Have you ever considered skydiving???

[emmagata]

Next month is my 45th bday and my wife has offered to pay for a
skydiving experience.

Should I?

It's alway something that's been on my mind for a long time but I'm nervous.

 

[Sonya]

I wanted to really badly in college but my friends backed out on me when the talk got serious. Since then I've gone through several experiences that make me afraid of heights so now I'd say no way! But if you are considering it then yes! Go for it! And then post the pics here!

 

[catsrule]

No way! My Dad was a paratrooper in WWII, and after hearing some of his stories, no way. I'm sure it's alot safer now, but still no way.

 

[SuiteDisney]

Gene did it (it was my b'day present to him) and he loved it. I would never skydive, I wouldn't even go up in that little plane!

 

[emmagata]

Originally posted by ***********
Gene did it (it was my b'day present to him) and he loved it. I would never skydive, I wouldn't even go up in that little plane!

Can you give details on his experience?

Thanks!

 

[browneyes]

I thought about it, but my acrophobia nags me too much. I think skydiving will be a good way to cure my acrophobia. I hope someday to be brave enough to try it.

Good luck, and have fun. I've heard it's very addicting to skydive.

 

[SuiteDisney]

He went in tandem with one of the experienced skydivers who worked there. They were joined together with a harness. He took Gene aside and explained what to do and what would happen and Gene had the choice of whether or not he wanted to pull the rip-cord (he did).

Then a bunch of them went up in this rickety old airplane and jumped out. We got a video and pictures of Gene's jump, so the photographer jumped out with the two of them.

That's about all I can tell you, but I know he really enjoyed it.

 

[HauntedMansionGeek]

Um...no.

No no no NOooooo nope nooooo no no.

NO! Newp! NO no no nonononononononooooooo.

no NO No nO no-no EEK no, no no no...nope noooooooooo!

Uh..no, I have not.


By the way, my answer is NOoooooo!

Have fun if you do it though. I always loved flying in small planes! It's the dropping through the sky OUTSIDE of the plane that would bother me! LOL

 

[tc]

Why, yes, I have. I wanted to do it as a celebration when I was finished counseling, but that didn't happen. I probably would only do it if my husband set it up. The place near us only allows a tandem jump for your first time. I think it would be very exciting. I have this weird "fear" of heights. When I am up high, and looking down, I have a huge urge to jump. I think it feels so exhilarating. Of course, I never would, but I imagine it every time I am up high. Some day I will do it. Maybe when I turn 45, that's three years from now.

 

[Serena]

Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane is not on my list of "to do's". lol

But I would love to be brave enough to do it. Just to say I did.

 

[GenePA]

I did do a tandem jump and I would do it again.....but next time I'd like to do a solo jump. To do a solo jump, it takes about 4-6 hours of prep time and 'class' time before they'll let you jump. For a tandem jump, the prep time is only about 1/2 hour.....so that is a big advantage.

The worse part about the jump was the plane ride. They crammed about 10 of us inside a small plane and we were packed. I was really wondering if the plane would even get off the ground....it wasn't the newest of models. A few folks jumped from about 5000 feet.....a few others from about 10000 feet. We jumped at 13000 and it was a blast. They hook you up as you are flying up to the drop height and I was in front....the instructor was hooked directly behind me. We jumped out and it was a bit loud with the rushing wind all around you. I couldn't really hear the instructor too well at all. I wore an altimeter on my wrist and I was to pull the cord at 4500 feet. I was concentrating on what I was doing and I forgot about pulling the cord until the instructor tapped me on the wrist.....I pulled the chute at around 4000 feet.

Once the chute was pulled it was so cool! Everything became so quiet and still....it was eerie. It went from a loud rush of wind to dead silence. We floated down easily as I controlled the chute. We even did a flip while coming down which was pretty awesome.
When we landed, my feet came down solidly on the ground but then I slipped on the parachute and dropped to one knee. But basically, I landed on my feet. The whole thing seemed to last about 2 minutes but once I jumped, it probably was pretty close to 5-8 minutes before we hit the ground. You can really control the chute with the wind and can ride the wind for some time if you know how to do it.

Emmagata......your going to love it! I would do it again...it's not cheap though. If you are not quite confident enough and don't want to spend 4-6 hours preparing, then the tandem jump is the way to go. Just make sure you are jumping with qualified instructors. The guy who jumped with me had jumped over 2500 times and that was reassuring. My wife gave me the 'ticket' for the jump too. At the time, I was kidding her that she did it because she just got my life insurance increased and she wanted a 'pay day'

I hope you do it and I can't wait until we hear how you made out....if you are the smallest bit of an adventurer, you will love it!

 

[BCVOwner2002]

I was going to do it when I was in college except while waiting for the plane to return from a trip with other sky-divers an ambulance showed up! It appears a woman broke her leg because she landed in a gopher hole!!! I decided with the way my luck was (and still is) I better not take the risk!!! Annmarie

 

[Nutsy]

It's entirely up to you, but personally I definately WOULD NOT CONSIDER doing it

 

[EltonJohn]

Originally posted by emmagata Next month is my 45th bday and my wife has offered to pay for a
skydiving experience.

Should I?

It's alway something that's been on my mind for a long time but I'm nervous.

GO FOR IT!!!!

As for me, I am afraid of falling to my death at 200 MPH, but have promised myself that I will still go skydiving at least once in my lifetime. Say a prayer and jump.

The probibility that your chute will fail (or something else that could go wrong) is very low.

You might try less extreme things first like hang-gliding, para-gliding, skycoasting, base jumping, or bungee jumping. This will be my way of getting up the nerve to go skydiving. Also, there is a place in Las Vegas that offers simulation parachute jumps, so you might want to do some research on that too.

Blessings,
Diane

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I did it back in college. In those days there were no tandem jumps..you just went on your own the first time.
It was a BLAST!!!!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I would looooooove to!

 

[DocRafiki]

I consider it to be scary.

 

[Mishetta]

Would I like to skydive? NOPE, but I have thought about pushing my SIL out of a plane! (Oops....did I say that?)

 

[Cindy B]

I don't know how I missed this, but I can tell you my DH's perspective.

My DH was a skydiver for about five years. To say that he is experienced, is definetely true. He did about 130-140 jumps before he quit.

He did them all-- tandem (on top and bottom), freefall, off a biplane, different altitudes, with show elements, holds and manuevers, plus barrell rolls and flips in the air. He also did aerial photography as well. H e also did entertainment, like for school or fair openings, and such like that.

Warning, if you do it once, it is exchilarating (some have seen better than se*, but I disagree there !)

And, very expensive. DH had his own equipment which made it a little less, but it was still very expensive.

 

[Steve H.]

Yep, I've always wanted to do it (DW too), but unfortunately, the only real opportunity I've had was when a group from work went years ago -- a week before my wedding date. I figured I shouldn't tempt fate that close to the wedding, so I said some other time.

Go for it!!