Skydiving adventure

Date: 20th May 2008
Day: Sunday
Place: Mulalla, OR - Oregon Skydiving

After a long time the plan was finally made - 11 people landed at Mulalla to experience the first skydiving adventure of their lives - and me was one. After our registration and weired waivers - don't even ask what they were, just go and you will know - we had our small training and orientation. The waivers as I recalled in the end were the most frightening thing in the whole episode !




Myself and Srikanth opted to go first in the group as we all wanted a video and the outfitters could carry only two video recorders. So it was - we went in and got our change of dress - well extra harness, a cap and the goggles. As we came out, the rest of the group was all excited and it showed.











After the brief meeting with the group we started to the airplane. The feeling was quite mixed - excitement, apprehension of doing it, staying up to expectations - not me only - the whole group who had joined! Well, the foremost thing that occupied my mind was to ensure that I get attached to the parachute - it is carried by the instructor who jumps with you in the tandem jump!

Getting into plane was easy. The plane was not as i thought - did not have all the seats and interior we are used to seeing. It had just a pair of benches running along the length of the plane. Me being the first to enter, ended up sitting just behind the pilot - well the co-pilot (I doubt if there was one) - back-to-back. I noticed the pilot also had a parachute. This was a booster to my confidence on the plane !

Everyone got into the craft and we started our ascent. People started getting smaller, the huge farms started shrinking to rectangular patches and after sometime into a collage. I thought we had reached enough height to jump - when my instructed showed me the altimeter strapped to his wrist - 3000ft. Well we still had 11000 ft to climb!

What it seemed to be like a long time - was spent in seeing the scenery around - Mt Hood, Helens and Adams graced the horizon. Occasionally my video person just checked up with me as how I felt. My instructor thought I was getting nervous and gave me instructions on how to breath slowly in case I panic.


What I really was concentrating was on ensuring I get attached to the parachute. Still the instructor had not made a move (at least I did not get to know) to attached my harness to the parachute or at least to him!

Altimeter check again - 10000ft - just 4000ft more to go. Instructor attached the my harness clips to his and tightened the straps. I felt the tension in the straps and finally was relieved that I was attached to the parachute or the instructor as now it did not matter - unless the instructor wanted to JUST jump - but then he seemed to be sane. I don't know if he thought the same of me ... at least I did not :-)

It was time. The plane was in nose-up position. The door opened. One by one the other folks just went to the door, looked down, climbed out and just dropped off! They made it look so simple.





Me and my instructor started to move to the door.






14000 ft and I was looking down from the aeroplane door with feet dangling down! I imagine that and it gives me shivers - but then I did just that.

After that it was just too fast. I only regret that I did not have control on when to jump - like what we do in Bungee jumping - here the instructor controlled all. The last minute thumping of heart beat was missing.

And then we jumped! Everything started spinning - including me. I did not have any sense of direction for a few moments.













I could hear my instructor murmuring "arch .. arch". I regained my senses and moved to form the arch position - just arching the back with hands stretched forward and legs stretched with knees bent.


The fall stabilised.










As we fell, I was looking all the time downward. The ground was in no hurry to rush towards us ... we seemed to be floating. The only sense of fall was air hammering on my cheeks.



The instructor caught hold of my head and lifted it upward for the video shot. I had totally forgotten about the video guy. Then i posed with the usual thumbs up. I also gave a good shout, but the air gushed in and all my mouth with inner nostrils and throat went dry. After that i did not shout. The thumbs up was my only was of communicating the excitement and enjoyment.




Then I heard my instructor shouting "Hold-on" and something to signal that he was going to open the parachute.
The parachute opened with a jerk and noticed our camera-man fall as a piece of lead and we got pulled up.













The canopy ride was also cool. The instructor gave a feel of a few maneuvers like left turn, right turn, stop and the rotations. He handed me the controls for a few minutes.

I enjoyed the smooth canopy ride back with views of the horizons, the biggies of cascades in the horizon and patchy ground below with other jumpers floating down.

The landing was smooth and no causalities. The cameraman was waiting and my instructor just landed in front of him.

I did not notice any of the other folks - I was just shouting and could not contain my excitement.











Srikanth was already down. He approached and we hi-fi'ed on the accomplishment.

In our excitement we blabbered something at the video.










And that was the end of our adventure. We changed and joined our friends back. Two had left for the next ride and others were very inquisitive on how we felt and was it too scary. We kept the secret to ourselves and told them to experience it first hand to enjoy fully!

Full video at: