We got out at 12,000 AGL. Took like 30 minutes to get to altitude in that airplane, a 1946 Beech Twin. In a decent turbine, would take about half that. In a fast turbine, about 6 minutes.
I was a static line progression student. A lot of people quit before they start getting into real freefall, and it's the freefall that is the addictive part. In reality, for the most part (there are exceptions) the parachute is only the vehicle for getting on the ground so you can go back up into freefall again. The difference between 'parachuting' and 'freefall' is considerable.
Weight: Somewhere in the range of 250 is about the upper limit that a tandem master will accept a student; depends on several factors (body composition - fat or muscle; size of the tandem master, what kind of tandem gear he has, ect.) Best bet is to go to USPA.org and find a member drop zone in your area; call or email them and see where they go with it. Believe me, they WANT to take you!
You don't HAVE to do a tandem first; however, I highly recommend it. You get the ENTIRE experience with minimal training time/expense required. For you to do either AFF or Static line, it's going to cost you a LOT more $$ and time until you find out whether you want to go further or not; a tandem gives you a taste and then you can decide if you want to progress further (or not). Students that have made a tandem KNOW what reward they are working towards!