Sunset Skydive over the Great Dividing Range
By Marisa Umsawasdi
I was peer pressured into taking the Advanced Freefall Course for skydiving. Well, not really. My friends, Mike, Dave, Therese, Clinton, and Eva were set on doing the skydive. They told me about it, and I thought, well, if Mike can do it, ah hell, I’ve got to do it. I signed up for the AFF course through the Brisbane Skydiving Centre.
Now the AFF course is way different than tandem skydiving. The AFF is the first dive you do to get a certification. You have class all day, then you jump out with two instructors, unattached to either of
them. Once you go through your checks and pull the rip cord, you are completely on your own.
The thought of doing the AFF scared the crap out of me. But, it was one of the things on my “things to do before I die” list, at least the skydiving part was. I always thought I would do a tandem. But something crazy in my mind said, “just do it, you’re in Australia, why not?”
The six of us left on the bus in the morning to Aratula, which is about an hour from Brisbane. We got to the training area and were in class all day. One by one, we practiced arching and doing our practice rip cord pulls (PRP’s) on a small platform with a mock altimeter on it.
After that, we hopped into a mock harness hanging from the frame of the outdoor covered area. It was a bit, well, uncomfortable for the boys. Hanging in the harness, we pulled the rip cord (the mock harness dropped a few inches when we did that). We also did our canopy, slider, and cable checks. And the instructor, without you anticipating it, would all of a sudden grasp the harness, shake you around violently, and say, “Malfunction, malfunction!” And that’s where you pull the spare chute’s rip cord. It was actually a hilarious site, to see how different people would react.
In the late afternoon, it rained for a good while. We were at the outdoor covered area, watching the rain, wondering if we would get to skydive that day. In an hour, the rain cleared, a vibrant rainbow appeared, and the instructors cleared us for skydiving.
Dave volunteered to go first. I saw how high his plane went, and I was about to unload in my pants. I started to freak out and got really nervous. But I didn’t get to see Dave jump, because my plane was next to go up.
First, I went to the bathroom, and tried to empty myself completely. I got my parachute on, which was very heavy. Then I got on the plane. It was a little four seater Cessna with the seats pulled out. We sat on our lower legs. Oh, and the pilot had a parachute on, too. What does that say?
On the plane, I became really relaxed. Strange, eh? In my mind, I kept on practicing the following procedures:
Exit: check in, checkout, horizon, up, down, arch
9,000 ft – Reach, feel – 2 PRPs
5,000 ft – Wave
4,500 ft – Reach, feel
4,000 ft - Pull rip cord, check canopy, slider, cables put rip cord in jumpsuit pull breaks on (grips), release, and follow the big white arrow to the drop zone.
Well, when the first jumper (one of the pros) opened the door, and the first thought in my head was “Oh shit, here I go!” When I was climbing out of the plane, it was extremely windy and cold! The wind gust was about 80 mph. I stood on the bar that connects to the wheel, and hung on to the wing for dear life.
There was no turning back now. The second instructor climbed out to my left. No turning back at all, I was ready. I did the exit routine: checkin, checkout, horizon, up, down, arch, and there we were – free falling! I had the 2 instructors with me, one on each side. I was late insome of the PRPs. At first, I felt like I wasn’t arching enough. The ground looked like it was comingcloser and closer. Then I realized the instructors were shaking me, and I was like, oh shit! ARCH!!!
When I came to 4,000 ft, I pulled my rip cord and breathed a sigh of relief….aaaahhhh! Then I realized that I forgot to do all my checks at first! I quickly ran through the post rip cord pull checks – canopy check, slider check, cable check. Then I saw that I still had the rip cord in my hand, so quickly I stuffed it down my jump suit. I grabbed the grips, released the breaks and enjoyed the view.
The view was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was starting to set. The sky started to turn orangy-pink above the Great Dividing Range. I floated around for quite a while, circling over the drop zone and following the big white arrow.
When I got close to land, I followed the instructors directions, and pulled down on the grips hard to make my landing. I had a soft landing – landed on my feet, then the canopy flew over me and I went to my knees. What an adrenaline rush. I had a perma-smile on my face. I met the gang and carried my parachute in. I had a hot pink chute, to match the hot pink on my jumpsuit. Dave had lost his rip cord. Therese was the last to go for the day, for her birthday.
