[Mattman]

When I was 21 I was in Hong Kong with my job and one of my colleagues suggested going parachuting. He took a few of us to the airbase where he trained. We spent the morning learning about how to steer the chute and how to land. Then we jumped off tables and stuff to practice the land-and-roll techniques.

At 2:30 we got into the plane, a Cessna with overhead wing. at 2500ft the first jumper got out. I was 3rd and I got out at 2,900ft.

The static line means that the chute is tied by a high-tensile nylon thread to the plane and as you let go of the wing-strut the chute pulls out of the pack. So there's no freefall, but you don't have the baby bjorn feeling of having some dude strapped to your back.

The descent was less than 5 minutes, but it's all up to you to steer down and land. They had a huge fluorescent arrow on the ground that they rotated to show the best way to approach the airstrip landing site.

One of the best experiences of my life. I jumped again on the Sunday .... even better.