Parachuting: An opportunity to feel excitement in the sky
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.