  Well, I kept this kind of quiet - only told a few people I was going out. I'm not sure why, but I guess I wanted to just do it, not make a huge deal out of it, see if I could pull it off, and THEN report on it. I've been talking about doing this for a LONG time, but unfortunately, for a long time I was over the weight limit of 250 lbs. Not anymore, so I officially had no more excuses. So, without further ado... yes, it's true, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane today and I can't wait to do it again! It was great. It was everything I'd expected and nothing like what I expected. I signed up on Monday, which didn't give me an awful lot of time to overthink it. I decided I just might like this, and if I wanted to continue to getting fully licensed, it made more sense to start with the static line jump. Of course, that means no "safety net" of an instructor strapped to you. Yes, if everything goes right, the chute is pulled for you by the static line, which is attached to the plane. If everything goes wrong, you're the only one who can pull that reserve chute. You still have to steer and pilot the chute to the ground all by yourself. You're being talked down by an instructor via radio, but ultimately, you have to know what to do and be able to get yourself down.
It's possible the radio will fail and you have to get yourself down. That's basically what you spend almost 5 hours going over before you can jump. There were 15 students in my class and we spent quite a bit of time in the classroom learning about how the chutes work, jump procedures, emergency procedures, etc. CJ, our instructor, was a lot of fun and she made the class entertaining, but still very seriously discussed all the safety issues.
We practiced getting in and out of the plane. We practiced reacting to various emergency scenarios. We practiced falling. Jumping and falling. More falling. So after spending the better part of the day learning about all the things that can possibly go wrong, it's time to take a leap of faith (and as an interesting aside, I was encouraged by the fact that the song that was playing on my clock radio when I got up this morning was an old favorite - John Hiatt's Have a Little Faith in Me ).
They divided our class in to five "loads" of three students. Since I signed up pretty late, I was supposed to be in the last load, but they rearranged a bit to accommodate some groups. Since I was one of the "singles" I was put in with two out of a group of five. They'd reserved early, so I was in the very first load. I was placed so I was the very first diver, too. Eek! I think that was the best way to do it because it meant I didn't have much time at all after the end of class to overthink it.
I just had to get ready, and go. My diving partners were Cody and Marissa, who were visiting from Spokane with Marissa's sisters and a friend from Seattle. The planes are so tiny, you pretty much have to make friends. There's the pilot's seat, and space for the instructor. Jumper 3 (last one out) squeezes in behind the pilot with legs facing back. In our plane, that was Marissa. Jumper 2 (Cody) sits in the back of the plane with legs facing forward. Jumper 1 (me) sits in between Jumper 2's legs with legs facing forward. And that, literally, takes up every inch of space in the plane. Once you reach altitude, CJ opens the door of the plane, then tells you to slide towards the edge of the plane.
At that point, you put your feet out on a platform on the wheel, and get ready to grab the wing strut. Sounds easy, right? Well, in addition to the psychological barrier of climbing out on a freaking WING STRUT, you also have to fight winds, so it takes all your strength. Which, as it turned out, made it easier for me. I was so focused on the energy it took to do that, I didn't really have time to psych myself out.
So you hold on to the wing strut, move your hands far out the strut, and CJ says "step off and hang. " Once you do that, it's seconds till you're gone. If that. So then you're falling. It's not for very long, and I forgot just about everything - you're supposed to arch your back and spread your legs and arms out.
I didn't even think about it, just the fact that holy shit I just let go of a plane. From then, it's only about 5 seconds till your chute inflates. I managed to realize a couple seconds in that I needed to be arching, and fortunately, your body kind of naturally goes in that position anyway. I got through that, got my wits about me enough to look up and realize my canopy had opened perfectly. I got the steering lines from above my head, did a couple test "pumps" of the lines, and then said to myself "Oh my god I'm skydiving" and had a quick look around. I got my first instructions on the radio, did a few test turns, then he told me to just settle in and enjoy the view.
So I did. I noticed Mt. Baker was out, which was absolutely spectacular. I got the lay of the land. I played around a bit with the chute, just to get a feel for how it moved. The five minutes it takes was over pretty quickly. Before I knew it I was approaching the field. Steve, the "talk-down" instructor, guided me through a nice, soft landing. I didn't stick it perfectly - I fell forward onto my knees a bit, but didn't hurt anything or break anything, so I was pretty happy.
I can't wait to go out again - I will probably schedule a couple of jumps for next weekend - I'm just going to jump (pun intended) into the urlLink static line progression at Skydive Snohomish and see how far I can get. You need to keep jumping regularly to get fully licensed - if you go too long you have to repeat the basic class, which is both expensive and time-consuming. No photos yet, but Marissa had a disposable camera and was kind enough to get photos of me, too, which she's promised to mail to me. There's one of me sitting in the plane ready to go, and one of me standing out on the wheel holding on to the wing strut, ready to go. I'm looking forward to seeing them! 
