SKYDIVE @ Sydney

Gathering spot

After chickening out on the Bungy Jump in Macau Tower, I was adamant to follow through on this, to redeem my self esteem.

I'd never expected it to be so soon due to price constraints and I ain't rich. But sis and ym gave the go ahead and I figured it's better to have company, lest any misfortunes happen.

On the bus

We gathered at the office in the CBD before departing to the drop zone in a van. After a 45 mins drive, we ended up in wilderness, in the middle of nowhere.

With 1 of the instructors

Was rather suprised at the bareness and unkept of the place. A couple of wooden single storey buildings in the middle of a large field with an tiny airplane parked beside it.

Notice how the instructor's suit is torn at the knees? I was having a bout of queasy and nervousess at this point. But hell I've paid $100 deposit and no backing down.

Wind out south is queer, same wind blows ym's
face in one direction and mine in the other

Our group of about 20 jumpers were too large for a single flight. We were on the 2nd flight, giving us ample time to iron out our fears, have a cup of coffee and just tour the area.

On the other hand, it amplifies the nervous factor because we had to wait. And as we all know, waiting is damn agonizing.

Pftt.

The plane

Beware of dropping objects

I wonder if they comb these fields for dropped valuables? I wouldn't mind getting smacked in the head by a mobile phone or a diamond ring, but I'd get really aggitated if it was a boot.

Gearing up

Finally, the announcement on the speaker for us to gear up. Slightly frantic now, legs are wobbly and heart seems to be dropping into a never-ending abyss.

We had a brief orientation on how to position our bodies during the drop and touch down. We are tandem-jumping with a qualified skydiver strapped on our backs. (AUD$260)

Parachute

This is where I got introduced to Phil, my partner to jump. I was fiddling around with the parachute atm and he came up to me and said, "Don't play with that or it'll fail, we'll be using this one for our jump".

We went for the dvd package for an extra $100. So check out the video:

Scariest point - Him sitting on the ledge and my entire body is hanging in the air before we jumped. We experienced 60 secs of freefall and 3-4 mins of gliding and view after the parachute opened.

We jumped at 14,000 feet, that's the [QUOTE] highest altitude we could go without donning special equipment. [UNQUOTE]

Here's an animated review of the jump courtesy of YM.

Relieved

Certificate

So i did it! I jumped out of a plane and survived!



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