Yes, the day I landed on a car!
I was sixteen years old and took a dare from my Uncle Billy that I was brave enough to sky dive. We were visiting family in upstate NY and the parachute center was nearby. Actually, it was a 'dollar' bet. But I took the bait.
We went through a 1/2 day of learning how to land and what to expect. We learned how to take care of our chute when we landed. It was a crash course for me, literally!
I went up with a young couple in the small cesna plane. The pilot and the 'Master' (our teacher in the air) sat side by side and we packed in to the cargo area like sardines. My legs linked over the woman's legs, and her boyfriend sat by the door, the first to jump when the time came.
All of us waited with our arms placed protectively over the 'reserve chute' as we'd been taught. If this chute was to open it would 'suck us out of the plane' it was warned! We also took off with the understood agreement that if we 'chickened out' we'd have to pay for everyone else's jump.
Finally we reached the novice height of 1500 feet. The Master opened up the door and bright light blew in over us. It was a few moments of instability until we adjusted. The boyfriend who sat so near the door panicked and refused to follow the commands at first.
The commands we'd practiced were:
Get Ready! (place legs out the door on to the ramp, place left hand on the wing and pose for the next command)
Get Out! (Stand up and walk to the end of the ramp, continue holding on to the wing and dangle the right food out and behind you)
Jump! (Arch back and let go, fall back and trust that the cord which is attached to a hook in the plane will trigger your chute and open it up)
We at least weren't expected to open our own chute the first time, and this wasn't a tandum jump (double person jump with an experienced person and a novice).
He got out there but he fumbled. He wouldn't jump. He was screaming and crying. I was FREAKED. His girlfriend covered her mouth and began singing 'Amazing Grace'.
I sang along in my head.
They wouldn't let him back inside because he'd endanger the whole plane in his panic. So the Master pried his fingers and he finally let go, screaming.
The door shut and we circled round again, meanwhile moving our sitting positions in the plane so that the woman would go next.
The door swung open and she grabbed the pilot's legs! He shook her off. She fumbled through the commands with a frozen look of pure terror on her face, at this point I was crying.
Jump!
No movement.
Jump!
Nothing.
If she didn't jump right then, she'd land somewhere she wasn't supposed to. So it was very important that she get off the ledge out there.
The Master looked at the pilot and they both smiled and nodded at each other. I didn't at first understand that 'knowing' look. But suddenly the plane engine roared and we sped up . . . that woman simply BLEW off the plane, right by the window. No sound, just frozen big eyes looking at us as she passed out of sight.
"Your turn" he turned to me.
I was determined not to be blown off the plane. I was scared but I wanted to do it all right, it would give me the best chance.
The door opened and I momentarily reached out for the pilot's legs and stopped myself. It was obvioulsy a popular knee jerk reaction.
I got ready and I got out, though I don't think I walked myself as far out as I could have. I saw the shadow of the plane on the ground far below and for a moment couldn't believe myself standing there so high and about to jump.
Every cell in my body didn't want to do it!
I jumped on que! Sudden silence and I feel face down feeling as if my whole self were pressed up against a piece of glas looking at a portion of the earth in a clear bubble.
All was silent, I was jerked to a sitting position by the opening chute. I looked up to see that it had opened. It did this natural sort of contraction and then opened wide again. No one told me about THAT, or the fact that it would have a couple big holes on each side of the material.
I felt like a kid in a swing and reached up to feel for the right and left stearing noguls. There was one rope I wasn't supposed to pull, the one that would release me from the chute. Yikes, don't pull that one!
I started drifting right and the man with the yelling horn next to the big huge white arrow that directed us on the ground began screaming, "Pull your LEFT stearing nogul".
I couldn't scream back at him that the left one was jammed. I couldn't untangle it. I was at the mercy of whatever was RIGHT.
Before I knew it, I was above a small parking lot heading swiftly toward a blue car. I watched as a woman ran out of her car looking worredly up at me! I began to thiink 'this is it!'
I fainted just as I bounced off that car. It saved me some broken bones to relax as I did. When I came around, I still had my helmit on and my Uncle Billy and lots of other people were standing around me and sitting me up. I couldn't hear anything, I just saw lots of mouths moving. I was in shock.
The woman, well she landed in a tree and had to be cut down. The man made it.
Can you believe I forced myself to go back up one more time the NEXT DAY!? I wanted to do it again really fast so I wouldn't go through life with a parachute phobia once the real shock wore off and all I'd have were the associations of landing on a car lol.
I didn't land on a car the next day. I was SOOOO proud of myself (smile). If I can find my teenage self in that photograph that hit the newspaper, dangling in a parachute about to hit the blue car, I'll post it on here!!
Light,
Fawn