Given the fundamental packing or rigging error that becomes obvious after opening, perhaps this lady was right to be scared. It's like she knows something that nobody else does!
I’m embarrassed to say how many jumps I have done including a few water jumps in the military; I’ve only ever been able to overcome my fear twice. As a pilot I think the most frightening element is the ride up!!
Yes, and when you have finally managed to arrest that escalating anxiety at some relative steady state just short of panic, they open the door. I made nine static line jumps spread out over a number of years in sets of three. Once, I won a novice competition and trophy for having the lowest combined score over three jumps of the total number of seconds from landing to reaching an official standing at the center of the pea gravel with a stopwatch. But, it was never a goal to freefall or to take it up as a hobby. Ironically, my first jump was less frightening than the rest. I remember once being overwhelmed by a feeling about how unnatural it was for a human being to be looking at the ground from that high up. Many years later, I learned to scuba dive. And I realized that, 80 to 100 feet underwater, looking up tends to cause an anxiety similar to looking down from a plane. Ha!
I'm not sure the instructor had the right mindset for the woman in question : he overdid the inocuity of the jump by laughing and sort of bragging … his intention was good, burt maybe this kind of personality needed a little bit more soothing and comfort. My first impression…
I think if more first timers did static line or aff jumps or anything where they had to do more work, they wouldn't be able to afford the luxury of freaking out because they'd be concentrating on what they're doing. It wouldn't just be a ride. But what do I know?
