OK, just to convince you doubters:
There is no sensation of height. You only feel that if you are standing on the edge of a building where your brain can regsiter the 3d map in your mind. At 12,000 feet (4,000 metres) there is no connection to the ground and the world just becomes a flat photograph scolling past beneath you.
There is no sensation of leaving your stomach behind...the acceleration to terminal velocity takes at least 8 seconds in which you are in 'sensory overload'.
There is no feeling of plummeting to earth. You are too high and the ground is a good 80 seconds aways. There is the rushing of the wind in your ears and what feels like a physical force in front of you, which is the air flow. We use that to steer ourselves around the sky.
In the freefall time, you are able to control your horizontal and vertical direction and therefore feel a sensation as if you are a bird in flight. Like Superman!
As a tandem passenger, there is a fully USPA qualified instructor there with you to whom you are attached by 4 secure points. He is in control. He often has over 10,000 jumps of this type. he knows exactly what he is doing and how to look after you. You will have been fully briefed and undergone a 20 minute training session before getting in the plane.
When the parachute opens, there is no sensation of 'being pulled upwards'. This is the illusion created by the cameraman who is still falling whereas you are decelerating. The parachute takes 4 seconds to open in shich time you decelerate from 125mph to just 24mph. Like putting the brakes on in your car and not a hard shock at all.
There are always 2 parachutes. In the event of a malfunction (something that these days happens extremely rarely) the instructor knows exactly what to do and can activate the reserve, which opens in less than 1 second and is exactly the same as the main one.
At this point...it all goes quiet and the views are breathtaking! You then have the chance to enjoy the parachute ride and even take the controls and have a go yourself. Its easy. Pull the right toggle and you turn right, pull the left one and you turn left. Pull both together and you slow down your descent rate.
As you get near the ground, the instructor takes over and brings you in to a safe landing. It is the same as stepping off the curb. There is no downward shock at all.
Statistically, you are safer doing the parachute jump than you are being in the car to get you to the dropzone! There are over 7 million parachute descents undertaken globally each year. Last year there were a total of 24 fatalities, mostly to experienced jumpers who were 'pushing the envelope'. This proportion is safer than golf!
Me, I have my own parachute. I have nearly 300 jumps since 1984. I have never used my reserve. The worst injury I have experienced...is a broken fingernail!
If we want to organise a day in UAQ...let me know!
Freefalling Knight