As explained by someone who is terrified by heights but survived — and even loved! — his skydiving experience.
Flickr: philleara / Creative Commons
No! If you're skydiving for the first time, you're probably doing a tandem dive, which is where you're strapped to another human through a Baby Bjorn-like series of carabiners and knots, and that human throws you out of an airplane. Then he/she free-falls with you for a short while — probably less than a minute, depending on how high you're jumping from — and pulls the parachute, and then lands you both safely on the ground.
Again, you're not skydiving as much as you're being voluntarily thrown out of an airplane by a complete stranger.
Yes, quite a bit!
No, not at all. Your skydiving partner is doing 80% of the work, and gravity takes care of the rest. The harness you're in does get a little bit snug — especially for gentlemen, uh, down there — but that's more a matter of discomfort.