We Took The Plunge!!!!

Remember not too long ago when I posted a blog about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane? Well, I can officially mark that off the bucket list now!!! Ryan and I along with a few friends took the plunge this past Saturday.

I have to say, it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life!!!!When we first got there, we all had to watch a short video about the jump. To be really honest, I don't even remember much of the video now. The instructors themselves were much more helpful. After the video, we had to sign our lives away promising not to sue them. When we finished all of that, it was pretty much just sit around and wait for your turn.
We waited for probably a little over an hour before our instructors started to get us geared up. Dave and Ryan got to go up in the same plane together.
Seth was actually the last one to jump. He had to go up in a plane with a stranger. We all thought it was kind of funny because this was all his idea to begin with!!!

This is basically how it works:

Both you and your instructor have a harness on that attaches you to one another. Your instructor will be hooked up behind you with your backside to his frontside.....cozy!!! They have you put the harness on before you get into the plane, but you are not attached to the instructor yet.

When your flight is fuelded up and ready to go, you board the plane and take a little ride to about 13,000 feet. It seemed like it took forever. I thought that after Ryan took off...it seemed like it took forever before we actually saw him floating down to us. I felt the same way when I was flying up. It seemed like we were in the plane for about fifteen minutes before anything really happened.


When it's about time to jump, the pilot will start counting down the minutes. He starts out at "Three minutes." This was when I finally started to get a little nervous!!! "Two Minutes!!" The instructor attaches all the clips and clasps and finally, when the pilot gives the green light, the door flies open. "One Minute!!!!" That was when it got a little scary. I was literally squatting outside on a metal platform attached to an airplane two miles above the ground. Am I really this crazy?!?!? YES I AM!!!!

You put you feet on this little tiny platform outside the door of th aplane. You're basically sitting on the instructor's lap at this point. He is sitting on the side of the plane. Then he said "one two three GO".....and we went!!!!!!!

OMG..........What a freaking rush!!!!!!! The free falling speeds normally reach up to about 120miles per hour, so for about a minute, I was falling that fast. That felt like a long minute actually. It was so loud when you were free falling. Your cheeks a flappin' in the wind like a big ol' flag or something. I noticed they didn't flap as bad when I quit screaming and shut my mouth!!!

And you know what the funny thing is............I never once got that feeling you get on a roller coaster when your stomach drops out from under you. Not once. There was way too much air pushing up against you as you fall through it to make you feel any of that.

Once you have freefallen almost 7,000 feet, your instructor will deploy the chute. They do this at about 5,000 feet. As soon as he pulled the chute, everything became silent. It happened almost instanty. We did get jerked upward just a little when the chute deployed, but it didn't hurt or anything.

After the rush of the free fall and even the rush from the noise of the free fall, the silence and tranquility you experience floating through the air is like nothing I have ever experienced. It was so peaceful. You couldn't hear any noise from anything.....it was amazing I've never heard such silence. We floated for appoximately five minutes before getting ready for our landing. My instructor even let me take control of the chute for a few minutes. It was really cool. We did some flips and some crazy corkscrew stuff heading straight towards the ground.

I always felt safe. That was one thing I was pleasantly surprised about. I guess I just assumed I wouldn't feel safe at some point....I mean, we were jumping out of a plane for crying out loud!!! But no, really, I felt extremely safe the whole entire time.

As we enjoyed the canopy ride down towards land, my instructor started going over some tips on how to land. Our landing was almost perfect. We did stumble a little getting our balance, but we didn't fall.



This is Ryan and his instructor coming in for their landing. I can tell it's Ryan because his pants kept creeping up with all those straps between his legs!!! You're supposed to put your legs up like you're in a sitting position when you land until your partner has touched the ground first. Then you drop your feet to stabilize yourself.This is also Ryan. He had a pretty good landing, but the air got caught up in their chute for just a second and pulled them around a little at the end.

This is Dave coming in for his landing.Another one of Dave.............almost made it now!!!TA DA!!!!!! WAY TO GO GUYS!!!!!!This is the plane that Laura and I were in.
If you look at the very tip top of this picture, you will see two parachutes. I am the one who is the lowest, and Laura is above me. I wanted to jump first because I thought if I had to watch someone else, I might back out!!! It was really cool to look up and watch Laura when she jumped. I could just barely see them until the chute deployed, but it was fun to be up in the air at the same time. We were waving at eachother and stuff. I can't even put into words how much fun it was!!!!!This is me coming in. I was already getting disappointed by this time because I didn't want the ride to be over yet!!!Here I am right before my nearly perfect landing!!!! I was ready to climb in the next plane going up and do it all over again by then!!!!!I MADE IT!!!!!!!!!AND I LOVED IT!!!!!!!
Last one to fly and last one to fall was Seth. He loved it too. I have a feeling we all have a new addiction to deal with..................Let me just tell ya, skydiving is a lot more expensive than most addictions, but as weird as it sounds, I think it's a lot less risky.It looked Seth had kind of a bumpy landing, but I think the wind might have caught their chute kind of like it did on Ryan's and just pulled them a round a little. Pretty sure Sethy Poo landed on his butt!!!!!!Here's the gang: Dave, me, Ryan, Laura, and Seth.

So, when one of you crazy friends or relatives of mine gets a wild hair and you decide to go skydiving, you just give me a call..................I'm IN!!!!