whereistheairportwhereistheairportwhereistheairportwhereistheairport????

Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit!!!!

Hey, I lived!? That was f**king AWESOME!!! Come on, level 2!!!!

Kim
Watch as I attempt, with no slight of hand, to apply logic and reason.

[LearningTOfly 0]

"Ground

Sky

Ground... might as well go for it..." pull

Then as I look down between my legs and see my pilot chute inflate:

"Oh ya..."

Besides the barrel roll on exit, it was fun- I got off the s/l and went back to square one, stability wise. Then I relaxed... and that was all it took to gain stability. The chute opened just fine, too, despite my er, 'bad' body position- it just looked a little kinky from the ground, that's all.

[bigorangemd 0]

Mine was "Shit!, where is that hackey" over and over untill the jumpmaster pulled me.

[WILDBILLAQR 0]

Mine was the same pleeeese opeeeen! THEN IT WAS "OH SHIT! LINE TWISTS! All was good, I'm still here!

----------------------------------------------
"Thats not smoke, thats BUCKEYE!!"
AQR#3,CWR#49

[sd-slider 0]

I did like most and counted once I pulled......BUT!....I had an unusual mal that nobody could have prepared me for.....

The dreaded "Slider stuck in the DOWN position" malfunction. I spent 90% of my time under canopy flaring, steering, kicking, etc. trying to clear this mal. No matter what I tried, the slider would not go up where it was supposed to!

Then, all of a sudden, I realized that my controllability checks were normal and relaxed enough to start my final approach (spazzed my way through the setup and base leg) and stir up some dust.

Some call it fun....I agree!

Anvil Brother #69

Sidelined with a 5mm C5-C6 herniated disk...
Back2Back slammers and 40yr old fat guys don't mix!

[MB38 0]

Ball under malfunction I'm completely stealing that and using it.

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[Squeak 17]

I was thinking PULL
then I thought
WAHOO IT OPENED

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[WILDBILLAQR 0]

HaHa! I had a student cut away from the dreaded"SLIDER DOWN" mal! She also didn't hear the radio and landed down wind in the desert. She hasn't been back, I think she took up bowling!

----------------------------------------------
"Thats not smoke, thats BUCKEYE!!"
AQR#3,CWR#49

[rasmack 0]

Fuck this handle is hard to budge!!! (ripchord, very tight loop)

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[gordy 0]

As best said by Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted.....

WOW!

[taryn 0]

I think that I was pretty confident the canopy would open with no problem.....However, while UNDER canopy my thoughts were more along the lines of "HOW DO I FLY THIS BLOODY THING....NO WAIT, HOW AM I GOING TO LAND THIS??!?!?"

Nowadays I am more confident in flying the canopy and slightly more anxious about the pull and opening.

[heidihagen 0]

Quote

holy shit, I'm on my back

nice, me too. except, mine was the jump where i had to do turns.

1 - "unbelievable!!!"
*POOF*
"wow, i rock."
"OMG! the radio fell off!!! wait, no.. is chest strap is missing...??"
"ahaaaaa... there it is! ....dumbass."
i would have figured it out once i heard a voice coming from my chin =)

2 - "this rocks!!!"

3 - "turns suck. is this right? i don't feel stable! am i stable??"
*earth-sky-earth-sky* "what the hell? the hackey won't budge!!!"
(my affi pulled for me on that one!)

i didn't lose my mind, i sold it on ebay. .:need a container to fit 5'4", 110 lb. cypres ready & able to fit a 170 main (or slightly smaller):.[/ce

[Guest]

hey he's going for my hackey ... gotta .. beat ... him to it ... made it! Crap that was the pull signal I was getting!! WOW! Cool, looks like a parachute! Okay ... lets see, these must be the toggles ... pull left, pull right, flare ... okay ... where's the freaking dropzone ... its not exactly below me, wtf? Turn turn turn ... THERE! Wow, that's a ways off! (Longest spot I've had in my 30 jumps .. yep, AFF #1. Hence the pull signal, to get back easier.) Its all good. Thanks Terry & Bobby.

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[Everon 0]

Mine was similar - the jumpmaster helped me locate it, then PULL, hard arch, perfect inflation, slider down - WOW is it peacefully lonely up here!!!!

[airtwardo 7]

...If the good Lord is looking for a way to take a dump on me...this would be the time!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[tbrown 26]

First freefall was my 6th jump, after 5 static lines. I'd done a practice pull earlier in the day.

Then my instructor told me I would also be doing my own packjob for this jump. "I'm gonna whaaaaaaa ?" "Pack your own chute." Oh god....

Not to worry, another instructor showed me every step of the way and watched over my shoulder. This was an old 28 ft round, packed in a sleeve and then into a 4 pin ripcord surplus container with a spring loaded pilot chute. So I was under the double whammy of hoping I would not only pull the ripcord, but that the damn thing would open at all.

Went up on one of the last loads of the day, one of those nice July sunset loads where the air is getting delightfully cool. This time we were going UP - to 3200 ft. I could tell the ground looked SMALLER than it had before on my S/L jumps, which had been at 2500 - 2800 ft. I was starting to move up in the world, this was going to be cool - if I could just pull it and it would just open.

Jump run, my instructor opened the door of the Cessna and spotted us right over the dropzone (there were no ground winds to speak of). "Feet in the door", he told me, "Get out", and "GO". I stepped right off and threw an arch. Righht away I was struck by the difference of the feeling, I didn't feel like I'd dropped away at all, I was just.... there. Okay, now look, there's the ripcord, grab it while I bring my left hand in over my head, and pull. It came about halfway and stopped. I gave it another punch and it came the rest of the way out. I could feel the pack breaking open on my back and in another moment was getting line stretch. Looking up I saw my canopy, MY PACKJOB open perfectly. And there I was, completely open, under a silent round surplus canopy, somewhere between 2500 and 3000 ft (no altimeter, we didn't usually start to use them until 15 second delays from 4500 ft - up through a 10 second delay, counting was considered safe enough).

Along with my $8 fee for a first freefall, I'd also been assessed $5 for the keg fund (our DZ's variation on the case o' beer, our DZO kept a keg running after hours and he scrupulously saw to it that every special occasion or infraction was dunned the correct amount to keep the good times flowing).

Never thought a beer tasted so good in my life and had another 8 or 9 just to be sure.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !