So I went and did a static line jump from 9,000 feet about 35 year ago.
I've previously posted about my jump and the fear it cured me of :-
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...-but-arent-obviously-scary.68071/post-2050728
Your experience sounds very similat to mine. I did three in the end but never had enough money to continue with the sport and perfect the exit. I too went out of a small cesna (206) and had to put first one foot out out while holding onto the wing strut and then looking down to cross over the other foot and stick the first foot out, look at the jump master and wait for the 'go' command. I hesitated everytime and the first time I tried refusing but the jump master who was such a lovely, sexy, highly fanciable bloke during the training had turned into a really fearsome ugly army major type and commanded that I left the plane as,
"I'm not going to land this plane with you still in it!"
Thicko here was too scared to remember that they hadn't invented perpetual motion yet and tearfully complied, but once in position I was buggered if I could let go of the wing strut. However he leant out of the door and tapped me on the hand (not pushed that would have been unethical!) which my brain perceived as a push and off I went!
It felt like flying backwards I only had time to yell 'one thousand' and then I felt myself pulled up by the scruff of my neck and was looking up to a perfectly deployed chute, L shaped modifications at the back, steering toggles easily grabbed time to enjoy the view ... this ... is ... the ... life ... turning round and round with the toggles admiring a toy townesque landscape below me. All too soon it was time to adopt the landing position (we were trained to recognize the drop zone from 100 ft) and it seemed to take for ever for the ground to come up and give me a good thump!! Ran round the chute to deflate it bundled it up and walked proudly to the clubhouse. As it happened I got nearer to the cross than the rest of the people I'd trained.with.
The club was at Thruxton in Hampshire which is also a race track. I did two more jumps but really messed up on the third and got my rigging lines all twisted up so I had to waste a lot of my decent untangling them and then instead of landing on grass I landed on part of the race track and twisted my ankle. I was able to walk back to the clubhouse but my ankle kept giving me gyp in the cold weather for years afterwards. Plus the confidence of having dealt with a parachute malfunction albeit a not very serious one!
Still I'm glad I've done them and also before this tragedy happened in Thruxton about 5 years later which might well have put me off!
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/48238
Conclusion? Well I'm still scared of heights but no longer scared of spiders ... so result!!
Oh by the way
I was not young and foolish but 33 and already able to imagine myself sitting in an old peoples home and needing something to brag about!!! Which I've just done although not in my old folks home just yet!
I think Mungoman that we can both feel chuffed with ourselves and it's nice to have a connection with a fellow FTMB member! We felt the fear and did it anyway!!!