Yep, that picture is Tia and I (Tia with the pink parachute and me with the green). For her 30th birthday, we skydived (skydove?). Hopefully something we will both remember for a long time.
When you tell people you are going to be jumping from an airplane, it usually elicits one of two distinct responses "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" or "What are you nuts?" Both are valid points. For the former, I have no answer. To the latter, I say 'very likely.'
The process of getting to the point where you are on the precipice of falling 2.5 miles with a man attached to your back (and a parachute attached to his) is less rigorous than one would assume. You would think it would take some level of skill to skydive..........and it probably does for the person whom you are attached. However, as the attachee, you need know little more than how to fall evidently.
When we arrived, we were handed a packet of 2-sided papers, about a dozen or so sheets long that we were required to sign. They said, in effect, that leaving a plane 13000 ft from the ground is actually quite dangerous (go figure) and, should anything go wrong be it the fault of the pilot, plane, instructor, equipment, bad luck, serendipity or will of the gods you, nor anyone you have ever known or been even loosely affiliated with, will sue. Needless to say, confidence inspiring this was not. I began to fixate on the old Road Runner cartoons where Wile E. Coyote would invariably put his misplaced trust into the hands of the Acme company and, while falling from a cliff would pull his parachute strings only to have a kitchen's worth of cookery come flying out. I very carefully examined anything for signs of Acme's presence and was at least reassured to find none.
After filling out our packets, we were called into the 'instruction room'. The instructor sat up at the front and the dozen or so would be jumpers were perched around the edges of the room. The instruction, and I mean that word in the loosest possible sense, concluded in less than 5 minutes (likely less than 3). In essence, crouch down and fall out of the plane door (and don't hit your head on it) hands crossed over your chest. Your tandem will 'tap you' at which point you go into an arched position. Finally, when you lad, put your legs straight out and curl toes in. We then signed saying we understood and filed out. In my head, I thought, well surely we are going to practice this some in the next room with our gear on right? Wrong.
The next step entailed us getting into our gear and meeting our tandem. This was done quickly and we were out the door in a field near the landing strip. There were some faux plane doors that I thought we would practice in. But, within a few short minutes, a plane pulled up and we began to board. At this point I realized that the training was complete.
We boarded a small prop plan and sat astride two benches that led out to the door. Our tandem person behind us and the tandem person of the next person in front of us. Tia was set to jump next to last........and me last. I was a bit worried about this, thinking that it would be tough watching everyone else leave the plane and still have the resolve to do so myself. What I learned when we got to that point is that the process of leaving the plane, from first to last, was well under a minute.
Each of the professionals had on an altimeter with large dials and digital readouts. When we passed the cloud line, my tandem (Mike) told me that was the height at which we would pull the chute. I was surprised because I had thought we were nearing the actual jump height. We were not even half way there.
When we arrived at about 2 miles up, Mike began tightening various lines and connections. At 11,000 he asked if I was ready (if you say 'no', you head back down with the plane.......and if not my pride, my wallet would certainly have dissuaded me from following that path........not wanting to pay over $175 to fly for 30 minutes in a prop plane) and I responded in the affirmative, though I truthfully had no concept what would ever make one ready for such an absurd thing. But, I was ready enough to get that far, why not go the rest of the way. At 13,000 feet, the door was opened and the first jumper, her tandem, and a camera man edged to the door. In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, they were no longer at the door. In rapid fashion, at a rate of one every 5-7 seconds, the plane quickly emptied. Tia edged to the deck and was gone. It was now my turn.
In truth, you have little time to consider the notion of being perched on the open doorway of the plane. Only in retrospect can you appreciate it. You have no concept at all of how high you really are. In fact, until we stood on the ground after our jump and watched as the next group dropped from the sky from an airplane that, from the ground, was so far up as to be barely discernable.........a veritable dot in the sky, did we truly comprehend what we had done. But, perched on the doorway for what could not be more than 2 seconds, it is all a scramble. The next instant you are falling at 120mph towards the earth with the wind seemingly rushing up at you. In the space of a 45 seconds, you fall the equivalent of 8000 feet. Then, the parachute opens and you go from facing the earth to an almost upright sitting position. The wind stops and the rushing sound of it quiets and you, for the first time, can really see around you. Within the next 5 minutes or so, you are on the ground.......touching down as gently as if someone sat you down slowly from a high chair.
I am not going to say it was a brave act or a stupid one, but it is a memory that I hope Tia and I will take with us for a long time. I am sure I won't soon forget it.
http://www.skydiveoregon.com/tandem-freefall.php
