First jump solo - recommended/possible?

Quote

As i´m a layman i wonder if the turbulances may only lead to panic but are not really dangerous, i´m not sure.

wolfriverjoe already explained it very well, but yes: the instability is really dangerous if it does not get corrected by the time you pull. (It's not turbulence--it's the inability to get back to a stable belly-to-earth arched position. The air will just throw your body around like that. It's even possible to spin fast enough to pass out. While it is not necessarily hard to get to a stable position, there is simply no way to learn this skill unless you are in a 120mph airflow--so when jumping out of airplanes or in a wind tunnel)

As you can see, if you watch the videos closely, some students are tumbling so much that they are unable to find and pull the pilot chute to get their parachute out. The instructors actually chase them down and pull for them. Without that, you have essentially 3 possible scenarios:

1) you fix the instability yourself and get back to a stable belly-to-earth orientation and are able to pull at the proper altitude...but if you have never done it before, how can you assume you will be able to do it? If you have never driven a car before and get somehow transferred to the driver's seat while it's going 120 mph on the Autobahn, would you assume you would be able to steer it and slow it down to safety? Maybe? But what are the chances?

2) you keep tumbling and manage to pull anyway: Now any number of things could happen, the simplest one would be serious line twists under canopy which you would have to deal with, but you could also be completely tangled up in your lines, your canopy may not deploy at all, etc. You'd then have to deal with that emergency, cut away your main canopy, use a hook knife to cut yourself out of the mess AND deploy your reserve--all of this while still falling at up to 120mph to the earth and probably now seconds from impact.

3) you don't pull at all and HOPEFULLY your AAD deploys your reserve parachute at the last moment, (and you still may have to deal with all the possibilities of 2) but now with your reserve and no second chance while being only 5 seconds or less from impact) AND you may be landing in an area with all kinds of hazards and no time to steer yourself away--EVEN if you knew how to steer this thing.

I can't imagine a mental issue where this kind of "kick" would be helpful.

On the other hand, all the other things (adrenaline rush, overcoming fear of stepping out of the airplane, learning the ability to make split-second decisions to safe your own life, etc.) ALL these happen just as much on your first jumps with instructors.

Just a few things that can happen if you're not in a stable position when deploying your parachute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiu61JUcqgg&index=33&list=PLS0eYrI6GvkNSxyACtWakteT4amucdVyQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ksWIwenUk&index=17&list=PLS0eYrI6GvkNSxyACtWakteT4amucdVyQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbfMbT043CM

(yes, I know: The last one had a different cause, but it shows you how scary and stressful it would be to have to deal with a canopy-related emergency, which will generally be much more likely if you cannot deploy in a stable position)

massis

***..., you will stop eventually.
Not the case when you jump.

Yes you will...
Bounce.

Well, yeah.

I meant that in a spinning car, you will come to a stop and as long as you haven't hit anything, you will be safe.

During a jump, yes. You will eventually reach the ground.

I have joked with tandem students that they will land. They will absolutely, positively, for certain be on the ground within a few minutes of leaving the plane.

However, unlike the car analogy above, there's no guarantee what sort of shape the jumper will be in on reaching the ground.

jonstark

***
Yes you will...
Bounce.

About as well as a melon

What sort of melon?

obelixtim

******
Yes you will...
Bounce.

About as well as a melon

What sort of melon?

One that bounces about 5 feet at terminal.

this one:

https://youtu.be/O7FqjNiooKc?t=11m36s

massis

this one:

https://youtu.be/O7FqjNiooKc?t=11m36s

That guy is in trouble if the vegan rights brigade get hold of him....

obelixtim

***this one:

https://youtu.be/O7FqjNiooKc?t=11m36s

That guy is in trouble if the vegan rights brigade get hold of him....

I don't feel like watching the entire video but I highly doubt he dropped any sort of animal from 45 feet.

not the vegan brigade or the animal rights brigade, but the vegan rights brigade. You know: save the plants, eat a vegan?

LeeroyJenkins

******this one:

https://youtu.be/O7FqjNiooKc?t=11m36s

That guy is in trouble if the vegan rights brigade get hold of him....

I don't feel like watching the entire video but I highly doubt he dropped any sort of animal from 45 feet.

Cruelty to innocent, thinking, feeling watermelons.

So thanks for your opinion. Seems like my friend got a very special idea of safety and made me a wrong suggestion.

after reading your posts and seeing your videos, i decided not to do it - as the dangers seem to be too high.