Falling from the skies

“When you climb the ladder to the plane watch your head at the door, its a little low”, Larry said. The door and the plane were two very exaggerated words. The door was merely a plastic sliding shutter and the Cessna plane was merely was a big lunch box with wings. But putting that aside I simply obeyed and walked up a steel ladder into the plane. The interiors of the plane consisted of two bench seats lined next to the row of windows. Me and tandem instructor made our way to end of one the bench seats as 16 more nuts piled in that tin cup.

The plane rumbled and vibrated on a make believe runway on grass field and readied for take off. As we tossed about in out seats the plane took off and up we went. As I looked out my window I had one eye on the altimeter on my instructor’s hand. The plane gently climbed up the skies. The instructor went on pointing different sights around Buffalo, NY but I was sure that I would see them on the way down. At about 10,000 feet he hooked his harness to mine and checked that all points were secured. He then went on to repeat all the important instructions that I needed to know. The biggest concern was that as soon we exit the plane, I had to arch right. That would make sure that we stabilize soon and that would indirectly mean that the jump would be drama free. I don’t think I would ever forget to arch right. Especially if, my life depended on it!

As the doors opened again at 14000 feet we made our way to edge of the plane. And then Larry did what he said he would do. “Rock forward, Rock back and go!” And just that like that we jumped off the plane. After that everything happened in a rush.

I arched hard. Held my hands out like superman and within seconds we were falling perfectly. The air was cold and it whizzed by my head at fascinating speeds. Even with a leather cover on my head and a pair of glasses on my eyes I could hear the wind absolutely whooshing by.

As soon as we stabilized my instructor did a slow spin in the air showing me the panoramic view of the world at 14000 feet up in the air. I could see the Niagara mist in the distance and even Toronto stood in my eyes. But above all, I realized how different world looks. Everything looked so good. So green and so blue, just like the way U2 said. Ontario and Erie lakes looked absolutely like blue gold. The eyes looked long and far and everywhere I looked, I was struck with spotless beauty. Here I was, falling through the skies at terminal velocity at really noisy speed and the world look still. It was insane.

I then saw a hand come in front of me saying that we were 5500 feet and it was time to open the chute. And when that happened, two things came through. One, I felt I was going up instead of falling down and the other, from a noise windy fall I came to an absolutely peaceful halt.

There on I soared the skies. I now knew how a bird feels. I wish I could explain that feeling but I knew there and then how close I had come to flying. The instructor gave me the control of the chute and we went left …we went right! I even did a spiral down and the g forces made their come back. It was so peaceful and quiet that my instructor talked all the way down.

As I took in the views and could not believe that all this was really happening, I realized that after couple of minutes we were pretty close to the ground. That’s when the sensation of falling slowly registered. But unlike a roller coaster but more of an elevator kind. We reviewed the landing procedure and then just like a plane he slowed down the fall b taking loops and then gently gliding to a halt right above the grass. From feet above in the air, we pretty much stopped due to the flaring of the parachutes. After that it’s was a foot’s jump on the soft grass. I was expecting so much worse but nothing of the sort happened.

And the whole summation, the jump was not scary. It was just pure fun. The landing was not rough but a graceful act. The entire experience of falling from 14000 to 4000 feet in a minute and then flying from 4000 to zero in five minutes left me in a daze. Even now when I think of it, I know I will never ever forget that day.

The day I fell through the skies and made it.