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dreamsharkThe weather on Wednesday couldn't have been more perfect, so no backing out this time...
Our little group had diminished from 9 jumpers to 3 due to the logistics of rescheduling. We wre: Rod, the instigator (who sits 2 cubes away from me at work), Ashwin (on loan from Wipro in India and anxious to participate in this strange American rite before going home) and Justin (friend of coworker Bill, who still wanted to come along even though Bill couldn't make it). Rod's wife and my husband were tagging along, making a pleasant-sized group of 5. We worked until 2pm, although it was hard to get much done with Rod replaying his jump video from last year to a growing group of curious co-workers.
It's only 45 miles from our house to Hammond, WI, but even at 2:30pm the traffic was heavy all along I-94 until we cleared St.Paul. After that it was easy to find the place.. It's a little grass airfield nestled in among the farms, with a likable and experienced staff that seem like family. Even on a weekday, there were several other jumpers. We spent about 20 minutes signing and initialing an extremely scary "not my fault" form that probably wouldn't stand up in court anyway, but these guys have been here for ages and haven't lost a jumper yet, so what the hey. Then we got strapped into harnesses and had our 6 minutes of instruction... with a tandem jump you really don't have a lot of responsibilities.
Richard didn't want to jump, but was happy to take advantage of the chance to ride along in the plane for $20. He got to sit up front next to the pilot. The rest of us sat on two benches along the side of the plane, with each jumper sitting next to his or her jump partner. My jump partner was a tough little blonde woman called "Scooter." We spiraled up to 10,000 feet. It was very noisy. Suddenly a big hole (the "door") opened up in the side of the plane, and it was even noisier. Scooter and I moved to the other bench, but I didn't know why. The door was now across from me and a little ways back - maybe 6 feet away. The plane was tilting that direction and I felt like I might just slide right out the door. A solo jumper that I hadn't even noticed until then popped up from somewhere, scampered over to the door, fell right out of it and disappeared from view! It was terrifying. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that people were jumping out of the plane, since that's what we were there to do, but it took me by surprise and quite unnerved me.
Then Scooter started maneuvering around behind me, hooking things to my harness that I couldn't really see. Suddenly I had a horrible thought: what if she forgot to attach something! I was supposed to jump out of a plane without a parachute of my own and just hope that I was actually hooked to the person behind me, who I couldn't even see! Just about the time this occurred to me, it finally dawned on me that it was my turn to jump. Somehow it seemed Much Too Soon. When Scooter finally got through to me what I had to do, we crab walked over to the screaming hole in the plane, and I knelt down on one knee with both hands on my shoulder harness. I believe they make you do that so that they don't have to pry your fingers off the doorframe. I had been worried that I would be too afraid to jump when it was my turn, but frankly there isn't a lot of choice once you're in that position. You don't so much jump as sort of rock forward and fall out headfirst.
It was absolutely terrifying, and continued to be terrifying at least until the chute opened a minute later. The guys I jumped with all insisted that they loved the freefall part once they got over the first shock, but I can't say that I did. For one thing, I was the only one of our group of four that declined to get a Jump Video. In retrospect, I think this was a mistake. As a souvenir I'm actually just as happy with my copy of Ashwin's video. But if you have your own video-guy, he jumps right along with you so you have somebody to look at and interact with during the freefall. What made freefall so scary was that I was all alone, hurtling towards the ground. I couldn't see, feel or hear Scooter. and I didn't have a parachute. Intellectually I knew that she probably really was clipped to me, but my body didn't know that. We seemed to be pointing pretty much straight down, and I kept wanting to ask, "Is this normal???" If there had been a happy videographer smiling and mugging a few feet from my face, I would have felt greatly reassured.
Once the chute opened it was more fun, although I was still so full of panicky adrenaline that I didn't start to relax until we were almost down. It gets quiet enough at that point that you can talk to your jump partner, but I don't recall it being exactly silent. I think it takes another 5 minutes or so to get to the ground. Somehow the other jumpers seemed to have gotten ahead of me, and it was nice to see their chutes down below mine. Partly because they looked pretty, and again because I felt less alone. It was also kind of a trip to see Richard down on the ground getting out of the plane right underneath us. I was worried for a second that we were going to land right on him, but of course we didn't. The landing was surprisingly soft. Some of the other tandem jumpers landed on their feet, but Scooter prefers to bring her clients in on their seats. She made me lift my legs way up, touched down briefly on her feet and then quickly sat down so that we just scooted along the grass as if we were on a toboggan.
I was so overdosed on adrenaline that I felt almost too shaky to stand up and could barely speak (a strange sensation indeed for me!). I'm very glad that Richard came along, if nothing else because I really did not feel competent to drive afterwards! It was also neat to be able to share the adventure with him. The plane ride is quite a thrill ride in itself; once the last jumper is out the pilot does a barrel roll and then points the plane straight towards the ground! I'm not sure if he's trying to conserve on gas or just having fun, but apparently he does that every time.
Afterwards our group of 5 took our free drink coupons to the little bar in nearby Hammond and had burgers and drinks. That part was really essential - everybody was so jazzed up that we needed to unwind and babble to each other. I don't think I enjoyed the jump quite as much as the guys did, but it was quite a thrill. I'm glad I did it. I might even do it one more time, just to see what it's like when it's not quite so scary and unknown. It's not something I'm likely to take up as a regular sport, however. The thrill part is fun, but there's too much waiting around.
Our little group had diminished from 9 jumpers to 3 due to the logistics of rescheduling. We wre: Rod, the instigator (who sits 2 cubes away from me at work), Ashwin (on loan from Wipro in India and anxious to participate in this strange American rite before going home) and Justin (friend of coworker Bill, who still wanted to come along even though Bill couldn't make it). Rod's wife and my husband were tagging along, making a pleasant-sized group of 5. We worked until 2pm, although it was hard to get much done with Rod replaying his jump video from last year to a growing group of curious co-workers.
It's only 45 miles from our house to Hammond, WI, but even at 2:30pm the traffic was heavy all along I-94 until we cleared St.Paul. After that it was easy to find the place.. It's a little grass airfield nestled in among the farms, with a likable and experienced staff that seem like family. Even on a weekday, there were several other jumpers. We spent about 20 minutes signing and initialing an extremely scary "not my fault" form that probably wouldn't stand up in court anyway, but these guys have been here for ages and haven't lost a jumper yet, so what the hey. Then we got strapped into harnesses and had our 6 minutes of instruction... with a tandem jump you really don't have a lot of responsibilities.
Richard didn't want to jump, but was happy to take advantage of the chance to ride along in the plane for $20. He got to sit up front next to the pilot. The rest of us sat on two benches along the side of the plane, with each jumper sitting next to his or her jump partner. My jump partner was a tough little blonde woman called "Scooter." We spiraled up to 10,000 feet. It was very noisy. Suddenly a big hole (the "door") opened up in the side of the plane, and it was even noisier. Scooter and I moved to the other bench, but I didn't know why. The door was now across from me and a little ways back - maybe 6 feet away. The plane was tilting that direction and I felt like I might just slide right out the door. A solo jumper that I hadn't even noticed until then popped up from somewhere, scampered over to the door, fell right out of it and disappeared from view! It was terrifying. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that people were jumping out of the plane, since that's what we were there to do, but it took me by surprise and quite unnerved me.
Then Scooter started maneuvering around behind me, hooking things to my harness that I couldn't really see. Suddenly I had a horrible thought: what if she forgot to attach something! I was supposed to jump out of a plane without a parachute of my own and just hope that I was actually hooked to the person behind me, who I couldn't even see! Just about the time this occurred to me, it finally dawned on me that it was my turn to jump. Somehow it seemed Much Too Soon. When Scooter finally got through to me what I had to do, we crab walked over to the screaming hole in the plane, and I knelt down on one knee with both hands on my shoulder harness. I believe they make you do that so that they don't have to pry your fingers off the doorframe. I had been worried that I would be too afraid to jump when it was my turn, but frankly there isn't a lot of choice once you're in that position. You don't so much jump as sort of rock forward and fall out headfirst.
It was absolutely terrifying, and continued to be terrifying at least until the chute opened a minute later. The guys I jumped with all insisted that they loved the freefall part once they got over the first shock, but I can't say that I did. For one thing, I was the only one of our group of four that declined to get a Jump Video. In retrospect, I think this was a mistake. As a souvenir I'm actually just as happy with my copy of Ashwin's video. But if you have your own video-guy, he jumps right along with you so you have somebody to look at and interact with during the freefall. What made freefall so scary was that I was all alone, hurtling towards the ground. I couldn't see, feel or hear Scooter. and I didn't have a parachute. Intellectually I knew that she probably really was clipped to me, but my body didn't know that. We seemed to be pointing pretty much straight down, and I kept wanting to ask, "Is this normal???" If there had been a happy videographer smiling and mugging a few feet from my face, I would have felt greatly reassured.
Once the chute opened it was more fun, although I was still so full of panicky adrenaline that I didn't start to relax until we were almost down. It gets quiet enough at that point that you can talk to your jump partner, but I don't recall it being exactly silent. I think it takes another 5 minutes or so to get to the ground. Somehow the other jumpers seemed to have gotten ahead of me, and it was nice to see their chutes down below mine. Partly because they looked pretty, and again because I felt less alone. It was also kind of a trip to see Richard down on the ground getting out of the plane right underneath us. I was worried for a second that we were going to land right on him, but of course we didn't. The landing was surprisingly soft. Some of the other tandem jumpers landed on their feet, but Scooter prefers to bring her clients in on their seats. She made me lift my legs way up, touched down briefly on her feet and then quickly sat down so that we just scooted along the grass as if we were on a toboggan.
I was so overdosed on adrenaline that I felt almost too shaky to stand up and could barely speak (a strange sensation indeed for me!). I'm very glad that Richard came along, if nothing else because I really did not feel competent to drive afterwards! It was also neat to be able to share the adventure with him. The plane ride is quite a thrill ride in itself; once the last jumper is out the pilot does a barrel roll and then points the plane straight towards the ground! I'm not sure if he's trying to conserve on gas or just having fun, but apparently he does that every time.
Afterwards our group of 5 took our free drink coupons to the little bar in nearby Hammond and had burgers and drinks. That part was really essential - everybody was so jazzed up that we needed to unwind and babble to each other. I don't think I enjoyed the jump quite as much as the guys did, but it was quite a thrill. I'm glad I did it. I might even do it one more time, just to see what it's like when it's not quite so scary and unknown. It's not something I'm likely to take up as a regular sport, however. The thrill part is fun, but there's too much waiting around.
