Parachuting: An opportunity to feel excitement in the sky

By Primastuti Handayani

JAKARTA (JP): People dreamed about flying for centuries before technology made it possible. Although planes have long since demystified flying, people still yearn to drift freely high above earth.

With parachutes, people can fill that human urge to soar without a machine. All it takes to become a skydiver, as parachutists are known, is good health and lots of nerve.

Parachuting demands mental maturity from its athletes. Because of this, Federation Aeronautique Internationale require that skydivers be at least 17 years old.

Bambang Samudra, a member of the Bandung-based Aves Parachuting Club, said a novice parachutist can quickly learn how to fly and control a parachute.

"In practice, most novice parachutists can do solo parachuting after only eight times of tandem fly with an instructor," he said.

Bambang was trained by military officers during the 1980s, when the requirements to fly were much more rigorous. "A person who wanted to join a parachuting club in the past had to undergo physical and psychological tests," he said.

Now it's much easier to jump out of a plane. A series of classroom drills and ground training are all students need to be able to jump alone safely.

"We'll provide students with lessons on aeronautics, the exit, safety and emergency procedures. They must memorize all of these," Bambang said.

The latest parachuting training method, called Accelerated Free Fall, is made possible by technology.

"Two instructors will take a student hand-in-hand and teach him about balancing in the air. The instructors will correct all of his movements on the spot," Bambang said.

The latest parachutes are equipped with safety devices that automatically open a parachute if it is not done manually several seconds after jumping out of the plane, if the skydiver is falling too fast, if the main parachute does not open properly, or if the person is still free-falling less than 1,000 feet from the ground.

The Aves Parachuting Club, established in 1969, has 200 names on its membership roster, but only half of them are active. Thirty of Aves' skydivers are athletes, mostly college students.

"There are various things that motivate people to try parachuting. The most common reason is that they just want to try a new experience by joining a parachuting club," Bambang said.

"Through natural attrition, we know which people are really serious about the sport," he added.

Job demands and travel distance make it difficult for members to remain active.

The Aves Parachuting Club offers parachuting lessons for Rp 5 million (US$2,110) at the Lido Lake Resort on the border of Sukabumi and Bogor regencies, West Java, which is owned by Adnan Mokodompit.

Mokodompit is one of the club's founders. Others are senior journalist and the country's most senior skydiver Trisno Yuwono, former club chairman Johnnie Saleh, and the Indonesian Engineers Association chairman, Arifin Panigoro.

The club encourages potential skydivers to learn the skill themselves rather than just going for the one-shot thrill of a tandem jump.

"It is better for students to take lessons, at least, for 10 jumps, than to take a tandem jump," said Bahar, also a member of the club. The club charges $150 for a tandem jump.

"The club does not charge a membership fee. We, the seniors, established a business company to finance the club's activities," Bambang said.

Several other private clubs also offer lessons including Garuda and 165 Skydivers, in Jakarta; Manguni in Manado, North Sulawesi; and Katulistiwa in West Java.

Bambang said that Aves is the only parachuting club which operates its own plane, a five-seat Cessna 185.