First freefall

The first time I jumped from a plane was both a terrifying and relaxing moment. The first time I started to think about jumping was after watching the US Army’s parachute team the “Golden Knights” do tricks at an air show at an Air Force base. After a year of trying to persuade my parents to let me go sky diving, they finally agreed. So for my seventh birthday three of my uncles and one of my cousins took me to a sky diving club that they liked to go to.  The course we took was a three day event. Day one was where they taught us the basics of jumping, body positions for during freefall, and the mechanics of the parachute. All this is taught in an eight hour “death by PowerPoint” presentation.  This was the most boring part of the trip. The second day they taught use the body positions to use when jumping, falling, and landing. The first half of the day was in the classroom practicing the positions while lying on the ground while the second part of the day we practiced doing the positions while floating in the air in a wind tunnel. A wind tunnel is a tall round room with a huge fan under the floor that blows the wind up fast enough that you can float on it. The first part was fun but the second part was even better. We changed into our jumpsuits and entered the wind tunnel. When the fan started up my whole body started to tingle with anticipation. I was practically bouncing when it was my turn. I climbed to the edge and look down at the fan and without a second thought I jumped in and got my body into the falling position. The first couple of seconds after jumping, it really felt like I was falling and it scared me a lot. Thankfully the feeling past and I was able to relax. While floating the instructors yell out stuff you are supposed to do to make sure you know what do if something bad happens during the jump. To me it felt like I was just doing what they said but, after we finish with the tunnel we watch a video of ourselves while the instructor tells us what we did right and wrong. When I went in to talk to the instructor I thought that since it was my first time that I would have a lot of errors but I was surprised when I walked in and he went:

“You sure you have never done this before? In the twenty years I have been teaching here I have never seen someone react like that on their first time in a wind tunnel. You are a natural. I cannot wait to see you jump tomorrow. How would you like to jump alone?”

“Really? Heck yeah I want to jump by myself! That would be awesome.”

“You would not be alone, you would have an instructor following you but you get the idea.”

That night I was both excited and nervous. It took forever but when morning came I was ready. We went to the school and got dressed in our jumpsuits and put on our parachutes. We all climbed into the back of an old cargo plane that has a large loading lamp on the back. After finding a seat I waited for the instructors to get on the plane. The loading ramp started to close and my heart rate shot through the roof. The plane taking off did not help that fact at all and as the plane went higher and higher, the air in the plane got colder and colder. The cargo area was pitch black and the rumble of the engines shook the floor. The pilot yelled to the back:

“Three minute until jump point!”

At one minute, the cabin went red with lights that signified how long until we jump. The ramp started to lower and a huge blast of cold air hit me and the other jumpers. As I watched the other jumpers fidget around a noticed a hand on my shoulder. I turned and looked at the owner to discover it was Paul the instructor who was going to jump with me.

“We are jumping first. Let’s go ahead and get ready on the ramp.”

I had seen picture of the view from that high but it did not hit home until I was looking off the ramp. I could feel my face stretch from the ear to ear smile that had appeared on my face. I turned and gave Paul a thumbs up and could not stop smiling. The green light turned on and without a second thought and without turning around I did a back flip and entered freefall. I had planned to jump out like that and had told Paul I would but he did not expect me to jump without hesitating and he had to fight to catch up. The roar of the wind rushing past me as a fell was deafening. The fall that took four minutes felt like twenty seconds. I ripped the cord and my parachute flew out and made me jerk around as it slowed me down. I aimed for the landing zone and touched down five feet from the middle. Paul touched down about thirty seconds after I did.

“Woo! How did you enjoy your first jump?”

“I want to go again!”