Jumpin in da Hood.

The PX and a small EM club was about a mile away from the barracks.  I had not been  home for awhile so I did not have a car.  Therefore we walked down the PX quite a bit.   My friend and I noticed there was  The fort Hood Parachute club on the way.   One day we dropped in just see what was happening.  Everyone was pretty cool and offered to let us join.  It was very cheap even for a Pfc.  We agreed and for the next week or so they instructed  us  about PLF(parachute Landing Falls), packing chutes, and good general knowledge.  The club President was a one(1) star general and he was a old airborne guy and really liked to jump.  Most of the time he wore civilian cloths and looked like most anybody.  So I had new place to hang out.  What was even better was that they had a beer cooler full of real beer(not the px 3.2 junk).  One day we were sitting around and the General drives up and says I think I would like to jump today.  Someone said that would be great but the plane is still in out at the jump zone .  The Jump zone was about 20 miles away .  Hell with that  Let me call a chopper.  So he makes the calls and in about 30 minutes Whoop whoop whoop, here come a chopper.  It could only hold a couple of people maybe 3 or 4.  The general and his crew  get in, they go straight up and they all bail out.  They land right on the small practice field in back of the club.  The chopper goes on and every one goes inside to repack their chutes.  Way cool. You had to make 5 static line jumps before you could do a 5 second delay. We used old army T-10(I think)chutes that had been modified.  People cut out panels to make them move maneuverable.  Common modification were  a straight I, or a T, or a U.  The more you cut out the move maneuverable they were.  the problem was that it also increased the rate of descent.   I bought a chute from a guy, well really my friend and I went 1/2s on it,  for 45 dollars.  It has a small double T so it was a pretty fast descender.  We pack and repack the the chute.  the first couple of times the older members watched us, then we were on our own.  Packing a chute is not very  hard and after a few times you are sure it is right(you hope)  so we play with chute and wait to go jump.  The weather in Parachute jumping can raise hell with your plans.  So we lost a couple of weeks waiting for weather to be ok when we had time off. One Saturday everything lined up.  JUMP DAY  Oh yea let me at it I aint scared of nothing!!!!  We all go out to the jump area and load up in little 4 place Cessna.  3 people can  jump, the jump master gets in first and into the seat behind the pilot. next dummy #2  then dummy#1   Yes I am dummy #1.  Of course the door is off and you seem to be half way falling out of the plane and you are still on the ground.  Once you get to this state and the plane takes off there is no turning back.. Because if you do not jump then the other 2 behind you can not get to the door to get out.  New jumpers are a real pain in the ass and I am sure I was no exception.  So the engine fires up and away we go.  I think my first jump was at 3500 not positive but I think I am close.   Damn the wind is really whipping in the plane.  I notice the altimeter says 5 Looks pretty high too me.  OH no the thing has to go around 3 more times then to the 5.  This is really going to be high.  A Cessna with 4 people and a missing door does not climb very fast so you have some time to think how stupid this is and all the stuff that can go wrong.   Soon the pilot cuts back the throttle a bit and the Jump Master taps me on he shoulder and motions me too get out on the step.  Jumping from a small plane is not like the stuff you see in the Movies where every one lines up and just jumps out the open door.  Nope.  Much more that that.  Remember the plane is still going 70 or 80 mph I would guess, seemed like 300.  Ever stick you hand out the car window doing 70 MPH? Then try sticking you foot out and placing it one a small pad on top of the aircrafts wheel.  Not quite as easy as it was back at the club in the little mock up practice area.  So you get your foot on the pad then you have to bend way out and grab the wing strut to pull you self out of the plane.  This a dangerous spot for every one.  Your body is causing a large drag on the plane so you have to get off quick.  There have been stories up people freezing on the strut and causing the plane to crash.   I get out  on the strut and glance back at the plane and everyone is waving like hell,  JUMP JUMP Get the hell off the wing.   I did ok I got off pretty quick.  Later no one was mad so I took that as a good sign.  You are supposed to jump back, spread your arms and legs , count to 5 the glace and see if you chute is opening.  Easier said than done.  I cleared the plane and I saw it moving away.. My count was  like 1 ....5......Oops a little too early to look.  If you look too early you makes you head go down and when the chute opens it really snatches  you hard.  I looked, head went down as the chute opened and popped me upright.  All right this is it.  It was really neat.  everything was really quiet and I was just hanging there 2500 feet or so high.  It was so high that you did not have any fear like you do when you are on a ladder or on the edge of a roof.  Hard to explain but it is different,way different.   But the game is not over yet.  Remember the deal of the chute modifications?   Double Ts drop pretty quick as I am now finding out.  There seems to be a 1,000 things they tell you not to do during a jump.  A big one is NEVER try to turn the chute in last couple of hundred feet as you will spill air from the canopy and increase your rate of fall.  But they also stress  ALWAYS land into the wind.  Say your chute falls at maybe 5 mph if you land into a 6  wind then your a just  have +1 forward mph.  Land the other way  and you are landing at 11 mph.  Too fast a landing speed and you increase your chances of getting hurt.   My jump area did not have wind sock or anything so I just had to guess.  Spitting seemed like a good idea to find the wind direction,  but it was not.    Gravity and the double T makes the choice for you pretty quickly.  Luckily I was close and I landed a little hard but I was ok.   I DID IT  I jumped 5 more times and did one fee fall before I quit.  Why did I quit?.  Dont know.  I might have lost my nerve and got scared.  I made a lot of excuses not to jump any more, sold my chute and went to work trying to figure how to get the hell out of Fort Hood.