So I took my first big fall this weekend. It was my first day climbing lead outdoors (big surprise). I fell from the 3rd bolt of Fun and Games, a 5.8 at Manchester Wall. You can check it out here:
http://mgreeby.home.mindspring.com/Climbing_Guides/Manchester_Bridge_Climbing_Guide.pdf

I was trying to clip into the third bolt and slipped. since I fell without warning there was a bunch of slack in the rope. the whole fall was around 30 feet I'd say. The rope caught me about 5 feet off the ground but had enough stretch that I still smacked pretty hard on the ground. My partner took the worst of it he instinctively clinched the rope above the ATC with the hand he was using to give me slack. he got rope burns from hell.

It was a big reality check. We need to stick to safer routes while we're learning to lead. I'll post pics of his hand later. It's worth seeing.