The drone of the engine reverberates through the small plane as you prepare yourself for what’s to come. Your coach double and triple checks the harness holding the two of you together. The attention to detail calms your frayed nerves a little bit, considering he’s the one wearing the parachute.

Before you know it, the door opens and you’re sitting on the edge of the plane, about 10,000 feet above the ground. You can feel the buzz as adrenaline pumps into your blood. The wind whips around you at more than 90 mph, and the roaring engine fills your ears. Your coach is behind you braced against the door frame. He calls out, “Ready, set, GO!” and pushes off from the plane.

The next 35 seconds seem to go on forever. Your adrenaline spikes from the rush of the free fall as you try to take in your surroundings. It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time. The ground rushes up at you at 120 mph, but it doesn’t really seem to be getting any closer. The coach signals for you to pull the chute. You grasp the handle and give it a yank, expecting a sharp jerk upwards as the canopy opens above you. Surprisingly, you only feel a gradual deceleration as the parachute slows your descent.

For the next few minutes, your coach guides you through the landing process. Once on the ground, he releases you from the harness and shakes your hand. “Congratulations,” he says with a smile. “You just completed your first skydive.”

The earliest use of a parachute dates back to China in the 1100s, according to the United States Parachute Association (USPA) Web site. Skydiving first emerged as a sport after World War II, when former soldiers began using surplus parachutes to jump as a hobby. The popularity of the sport has increased since then, with more than 2.1 million jumps reported by the USPA in 2007.

For KU students, skydiving is very accessible. Students interested can join the KU Skydiving Club or just schedule a jump with Skydive Kansas, a drop zone located only an hour away in Osage City.

The first jump

When you arrive at the drop zone, you’re immediately required to sign a waiver before you can jump. “It feels like you’re signing your life away,” says Emily Reimer, Wichita senior and president of the KU Skydiving Club. After that, you watch a 30-minute training video and work with an instructor to practice the form and function of the actual jump.

Jen Sharp, an instructor for Skydive Kansas, says it’s like learning to drive a car. Sharp has been a skydiving instructor for 16 years, and she has logged more than 2,000 skydives. Reimer, who had her first jump in 2006, has more than 200 jumps logged. Sharp says that the adrenaline rush does fade a little as you get used to jumping regularly, but she says that connecting with people and seeing the excitement they get from the sport makes regular jumping worthwhile.

All first-time jumpers are required to jump tandem, which means you are strapped to a coach for your jump, and the coach is strapped to the parachute. You don’t actually get attached to your tandem instructor until the plane is in the air, which can be nerve-wracking when everyone else has their chute checked and equipped before boarding, Reimer says.

The plane ride lasts about 25 minutes. The atmosphere inside the plane can change from day to day, Sharp says. Occasionally, everyone is quiet and meditative, while other times they are bursting with excitement. Sharp says the plane ride can have a meditative feel to it, helping her focus. “You don’t have a phone call, you don’t have this and that,” she says. “You’re just there.”

Reimer says the interior of the plane is always loud with the sound of the engine and the rush of the wind, as well as being about 30 or 40 degrees colder than it is on the ground. Plane rides in cold weather can be quite miserable, she says.

At 10,000 feet, the real excitement begins. The door of the plane opens up and suddenly it’s time to leave this perfectly good airplane behind. “That realization when the door opens is pretty huge for those on their first jump,” Sharp says.

The actual experience of jumping out of an airplane can vary. “It’s a really indescribable feeling,” says David Wilson, Lawrence sophomore and vice president of the KU Skydiving Club. “People feel like they should feel like they’re falling. You don’t really feel that.”

Sharp says the reason you don’t feel like you’re falling is because you’re going from 90 mph horizontally in the airplane to 120 mph vertically, only a 30 mph difference. Sharp adds that the lack of apparent motion towards the ground also influences that feeling. When jumping from 10,000 feet, the ground doesn’t seem to be approaching as fast as it really is.

Sharp says students are allowed to take as much or as little control as they want at Skydive Kansas, so if you’re not comfortable with pulling your own chute or orchestrating the landing, your tandem coach will take care of all that for you. Students are encouraged to take more responsibility in the jump to get the most out of the experience. Sharp says students who try to stay aware of what’s going on around them and want to do more than hold the basic form are the most fun people to jump with.

Free fall in tandem skydives only lasts about 30 seconds, Sharp says. It seems to last longer, however, because of the amount of information your brain is trying to process in that short amount of time. “It’s like a sensory overload,” Reimer says.

After 30 seconds, it’s time to pull the chute and prepare for landing. Contrary to popular belief, Sharp says you don’t jerk upward when the chute is pulled. Instead, you feel a strong but steady deceleration. The approach takes five to seven minutes, which you can spend either maneuvering the chute for a roller coaster-like experience or just taking it easy, Sharp says. Once the parachute is deployed, the rate of descent drops to a little over 10 mph, though high winds and downdrafts can increase the speed. By the end of the descent, Sharp says the goal is to have mostly horizontal speed to lessen the force of the landing.

Once on the ground, it’s time to celebrate your victory over gravity. Reactions to a jump can be mixed. “Some people just never want to do it again,” Reimer says. “And some people, like me, are like, ‘When do I get to go again?’”

Now all that’s left is to head home, grab some friends, and plan your next jump.

Students who decide to jump multiple times can work toward a license. The first license skydiving students can obtain allows them to jump on their own. Skydive Kansas’ training program requires at least 25 jumps, starting with tandem jumps and culminating in solo jumps with a coach in the air with you, but not attached to you. Students are also required to attend classes on the ground to master all the skills they need to obtain a license.

Is it safe?

Safety is a primary concern in skydiving, so it’s surprising that some people don’t even ask about it when they jump, Sharp says. “People trust you with their lives, and they don’t usually ask a lot of questions,” she says.

Part of safety comes with being well-equipped for the jump. All skydivers must undergo extensive training when they jump, and equipment must be kept up-to-date and properly tested. Sharp says all the equipment used by Skydive Kansas is no more than three years old.

Sharp says she strives for safety when giving skydiving lessons instead of pushing for “no fear,” and one of the most important factors in being safe is understanding how to use your equipment.

Weather is another factor that can turn an exciting skydive into a dangerous, 10,000-foot drop to the ground. Even mild weather conditions can delay or stop a jump. Reimer says that 15 mph winds are the most that students are allowed to jump through, though she adds that, with experience, it becomes relative to your own comfort zone. It’s also illegal to jump through clouds, Reimer says, so a low cloud ceiling could result in a little more time on the ground.

Finally, Sharp says that Skydive Kansas always gives people the option not to jump if they don’t feel comfortable, even if they’re already suited up and in the plane.

Skydiving is not without its dangers, however. According to the USPA Web site, 853 injuries and 18 fatalities were reported in 2007 out of more than 2.1 million jumps. Ed Scott, executive director of USPA, says injuries are usually a result of poor landings rather than equipment malfunctions. Scott says the type of parachute used by skydivers today is very forgiving and maneuverable, but can be mishandled. He says that injuries and deaths occur when people land hard under a fully-open parachute. Most of the time, he says these people are intentionally landing very fast, which can cause the skydiver to hit the ground before he or she is prepared for landing.

Scott says students don’t usually have to worry about injuries, as student parachutes are larger and more forgiving than the standard parachute. He says these parachutes are designed to make it hard for students to maneuver in ways that would lead to trouble, and students are also often provided with some kind of in-air support, guiding them through the descent and landing.

Sharp says one of the biggest misconceptions is that being too careful means you’re scared. “Caution isn’t cowardly.” she says. “And not having fear doesn’t make you courageous.”

Where do I sign up?

Students interested in trying out the sport can contact the KU Skydiving Club. Reimer, the club president, started the club in spring 2007. She says the club holds occasional meetings at the Kansas Union to introduce prospective members to the sport. People can get information about the club at the info fairs at the beginning of each semester or from its Web site, groups.ku.edu/~kuskydiving.

Wilson, club vice president, says the goal of the club is to get members interested in the sport and hopefully work for their license, which allows members to skydive solo. He says the club tries to go for jumps about once a month, though members are free to go on their own whenever they want.

There are benefits to jumping as a club member. The club jumps with Skydive Kansas, which offers discounts to club members, and Reimer gives free parachute packing lessons during meetings.

Skydiving isn’t cheap, however. According to the KU Skydiving Club Web site, the first tandem jump costs $165, even with the club discount. As you continue to gain experience, the price starts to decrease, but the sport still requires a decent amount of cash.

If you don’t want to go the club route or are only interested in jumping with a couple of friends, you can contact Skydive Kansas through its Web site, www.skydivekansas.com. The price is a little higher, but the experience is just as impossible to describe.

Next time you’re looking for something new and exciting to try out, give skydiving a shot for an experience you’ll never forget.