My jump no.1

My jump no.1

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by Stepan Obrovsky, CTU

It’s been a long time since I’ ve been flirting with the idea of voluntarily exiting a plane with just a piece of fabric above my head. Once I made such a resolution that if I would fly with a parachute on my back while piloting, then I would also jump with it just to know what to pull in case of emergency. And as it used to be with most resolutions, I’ ve flown with a parachute on my back for several times but haven’ t hung on a parachute yet.

This changed an email with a solo jump training offer from Rosina, my previous lector within my studies at the Czech Technical University, field of study Professional Pilot. As the offer came straight to me I couldn’ t back down and applied.

I tried to persuade fellow-students to join me so I wouldn’t be enjoying this experience alone. we were supposed to be 4 students, 2 girls and 2 boys plus the instructor, in aerial sports unusual superiority of ladies. Theoretical training took place on Friday's afternoon in a small cafe in centre of Prague, but only me and one of the girls showed up. Both of us pilots, so we didn’ t have to talk about basics which have piloting and skydiving in common. Then we started with important steps of the jump and concentrated more on the part about solution of extreme situations. For example if we land on a roof, it’ s important to remain on the roof and be carefull, so we don’ t kill ourselves falling from the roof after we survived falling from a plane ;-). After passing the theoretical training we met the next day on the railway station Praha-Holesovice, target destination: airport Ceska Lipa. On this airport we were going to finish our ground training and then jump from Cessna 182.

I came to the railway station a bit late, surprisingly only my instructor Rosina was awaiting me there, the other students couldn’t make it due to some unexpectedly craziness at home or work. Well, the day didn’ t start badly as I found out I would have an individual training. On the airport in Ceska Lipa we passed the ground training, i.e. I was hanging in the parachute rig on the tree practicing how to cutaway the main parachute and pull the reserve one. Eventually we practiced several jumps out of the plane (just with the plane standing on the solid ground). However a stronger wind was blowing and it wasn’ t getting better even in the late afternoon, so we decided to postpone the jumping for the next weekend and try to get the perfect conditions.

During the next week I had a phonecall from Rosina, we were going to jump in Pribram this time from L-410 and I got a mission to accomplish – get a car. Though I didn't get any car, but I used the good old Cessna “one-fifty“ OK-DAN from Letov and we get to Pribram with a style by plane.

We were taking off from the Letnany airport enjoying the beautiful morning view of Prague. After a while we arrived to Pribram. Just on time as preparations for jumps with parachutes were going on, with two Turbolet L-410 aircrafts getting ready to fly.

We booked for load no.2 and got about one hour left which I spent on getting familiar with my parachute, altimeter, I got a helmet and a jumpsuit. Rosina was reviewing my knowledge of each single step of the jump, of emergency situations and I repeatedly jumped out of the plane on the ground. The hour passed extra fast and there started gathering skydivers around the L-410 OK-SAS. We were checking each other's parachutes and trying the exits for the last time on the ground. Then 15 of us started boarding the plane, just group of 4 people (including me) jumped from so called “low altitude“ – 1 500 m above ground level, others were flying up to 4 000m.

I boarded the plane, fastened my seat belts and words of a song One way ticket from Boney M started spinning inside my head; “Gotta travel on, never comin' back, Oh, oh got a one way ticket to the blues“ . Then I realised this would be the first plane which I wouldn't land in. Turbolet was like an escalator and I could observe on my altimeter how we were rising up, passing 300 m (which is a critical altitude, in case of plane's failure skydivers has to jump out and open the reserve parachutes directly), then I released my seatbelts and the indicator on altimeter was getting closer and closer to 1 500 m.

The skydiver sitting next to the door just opened it. Sitting without seatbelts fastened watching 1 m from yourself a hole leading to 1,5 km of air is a really paralising feeling. Then a green light by the door went on (kind of a parachute traffic light) and first skydiver disappeared in that hole… My feelings are easy to understand from my face so Rosina IMPLIED TO ME TO SMILE. Meanwhile another man left the plane, I stood up, put my right leg on a door-step, leaving all my feelings on a seat.

I looked at Rosina, SHE SLAPPED MY SHOULDER SAYING "HOP" and I JUMP!!. Then it was gone fast, I was trying to count “121,122,123,124“, until I finished counting my parachute was open and I catch myself automatically going through the checklist: parachute looks good, check the airspace, release the toggles and pump it five times , handles ok, three-ring system, yelow cables, carabines, ALL IS GOOD! Above me I see the retreating turbolet L-410 and bellow me I see Rosina’s little red parachute.

It's an awsome feeling to be hanging in the air, having the ground below your feet. I was trying what my big 300 ft2 student parachute was capable of and I can’t really imagine what parachute of my instructor, which has only 66 ft2 can do. I had enough time to try different type of turns and the most important thing – the flare I will need for nice and smooth landing. During the flight I was staying above the airport, checking the altimeter, and in 500 m I started to prepare for the landing pattern, in 300 m I started flying downwind, around 200m I turn on baseleg, the ground starts getting closer faster than in 1 km, 100 m – final turn and below 100m as a student I am not allowed to do more turns. I found out that I'll be little short but there was still a huge flat grassy area behind me and ahead of me, in about 5m I started pulling the toggles and then landed to slight run on my feet , some people were trying to scare me before with some notes about hard impacts, but I would easily compare this landing to the jump from two steps while running. 

Then I took off my helmet and was trying to take whole parachute (and don't entangle it at the same time), full of adrenaline I went to the wind sock, Rosina was also coming to me after filming my landing and asking how I felt. We do debriefing, wrap up the parachutes and I SIGN UP TO DO ONE MORE jump. This time pilot forgot about us little bit and we jumped from 1 800 m, where it felt little bit colder. All the jump passed as same well as the first one.

We packed our stuff and then we boarded our plane and flew back home. This flight was also without problems, we landed this time without using parachutes back in Letnany.

To sum up my whole training, it was a great experience and an unforgetable adventure. I overcame the extended myth around pilots, that skydiving is misuse of a rescue equipment and that it is the same as taking shower with the fire-extinguisher. THE MOST IMPORTANT IS THE FUN OF IT.

Stepan was so excited about his first jump, that he also did a video cut with his song he mentioned in the article, check it out!