 Man has dreamed of flying ever since he first looked up and noticed the birds, but only recently as he been able to realize his dream. Today he may enter the Earth's atmosphere in a space capsule descending from orbit or he may plunge from a plane at 20,000 feet. In either case, he must be attached to a device which will slow him down enough so that he can land safely. This device has been and will probably continue to be the parachute. Parachute jumping of any kind requires the most thorough training and the most careful attention to safety. Free fall jumping requires still more of the same. Every successful jump ends where it began, on the ground. All preliminary instruction will be given on the ground. This is where you'll learn what it takes to get back safely and this is where you'll gain the confidence to make your first free fall jump. Old hands at parachuting always pack their own shoots. Learn how to place the gores neatly one upon the other. Check and recheck your work even though you are convinced that it has been completed satisfactorily. This is the only way to ensure a safe deployment. Folding the gores at a 45-degree angle may seem difficult or tedious at the beginning, but it's essential in order to reduce friction when the canopy opens. Every bit of extra care you take in folding your shoot reduces the chance of a malfunction. A sleeve goes over the folded canopy to provide for an orderly deployment. This reduces the opening shock and keeps you from getting wrapped up in the canopy. Place the sleeve flat and even without a twist. S-folding the lines prevents twisting and entanglement during deployment. Do it carefully and neatly. And be no less careful when you s-fold the sleeve into the pack tray. When you close the pack tray, be sure the cones are clean, free from any dirt or grit that might lock the pins in place. Then hook up the spring bands to ensure a positive opening. There are three ways you can close the pack tray, depending on whether you're rigging for a manual rip card, a pin static line, or a California static line. Whichever rigging you use, the shoot must not only be packed correctly, it must be put on correctly. Avoid twisting the straps that hook across the chest. Also, those that go around the thighs and leave no loose ends dangling. The reserve parachute with the altimeter and the stopwatch attached hooks onto the front of the main harness. On at least one of the butterfly snap fasteners, use a safety wire to make sure the shoot doesn't come loose. And don't forget to hook the reserve pack to the main shoot pack. Be sure to set your altimeter for the area you expect to be jumping over. You wear goggles to prevent the wind from bringing tears to your eyes and to keep out dust or bugs. A helmet is worn to protect your head during landing. Make sure all straps are facet. Gloves are worn to protect your hands from frostbite at high altitudes and to prevent burning while deploying your reserve shoot. After you've put on your shoot, the jump master will inspect it. The inspection of a good jump master will follow a fixed pattern, exactly the same each time, to make sure that nothing is missed. If you have made any mistakes, this is the time to find them. One common inspection system is to move from top to bottom. Helmet, canopy release assembly, chest straps, quick release assembly, reserve, safety pin and leg straps. And then the back. In jumping, it's second things first. Before you learn how to jump, you've got to learn how to land properly. About half of the shock of landing is taken on the balls of the feet. The rest is evenly distributed over the calf, the thigh, the buttocks and the shoulder push-up muscle. Using all five of these contact points is the safest way to land. After you've practiced hitting these contact points from the ground, you'll step up to a low platform. Here you can practice your falls from every position. From the platform, you will move on to the swing landing fall trainer. And when you leave here, your landing technique should be good enough for the actual drop zone. Of course, no jumper can always be sure of landing in the designated drop zone. So he must know how to land in a number of less hospitable places. Here again, the landing fall trainer can be useful. When landing in high tension wires, for instance, your body should be as streamlined as possible. This arms-up position enables you to manipulate the risers and to oscillate your body like a fish so that you can slip through or pass the wires without dangerous contact. When preparing for a tree landing, on the other hand, you should use your hands and arms to protect your face. Then you can look down through the crook of your elbows to see where the tree is. In water landings, the first precaution is to loosen your helmet before you hit the water. Another precaution is to activate your floatation gear high enough off the water to give you time to inflate it manually if necessary. As you approach the die marker target, you must always inflate your floatation gear whether you swim or not. There are two good reasons. First, your canopy could settle over you and impede your movements. Second, the wet canopy could pull you under. The floatation gear will keep you afloat until help arrives. Always approach a conventional aircraft from the rear to avoid the propeller. And you never jump from an aircraft that you don't know, so your first object should be familiarization. Exit techniques vary with the type of aircraft, but a good poised exit is essential for safety. Here on the ground is the place to learn the flat, stable body position. This is the position from which you pull the rip card, arms and legs extended, back arched, head up. Even though the jump master inspected your equipment when you first put it on, it's a good idea to have him reinspect it before you take off. Your first jumps will be made with a static line. Different aircraft use different hook up systems. And you must know where the static line should be hooked in each system. As an added precaution, your jump master will use a safety wire to secure the snap fastener. To help determine your exit point, the jump master will throw out a winddrift indicator. This is a weighted piece of crepe paper which will descend at exactly the same rate of speed as the parachute. Now you can put to the test the poised exit that you practiced and the stable body position for pulling the rip card. The red flag is an indicator to the jump master that you could have pulled the card if necessary. This flag means that you won't freeze up on a later jump when there's no static line to pull the card for you. During descent, you must pay careful attention to wind direction. A wind sock in the target area can be very useful, so keep your eye on it. Until you are an expert, the only safe way to land is with your canopy facing into the wind. Assume a good landing attitude and keep a sharp lookout for landing obstacles. After you've completed your five qualifying static line jumps, you graduate to free fall. On your first few jumps, you will wait no more than five seconds before pulling the rip card. Not every exit or deployment will be perfect. If a malfunction occurs, don't panic. Keep your hand on your reserve shoot handle and, when in doubt, use it. You always make a poised exit and assume the same flat stable position you learned in practice, but now, when you pull the rip card, it's for real. To acquire skill, experience and confidence, you will gradually lengthen your free falls until you qualify for your parachutist license. The rules and procedures for the longer falls are essentially the same as they were for the five-second jump and pull falls. How you simply wait longer, and longer, and longer, and longer before you pull the rip card. When you qualify as an expert, you'll move on to such variations as the downwind landing. This gives you a better shot at the target, but you hit hard. So remember, downwind landings are for experts only. As your skill increases, so does the enjoyment you will derive from free fall jumping. This is an exhilarating sport, but as in every sport, there are rules and regulations, and the most important are those regarding safety. What it boils down to is this. Always stay within the limits of your own ability. Even in such aerobatic maneuvers as baton passing, don't take unnecessary chances. As with skin diving, stock car racing, ski jumping, or any other sport with an element of risk, use your common sense and you'll be able to walk away and jump again. Remember, the safety precautions you learned on the ground must always accompany you into the air. Don't be a wise guy. Don't take chances. No matter how good you may become, you'll never be good enough to forget about safety precautions. So for your own sake, learn and practice at all times the correct free fall safety procedures.