Falling through Blue Skies
Trip Start
Mar 06, 2009
1
2
4
Trip End
Mar 09, 2009
Zephyrhills, Florida, United States
Saturday, March 7, 2009
We make our way out to the drop zone: Sky Dive City in Zephyr Hills. I always associate Zephyr Hills with bottled water, so I guess the water source is somewhere near there. We don't have many issues finding it, just a few places where we don't get over quick enough so just have to make a turn around. As we drive closer to the drop zone we see some people coming down in parachutes. Some seem to be coming in quite quickly and sideways. This makes us both a little nervous, but we decide to go anyway.
The ride up
We find the registration area and get our reservation checked off. They give us a waiver to review and sign off on. The waiver is 3 pages long and pretty much addresses every possible situation. So pretty much don't hold them liable for any injuries or death. The one that made me nervous is the one about taking any mediations, but I initial anyway. We bring it in and they tell us to pretty much put any loss items in the car and where the restrooms are. We come back and our instructors are waiting for us.
I am with Randy and Dena is with Manny. I'm not sure how they picked out our instructors, but I thought maybe it had to do with our height. Well Manny is very well groomed and professionally looking. Randy is more rough and tumble with that crazy edge to him. I'm telling you, I don't know what it is about me that I always attract the crazy ones. But that's ok, I like the crazy ones. Randy picks me out a jump suit and I suit up. I'm a little concerned about it being tight in the thighs, but I'm able to get it up and zipped. Then I'm in the harness and he makes sure that he's not cutting off my circulation in my legs. It needs to be tight, but not constricting. Randy tells me that we won't connect to the tandem until we are in the plane.
Walking to the door
I smile when I see his jump suit. It is black with red flames. Yup, I definitely attract this breed of man. I consider asking him if he's at all suicidal since I just took my suicide preventation training yesterday. But I don't need to because my next instruction is all the things I need to not do so we don't die. This ensures me that he doesn't want to die either. My favorite one was that I can't hold his hands. I think, 'well duh, you have to operate the chute," but I guess some people get so nervous that they do that. I am surprised just how calm I am.
After some more instruction including getting my legs up on landing, we are ready to go. I now wish we would have practiced the legs up more while we were on the ground, but I'll talk about that more later. We head out towards the plane and Randy tells me to stay with Manny for a minute. He heads back, turns out he forgot his altimeter. Now that does make me a little nervous! But soon we are all set and heading to the plane. Dena and Manny get in first followed by Randy and I. I feel like we just cut in line, but when I see the seating in the plane I understand now why we needed to be in first. First in, last out. There are two benches and we sit straddling them. I am sitting between Randy's legs fairly close I think that is until the other folks start getting in. I had no idea just how close we could get.
About to Jump
I pretty much had the chute of the guy in front of me in my lap. I didn't think I could sit up straighter, but Randy gets me too and I'm surprisingly comfortable.We take off and I'm reminded of the Tortug Air flight in Haiti. I wonder what elevation we achieve on that flight. Maybe we could just jump into La Pointe and avoid the drive in the land rover. I am still surprisingly calm. Randy taps me on the shoulder and points towards the cockpit. Tony is there and I wave to the camera. He asks how I'm doing and I say I'm doing pretty good. He says we are about halfway up and he will see me in freefall. I check my altimeter and see that we are at about 6000'.
I continue to remain calm as we continue to climb. I see Manny is instructing Dena and I turn to see that Randy is still just hanging out calm. I begin to wonder when we will start to go over things. Or at least strap together. We continue on for awhile and I notice the single divers are beginning to get ready. Finally Randy starts getting us ready. He unclips my googles and tells me to put them around my neck. He keeps referring to me as 'darling' which cracks me up but I just smile. I see that Dena is also getting ready but that she is holding her googles. I am still surprisingly calm
leaving the plane
. Randy tells me that when they open the door, I should put my googles on. When they open the door, I finally begin to get a little nervous.We slide forward on the bench. I can not believe how ackward this feels. We start moving to the door and I see Tony go out. I see his hand holding onto the door of the plane so he can film this. I am amazed that he can hold on like that. Randy and I now walk to the door. I feel like Quasimoto. Randy tells me again not to bang his head against the plane roof. Oops!
We finally make it to the door. I look out and I can't believe I'm actually going to do this. Randy yells into my ear that we are about ready. He tells me to lean my head back and I do. I decide I can't look and I close my eyes. I feel Randy rock us back and forth and then I feel us fall forward. I open my eyes and I am amazed by the view. I feel the G-forces against my face. It is amazing and I scream out not in fear but from excitement. We hit a velocity where it doesn't feel like we are falling but instead like we are just floating. Tony comes in closer to film the free fall. He indicated for me to wave and blow a kiss. I do it but think I'm supposed to keep my arms out and my back arched.
I should have known something was up when Tony waves and then drifts quickly away from us
Free Fall
. Suddenly I feel a jerk, and I am pulled into an upright position. I didn't realize just how tight those straps were until we were floating down. I must say just before this I was beginning to get a little nervous again since it felt like we were floating for a long time. I feel a sense of relief that the chute has deployed. We start our slow descent down and we finally talk some. Randy tells me to practice lifting my legs for landing. He tells me I have to get them higher but I can't. He says to relax and save my strength. He tells me if I don't get them up on landing, I would hit and he would crash into me. Also that I could possibly break my leg. Yikes, now I'm scared.As we drift down Randy points out Dena and Manny to me. Somehow they are lower than us though they exited the plane after us. I watch as they seem to be spiraling down what seems to me rather quickly. We seem to be making larger circles than they are. I see a water reservoir that we seem to be circling and I hear Travis's voice in my head about gators. I am relieved when we finally move from it and I can see the landing area at the drop zone. We hit some bumpy air and Randy mentions that from the warmer air. I have definitely gotten warmer and actually feel a little nausea at this point. I am happy to say that despite my cold, my head has not exploded.
We approach the landing area and Randy tells me to put my legs up
View of the Ground
. I am struggling. I pull on the legs of the jumpsuit but to no avail. The ground is getting closer and I just can't get them up high enough. I brace for the impact. I hit and then I'm flat on my stomach with Randy on top of me. I'm able to get up and the only pain I really feel is like brush burns on my legs. I am still feeling a little nausea and flushed. I cough a couple of times and my flight suit is covered in grass. Tony comes over to film an after flight clip and I really don't want to talk, but I say it was awesome and that I would probably do it again. Manny comes over to check on me as well. At this point I think I'm more embarrassed than anything. Dena and I get the suits off. I am surprised just how relaxed I feel. I have the same feeling I get after SCUBA diving. I thought I'd be full of adrenaline, but no. Dena and I are hanging out waiting for my video to finish. While we are waiting, Shaun finally shows up. He asks if we already jumped and we said "yeah, where were you?" We had hoped he would jump when we did. He asks who we jumped with and I point out Randy and he goes "Randy?" and just starts laughing. I knew it, he is crazy. He asks if we got videos and I said yes. When Tony brings it over, he suggests we go and watch it. I'm not sure that I want to watch it with people. Not after that landing! We head over to "Town Hall" and pop it into the DVD player
Chute deploying
. I like the music, but am pretty embarrassed overall. I wasn't planning on showing anyone until I could view it. I can't watch the landing, but I hear Shaun respond to it and that's not good.We head back outside and ask Shaun when he's going to jump. I text Allison to let her know that we are both alive and she doesn't need to come down from Orlando to get us out of the hospital. Five minutes later, my phone is ringing and I think it is Allison but when I check the caller ID, it is my mom. How do mothers know these things? She asks how things are and I tell her to guess where I am. So I tell her that I went skydiving and like I expected she is upset. I tell her to stop, I'm done and I'm ok. I tell her I didn't want her to worry. When I hang up, Shaun says "you didn't tell her before?" Nope. I know better.
We hang out with Shaun waiting for his jump, enjoying the sun and the relax feeling. Shaun goes to get his gear and I change into my shorts. I am beginning to feel some pain in my ankle, but I suck it up. Shaun starts to gear up and Dena and I are not surprised that his suit is blue. I ask him what the little grippy things are that are on his suit and were on ours. He said they are for different aerial formations and stuff. He heads over to wait for his ride up
After Landing
. Dena and I hang out for awhile then head out towards the field to watch.Manny points out the plane to us. We see one parachute come out but that's it. We see the guy come down over the pond area and then skid over the ground. Dena is very impressed. We find out later that for jumps like this, they jump at a much lower altitude. We find the plane again, this time much higher and hardly visible. We can't see any of the divers until the chutes start to open. They seem to come in two groups. As we watch them come down, we think we should have asked Shaun what color his parachute is. Dena sees one that is royal blue with a lighter blue and she thinks that might be him because she thinks he'll be color coordinated. Shaun? Color coordinated? I don't think so. I see a bright pink parachute and I say "I bet he has a pink chute." Dena laughs. Since we don't know which one is him, I just photograph all the folks coming down. When they all land, we see Shaun coming to drop off his chute in the packing tent and I called it, there is pink in that chute. Score! I knew he had a sensitive side. Well real men aren't afraid of pink. Now that we know what his chute looks like, I go through the photos and see that I got a pretty good shot of him. I confirm it with the shoes. Dena and I are both struck that Shaun is not in long pants and boots. So the shoes just kind of stick out as not 'normal' Shaun.
We hang out with Shaun for awhile just enjoying the day. Since Dena and I won't be jumping again, we decide to leave SkyDive City and head over to see the Yankees play. So we leave Shaun planning on meeting up with him the next day.
Comments
Awesome!
Good for you!
I want to do that this summer maybe. Now I'm afraid of not being able to pick my legs up!
Louise